EROI of different fuels and the implications for society

All forms of economic production and exchange involve the use of energy directly and in the transformation of
materials. Until recently, cheap and seemingly limitless fossil energy has allowed most of society to ignore the
importance of contributions to the economic process from the biophysical world as well as the potential limits
to growth. This paper centers on assessing the energy costs of modern day society and its relation to GDP. Our
most important focus is the characteristics of our major energy sources including each fuel’s energy return on
investment (EROI).