Fossil fuels are reliable sources of energy that produce the same amount of energy regardless of environmental conditions, unlike the energy captured by wind or solar power, which are affected by windless days or overcast days.
According to the Iowa Public Television network, fossil fuels are a cheap source of energy compared to other sources. The low price of fossil fuels allows an average person to live in a house that is heated, contains many useful appliances and allows families to own more than one car. As fossil fuel electricity is so cheap, parts of the world are comfortable to live in with air conditioning for hot areas and heating in areas with harsh winters.
Fossil fuels have fueled human progress in the last century. The advent of the car and cheap fuel to drive the car allowed regular people to move around much more easily. Aviation fuel allows a regular person to go on holidays to exotic places for not very much money, and electricity from plants powered by fossil fuels have given people in the developed world more options for work or play in the evening when the sun goes down. Electricity from fossil fuels has also powered industry and helped to usher in the age of the computer and other electronic gadgets.
Foosil fuels are made from ancient carbon-based lifeforms such as plants and animals. Carbon bonds hold a lot of energy and release this energy when the fossil fuel is burnt, so fossil fuels therefore create a lot of energy per gram. The University of California states that a gram of natural gas produces 49.5 kilojoules of energy when burnt compared to 17.5 kilojoules per gram of plant cellulose material.
As of 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy supports the introduction of new technologies for the fossil fuel industry that reduce pollution from fossil fuel energy plants. These cleaner technologies can remove dangerous substances from the output of the plant and can even reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from plants by improving the energy combustion efficiency.