The energy density of fossil fuels and their would-be replacements:

Relevant background information elsewhere on WeCanFigureThisOut.org:

John's Organic Chemistry Cheat Sheet (link)

Nanoscience lecture note set on Molecular Self-Assembly (link)

Our Use of Fossil Fuels:

U.S. Energy Flow 2016, U.S. Energy Information Administration (link / cached copy)

Use of Oil? U.S. Energy Information Administration (link / cached copy)

How Much Oil is Used to Make Plastics? U.S. Energy Information Administration FAQs (link / cached copy)

Fossil Fuels, Institute for Energy Research (link / cached copy)

My spreadsheet evaluating the combustion energy of alkane fossil fuels, and its sources:

The spreadsheet itself (link)

Bond Energies, Chemistry LibreTexts (link / cached copy)

Bond Breaking and Bond Forming Energies, Learn Chemistry Online (link / cached copy)

Boiling Points of Alkanes - Elmhurst College (link / cached copy)

Alkanes, Chapter 4, Caltech (link / cached copy)

Enthalpies of Vaporization of Organic and Organometallic Compounds, J.S. Chickos and W.E. Acree, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data, Vol. 32(2), 2003 (link / cached copy)

Fitting the Heat Capacity of Liquid n-Alkanes, J.C. Miltenburg, pp. 57-62 Thermochimica Acta 343, pp. 57-62, 2000 (link)

Coal Power Plants:

Will the U.S. Ever Build Another Big Coal Plant? Scientific American, August 2017 (link / cached copy)

RDK 8's Three Little Words: Efficient, Reliable and Flexible, Power Engineering International (link / cached copy) 

Supercritical Thinking: To Achieve World’s Best Performance, This Coal- Fired Power Plant Applies Bulletlike Pressures To Steam, GE Reports (link / cached copy) 

Advantages and Efficiencies of Gasification, U.S. Department of Energy (link / cached copy)

How America's Clean Coal Dream Unraveled, The Guardian, 2 March 2018 (link / cached copy) 

Not in my Backyard: US Sending Dirty Coal Abroad, Pittsburgh Post Gazette/Associated Press, 28 July 2014 (link / cached copy) 

Natural Gas Power Plants:

Chemical Composition of Natural Gas, Union Gas (link / cached copy) 

NovaLT16 Gas Turbine (OCGT), General Electric (link / cached copy) 

Pushing the 60% Efficiency Gas Turbine Barrier, Power Magazine, July 2011 (link / cached copy) 

Extraction of Oil:

What is a Salt Dome? Geology.com (link / cached copy)

Salt Dome, Britannica.com (link) / Salt Dome, Wikipedia (link)

The Opposite of Mining: Tar Sands Steam Extraction Lessens Footprint, but Environmental Costs Remain, Scientific American, January 2013 (link / cached copy)

Extraction of Natural Gas by Fracking: Fluids & Earthquakes Triggered by their Disposal

Hydraulic Fracturing 101, EarthWorksAction.org (link / cached copy)

Biocides in Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids: A Critical Review of Their Usage, Mobility, Degradation, and Toxicity, Kahrilas et al., Environmental Science & Technology 49, pp. 16-32, 2015  (link / cached copy)

Fracking sites may raise the risk of underweight babies, new study says, Washington Post, December 2017 (link / cached copy) 

Hydraulic fracturing and infant health: New evidence from Pennsylvania, Currie et al., Science Advances 3(12), 2017 (link / cached copy) 

Anthropogenic Seismicity Rates and Operational Parameters at the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, Brodsky et al., Science 341, pp. 343-346, 2013 (link)

Geothermal Power Facility Induces Earthquakes, UCSC News 2013 (link / cached copy) 

Geothermal Plants Trigger Small Quakes near San Andreas Fault, LA Times, 11 July 2013 (link / cached copy) 

How Does Geothermal Drilling Trigger Earthquakes?, Scientific American, June 2009 (link / cached copy)

Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears, NY Times, June 2009 (link / cached copy)

Leakage of Potent Greenhouse Gas Methane into the Atmosphere:

Emissions of Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas, May be Underestimated, Smithsonian Magazine, November 2013 (link / cached copy)

Anthropogenic Emissions of Methane in the United States, S.M. Miller et al., PNAS 110, pp. 2018-22 (2013)  (link / cached copy)

Methane Leaks from North American Natural Gas Systems, A.R. Brandt et al., Science 343, pp. 733-5 (2014) (link)