While many Republicans are deriding a future powered by renewable energy, others are working to bring that reality to fruition. Renewable energy is not a pipe dream like the GOP supported Keystone XL pipeline. Clean power can supply the majority of America’s energy needs. The right combination of leadership and popular support could radically change US dependence on fossil fuels while significantly reducing climate change causing emissions.
At an American Associate for the Advancement of Science meeting, Sandy MacDonald, director of the NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), stated that renewable energy could meet most of American electricity needs.
According to a three-year ESRL study, solar and wind power could provide 70 percent of the continental US electricity needs by 2030. The study took 16 billion pieces of weather data, filtered out unlikely sites for power production, and developed a principle for an effective smart grid that would provide extensive renewable transmission to balance production and demand.
© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.Richard Matthews is a consultant, eco- entrepreneur, green investor and author of numerous articles on sustainable positioning, eco-economics and enviro-politics. He is the owner of The Green Market Oracle a leading sustainable business blog and one of the Web’s most comprehensive resources on the business of the environment. Find The Green Market Oracle on Facebook and follow The Green Market Oracle’s twitter feed.
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