America’s Economic Future Must Be Built on a Foundation of Clean Energy
As President Elect Barack Obama and a new Congress prepare to meet today’s economic and environmental challenges, Environment Ohio released a report in November that lays out a blueprint for how we can power America for the 21st century while protecting our environment and revitalizing our economy.
The wind blowing over just five U.S. states—North Dakota,
South Dakota, Kansas, Montana
and Texas—could produce enough
electricity to power the entire U.S.
From the big cities of the coasts to the industrial heartland to our rural communities, the slumping economy is taking its toll and Americans are hurting. Obama defied conventional wisdom and swept the Midwest on the promise of using clean energy to revitalize the economy. Now voters will be looking to the new president and Congress to deliver energy savings, new green jobs, and environmental benefits by boosting wind and solar power as well as putting us on the path for independence from oil.
The report, Renewing America: A Blueprint for Economic Recovery, makes the case that America has enough renewable potential to power the country several times over, providing the following examples:
• America’s Atlantic, Pacific and Great Lakes coastlines could host enough wind turbines to nearly match the capacity of all of America’s current electricity generators combined.
• The wind blowing over just five U.S. states—North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Montana and Texas—could produce enough electricity to power the entire U.S.
• The space available on America’s rooftops alone could host enough solar panels to provide about 70 percent of our current electricity needs.
• Concentrating solar power, also known as solar thermal power, on just 9 percent of the land area of Nevada could produce enough electricity to power the entire U.S.
• Geothermal energy, heat from below the earth’s surface, has the potential to meet about half the total electricity production capacity in the U.S. today.
The report also points out that energy efficiency is one of America’s largest untapped energy sources. By adopting energy efficiency measures that pay for themselves in energy savings over time, our homes, businesses and factories can cut their energy use by at least 25 percent.
When you add it all together: energy efficiency, wind, solar and geothermal power, with an assist from other renewable sources like biomass, tidal, and wave energy, and you have an equation that can power our homes and businesses, drive our economy, and protect our environment. Switching America over to 100 percent clean electricity was one of three goals laid out in the report. The second goal, cutting America’s oil consumption in half, requires a different set of policies because transportation accounts for 70 percent of America’s oil consumption.
While Americans have been cutting back on driving, with transit ridership at a 50-year high, 85 percent of transit systems are experiencing capacity problems and 65 percent lack the revenue they need to increase service. In addition to funding transportation options, the Environment Ohio report pointed out that increasing auto-efficiency with already available technologies would dramatically reduce our oil dependence and take a significant bite out of the $400 billion Americans spend on gasoline annually.
Clean energy in America is not some distant dream. We have the technology, the tools, and the know-how to use energy more wisely and get more of our energy from clean, renewable sources. What’s more, clean energy can be produced right here at home, creating new jobs in all sectors of the nation’s economy—including many jobs that can never be outsourced.
The report summarized several studies that found dramatic employment opportunities created by investing in clean energy. One study by economists at the University of Massachusetts for the Center for American Progress found that investing in clean energy infrastructure would provide four times as many jobs as investing that same money in the oil industry.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors estimates that there are already 750,000 “green jobs” in the U.S. directly or indirectly supporting clean, renewable energy. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy estimates that energy efficiency currently supports 1.63 million jobs nationwide. Laid-off workers in the nation’s “Rust Belt” are getting back to work building wind turbines and solar panels; farmers in the Midwest are supplementing their incomes with royalties from wind farms; and residents of economically distressed inner cities are learning how to install solar panels and weatherize homes for greater energy efficiency.
To turn this trickle of green jobs into a torrent of new economic opportunities, we need to act boldly—and fast. America can and must switch to 100 percent clean power and cut our oil consumption in half—and create millions of new jobs doing it. There is much Obama and our new Congress can do. First off, investing in energy efficiency, wind and solar power, and public transit must be a cornerstone of any economic recovery plan.
For more information, contact Amy Gomberg at 614-460-8732, agomberg@environmentohio.org or visit www.EnvironmentOhio.org to read the complete report.