Clean Energy Solutions
Power plants largest US source of global warming pollution
The United States gets about half of its electricity from coal-fired power plants. These plants produce roughly a third of all global warming pollution in the U.S. We need to reduce our dependence on old, dirty coal plants, and also ensure that demand for new power doesn't lock us in to decades of additional global warming pollution.
Renewable energy
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted Renewable Energy Standards, which require that a certain percentage of all of their power comes from clean, safe, renewable sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a national renewable electricity standard that would require 15% of our energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, but this proposal has not passed in the Senate. A 15% renewable electricity standard would save consumers $16.4 billions on energy bills through 2030, create tens of thousands of jobs, and reduce global warming pollution by 180 million metric tons per year by 2030.
If we adopt a national policy of 20% renewables by 2020, global warming pollution and consumers' energy bills would be reduced even more. Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) have introduced the Federal Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (HR 969) which establishes this goal.
Renewable energy has economic benefits as well. For example, wind energy is providing a new source of income for farmers. The United States has the opportunity to be a world leader in production of renewable energy.
