US Energy & Global Warming

In compliance with the UN, President Carter pledged the US would derive 20% of its energy needs from solar power by the end of the century. Efforts to meet this commitment didn’t last; President Reagan halted our efforts because OPEC lifted its embargo and began resupplying the US with oil from the Middle East. President Obama’s goal was that 80% of our energy comes from clean sources by 2035 and established that a bold cap and trade program is a priority. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) established an emissions plan similar to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme; it was approved by the House of Representatives but died in the Senate. In 2011 the Republicans slammed a strict smog rule saying it would kill jobs and the President dropped it.

On October 31, 2011 a physicist and long-time skeptic of global warming now agreed that it’s real. On November 4, 2011 it was reported that global output of heat trapping carbon-dioxide jumped to record levels; 37 countries were asked to reduce emissions by 5.2% while the US was asked to reduce its emissions by 7% (implies the US is polluting the air more than others). Some countries committed to reductions above that requested but the US has done very little (in 2010 China invested $54.4 billion in clean energy products while the US spent $34 billion). Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest oil producer is pursuing generating a third of its electricity from alternate energy sources within 2 decades because they prefer selling their expensive oil to gas-hungry countries rather than burning it.

We currently get only 11% of our energy from green/renewable sources; wind 2.4%, hydro 7% and solar 1.6% (others also use geothermal and biomass). Fortunately, there’s plenty of wind in the US and in the past 4 years, it has become the leading source of new electrical power in the US, exceeding coal and nuclear combined. Hydropower is not expected to move because it requires construction of hugely expensive mega-dams with questionable environmental impacts. The world’s biggest producer of wind power, Spain’s Iberdrola Renovables, was given $1 billion in US grants. Today, some 150 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona sits the state’s first commercial-scale wind farm. The company has also brought 1,043 megawatts of new wind capacity to Washington, Oregon and Texas – enough to power nearly 700,000 households. Iberdrola’s next big installation is the Blue Creek Wind Farm in western Ohio which is supposed to come on line soon. It will produce enough electricity to power some 200,000 households. Iberdrola intends to continue working in the US at least until the end of 2012 by which time it’s expected to have invested $6 billion. I’m sure you hadn’t heard about this success but just think-one year of tax breaks given to the oil industry would pay for about 1 million households to use clean energy.