Washington, DC - As President-elect Obama and a new Congress prepare
to meet today’s economic and environment challenges, Environment Rhode Island released a report
that lays out a blueprint for how we can power America for the 21st
century, protecting our environment while revitalizing our economy.
“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. President-elect Obama defied conventional wisdom
and swept the Midwest on the promise of using clean energy to
revitalize the economy,” said Anna Aurilio Washington, D.C., office director for Environment America, our national federation. “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 putting
us on the path for independence from oil.”
The Environment Rhode Island report makes the case that America has
enough renewable potential to power the country several times over,
providing the following examples:
• The space available on America’s rooftops alone could host
enough solar panels to provide meet 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 United States.
• 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 United States.
• 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.
• Geothermal energy, heat from below the earth’s surface, has the
potential to meet about half the total electricity production capacity
in the United States today.
The group 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,” said Aurilio.
Switching America over to 100 percent clean electricity was one of
three goals laid out in the report, Renewing America: A Blueprint for
Economic Recovery. 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, Environment Rhode Island 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,” said Aurilio.
“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.”
Environment Rhode Island 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 United States directly or indirectly
supporting clean, renewable energy. 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,” said
Aurilio. “There is much President-elect 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,” she concluded.
