Fossil fuels are dirty and polluting. Nuclear creates waste that lasts “forever” and we can’t find a place to store it. Existing power plants are aging and scheduled for retirement. Foreign oil dependence puts us at the whims of others, and trying to squeeze out the remainder of our domestic fossil fuels, like coal-mining and gas-fracking, just perpetuates our subservience to 19th and 20th century polluting fossil fuels. The 21st century is here. It’s time for a renewable energy transition!
In the same way that we created a new electric industry in the early 1900s, we should plan for – and immediately start building — an infrastructure where eventually most of our electricity will come from renewable, non-polluting sources. Just as in the 20th century, government planning, support and incentives and private capital should establish a forward-looking plan, with periodic milestones that will be achieved along the way. This effort is over-due, and the only way to achieve a transition that will benefit this country by providing plentiful, renewable, non-polluting, home-grown electricity that will power our lives, industries, and future.
