"The Challenge of our Lifetime": 100% of Our Electricity from Renewable Energy & Clean Carbon-free Sources in 10 Years

Won't it be great when we finally have a president who can call on our better angels and commit the U.S. to solar, wind and geothermal power? In a speech yesterday in Washington, D.C., Gore called politics the biggest barrier to change and referred to the call for more drilling as a means to lowering gas prices “perverse,” because it will take too long and increased production will never keep up with demand, thus prices are unlikely to go down.

And how will the USA pay for it: with carbon Taxes (along with a drop in payroll tax.) Gore sees this massive transformation as a one-off investment to replace an electricity grid that mainly relies on expensive and dirty fossil fuels with one that relies more on free and clean fuels. Over the typical 30-year lifetime of a clean power plant, we will save so much in fuel costs that it will make up for the capital investment. With energy efficiency, we’ll be able to reduce the number of new power plants we have to build and also avoid the high costs of building more dirty coal power plants planned today.

The vast majority of funding for new power plants will come from private capital. With Americans coming together to embrace policies for a smarter energy future, we will change what investors see as the safest or best investments. And when rules are in place to reward reducing pollution, private capital will flow towards that safe haven. The government will likely continue to play a role in early stage R&D, infrastructure, public transportation, and jump-starting energy efficiency programs.

“To those who say the challenge is not politically viable," Gore said. "I suggest they go before the American people and try to defend the status quo. Then bear witness to the people’s appetite for change.”

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Related Galaxy posts:

Source Link:http://sefora.org/2008/07/17/gores-historic-challenge/

Comments

[nepharous]

Had this man stood up and fought for his rights to recount without the Supreme Court overstepping it's bounds we could be ten years ahead of where we are now. I fear his inability to stnd up and take his rightful place as president may have doomed the future.

[Tim Tacilauskas]

I think nepharous just broke the rubberband that powers his 'green' car. Global warming must have evaporated the I.Q. right out of your head.

[Luis D Rey]

Al Gore is a total SICKO,

Luis Rey
NYC

[Luis D Rey]

Al Gore is a total SICKO,

Luis Rey
NYC

[me]

why does anyone listen to what this hypocite says? Gore's a moron! He just says stuff and waits for other people to do it for him. QUIT LISTENING TO HIM!

[Vivid Unicorn]

Al Gore is really similar to ALGORITHM which is computer talk for really smart. He has a brain like a TRS-80. He would be president if had only beat McChimpy. But Obama is more like Bush in his positions everyday!

[Freeman Sandlewood]

I don't know why we just don't put windmills on our electric cars. Then as we drive they will generate the electricity we need to run them!

[Uncle B]

If the U.S. had chosen to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times, solar/thermal-molten sodium - electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It would be an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power for all!
After the millions of murders, and billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich, daddie’s Arabic saber dancing boy, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep!

[Tim Tacilauskas]

Dear Uncle B, I certainly hope you don't set your nieces and nephews on your knee while spouting this drivel. Uninformed opinion relayed to young minds may be considered by certain bureaucrats as a form of child abuse.

[Fremon Sandlewould]

We should all just take Uncle B's advice and mount windmills on our cars. When you drive it is windy right? So use the wind to generate electricity and drive the motor in the car! Problem solved!!! ... and I'll be Uncle B agrees !

[Timbucktoo]

If Al Gore's actions matched his words he would be more credible. His lifestyle consumes far more carbon than most people do.

[Timbucktoo]

If Al Gore's actions matched his words he would be more credible. His lifestyle consumes far more carbon than most people do.