Political Solutions
Invest in renewable energy
The number one source of global warming pollution: Old coal plants.
And the Midwest has plenty of them:
- 24 in Indiana
- 21 in Illinois
- 14 in Wisconsin
And a whopping 159 planned to be built in the next two decades across the country.
Per kwH of electricity produced, a coal plants belches out 2.061 pounds of carbon dioxide. In Illinois alone, that means more than 125 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution each and every year are released into the atmosphere.
There is an alternative.
No wonder that almost half the country–23 states plus the District of Columbia–have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards, or RPS’s.
The concept is simple–by a given date, electric utilities in the state will, by law, generate a given percentage of the state’s electricity by renewable sources. All of the below forms of renewable energy decrease our reliance on electricity produced by coal plants:
• Wind Power
• Solar
• Geothermal
• Biomass
• Hydro-electric
We need to ratchet up the pressure on those states that have not yet adopted an RPS, or have yet to develop the legal rules necessary to implement it. Or even better, let’s set a national RPS to ensure a sustained and secure source of energy.
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November 26th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
There is also new coal plants being built, slow but none the less, that produce very miniscule amounts of CO2 and the same amount of energy. I don’t know the specifics but there is plenty of new technology on the way. I recommend reading Popular Science Magazines, I’m sure many on this site already read it, but for those who don’t, the magazine has very interesting and indepth articles that show new technologies that show the answers to the futures coming troubles.