Renewable Energy Works for the Environment

 

Electricity production is one of the most damaging of human activities.  From mining and drilling through air and water pollution, conventional power sources create problems throughout their life cycle.  Energy production can damage human health, harm fish and wildlife, destroy habitat, and biggest of all, even change the Earth's climate.

 

The impacts of renewable energy are minor in comparison.  Wind, solar, and hydropower have no emissions at all, and geothermal emissions are small.  Biomass power, typically produced from burning wood, can cause particulate emissions if not controlled, but can be carbon neutral, with the carbon dioxide from the smoke being absorbed by new trees as they grow.

 

Renewables also use very little or no water, compared to fossil and nuclear plants, who in aggregate account for the second largest use of water in the US after agriculture.  And renewables have few or no waste products, unlike nuclear power's radioactive waste and coal's toxic sludge.

 

And, according to EPA, the process of generating electricity is the single largest source of global warming emissions in the United States, representing 41 percent of all CO2 emissions.  Most of these power sector emissions come from coal combustion.  Renewable energy is a key solution to global warming.

 

A 25 percent national RES would lower power plant CO2 emissions 277 million metric tons annually by 2025 (more than 2 percent below 2007 levels and 10.6 percent below business as usual)—the equivalent of the annual output from 70 typical (600 MW) new coal plants or taking 45.3 million cars off the road.

 

Reports

 

Environment America, America on the Move: State Leadership in the Fight Against Global Warming, and What it Means for the World, December 2009.

   Report finds that Renewable Energy Standards account for about half of carbon dioxide emission reductions resulting from state policies.

 

Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Seizing the Solar Solution: Combating Climate Change through Accelerated Deployment, December 2009.

   SEIA calculates that, by 2020, solar power could reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from energy by 10%.

 

National Academies, Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use, October 2009.

     Report estimates that energy production and use causes over $120 billion of "hidden" costs.

 

 

US Environmental Protection Agency, How does electricity affect the environment?, 2007.

     EPA compares the environmental impacts of all power sources, and let's you look up emission rates for your own utility.

 

Union of Concerned Scientists, Benefits of Renewable Energy Use, 1999.

     A thorough compilation of the environmental impacts of fossil and nuclear energy, and the associated benefits of clean renewable energy.