100 PER CENT RENEWABLES WE'RE CLOSER THAN THE MOONSHOT WAS
This one's a winner …. for the booby prize.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/433423-t...
By Grant Smith, Opinion Contributor — 03/10/19 06:40 PM EDT 329
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill
The truth is this: We’re closer to 100 percent renewable energy today than we were to the moon in 1961, when President Kennedy made his famous pledge to land there by the end of the decade.
Here’s another truth: It’s not going to be pretty. We have unleashed powerful climactic forces that can’t just be shut off like a dirty, obsolete coal plant. Every day those forces are intensifying and interacting in ways that profoundly affect people right now. We can no longer afford to debate whether we should or can’t pull off this monumental task. We must focus on how to achieve it – and on that front, there’s more reason for optimism than you might think.
Here are just a few examples:
Solar capacity has almost tripled in recent years, from 19,000 megawatts in 2015 to 48,000 megawatts in 2018.
Wind production has also almost tripled since 2009, from 35,000 megawatts in 2009 to more than 90,000 megawatts in 2018.
In combination, total solar and wind potential is more than 14 million megawatts – or 14 times current electric power capacity.
Growth in wind and solar has lowered the cost of solar and wind by 88 percent and 69 percent, respectively, since 2009.
Wind and solar jobs already support three times as many gas and coal jobs.
There’s no question that the target of 100 percent renewables by 2035 is aggressive. But that’s a feature, not a bug.
As with the moon landing, we need a challenging target date to get Congress to act. At this point, debating climate change and the need for a swift and all-out response is akin to debating, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, whether the base had really been attacked, who did it, and whether it was an act of war.
When not dismissing the technical feasibility of a rapid transition to 100 percent renewables, critics carp about the costs. The fact is that the transition would bring tremendous gains to the economy. Millions of jobs would be created. Research and development, at entrepreneurial companies and universities, would flourish. If you compare the costs of business-as-usual to the savings from aggressive energy efficiency measures and the avoidance of climate impacts such as hurricanes, wildfires and rising sea levels, we can’t afford not to make the transition.
In the end, we have no choice. We have essentially declared war on ourselves. The generations of Americans who enjoyed a high standard of living in an economy whose very design has destabilized the climate have a responsibility to right the ship.
Views: 68
Comment
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Comment by Willem Post on March 11, 2019 at 4:27pm
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Hi Paula,
That article is just a fluff piece with unconnected facts and some fiction.
I am surprised the Hill would post such garbage
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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