What’s the Problem with Fossil Fuels? // Today, our energy landscape is dominated by the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Nearly 90 percent of our electricity comes from polluting sources of energy like coal and nuclear power. Coal itself generates 54 percent of our nation’s electricity and is the single largest air polluter in the United States. A typical coal plant will burn 1.4 million tons of coal a year. Multiply that by the approximately 600 coal plants in the US, and you come up with one huge problem! Coal plants in the US release 98,000 pounds of mercury into the air each year. Coal pollutes at every level of production: when it is mined, transported to the power plant, stored and burned. Burning coal causes smog, soot, acid rain, global warming and toxic air emissions. The deadly costs of coal energy are not being paid for by the companies that produce or sell the energy, but rather citizens, who bear the burden in the form of serious health problems. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, in an average year, a typical coal-fired plant produces 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide, 170 pounds of mercury (just 1/70th of a teaspoon in a 25-acre lake can make fish unsafe to eat) and 225 pounds of arsenic.
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Governor Pawlenty with arctic explorer Will Steger speaks with students about energy issues in Minnesota.
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What Is Renewable Energy? // Renewable energy is energy obtained from sources that are naturally and continually replenished, unlike fossil fuels, of which there is a finite supply. Renewable sources include wind, solar power, geothermal, hydropower and various forms of biomass.
“Clean” forms of renewable energy create many public benefits, including increased fuel diversity and national security, regional economic development benefits, reduced air emissions, thermal pollution, waste and adverse land-use impacts. Renewables are sustainable—they avoid depletion of natural resources for future generations.
However, not all renewable energy is clean energy. Certain forms of biomass (such as garbage incinerators), large-scale hydro power, and nuclear power are often placed in the same category as other clean renewable energy options, but have very polluting and damaging effects and are neither practicable nor desirable energy options!
Why Do We Need Renewable Energy? // Today, the United States has the potential to produce almost all of our electricity from clean energy sources. We have both the technology and know-how to move beyond our dependence on polluting power plants and use clean, safe and affordable renewable energy.
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MPIRG students from across the state attended a Student Day of Action at the State Capitol on Monday, March 3 that included a press conference for Clean Cars legislation. |
Spotlight on: Wind Energy // Wind power generates electricity with no fuel to mine, transport or store and no air emissions, water pollution or wastes. Wind power is a viable and real solution to reduce the pollution generated by fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas: a typical wind turbine can provide enough power for 328 homes.
Wind energy brings jobs and income to rural communities and has the potential to become one of the biggest sources of new manufacturing jobs. Wind energy makes sense: with the technology we have today, wind energy could supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity with turbines occupying less than one percent of US land. And best of all? Wind energy is inexhaustible—it is renewable year after year. The amount of electricity that our nation’s wind resources have the capacity to supply is equivalent to 20 billion barrels of oil each year! Wind energy makes sense for our economy, our environment and our health.
What Is Campus Sustainability? // Campus sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. When a process is sustainable, it can be carried out over and over without negative environmental effects or impossibly high costs to anyone involved.
Universities are well situated to be environmental leaders and sustainable institutions: research shapes debate and policy and education creates tomorrow's leaders.
Campus sustainability covers many issues and areas: energy conservation, renewable energy investment, recycling, food composting, green roofs and transportation issues.
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Peter Starzynski, MPIRG campus organizer, registers a student for the Student Day of Action.
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Links and Resources
Global Warming Solutions // The Minnesota Legislature made significant progress on energy policy in 2007. Some of the highlights include the passage of the Next Generation Energy Act (SF145) which includes:
- The nation’s strongest Renewable Electricity Standard, which requires 25 percent of our electric generation to come from renewable energy resources (wind, solar, biomass and small scale hydro) by the year 2025.
- Nation's leading energy efficiency legislation that requires a 1.5 percent increase in efficiency in the electric sector.
- An economy wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction plan for Minnesota with a goal of an 80 percent reduction in GHG emissions by the year 2050.
But more work must be done in order to ensure we adequately address global warming for future generations.
What Needs to Happen // Further statewide legislation that requires the emission reduction goals to become mandatory, the establishment of a state- or region-wide cap-and-trade system, adequate funding for the policies passed in 2007 and increased funding for transit in the state of Minnesota.
What You Can Do // 1. Call your state legislators and thank them if they voted for the Next Generation Energy Act 2007 and encourage them to take global warming legislation a step further in 2008! 2. Are your mayor and city council members on board? Write them to find out! |
