What's New
Last year, U.S. House lawmakers approved a measure that would
require up to 15%of the nation's electricity demand be met with clean,
renewable sources of power by 2020.
The final Energy Bill
approved by Congress and signed by President Bush failed to include the
renewable electricity standard--but did increase fuel efficiency
standards for the first time in decades.
Environment North
Carolina is urging Congress in 2008 to approve a renewable electricity
standard to continue on a path for a new energy future.
How You Can Help
Call your member of Congress, and ask them to support renewable energy!
Summary
North Carolina leads the way when it comes to
clean energy research and education, with resources like Appalachian
State University and the Solar Center at NC State.
We
have the know-how to produce clean, alternative energy from farm fuels,
the wind and the sun. We have the technology to build factories,
offices, schools, and homes that use much less energy than they do
today.
But with polluting coal and nuclear power plants on the
state’s horizon, and global warming threatening our children’s future, the time
to implement these solutions is now.
The first step is to maximize the state’s potential to
produce clean, renewable sources of power with the Renewable Energy
Standard. The standard will require the utilities
to cut back on energy production, and to produce more of their electricity from
wind turbines, solar panels, and agricultural by-products.
A renewable energy standard would cut global warming
pollution by at least 13.6 million tons in North Carolina
each year. What’s more, the standard
would boost markets for the construction, installation, and distribution of
homegrown, renewable sources of energy, adding at least 2700 new jobs in the
state annually.
Environment North Carolina
is calling on state lawmakers to quickly approve a renewable energy standard that will require
utilities to cut energy production, and derive at least 10 percent of their
electricity sales from clean, renewable sources.
In
the U.S. Congress, Environment North Carolina and its national
federation are pushing a nationwide standard that will require that 20%
of the nation's electricity come from clean sources by 2020. Click here to read the news release.
