The future of America’s domestic energy supply has become as murky as the waters of the Gulf as the oil spill fallout has legislators scrambling to rewrite offshore oil drilling provisions in the latest versions of the climate bill.
Critical to reducing American dependence on fossil fuels is the development of alternative clean energy sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass. The president has called for a doubling of the use of renewable energy technologies over the next three years and Congress has responded by proposing a federal renewable energy standard that would require the country to get at least 25 percent of its electricity from new, renewable power sources by 2025.
And, while the development of renewable energy technology has sped up rapidly in recent years, the technology to deliver this energy to the places where it is most needed is decades behind. America’s current electricity transmission and distribution grid was built more than a century ago. Relying on the grid to relay power from wind farms in the Midwest to cities on the east and west coast is simply not feasible. Our dated infrastructure cannot handle the existing load — ... Read more
