“Wind power could provide as much as 30 percent of our electricity by 2025—and possibly more—as new technologies and practices improve.”
—Nathan Willcox
Energy and Clean Air Advocate
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After launching the New Energy Future campaign in September, PennEnvironment’s call for energy reform continues to gain momentum.
Last fall, more than 140 candidates for Pennsylvania state House and Senate seats endorsed PennEnvironment’s New Energy Future platform. Nearly 65 of these endorsers were elected to the General Assembly. Pennsylvania’s re-elected Gov. Ed Rendell also endorsed PennEnvironment’s platform.
At the same time, PennEnvironment worked with environmental groups across the country, calling on all members of Congress to support our campaign. Nationwide, more than 320 environmental, consumer, labor and civic groups endorsed the New Energy Future platform. Over 160 congessional candidates went on record in support of the platform, including 12 candidates from Pennsylvania. Of these, five were elected to Congress by the state’s voters.
PennEnvironment’s plan calls for the state’s elected officials to endorse an energy platform that puts us on a path toward a new energy future. Our concrete goals include reducing our dependence on oil by saving one-third of the oil we use today; to produce at least 25 percent of our nation’s energy from clean, renewable homegrown sources; to reduce America’s overall energy use by 10 percent; and to dramatically increase investments in renewable energy and efficiency technologies.
Reduce dependence on oil
Our ambitious plan calls for using one-third less oil in the U.S. by 2025. Luckily, there are already some tried-and-true technologies to help us reduce our oil consumption. You’ve probably heard that cars, SUVs and heavy-duty trucks could be going much farther on a gallon of gas.
Requiring increases in gas mileage standards would help the nation get a quarter of the way to our goal of using one-third less oil by 2025—and there is growing support for this legislation in Congress as Americans voice greater concern for rising gas prices.
There are a number of other policies that could help us reduce our dependence on oil. For instance, changing our transportation priorities to stabilize miles traveled in America could save 3.6 million barrels of oil per day. Replacing a share of transportation fuels with plant-based fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel would save about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.
Reducing our reliance on oil isn’t just good for our environment—it is also good for national security. By achieving the reductions called for in our campaign, we could cut America’s petroleum consumption by 7 million barrels per day—more than twice as much as we import from the Middle East.
PennEnvironment has already helped pass oil-saving policies like the Pennsylvania Clean Vehicles program. This program will reduce pollution from automobiles, and make sure there are more efficient cars on our roads, reducing our gasoline consumption and our dependence on oil.
Clean, renewable, homegrown energy
Our plan lays out a clear path to produce 25 percent of our energy from clean, renewable, homegrown sources by 2025.
Using plant-based fuels, such as ethanol, to substitute for oil in transportation and industry could supply nearly 5 percent of our total energy use by 2025.
Wind power could provide as much as 30 percent of our electricity by 2025—and possibly more—as new technologies and practices improve. Renewable energy from solar power and other sources are in development right now, enabling us to expand the amount of energy we get from clean, renewable sources.
Saving energy
Our plan calls for using 10 percent less energy than we do today by 2025.
Looking forward, we can expect savings in energy use to come from exactly where you would expect: energy efficiency.
We’ll reach our goal by setting stronger energy efficiency standards for household and commercial appliances, promoting more energy-efficient building construction in Pennsylvania and across the nation, expanding energy efficiency programs, and educating the public about the benefits of conserving energy.
PennEnvironment has already led the charge on energy efficiency standards. In 2004, our staff worked to pass appliance efficiency standards legislation in the Statehouse.
Investing in technology
Without the appropriate investments in technology and the markets that sustain energy-saving and renewable energy products and services, our plan will exist only on paper.
Unfortunately, federal investment in energy research and development has declined dramatically in recent decades. The U.S. now spends less than half as much on energy research and development programs as it did in 1980.
Increasing federal and state clean energy research and development funding would enable researchers to improve the performance and economic competitiveness of existing clean energy technologies, design new energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies, and reduce the cost of producing clean energy technologies.
The opportunity for a New Energy Future is here today. We need a commitment from our state and federal officials to put these clean energy tools in the hands of individuals and businesses in order to build a new energy future.
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