Outlook On Renewable Energy in America - Rationale For Renewables

Rationale For Renewables

The report argues that America needs renewable energy, for many reasons:

America needs energy that is secure, reliable, improves public health, protects the environment, addresses climate change, creates jobs, and provides technological leadership. America needs renewable energy. If renewable energy is to be developed to its full potential, America will need coordinated, sustained federal and state policies that expand renewable energy markets; promote and deploy new technology; and provide appropriate opportunities to encourage renewable energy use in all critical energy market sectors: wholesale and distributed electricity generation, thermal energy applications, and transportation.

The report quotes President Bush on the need to diversify America's energy supply:

It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply – the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of … solar and wind energy. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol, using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes. —President George W. Bush, State of the Union, 1-23-2007.

ACORE suggests that these reports dispel the commonly held notion that renewable energy cannot supply the energy needs of a growing American economy. But for this to happen, the government would have to commit to long term policies that promote renewable energy.