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New Energy Future Reports
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Executive Summary
America has the technological know-how and the resources to move away
from dependence on dirty and dangerous energy supplies. With the right
goals and polices, the next president of the United States can provide
America with the much needed leadership to achieve a clean energy
future.
This document explains why the next president must act
immediately to address America’s growing energy crisis, and lays out a
reasonable yet ambitious course for meeting America’s future energy
needs with clean, renewable energy.
America is on a dangerous energy path.
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Under business as usual conditions, America will use 22 percent more
energy in 2030 than today, including 19 percent more oil and 41 percent
more coal; imports of oil will increase 21 percent.
• America will
emit 25 percent more carbon dioxide by 2030, making it virtually
impossible for the world to achieve the emission reductions that the
worst impacts of global warming.
• Americans will spend $250 billion more on fossil fuels and nuclear energy than today.
America has vast clean energy opportunities.
•
America can cut electricity use by 20 percent and natural gas use by 22
percent through cost-effective energy efficiency improvements,
achieving considerable global warming pollution reductions.
•
Automobiles can be engineered to go 40 miles per gallon, even without
the widespread use of hybrid technologies. Raising fuel economy
standards to 35 mpg by 2020 will save consumers $26.5 billion annually,
a further increase to 45 mpg would be even more effective.
• Wind
power could generate more than twice the country’s current electricity
demands; producing just 5 percent of the nation’s power from wind would
create $60 billion in capital investment in rural America and provide
$1.2 billion in new income for farmers and rural landowners.
•
Solar photovoltaic panels placed on just 7 percent of buildings could
meet all U.S. electricity needs and large-scale thermal plants in the
desert could meet all of America’s energy needs and do so even while
the sun is down.
Americans support clean energy solutions.
•
87 percent of Americans support developing renewable energy resources
and 68 percent believe increased conservation is more important than
increased production of fossil fuels.
• 77 percent of Republicans,
86 percent of Southerners, 81 percent of rural voters, 85 percent of
independent voters and 92 percent of Democrats agree that the federal
government should increase renewable energy, and 75 percent are willing
to pay more to do so.
• 92 percent of American people support
making cars and trucks more efficient. The 44th president must make a
clear, unwavering commitment to clean energy and back it up with
concrete policies that move America toward a new energy future.
The next president should set the following goals to achieve a clean energy future for America:
1.
Reduce our dependence on oil by saving at least one-third of the oil we
use today by 2025 through energy efficiency improvements and a switch
to cleaner fuels.
2. Harness clean, renewable, homegrown
energy sources like wind, solar and farm-based bio-fuels for at least a
quarter of all energy needs by 2025.
3. Save energy with high
performance homes, buildings and appliances so that by 2025 we use at
least 10 percent less energy than we do today.
4. Invest in
new energy technologies and resources by committing $30 billion over
the next 10 years to the development of clean energy solutions and
shifting funds away from dirty energy resources.
America’s next president can provide America with much needed leadership by focusing on the following ten policies:
1) Adopt the most stringent appliance efficiency standards.
2) Adopt the most stringent building efficiency standards.
3) Save oil through stronger fuel economy standards for vehicles and by promoting clean, alternative fuels.
4)
Set a national renewable electricity standard that requires 25 percent
of the nation’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025.
5) Commit $30 billion in renewable energy funds over the next ten years.
6) Make research, development and deployment of solar energy a centerpiece of the nation’s energy plan.
7) Reform utility policies to reward efficiency and renewable energy.
8) Place a moratorium on all new coal-fired power plants.
9) Reject nuclear power including the re-licensing of aging nuclear power plants.
10) Control global warming pollution through a national carbon cap.
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