Word: fossils
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Beyond making up the bricks of life, carbon is virtually inescapable in industry as well. The plastics that can be found in everything from your chair to the space shuttle contain carbon - as does, of course, our energy supply. Our main fossil fuels - coal, petroleum and gasoline - are made up of carbon that has been compressed in the Earth for millions of years and we're now burning and rapidly restoring to the atmosphere. (The same process occurs when we burn wood in a fireplace...
...shareholders - should be able to agree on, regardless of where they fall on the green spectrum: more renewable power would be a good thing. Greens support alternative energy, like wind or solar, because it helps de-carbonize our energy supply and reduce pollution. Skeptics support it because with rocketing fossil fuel prices - and the U.S.'s increasing dependence on oil imported from less-than-friendly regimes - renewables can offer homegrown, politically safe price relief. It's a win-win in a world that seems ever more zero...
...cents for every kilowatt generated over the first 10 years of a project's operation. For solar energy, tax credits can be worth up to 30% of the cost of a project. These credits are modest - especially compared to the billions of dollars in subsidies lavished on the fossil fuel industry - but they've helped renewable power explode over the last several years, with wind energy growing at 45% last year and solar just slightly less...
...international firm that studies the energy industry, estimates that the expiration of the renewable tax credit would result in approximately $19 billion in lost investment, and 119,000 lost job opportunities in the U.S. That's because renewables, while getting cheaper all the time, still cost more than fossil fuels. Subsidies can help bridge the gap as renewable technology improves - but that will happen only if businesses can produce solar or wind power at scale, which will happen only if investors can be assured that the tax credits won't suddenly disappear, says Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy...
...were far too little, Gore's goal seems far too much. Less than 28% of our power currently comes from carbon-free sources, and the vast majority of that is hydroelectric and nuclear. High-tech renewables account for less than 3%. Wind and solar are growing far faster than fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, but considering that we don't even know if economical carbon capture and storage will ever be possible, it's hard to see how Gore's target is remotely attainable. This isn't negative thinking, or fiction put out by the oil industry...