What Powers America?

Posted by Kendra Collins

What powers America? Since we are trying to figure out ways to reduce our electric energy usage. I thought I might try to inform you all of where that electricity comes from. Well about 48.9% comes from coal a fossil fuel. I think we have all seen the articles trying to deter people from using fossil fuels for power. Mainly, pointing our that fossil fuels are a non-renewable energy source. If we want to power the world cleaner, I believe we need to look at other renewable resources besides fossil fuels. Things such as solar, wind, water, and biomass power. As of 2006 only 9.5% of the United States energy sources came from renewable sources such as water, solar, wind, ect.

Also, since electricity is the highest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. it is essential to not only reduce our dependence on the fossil fuels that provide our electricity, but also lower our individual dependence on electricity. I was actually really surprised to find that electricity was the highest producer of emissions, I thought for sure transportation would be number one in production of harmful emissions. Although some of the renewable resources may be expensive ways to collect power, such as solar, we will most likely save ourselves from a huge future expense. It always seems harder to fix a problem after it has already been done, especially true when dealing with the crisis of global warming our emissions have caused. A good motto to live by would be why put off what can be done today until tomorrow, especially when the expenses of putting off something could cost significantly more. If you really want to do your part in saving the earth everyone should be looking at ways they can reduce their consumption of electricity. Now I see why, stopping even the littlest bits of power from being wasted is important to our environment.

Information collected from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation