WASHINGTON, D.C. – It is a myth that switching to safe, renewable energy would mean an unreliable U.S. power supply that also is too expensive to afford. That is the major conclusion of a new Synapse Energy Economics report prepared for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) that details a future with more energy efficiency and renewable energy and less reliance on coal and nuclear power.
Key highlights of the new Synapse/CSI report include the following:
| • | Due in part to a significantly increased emphasis on energy efficiency, power sector carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2020 would fall 25 percent below 2010 levels; by 2050, such pollution would be 81 percent below 2010 levels. Under status quo trends, CO2 emissions would grow 28 percent from current levels by 2050. |
| • | The steep health and environmental (including water use) impacts of coal-fired electricity are dramatically reduced and, by 2050, eliminated altogether when all such facilities are retired. For example, over 50,000 premature deaths are avoided relative to status quo trends linked to pollution from coal-fired plants. |
| • | The construction and operation of the new power plants in the first decade would create roughly 3.1 million new job-years – the equivalent of 310,000 people employed for the entire decade. |
| • | Natural gas use in 2050 would be reduced 28 percent from projected levels for 2050. |
| • | By retiring about one quarter of the existing fleet of nuclear power reactors and not building any new ones, the risks associated with nuclear power generation and the nuclear fuel cycle are reduced considerably.
READ MORE: http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/111611release.cfm |
Source: CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE
Source: Ethosolar.com
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