Dirty Fossil Fuels Block U.S. Move to Renewable Energy

Enough wind energy can be generated from these three states, North Dakota, Kansas and Texas, to supply the entire US with electricity. But that is not happening because dirty fossil fuels are blocking the necessary political will to create the transmission lines for the wind generated electricity.

Published on Monday, August 5, 2013 by Common Dreams
Not Too Little Wind Energy, But Too Much
Despite claims by critics, wind energy proves that only poor infrastructure, lack of political will inhibits industry’s growth
Jon Queally, staff writer;

Estimates for the amount of US government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry range from $12 billion to upwards of $50 annually. Experts say that a similar investment in clean energy would both catapult the fight against climate change and be a boon to the economy.

Germany is way ahead of the U.S. Wind, combined with solar in not-all-that-sunny Germany has been a huge success.

German solar PV generation peaks at just under 24 GW on July 21st, supplies 46% of mid-day demand.
[…]
On June 16th, 2013 wind and solar peaked at 29.6 GW, representing 61% of generation between 2 and 3 PM.
Source

No energy source is perfect and none comes without some environmental impacts. Manufacturing my solar panels generated some toxic waste and used some resources but those impacts were a one-time impact. Now they are sitting on my roof generating over 50% of the electricity I use. Wind energy makes up the difference.

Considering only the methane emissions and no other impacts, fossil fuel use is frying our planet. Comparing the environmental impacts of wind and solar to continued fossil fuel use is no contest.

All we need is the political will but our elected leaders have their ears stuffed to full of fracking money so we will need to get a lot louder for them to hear us.