Clean Energy
The Energy Problem
America is heading into an energy quagmire. Today’s energy costs are unpredictable and pollution and climate change threaten our children’s future. The security of our nation is at risk as Americans continue to buy oil/fuel from turbulent regions. We need a long term energy solution that does not rely on carbon fuels but instead we can use abundant and available resources. Although in the short term America will need to use carbon based fuels, we need to transition into more sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal.
American Needs an Energy Policy
Nationally, our energy policy should invest in creating more cost effective and environmentally friendly choices. Today the costs of solar and wind energy are dropping, while the costs of fossil fuels increase by six percent per year. As we invest in clean energy, the price of clean, renewable energy will become competitive with power made from fossil fuels.
Eastern North Carolina has high wind energy speeds and it makes it an ideal place to harness wind energy. New wind turbines, like the newly unveiled turbine in Morehead City, NC, do not cause damage to birds and bats but do harness high levels of wind energy. Installing and maintaining offshore turbines would also create jobs in the area and create an everlasting good economy.
There has been a great deal of talk about Fracking in North Carolina. However, fracking is not suitable for Eastern NC because of possible groundwater contamination it can cause, which in turn will make our drinking water supplies to be contaminated with toxic chemicals. It takes years to clean up the contaminated groundwater/drinking water and this would deprive our communities of a clean source of water. It also costs millions of taxpayer dollars to clean up the groundwater and to bring in clean water if our groundwater/drinking water gets contaminated by fracking.
