As today’s news focus appears to be on energy let me offer the following web site which contains a very detailed 36 page report that I received from The National Academies three weeks ago. The title. “What you need to know about energy.” On page 12 it reads. “Two profound questions loom over all other energy concerns: Will we have enough affordable energy in the near future? What will we do for the long term?”
Having written about this topic over the past year several readers have commented that the answer lies in “Renewables.” Page 13 of the National Academies report contains a pie chart that show the “contributions of energy sources to total U.S. energy consumption in 2006” that is a must read.
All of the Renewables combined only total 7% with hydropower leading the way at 2.9% followed by wood at 2.1%, biofuels at 0.08%, waste and geothermal at 0.4% each, wind at 0.03% and solar being last at 0.1%.”
Quoting from page 16 it reads “use of renewable sources will increase, in some cases dramatically, over the next two decades. While they may make significant contributions to the energy supply in certain geographic areas, absent major changes in economic, political, or technological factors, they will still provide a small fraction of our overall energy.” To read the entire report simply click on the following link.
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/energy/energybooklet.html
If they have not seen this report as yet I encourage Assemblyman DeVore to send the committee copies. Did you notice the mention of “political factors” highlighted above? Welcome to our state Legislature!
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