Studies: Renewable electricity can slash Cascadia pollution
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PETER FAIRLEY, InvestigateWest
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New research shows that renewable electricity can move Washington, Oregon and British Columbia off of fossil fuels, do so at an affordable price, and create jobs along the way.
After decades of disinformation from fossil fuel producers and utilities, this may sound like a wishful vision. But building a cleaner and more equitable economy and doing so in just a few decades to head off the worst effects of climate change is backed by a growing body of regional and international studies.
Innovation and mass production have made wind and solar power installations cheaper than most fossil-fueled power plants. The key to moving Cascadia’s economies away from fossil fuels is to make renewable electricity the region’s go-to “fuel.”
Studies: Renewable electricity can slash Cascadia pollution apnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from apnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Renewable Electricity Is Coming on Strong
BC and all of Cascadia could move off fossil fuels, say new models. Moving fast is key, say experts.
Peter Fairley is an award-winning journalist based in Victoria and San Francisco, whose writing has appeared in Scientific American, NewScientist, Hakai Magazine, Technology Review, the Atlantic, Nature and elsewhere. SHARES Daimler Trucks North America is signing up buyers for its eCascadia battery-powered semi truck, to be built next year at the Freightliner plant in Redmond, WA. The eCascadia will have a 400-km range. Conventional semis can go 3,220 km on a tank of diesel.
Photo: Daimler Trucks.
Home » Newsroom » Why Renewable Electricity Powers Decarbonization and Pays Off
Plugging in more stuff can slash Cascadia’s climate-warming emissions at modest cost. But that means moving much faster.
Amid the 1970s Arab oil embargo, a gasoline company’s TV ads showed an aging wooden windmill. As the wind died, it slowed to stillness.
The ad asked: “But what do you do when the wind stops?”
For the next several decades fossil fuel providers continued to denigrate renewable energy. Big power utilities piled on with claims that fluctuating solar and wind power could black out the grid. Even the U.S. Energy Department deemed renewables “too rare, too diffuse, too distant, too uncertain, and too ill-timed” to meaningfully contribute, as a top agency analyst put it in 2005.
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