A renewable path for the United States
The Worldwatch Institute and the Center for American Progress have released a comprehensive report concluding that the United States, where renewables only represent 6 per cent of total energy, is capable of dramatically increasing that share. The key to doing this is to embrace new clean-energy technologies that are or will soon be economically competitive with fossil fuels. “Despite strong public support and rapidly rising interest in renewable technologies, the U.S. has not kept up with the rapid growth in the sector globally over the past decade,” according to the groups. “If the U.S. is to join world leaders in renewable energy — among them Germany, Spain and Japan — it will need world-class energy policies based on a sustained and consistent policy framework at the local, state and national levels.”
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca