When many people thing of the United States, they envision a land of freedom, prosperity, and wealth. However, environmentalists see a different land, one containing six percent of the world's population, and yet producing twenty-five percent of the world's pollution. This is because much of our prosperity is direct result of our exploitation of fossil fuels. They provide us with about ninety-three percent of the energy we consume. For this reason, our environment is becoming increasingly polluted, natural habitats are being destroyed, and health problems resulting from pollution are increasing steadily. If our current trends continue, our nation and planet will eventually become uninhabitable. In order to prevent this, we need a new primary energy source that is environmentally benign. This source is renewable energy and is already readily available. The increased use of renewable energy, mainly wind and solar energy, and reduction of dependence on oil is the best way to solve our current energy dilemma.

For the past fifty years, fossil fuels have been the main source of energy in the U.S. They are a great source of power, but unfortunately they also have many setba

2) Melville, Keith, Energy Options, McGraw-Hill, 1992

Most critics tend to have similar arguments against renewable energy. They say it is unreliable, costly, and uses too much land. The supposed drawbacks are easily dismissed however. It is cheaper than current sources of energy when you factor in such costs as air pollution, strip mining, and nuclear waste disposal. The amount of land required for renewable applications is minute when compared to the amount of land needed for strip mining or the potential amount of land made inhabitable by a nuclear accident. As far as reliability goes, backup storage can be used and solar power could be used only during the day and at night provide energy with one of the other forms such as wind or geothermal. It is clear that renewable energy has many benefits and only a few drawbacks that can be overcome.

If our planet is to still be viable in the next few centuries, renewable energy is the way we have to go. The only thing needed is public support. This can be accomplished by imposing penalties and high taxes on fossil fuels and desirable incentives on the use of renewable energy. Just a few of these include: increase government funding to help spark private interest, reinstate solar panel tax cuts, rewrite electric utility regulations to favor environmentally friendly sources and encourage banks to give favorable lending terms to those who use renewable energy.(2) If the public is fully educated on the benefits of renewable energy, favor for them will increase and in a relatively short period of time, renewables could be providing most of or even all of our energy needs.

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Approximate Word count = 1107
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)