Washington, D.C. — The U.S. energy system is in rapid transition, as aging coal-fired power plants give way to natural gas plants, solar panels, and wind farms. A column released today by the Center for American Progress argues that the United States needs to move even more aggressively toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
“Although natural gas is cleaner than coal, we cannot rely on it alone to achieve the steep carbon-pollution reductions required by the urgency of the climate problem,” said Alison Cassady, the Director of Domestic Energy Policy at CAP and author of the column. “Ambitious deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technology must form the cornerstone of any successful climate mitigation strategy.”
CAP points to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA’s, Clean Power Plan as a critical part of the strategy to transition away from carbon-intensive fuels and toward a cleaner energy future. The Clean Power Plan takes advantage of lower-carbon natural gas to achieve carbon-pollution reductions in the short term while relying on renewable energy and energy efficiency to mitigate the electricity sector’s natural gas use over time. CAP notes that states can help ensure that the electricity system does not become over-reliant on natural gas by setting strong renewable energy and energy-efficiency goals as they implement the Clean Power Plan.
Click here to read the column.
Related resources:
Mitigating Natural Gas Use in the Electricity Sector by Alison Cassady
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.