Clean Energy
No single solution can meet our society's future energy needs. The answer lies instead in a family of diverse energy technologies that share a common thread: they do not deplete our natural resources or destroy our environment. Renewable energy technologies tap into natural cycles and systems, turning the ever-present energy around us into usable forms.
Features
Importing Coal: Coal's Threat to Climate Policy in the U.S. Northeast
Examining the links between coal power and climate policy in the Northeast this report suggests options to ensure the success of the Northeast's important efforts to address global warming pollution.
Faces of Renewable Energy
The renewable energy industry is growing and so too is the demand for skilled "green collar" workers in manufacturing, shipping, academia, sales, finance, and more. Meet some of the people building our clean energy economy.
Coal Power in a Warming World
This report examines the pros and cons of a proposed technology that would capture coal plant carbon dioxide emissions and store them underground.
Cashing in on Clean Energy
Clean energy sources can help stabilize energy prices, stimulate the development of innovative new technology, and create high-quality jobs and other economic benefits.
Successes
Recent successes in Clean Energy include:
Strengthening support for a national renewable electricity standard.
Cashing In on Clean Energy, our analysis of a federal standard that would require utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2020, showed that this standard would not only reduce global warming emissions but also create jobs and save consumers money. These findings helped build majorities supporting such a standard in both houses of Congress. Though this provision—faced with a presidential veto—was dropped from the final energy bill, we are closer than we have ever been to achieving victory on this front.
Expanding state-level commitments to renewable energy
UCS contributed to stronger renewable electricity standards in Delaware, Maine, and Minnesota and new standards in Illinois, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Oregon—bringing the total number of states with a standard in place to 26. We supplied our allies with valuable information on the design and implementation of state standards through our online Renewable Electricity Standards Toolkit, an interactive database encompassing more than 30 searchable topics ranging from targets to timetables.
Analysis
Gambling with Coal
The necessary policy response to global warming will inevitably impose new costs on new coal plants. This report discusses and makes quantified estimates of those costs.
Study DOE Shows State Renewable Standards Are Affordable
A renewable electricity standard requires electric utilities to gradually increase the amount of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and bioenergy, in their power supplies. The Department of Energy study finds that, on average, state standards will result in a monthly electricity bill increase of just 38 cents for a typical residential household.
Campaigns
Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy
Background information and an update on the status of the Production Tax Credit for Renewable Energy.
Resources
RES Toolkit
UCS created this toolkit to provide renewable energy advocates, policy makers, researchers, and concerned citizens with both summary-level and in-depth information on the design and implementation of each existing state standard.
Coal vs. Wind
Today, coal generates over half of the electricity in the United States, while wind power accounts for less than one percent. With this special feature you can see the impacts of both energy sources and decide for yourself which should be a part of a cleaner, more sustainable energy future in America.
Energy 101: Take a Tour
This section provides a background on energy. We take a brief look at energy use today and through history, describe how various energy sources are harnessed and used, and examine the serious side effects from our country's heavy dependence on fossil fuels.
Wind Power in New England
New England has installed only a handful of wind turbines to date. Based on the strong, positive feedback coming from the three New England communities that host wind turbines—Hull and Princeton, MA, and Searsburg, VT—it is time to examine the benefits more closely.
