The United States is 2nd largest producer of Greenhouse Gases in the world. They account for 16% of the the total emissions produced in the past three decades. The largest source of Greenhouse Gas emissions in the United States is the combustion of fossil fuels. The rate of production of the production of these gases has been increasing by about 7% every year since 1990.
. The United States has promised to cut emissions to levels 28% lower than emissions in 2005. This plan is part of a Climate Change treaty between the US and China that aims to cut carbon emissions before 2030. |
Perspectives
NASA
Today, NASA's POWER project has started to reduce emissions in surprising ways. NASA's satellites record things like how much sunlight reaches the ground in different locations, along with information about wind, temperature, precipitation, and many other factors. In the late 1990's, the Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resource project began giving information to those who needed it. They used surface solar energy data to help an organization that was trying to promote solar cooking in East Africa. Soon, people began to employ NASA to use SSE data to analyze other wind and solar energy projects. Today’s POWER project not only uses SSE, which now includes meteorological data, like wind and precipitation, and with solar radiation,, it also tailors data, both real-time and long-term, for people who design buildings and conduct agricultural research. All of this information allows people to plan more efficient wind farms, solar plants, and many other different opportunities.
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Congress
Congress has finally passed tax breaks for Wind and Solar power. These tax breaks reduce the price of these two energies by about 30%.
This is a big deal because it will result in one of the largest investments in clean energy in US history. These tax credits allow wind and solar power to compete when gas prices are so low. |