Right now there are a number of government incentives for green energy power plant companies. These programs are designed to level the playing field between green energy companies and dirty companies such as coal, oil and nuclear energy companies. The Obama administration wants to increase the funding to these programs because they believe green energy has long term benefits to the U.S. economy.

There are many parts of the world and in the U.S. where green electricity is purchasable on the open market. We encourage you to look up your local electricity provider and ask them to switch you over to green energy. It can cost you a few extra dollars a month, but that extra investment will be doing your local community and the whole world a huge favor. In most cases you do not have to change your existing energy supplier, you just have to call them up and request that they sell you green electricity rather than dirty coal electricity.

In fact, it would be fantastic if the Obama administration would make a new tax credit that payed people back for all the green energy they consume each year. An idea like this actually seems possible now, which is great.

Join the green energy revolution today.

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, February 20, 2008 (ENS) – The federal government should set aside large tracts of federal land that are environmentally appropriate for renewable energy production, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told a renewable energy conference here Tuesday.

“Every time our country has faced a daunting challenge, we have risen to the occasion. That’s who we are. That’s what we do best,” said Reid. “And that’s what we must do today: return to the endless well of American ingenuity – and turn to the endless sources of renewable energy all around us – to set a new course that will keep us safe, create good jobs, and protect our planet for generations yet to come.”

Reid said power companies should make renewable energy available to consumers and give them the option to power their homes from those sources at a fair and reasonable cost.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (Photo
courtesy Library of
Congress)

Consumers also should have the ability to reduce their power bills by generating renewable power at home or at their business, said Reid. Consumers should also have the option to have a net meter installed at a fair and reasonable cost so they can get credit from their electricity provider for home generation.

The utiltities should build a smart power grid that can charge electric automobiles and store electricity to reduce our reliance on oil, including oil from unstable regions of the world, he said.

And finally, Reid says the state government should provide strong incentives to utility companies to encourage them to invest first in energy efficiency and renewables in Nevada.

“When God created the first man,” Reid quoted from a Hebrew text, “he took him around to all the trees in the Garden of Eden and said to him: ‘See my handiwork, how beautiful and choice. … Be careful not to ruin and destroy my world, for if you do … there is no one to repair it after you.”

“In these past 1,500 years, God must truly be troubled at the man-made damage to his handiwork – especially the last oil-driven century,” Reid said.

“The effects of human activity on earth are easy to see,” he said. “Pollution is filth in our water. Pollution is filth in our air. Pollution is filth in our soil. Wildfires, dangerous weather patterns, and drought.”

“Last week, we learned that Lake Mead – the water source for 22 million of us – may disappear in 13 years, “said Reid, who hails from the arid Nevada town of Searchlight. “Our way of life and our very existence is threatened.”

Reid said America can implement a clean energy revolution using wind, solar and geothermal power that grows the economy, protects the planet and strengthens national security.

He urged Congress to pass a national Renewable Electricity Standard, a minimum requirement of renewable fuels as a percentage of all energy consumption.

And he urged Nevadans to reject coal-fired power plants. “On top of the high price of coal power, studies show that there are hidden costs of $30 per megawatt hour or more – like respiratory illness, radiation, and hazardous waste,” said Reid.

On the other hand, Reid cited a University of Nevada-Las Vegas study found that solar, wind, geothermal and biomass projects would create more than $20 billion in business for Nevada over the next 25 years.

“Each new megawatt of geothermal power creates up to 10 new jobs. Each new megawatt of solar-thermal and wind power create at least six new jobs,” he said.

Reid said, “If just half of Nevada’s potential clean energy resources were developed, 22,000 new jobs in the next decade would be created.”

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The Alaska Energy Technology Development Laboratory did work on a new type of propane fuel-cell that is designed to create electricity through a chemical reaction rather than a heat and steam driven turbine system. The research on this fuel cell was done originally to apply to off-the-grid facilities that needed a reliable power source. The technology could easily be applied to larger industrial power plants and it would be a better system for controlling the environmental impact on the air, land and water than current electrical power plant technologies.

There are some interesting companies out there who are pioneering fuel-cell electricity generation. One of them is a company called FuelCell Energy [www.fuelcellenergy.com] and they recently installed a system in a community college in New Jersey. Read more about this story here. [www.iags.org] One of the interesting things about this story is that the community college ends up saving money by installing on-site electricity for their campus. If your electricity provider is not going to offer you green energy at a fair rate, then you can always take matters into your own hands. It will actually cost you less in the long run. Additionally, you can always point it out to people and feel good about yourself.