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100% RENEWABLE: Reverse Climate Change, Decrease Power Outages & Build Cyberattack Resilience By Berit Anderson
Dear SNS Members, As the focus of this week's Global Report, it is my great pleasure to announce the public release of 100% Renewable: An Action Plan for US Energy Independence. This plan is distinct from the current US energy trajectory in that it creates an accelerated path to transitioning the US to a truly two-way grid without requiring extensive upgrades to current grid infrastructure. This plan is the result of input from many of you around the world who wrote emails, joined our roundtables, and generally helped improve our ideas. While not all of you are quoted in this report, all of your input and guidance was helpful. Thank you for contributing to this work. As I write this, California is being deluged by floods and windstorms. As of Tuesday, over 135,000 residents were still without power. These kinds of climate-related extreme weather events will continue to cause outages around the country in the years to come. Strategic News Service and Future in Review have always been action-oriented. We are a community of doers; we look at problems and see solutions. We ask hard questions, even when they are unpopular, which lead to greater understanding and more nuanced ideas about solutions that work. It was in this spirit that we launched 100% Renewable this first Future in Review Action Tank initiative focused on creating a plan to transition the US grid to 100% renewable energy. We wanted to leverage our collective knowledge and experience to help bring better ideas to one of the biggest challenges facing the US today. The US is the world's second-largest emitter, spewing 15% of greenhouse gases every year. (China, the world's largest emitter, is responsible for 30%.) A lion's share of US emissions is generated by four sectors: transportation (27%), industry (24%), electricity (25%), and commercial and residential (13%). Transitioning the US grid to 100% renewables would allow for the complete electrification of all four, representing an 89% potential decrease in US greenhouse-gas emissions a 13.35% drop globally. It would make the US more resilient to the ravages of the climate emergency and the whims of the autocratic regimes we have historically depended on for fossil fuels. It is our hope that this plan will be helpful as both an asset and a roadmap to the many of you working on, and investing in, sustainability and energy. The transition that lies ahead is complicated and extremely urgent. It will require significant investment, experimentation, and innovation. Executed well, it will move us much closer to a world in which our children and grandchildren can live healthy, happy lives, with sufficient access to healthful food and clean water. It will provide an infrastructure backbone for continued innovation and prosperity by American entrepreneurs. It will save the lives and money of everyday Americans. This plan represents years of experience and many hours of commitment from some of the brightest and most innovative minds in the SNS community. But the publication of a plan is only the first step. A successful transition to US energy dependence will depend upon our ability to socialize this shared vision of where we are headed. Please share it freely and publicly with your contacts, communities, state representatives, local utilities, and beyond. And, as always, feel free to email me with feedback, ideas, or introductions to others who might be interested in learning more, whether policy-makers, media, investors, or utilities. To our shared future! Berit Anderson ____ Email sent to SNS may be reprinted, unless you indicate that it is not to be. To arrange for a speech or consultation by Mark Anderson on subjects in technology and economics, or to schedule a strategic review of your company, email mark@stratnews.com. For inquiries about Partnership or Sponsorship Opportunities and/or SNS Events, please contact Berit Anderson, SNS Programs Director, at berit@stratnews.com.
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