Petition For A Solar America
#2 in the Series: Petitions for Smarter Capitalism
Mr. President and Congress,
- Depending on the pace with which True Cost-Benefit (TCB) Pricing is implemented, solar and wind, a type of solar energy, should quickly begin to underprice, outcompete and replace coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power – and this is without needing further federal research, development or guaranteed loan/subsidies, which nuclear power can’t do without.
Whereas our own Department of Energy estimates that if just the modestly efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) panels of today, which also supply power during cloudy weather, were installed on top of homes, apartment houses, businesses, carports, parking lots and abandoned, polluted “brown fields”, only 17 miles by 17 miles of panels on average in each state could supply America with all its current electrical needs,
- Whereas the Department of Energy states the even more efficient method of concentrating solar power (CSP) that uses various reflective surfaces to heat various molten salts during the day can also store that heat at night, with some plants making energy 7 hours after sundown and one plant going 24/7 for a week,
Whereas the EU and 15 other countries nearby the Mediterranean have already begun a $50 billion project to use high voltage direct current (HVDC) to transmit electricity from CSP plants in the Sahara to Europe (!) losing only 3% power every 621 miles, so we could surely do the same from our own three hour/nation-wide Sun Belt as well as these non-environmentally protected windy areas,
- Whereas CSP is already available for shopping center-sized roofs and is being developed for ever smaller applications and in every greater variations, using heated air, water and other media so as to be more and more capable of powering homeowners and small and medium sized businesses,
Whereas the Department of Energy calculated that in America’s non-environmentally protected areas, there’s enough wind power, essentially a form of solar power, to supply over 10 times America’s current electrical needs, and the wind often blows at night ,
- Whereas with this electricity production increasingly spread out and closer to population and demand, our grid would be much more resilient against blackouts, outages and sabotage,
Whereas True Cost-Pollution Prevention taxes and targeted, sliding-scale TCPP tax recycling back to the public will:
* help train millions of the unemployed of all backgrounds, suburban, urban and inner city to install these solar/wind systems and perform Deep-Green retrofitting of homes and businesses,
* help boost the demand, supply, improvement, mass production and lower prices on small, medium and large scale solar PV, CSP and wind power systems for homes and businesses, sized to also power their hybrid/electric vehicles
* the demand, supply, improvement, mass production and lower prices on other energy saving technologies and home/ business retrofit services, both of which will lower America’s current energy needs,
- Whereas solar hot water systems could still further reduce America’s gas and electricity needs,
In a full court press over the next decade, America could enjoy not only mostly clean, renewable power day and night for our homes and businesses, as well as healthier, indoor environments, see Deep-Greening, but also an increasingly cleaner, electric-powered national system of private transit — and public transit:
- The private transit system would at first be primarily hybrid vehicles of all sizes but increasingly it would also include all-electric cars, motor scooters, motorcycles, bicycles, buses, trucks, streetcars, subways and trains, many that would be made by GM and Chrysler,
- supplied by businesses and people’s own solar/wind systems with gas stations increasingly including small-scale solar and wind energy production, storage and battery exchange services.
- The public system, with lowered fares and expanded services and options for new rural, suburban, urban and intercity routes, would include hybrid then more all-electric small/medium/large vans/buses, subways, trains, bullet trains vans, Close by transit stops, malls, downtowns and other frequent destinations, there would be electric bikes, scooters, motorcycles and sub-compacts available to rent for affordable prices by the hour/half-day/day/weekend and week.
Whereas it would be socially and environmentally beneficial and a very American goal to help the American homeowner, renter, apartment house owner, small businessperson, rancher and farmer to become a private enterprise making their own clean energy, just as the original Homestead Act gave land to Americans if they grew their own food on the farm they built,
- We, the People undersigned are petitioning you to pass The Solar America Act as a part of a Green Recovery using True Cost-Benefit Pricing and True Cost-Pollution Prevention tax recycling. Its slogan:
Your Home and Business Is Your Castle,
Make It Your and America’s Power Plant Too!