By ecoRI News staff
The
nation can move quickly to generate 100 percent of its energy from renewable
resources such as solar and wind, according to a panel of researchers and
experts who spoke Nov. 14 at Old South Church to an audience of about 200
people.
“America
needs to shift to 100 percent renewable energy to address our largest
environmental challenges,” said Ben Hellerstein, state director for the Environment Massachusetts Research & Policy Center.
“At a time of great uncertainty over our national climate and energy policy,
it’s more important than ever before for Massachusetts to lead the way towards
100 percent renewable energy. Now is the time for bold action, not half steps.”
Experts
in the fields of public health, urban sustainability, renewable-energy
technology and the electric utility sector spoke at “The Road to 100 Percent:
Opportunities and Challenges in the Transition to a Fully Renewable Energy
Society” — a town hall event organized by the Environment Massachusetts and
co-sponsored by several other environmental and health organizations.
The discussion is one of more than 50 events held across the country during the week of Nov. 14 for the “100% Committed, 100% Renewable Week of Action.” The week of action is sponsored by Environment America, the national partner of Environment Massachusetts.
“The
road to 100 percent renewable is finally achievable because of a confluence of
lower prices for solar and wind and increasingly greater access to all electric
transportation,” said Sanjeev Mukerjee, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and
chemical biology at Northeastern University and faculty director of the
Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technology.
“Massachusetts
has to make proper policy decisions which incentivize decentralized power,
higher subsidies for hybrid and electric vehicles and higher spending on public
transportation. In all of these, energy storage is the key. Massachusetts can
set the national clean-energy agenda by providing the proper basis for success
in this arena.”
Jonathan
Buonocore, Ph.D., program lead for Climate, Energy and Health at Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health, said, “While we often think about averting
climate change when we think about renewable energy, getting energy from fossil
fuels has many other social costs. Air pollution from fossil-fueled electricity
is responsible for around 21,000 deaths each year, and there are other impacts,
including water pollution, land disruption, and accidents, to name a few.”
Earlier
this year, Environment Massachusetts released We Have the Power, a
report that reviewed seven studies from academics, government agencies and
nonprofits showing that there are no insurmountable technological or economic
barriers to achieving 100 percent renewable energy.
“We
need to fuel the nation with renewable energy. The technology exists, and the
benefits go far beyond just reducing carbon,” said Robert Dostis, vice
president of Green Mountain Power.
“Energy transformation
is an economic driver, creating jobs and fueling a new green economy. Utilities
are especially positioned to achieve an energy transformation that reduces
costs and carbon while increasing reliability and resilience — a critical focus
in light of a changing climate.”
Advocates
argued that one of the ways Massachusetts can accelerate the transition to 100
percent renewable energy is by strengthening the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program that limits carbon pollution
from power plants in Massachusetts and eight other northeastern states,
including Rhode Island. Environment Massachusetts is urging Gov. Charlie Baker
to double the pace of renewable-energy progress under the regional initiative.
San
Diego, Calif., Aspen, Colo., and Greensburg, Kan., are among the cities that
have pledged to achieve 100 percent renewable energy. Hampshire College in
Amherst will soon become the first residential college in the United States to
obtain 100 percent of its electricity from on-campus solar installations.
This
past summer Environment Massachusetts profiled 17 cities
and towns in Massachusetts, including New Bedford and Worcester, that are
leading the way toward 100 percent renewable energy.