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Many people may not be aware of a possible electric industry crisis we could be facing in the United States. To meet great public demands for electricity while balancing legislative mandates for greener solutions we will need an aggressive plan.
We cannot put all of our eggs in one basket, like using only renewable energy sources to meet our needs. Instead, we must have an extremely aggressive nation-wide strategy to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and meet electricity demand between now and 2030. We also need an equally aggressive Research, Development and Demonstrations (R/D & D) plan for several advanced technologies.
To lessen the potential threats of climate change, many scientists and policymakers envision large-scale reductions in CO2 emissions. Both Minnesota legislators and President-elect Barack Obama are anticipated to mandate legislation to meet that goal in the very near future. To achieve such reductions, however, presents major technical, economic, regulatory and policy challenges to our industry.
Electric cooperatives are looking very closely at a model that is being proposed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a non-profit organization that conducts research and development on technology, operations and the environment for the global electric power sector. Entire article here. . . CEO message
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