25x'25: Clean Energy for America's Future

All Americans want clean air to breathe and healthy water to drink. Sportsmen want undisturbed land to hunt and fish in. And every parent wants their child to grow up healthy and unimpaired by local pollution. The U.S. can help achieve these goals by embracing the 25x'25 vision: that America will produce 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.

25x'25 will benefit the environment and human health in diverse and significant ways. By avoiding the pollution that fossil fuels create when burned for electricity generation and transportation, we can reduce risks ranging from ozone to acid rain. Renewable energy sources are much cleaner. Using more renewable energy like wind and solar power and ethanol would reduce harmful air pollutants from power plants, like mercury, soot, and smog. Using renewable energy protects natural areas from mining and oil drilling and reduces water pollution. It would be good for our air, our water, and our health:

• Renewable energy improves air quality:
  
  
  • Replacing oil with renewable biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel can reduce pollutants such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and toxic emissions. While low-volume ethanol blends may result in slight ozone increases, these emissions can be controlled by modifying gasoline formulation or increasing the percentage of ethanol blended into gasoline. Biofuels greatly reduce toxic air pollutants and eliminate sulfur emissions, which contribute to acid rain. Removing these pollutants from the air reduces respiratory disease and smog.
  • Fossil fuel electricity generation facilities that use coal and natural gas produce emissions such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides that cause acid rain, and toxic emissions like mercury that compromise child development and threaten public health. Renewable electricity generation facilities are free of these emissions.
• Renewable energy reduces or eliminates carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming:
  
  
  • A study by Argonne National Laboratory's Center for Transportation Research compares gasoline to corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol (ethanol made from plant stalks, agricultural byproducts, and even grasses or garbage). On a per-gallon basis, corn-based ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by 18%-29%, and cellulosic ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by 85%, the study found.
  • Wind, solar, and hydroelectric electricity generation facilities do not produce any greenhouse gases. Geothermal facilities produce very small greenhouse gas emissions when compared to fossil fuel powered facilities.
• Harvesting energy from America's working lands is more sustainable than drilling or mining fossil fuels.
  
  
  • Drilling and transporting oil has many landscape and land use impacts. Drilling sites are often in sensitive environmental areas, pipelines divide habitat and ecosystems, and tankers and storage facilities raise the risk of spills that pollute coastlines and groundwater. In contrast, growing biofuels can increase wildlife habitat and be done sustainably by using native plants, existing crops, and agricultural and forestry waste. Additionally, ethanol is biodegradable, eliminating the danger of spills and storage facility leakage.
  • Renewable electricity sources can enhance the value of America's working lands, whereas fossil fuel extraction typically has significant adverse impacts on the land. Wind turbines provide additional and diversified income to land owners without disturbing ongoing agricultural or forestry operations, and solar facilities are typically installed on existing buildings.