The Fight for Renewable Energy

By Joseph Raymond Brazil Jr

December 18th, 2017

Mrs. DeVoe, Period 2

The Fight for Renewable Energy.

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Imaging being in a room, where the temperature is a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit with

multiple people in the room socializing and talking. However in an hour, all of a sudden the temperature

rises 35.6 degrees fahrenheit and multiple people in the room begin to get miserable and irritable because

of the heat. uncomfortable sweat begins to pour out, the feeling of being claustrophobic and trapped sets

in and most people want to find the exit instead of solving the problem by going to the thermostat to turn

it down. This is the current predicament the Earth is facing a rise in core temperature. The Earth’s core

temp was 5,300 degrees Celcius 10 years ago, and as of now the earth’s core is 6,000 degrees celsius as of

current measurements taken in 2013 (LiveScience).Many scientists and other research groups have said

humanity as a whole has passed the tipping point of reversing this damage. This might be true, but if

humanity switches to renewable energy the repair process on earth can begin.

Typical energy sources up until this point have been coal and oil, both of these sources are

obtained by some of the dirtiest ways. Pipes drill deep into the Earth’s crust into pockets of dinosaurs and

other organisms that died millions of years ago to obtain this source of combustible energy. Coal workers

have to blow up sides of mountains destroying thousands of years of sediment to be able to mine this

resource that is hazardous to their health. However renewable energy presents a change in pace for the

health of people and the planet and the preservation of all forms of life on the planet that we all share.

Renewable energy has 6 methods of obtaining energy: solar, tidal, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal,

and biofuel. These sources are cleaner and do not create a fraction of the pollution that coal and oil

produce. For renewable energy to be the energy of the future need to make changes. The changes that

need to be made need to start at a state level and slowly move up the chain to corporate level. States need

to make the change or at least need to bring the subject into conversation with industrial energy

companies to try and find a neutral ground where both state and corporation can agree. New Jersey and

Massachusetts are the states leading the charge in this uphill battle that is only going to get steeper as the

government begins to take more and more steps away from renewable energy. But if more states take the

approach like Massachusetts and New Jersey with giving out tax incentives for producing a certain energy
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output more citizens and companies will start to arise in the renewable energy market and begin to make

industrial energy obsolete. A Solar loaning company known as Energysage reports “There are two major

tax exemptions for solar homeowners to note in addition to the income tax exemption: the sales tax and

property tax incentives, Both of these tax breaks are attractive ones because they ensure 100% tax

exemption from both sales and property tax payments which certainly add up over time” (Energysage).

Now not all states can afford to exempt \ people who switch to solar energy but they can afford to offer

some incentives because the states would be saving money from paying out to corporations to keep

industrial energy running.

However it is not only states that have to make the change, it is also the workers at these oil and

coal factories. The workers have to start becoming more aware that maybe this industry isn’t as powerful

or isn’t as profitable as it had been 100 years ago. Sometimes it’s all a family has known for generations

is to just be a coal miner and go into the industry to keep the ‘legacy’ going. But this trend can be changes

with programs offering to retrain coal miners to work in the solar farm industry from installing, to also

manufacturing solar panels. “Pearce’s team wanted to know how much it might cost to retrain coal

workers for jobs in the solar industry. They included everyone from janitors at coal-fired power plants

(who they supposed could be trained to take on assembly jobs at solar plants) to miners to structural

engineers. Given the cost of training programs, which can run from a single course to a full four-year

degree, they suggest the total bill might be anywhere between $180 million and $1.8 billion. That sounds

pretty affordable, actually, for retraining such a large workforce. President Obama has, as part of his

Power Plus Plan, already put $75 million on the table for retraining coal workers. And the Solar Training

Network aims to help train 75,000 people for solar jobs by 2020, though that is not limited to retraining

programs, or to helping coal workers specifically.” (MIT Technology Review). This is barely the

beginning for the solar industry taking over the coal industry but a bigger role being played in this is the

amount of available jobs in each industry. As young as the solar industry is it has approximately 50,000

more jobs than the coal industry. “That’s according to a new study by Joshua Pearce of Michigan
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Technical University and colleagues. The burgeoning solar industry already employs about 50,000 more

workers than coal mining and power generation—200,000 in solar against 150,000 for coal—and the two

sectors are headed in opposite directions” (MIT Technology Review) For Solar energy this is a big win

on the worker front because what is shown is that trade workers are noticing solar is becoming a larger

market with better wages and less health risk and only has a positive light in the future going for it. Solar

is only beginning to get bigger compared to any other energy source, renewable or not. “ Over the next 15

years, the U.S. solar industry could “easily absorb” all of the layoffs occurring in the country’s waning

coal industry” (MIT Technology Review). One of the biggest wins that can come for the renewable

energy front is being able to take an already able and working front and making those workers their own.

So if Solar panels can go from 200,000 workers to 250,000 or 350,000 could be one of the largest wins

for renewable energy and the other counter sources.

In the end it is not only the workers who are the most important it is also the casual and normal

citizen, the people who are supposed to switch to this renewable energy. What is in it for the common

citizen?: Well the cost for solar energy is getting cheaper “Solar will become the cheapest source to

produce power in many countries over the next 15 years, according to a new report from Bloomberg New

Energy Finance...A limited number of solar projects in sunny and solar-friendly places like in Mexico

have already gotten to that ultra-low four cent cost this year...By 2040, even the generally more expensive

process of installing solar panels on residential rooftops could be that cheap. At the same time, large scale

utility solar projects could even drop into the range of three cents per kilowatt hour” (Fortune). Citizen

are seeing cheaper rates from solar energy and that works out in the citizens favor because if states keep

offering incentives for renewable energy the semi-expensive cost of installation will be overlooked by the

incentives and price of the solar panels themselves. However it is not only money wise that citizens get a

big win in, it is also the personal way that citizens get a big win, “Researchers in Canada have found a

correlation between air pollution and people's happiness. Their deep analysis, reported in the latest issue

of the International Journal of Green Economics, suggests that air pollution may lead to unhappiness
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while the converse is also true, the unhappier the citizens of a country the more air pollution”

(ScienceDaily). The study that was conducted by researchers in Canada shows the correlation of air

pollution and being unhappy but it helps renewable energy’s case where this can be presented as a main

reason for funding renewable energy farms and or local housing/power grids “The researchers add that

measures ought to be taken by policy makers to improve their citizens degree of life satisfaction, such as

improved healthcare and education, social safety nets for those in the poverty trap and efforts to reduce

workplace stress might in turn lead to a reduction in air pollution” (ScienceDaily). If this information was

presented by citizens and any company that will install the renewable energy sources to the grid, towns

and states would begin to make changes to renewable energy because the less air pollution towns have in

oil usage and coal usage towns could make their citizens happier and healthier but also just make the town

environment better. Nevertheless citizens and the taxpayers should be one of the main focal points in

decisions made to change the power grid or made to change over their energy production on their homes,

however citizens should begin to realize and read into how switching to different forms of energy

production could benefit them in the long run from economically and personally.

Finally to enclose if humanity switches to renewable energy Earth’s repair process can begin, the

changes that need to be made that have been represented with facts are what need to stand out. These facts

need to make a change with how humanity thinks about the environment and how the earth is treated. If

humanity was to switch to even the bare minimum of the changes needed to start the repair process the

earth would still begin to see the positive changes that are needing to be made. People who care need to

continue this fight for cleaner sources of power to be able to survive and sustain life for generations to

come, the change that needs to happen must start now with states, workers and citizens all fighting for the

same cause and be able to cripple the industrial energy companies. The incentives that citizens need and

the job availability workers need and the help the states need to offer both.
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Matasci, Sara. “Why the Solar Tax Credit Extension Is a Big Deal in 2017 |

EnergySage.”EnergySage Solar News Feed, EnergySage, 19 Oct. 2017,

news.energysage.com/congress-extends-the-solar-tax-credit/.

Martin, Richard. “Climate Change Is Already Having Severe Economic Impacts, Beginning in

Coal Country.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 10 Aug. 2016,

www.technologyreview.com/s/602093/can-we-help-the-losers-in-climate-change/.

Hill, Jason, et al. “Environmental, Economic, and Energetic Costs and Benefits of

Biodiesel and Ethanol Biofuels.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, National

Acad Sciences, www.pnas.org/content/103/30/11206.full.

Daily, Science. “Air Pollution and Happiness.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily,

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130118125955.htm.

Pearce, Joshua M. “What If All U.S. Coal Workers Were Retrained to Work in

Solar?”Harvard Business Review, 8 Aug. 2016, hbr.org/2016/08/what-if-all-u-s-coal-workers-

were-retrained-to-work-in-solar.