Greenville, J.( 2014, June 22). The Rocky Mountain Institute and Weaning Ourselves
off of Oil and Coal. Emagazine, Emagazine: EarthTalk, Retreved July 15, 2014,
from http://www.emagazine.com/earth-talk/the-rocky-mountain-institute-
and-weaning-ourselves-off-of-oil-and-coal
The think tank Rocky Mountain Institute has proposed a plan to wean the country off fossil fuels. Instead of organizing large renewable energy plants, though they support the creation of such plants, they want to encourage a more grass roots effort to reduce our oil and coal dependence. By convincing architects to build new buildings in an energy conscious way and get people to install solar panels in their homes to reduce the weight on the energy grid. RMI also intends to push for large-scale improvements in cities that already embrace green technologies so they can lead the way for less progressive areas. The group has the goal of eliminating oil and coal dependence in America by 2050.
I think the plan that the Rocky Mountain Institute is following is wise because it does not depend on large private interest and political groups spending large quantities of money on new technology. By trying to make it possible for individual homeowners to eliminate the need for outside power. The best part of this plan is the way it defuses the cost of building the solar installations. Instead of the government or corporations spending billions replacing existing power plants with new ones, this cost is the main reason that all energy does not come from solar power today. Hopefully the movement takes root and solar energy becomes more common in the coming years.
I agree with you and their plan to try and stop the use of fossil fuels for energy. there are more renewable sources available, but are there any down sides or negative effects of their plan?
I like this idea of a concise way of weaning America off of fossil fuels. For many years people have been trying to do this and finally a group of people have already started making a change.
I agree with this plan of having architects construct new buildings that already include this solar friendly type of system. I think that this could be a real solution for us to no longer be dependent on oil and coal use.
it is always great to hear things like this because there is no one thing that is going to solve all of our problems at once. I is going to take a lot of work from a lot of people doing many different things.