Why We Should Invest in Sustainable Resources (Essay Sample)

Why We Should Invest in Sustainable Resources
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Why We Should Invest in Sustainable Resources
For many years, the world has struggled to develop new technological innovations with more power and capabilities to impact people’s lives in many ways that are beneficial. Governments and other private stakeholders have worked together in facilitating developments in different industrial sectors with the hope of making the world a better place (Chiras, 2013). In the energy sector, different developments have been witness all over the world with many countries advancing their ways of power generation. As more of the convectional sources of energy are being depleted, people’s interest has shifted to the modern sources of power generation that are believed to be more sustainable, cheap and more friendly to the environment. In the U.S, consumers have started realizing the benefits of adopting solar energy for their domestic use. However, the opponents of the solar industry have raised some concerns over the solar industry ability to threaten the viability of the widely used electricity from utilities electricity generating companies. The contention between the two groups has remained a heated debate in the country, with many analysts believing that its outcome would greatly affect the country’s energy future. In understanding the reason for many consumers migrating to using solar and wind energy, it is necessary to analyze the benefits of these sustainable energy sources over the traditional fossil fuels.
According to the current Wisconsin Statutes § 1.12(3) (b), states are ascribed the goal of pursuing cost-effective electricity generation with technical feasibility to provide sufficient power for consumer and industrial use (Public Service Commission of Wisconsic, N.D). For many years, the commission has been encouraging states to adopt renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, hydro-electricity and biomass energy among others. This has always been inspired with the desire to provide the country with the best energy resources that can meet the modern economic and environmental needs, besides having the potential to remain sustainable for many years to come. Conversely, as many people and organizations are continuing to become acquainted with the benefits that sustainable sources of energy can accrue to the society, other bodies particularly those dealing with electricity from fossil fuels are trying their best to kill the solar and wind industries. By using their financial power and their ability to lobby for their interests, companies such as We Energy are fighting their way to convince Wisconsin Public Service Commission to introduce fixed electricity charges for every customer connected to the national grid (Fool, 2014). In addition, solar energy producers would be allowed to sell their surplus solar energy to the grid only after partying with some cash to pay for the service. Such an ordeal has been criticized by the proponents of sustainable energy claiming that the practice would cripple the much awaited ‘energy revolution’ where consumers are expected to be the producers of their own energy for domestic purposes.
What We Energy and the likes have failed to understand is that solar energy and other sustainable sources of energy have risen not to harm, but to bring many benefits to the world. Sustainable sources of energy have been found to have considerable number of benefits. Unlike fossil fuels, they are clean sources of energy in that they produce less toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, to the environment. Voorhees (2014), who is a senior writer with Slate online magazine, affirms that carbon emissions from fossils sources of energy are responsible for the global warming currently experienced in every corner of the world. He claims that those who are against the adoption of clean sources of energy such as solar and wind are doing nothing beneficial, but to suppress the government’s efforts to combat climate change. Climate change has been blamed for adverse weather conditions. It is believed that the build-up of temperatures owing to too much carbon gases in the atmosphere destroys the ozone layer, which could be detrimental to the lives of plants and animals (Chiras, 2013). This sentiment is in favor of many other thoughts of similar persons promulgating the idea that sustainable sources of energy should be left to prevail in the society. To refute such assertions, some opponents of the move towards clean sources of energy complains that fighting the fossil fuels market is nothing but a move against free market policy perspectives. For instance, ALEC, a big player company in the fossil fuel industry and its allies believe that the idea of climate change is just a marketing ideology and that there is nothing true about the issue of fossil fuels contributing to climate change (Voorhees, 2014).
Sustainable sources of energy are also playing a major part in job creation in the U.S. Today, many companies are coming up to invest huge capital in the development of industries such as the solar and wind industries. According to statistics, in every four minutes, someone in the U.S is installing a solar energy system in homes and businesses (Voorhees, 2014). This number represents a huge increase in the rate at which solar energy is adopted in the country bearing in mind that, eight years ago a solar energy system could be installed somewhere in the country every 80 minutes. This is a clear indication that with the so much activities revolving around the solar energy sector in the country, many people have managed to secure employment in the country, solving the issue of unemployment. Besides, the government also acquires some tax revenue from all the solar energy facilities manufactured or imported into the country.
Allowing the solar industry and other similar sustainable energy producing industries to prevail would foster a free-market in the energy sector in the country. The proponents of solar and wind energy argue that introducing new taxes on the use of solar energy would work to limit consumer choice and instead safeguarding the interests of the monopolies in the utilities and fossil fuel energy sector (Fool, 2014). Although the solar energy ...