H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 says that a “renewable energy credit” represents one megawatt of energy generated using renewable resources. It reminds me of “carbon credits” and it is basically just as pointless…. A utility company will probably just build a bunch of wind turbines and get enough of this “renewable energy credit” things to just go and burn coal and power America. It will increase your energy bills. Why? Wind turbines are not cheap. The company has to pay for them so they can get some these “renewable energy credit” things. They will still burn the same amount of fuel and use the same power plants, so they will need more money to buy all the wind mills and land. The massive amount of land. So yeah, you are going to get nice, expensive, energy bills because of this. Don’t expect them all at once, though. But up to and by 2020, hope you have some deeper pockets.
There plan is absolutely ludicrous. They claim it is a plan; it is not a plan though. It basically says “Hey. Look. We want 100% clean energy in less than ten years. Now do it.” It is absolutely impossible. The only clean energy that works and does not devastate the environment is nuclear, biomass, and geothermal. None of the other options work. Hydroelectric (the giant dams) kill fish, especially salmon. But the fact that they think that we can actually replace all our power plants with “clean energy” is quite funny, really. They must know it is basically impossible. We would need years just to build a power plant. We could use 100% geothermal, nuclear, and biomass to power America but it would take decades.
The bill says that, by 2020, 15% of the energy the utility companies produce must be generated using renewable resources. This requirement is impossible. Hydroelectric now generates less than 6% of our electricity. And pretty much the only companies that will be able to use this limited resource, is the western companies (because most of the hydroelectric dams are in the west). Hydroelectric is devastating to the ecosystem, especially to the salmon. All the other renewable energies, other than biomass (and in some places, geothermal), will not work. We can provide a large amount of our electrical needs with biomass, but it would take time for use to build power plants. Geothermal is a good source of power, but cannot be built anywhere you want, because it depends on heat from the Earth. We cannot build power plants fast enough to meet this requirement.
Opinion:
If the companies don’t meet requirements? This is a question I am asking, too. I don’t really know, but if they get huge fines, I am guessing it would be quite likely to see power companies outsourcing to Mexico and burn coal and sell it to people in America. This is just my guess, but I don’t know what else they could do.
Thank Wikipedia for the picture of the geothermal power plant.
Sorry I haven’t had time to post more regularly, it is just that i have been busy.
I have heard that some people think wind can replace coal. This is not true. The wind mills themselves depend on coal. Why? If wind mills are made from steal, and steal is made from iron and coal, then how are you going to replace coal? 
And think of all the power the factories use. And when you have to transport the turbines, then you are going to burn a lot of oil to move it half way around the word, because most turbines are made in Asia. And I have said it before, wind power fluctuates and often produces no energy. Look at 29/06/2009 (June 29) on the EirGrid website. If you have read my previous post, you will already know that wind just puts other power plants. Wind wastes a lot of resources. They always need backup, so somewhere you are going to see a power plant burning fuel but not generating power. So you are just wasting that fuel. The 500+ feet tall wind turbines have a huge amount of steal, which, again, needs a lot of energy, iron, and coal.
The power that wind provides fluctuates. Whenever wind provides power to the grid it simply puts another power plant on standby. When a power plant is on standby, it still burns its fuel but does not provide power to the grid. It takes days for a power plant to restart, that is why they do not shut them down. So why would you invest in wind if it is just going to put power plants on standby? The only reason a company would invest in it is because they would gain carbon credits and make money at other people’s expense. Relying on wind would cause blackouts.
