Repower America with Wind

This series of ads is designed to make the opportunity real and concrete. Ranchers making money from wind. Electricians wiring old buildings to be energy efficient. Jobs, clean energy, a strong economy. The climate crisis averted. This is the future under a ‘Repower’ed America’. Most people don’t realize that the proven technologies needed already exist today. We have to show them. And we don’t have much time.

For years, the fossil fuel industry has worked overtime to brand renewable energy as a tree-hugger delusion. But exactly the opposite is true. For example, wind power is cheap and a mature technology. Wind turbines produce electricity for less cost than oil or natural gas plants, and are competitive with new coal plants, even today. And building the wind turbines to capture this energy will create good manufacturing and construction jobs here in America. Of course, once you build the turbines you don’t have to pay for any expensive foreign oil or dirty coal. American workers making the tools to harness clean American energy — that’s what the Repower America plan is all about.

This ad also depicts an electric pickup truck, which is particularly head turning. The oil companies have worked for years to make people think that electric cars can never rival internal combustion in power or performance, and that’s just plain wrong. Hybrids are ready today, as you know. And cars build with electric motors are four times as efficient as today’s cars with gasoline engines. That’s why electric cars can run on less than $1.00 per gallon-equivalent, if you get your clean power from wind, for example. And electrics can deliver all the torque and power anyone could want. It’s time for Detroit to begin building this new fleet of 21st century cars.

Al Gore writes Editorial in NY Times

In an editorial published Sunday in the New York Times, Al Gore outlined the Repower America Plan — how to achieve 100% clean electricity within ten years. We’ve included the editorial below. Vice President Gore describes what’s required to transform our nation’s energy economy.

Can you help spread the word? An easy way to help is to simply write a short letter to the editor of your local paper. If you write today, your letter could get into the Sunday edition this coming weekend. Just go to:

http://www.repoweramerica.org/lte

This is a key moment. President-elect Obama has said that focusing on energy and climate will be a first priority in the new administration. Congress and the new President need to see that they have strong support to “go big” in solving these problems, with clean, homegrown energy — even in the face of the powerful fossil fuel lobbies.

To build this kind of national commitment, we need to clearly expose the “common thread” that connects three of our nation’s major challenges — the economy, national security, and the climate crisis. This common thread is our dependence on dirty coal and foreign oil.

As Al Gore writes, “Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.”

Our simple online tool makes it easy to submit a letter to your local paper. And the letters-to-the-editor section is one of the most widely read sections of any newspaper, because people want to hear what other people think.

You can see the editorial on the NY Times website.