Clean Energy: Overview
About three-fourths of the electricity generated annually in the United States uses some type of fossil fuel -- coal, oil or natural gas -- to provide energy, producing about one-third of the United States’ total greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
Currently, only about three percent of electricity comes from non-hydropower renewable energy sources like wind and solar. In order to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change and ocean acidification, the United States must dramatically increase the amount of electricity produced from clean energy while reducing fossil fuel use.
Fortunately, the United States possesses a considerable amount of renewable energy that can be used to reduce or eliminate our use of fossil fuels. One significant source of renewable energy potential lies off our coasts: electricity generated from offshore wind powered turbines.
In 2004, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that the winds off American coasts hold the capacity to produce more energy than the combined production of all currently existing power plants in the country.
Oceana works to create incentives that stimulate renewable power generation, especially from ocean-based sources such as offshore wind.
