Antinuclear

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form…………

MARK JACOBSON: Well, our plans are to change the energy infrastructure in each and every state in the United States, and in fact, ultimately, every country of the world, to infrastructures run entirely on wind, water, and solar power for all purposes. So that is electricity, transportation, heating and cooling and industry……

MARK JACOBSON: Well in our plans, we do it state-by-state. And we first develop a plan, and we say, this is like how many wind turbines we need, how many solar panels do we need, how much rooftop areas do we have, how much land area do we require, what would be the cost, how much storage do we need? How many jobs would be created as result? And it would, in the United States, create a net of about 2 million jobs to do such a transformation. And then we have — once we have developed a plan, then we educate the public about the plans, educate policymakers, and try and hope that people will then take these plans and run with them and actually start implementing these changes.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go through some different states with you. But first, California lawmakers have just approved a dozen ambitious environmental and energy bills creating new standards for energy efficiency. Dubbed the California Climate Leadership Package, the 12 bills set high benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum use. State Senate leader Kevin de León explained one of the cornerstones of the program, SB 350, which calls for a “50-50-50” reduction in major areas of climate concern.

SEN. KEVIN DE LEÓN: Now is the time to keep the momentum going. Cleantech companies in California are creating more jobs and are investing more money than competitors in any other state. We need to pursue policies that build on this economic growth by strengthening incentives for energy efficiency and clean technology. The Golden State standards: 50 percent less petroleum use, 50 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources, and 50 percent better energy efficiency in our buildings……..

MARK JACOBSON: Well, in California, actually, a lot has been happening. Governor Brown in January actually announced that the state will go 50 percent renewable, mostly wind, water, and solar power, by 2030. We had proposed 80 percent by 2030 conversion and 100 percent by 2050. So Governor Brown, his proposal for 50 percent by 2030 is sixty percent of what we think is needed. But the Senate of California just within the last two days actually advanced that proposal and approved a 50 percent by 2030 conversion for most sectors of the energy economy.

But we need really aggressive measures. I mean we can’t just have small changes. There are changes going on. Right now, Iowa, South Dakota, they have 30 percent of almost of all of their electric power from wind. But we need to change not only electricity, but transportation, heating and cooling industry and electricity is only on the order of 20 percent of total energy anywhere. But states are making progress. New York has made progress by implementing some policies that would get us toward — closer to a renewable economy. And there are some states like Washington state that already have like 73 percent of their electricity is already from clean energy, mostly because they have hydroelectric there. But we need much more aggressive measures because the Arctic sea ice is expected to disappear within anywhere from 10 to 30 years and that would cause positive feedbacks that would accelerate climate change. So we can’t wait 20 years for some new energy technologies to come around. We need to use existing technologies today, implement them, and get the ball rolling in terms of the transition…..http://www.democracynow.org/2015/6/5/a_fossil_fuel_free_world_is