Senator warns of “energy sprawl”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new "energy sprawl" will consume an area larger than Nebraska within 20 years without wise choices, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander predicted.

"The unintended consequences from using renewable energy to mitigate climate change could damage the environment in the name of saving the environment," he said.

Alexander spoke in Washington to a forum of 200 conservationists hosted by Resources for the Future.

The Maryville native, a member of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee and Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, asked conservationists to rethink nuclear power.

He said nuclear power can produce "the largest amounts of low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electricity while being least intrusive to the environment."

Alexander cited a Nature Conservancy scientific paper published in August entitled, "Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts on Natural Habitat for the United States of America," which the senator said "should serve as a Paul Revere ride for the coming renewable energy sprawl."

He said that the report's suggestions for mitigating the damaging side effects of sprawl include increasing energy conservation, putting solar panels on existing rooftops, making carbon regulation flexible enough to allow all forms of carbon-free energy production, and appropriately siting new energy installations.

The senator said a major insight of the report is that some forms of carbon-free electricity production consume much less land than others.

For example, he said that the nation could produce 20 percent of America's electricity from carbon-free sources either by putting 100 nuclear reactors on 100 square miles, or 186,000 wind turbines on 25,000 square miles.

Alexander added that the wind turbines would also need up to 19,000 miles of new transmission lines to carry electricity from remote to populated areas.

Related News

Cryptocurrency firm in Plattsburgh fights $1 million electric charge

PITTSBURGH - A few years ago, there was a lot of buzz about the North Country becoming the next Silicon Valley of cryptocurrency. One of the companies to flock here was Coinmint. The cryptomining company set up shop in Plattsburgh in 2017 and declared its intentions to be a good citizen.

Today, Coinmint is fighting a legal battle to avoid paying the city’s electric utility more than $1 million owed for a security deposit. In addition to that dispute, a local property manager says the firm was evicted from one of its Plattsburgh locations.

Companies like Coinmint chose to come to the…

READ MORE
scotter ban

Parisians vote to ban rental e-scooters from French capital by huge margin

READ MORE

heatwave

Sask. sets new record for power demand

READ MORE

coal strip mining

Disruptions in the U.S. coal, nuclear power industries strain the economy and invite brownouts

READ MORE

africa renewable energy

Africa's Electricity Unlikely To Go Green This Decade

READ MORE