September 30, 2016

Dear Next President,

Today, there are many types of nonrenewable energy that are giving off massive amounts of pollution into the environment. As a result, we are experiencing dramatic weather patterns, like increasing global temperatures and increasing health issues related to pollution. In the future, this issue will grow even bigger if we don’t start making real changes now. One change that I believe will make a great impact is to use renewable energy resources. Renewable energy comes from sources like the sun, wind, geothermal heat, and rain. They also won't run out and will always be restored. This is a worldwide issue and addressing this problem is important to everyone. If we begin to use renewable energy, there will be huge benefits.

My first reason for making a change towards using renewable energy is that renewable energy emits little to no global warming emissions. According to ucsusa.org, natural gas emits 0.6 to 2 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per kilowatt-hour and coal which emits 1.4 to 3.6 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per kilowatt-hour. That’s a lot! Renewable energies such as the wind and solar energies emit from 0.1 to 0.7 carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per kilowatt-hour. It is true that renewable energy can be hard to generate in large amounts, but all you would have to do is put in a few other energy plants and we could produce as much as needed.

Another reason is that renewable energy has huge economic benefits. Conserve-energy-future.com states that renewable energy is cheaper and more “economically sound” than opposing sources. While it is also cheaper, renewable energy also creates hundreds of jobs. Other European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany have switched to renewable energy and have already created thousands of jobs. While it is true that switching to renewable energy can have large capital costs, the creation of jobs, lack of maintenance, and being less expensive than nonrenewable sources makes up for the cost.

Most importantly, renewable energy is renewable and will not run out. The energy that we use now, such as natural gas and coal, will eventually expire. We need a backup plan! Renewable energy will not run out because it uses sunlight, water, heat to create energy and we can’t run out of those sources. Greenliving.lovetoknow.com states that “The natural gas supply will run within the next 35 years” and “Within 70 years the world's current oil reserves will be gone.” That’s not too far away. It is true that renewable energy requires large amounts of land, these renewable energy plants are greatly needed.

In conclusion, we should make a change to renewable energy. It does not emit as much pollution and global warming emissions as nonrenewable sources. It also has big economic benefits such as the creation of jobs. Lastly, we are running out of our current energy sources and we need to start looking for different energy sources and renewable energy is perfect. We don’t have to switch in a day, but over time. Maybe put a solar plant in once in awhile and that will have an enormous impact. I know that you can do something about this Mr. or Mrs. President, and I hope to see changes soon.

Sincerely,

Ashley

Bibliography

“Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy - Conserve Energy Future.”

ConserveEnergyFuture, 20 May 2014, http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-renewable-energy.php.

“Benefits of Renewable Energy Use.” Union of Concerned Scientists,

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/public-benefits-of-renewable.html.

“The Definition of Renewable Energy.” Dictionary.com,

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/renewable-energy?s=t.

Carty, BySue Lynn. "Non Renewable Resources." LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2016.