Dear Future President,

I am a citizen of New York City, and I am a middle school student. I live in a green building, which means 100% of the energy I receive comes from renewable sources, specifically solar. However, the amazing source I depend on is still underused because of a terrible source, fossil fuels. According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, solar energy, which has little to no impact on the environment, is only 0.6 percent of the energy the U.S. receives. That is a very small fraction of what it should be, since according to safeenergy.com, a survey done in 2015 says that 80% of Americans said that the energy sources that they think should dominate America are wind and solar, and 10% said they are on the side of those two sources. But still, the dominant source in America is still fossil fuels. According to Forbes magazine, Stephen Ansolabehere, a government professor at Harvard University said, “Americans want to move away from coal, oil and nuclear power and toward wind and solar.” If so many people want these sources, how come people haven’t taken action? Also, the price is falling very quickly for these types of energy.

However, we need the president to fund solar panels and wind turbines across the country, since once you build them, you have to spend almost no money to maintain them. Our country has a lot of money, but uses a lot of fossil fuels, which is causing global warming. If we do not stop this soon, there will be major environmental impacts on the earth because of the CO2 in our air. Plus, fossil fuels won’t last forever, and according to Siddharth Singh, as cited on Business Standard’s article, oil will run out in 53 years, natural gas in 54 years, and coal in 110 years, and those 3 are all of the fossil fuels. If there are no fossil fuels, 67% of the USA will not have energy. This proves that fossil fuels are a very bad source of energy. So please listen clearly, and help the environment by using some of the money you have to deploy solar panels and wind turbines for the United States of America.

Sincerely, River S.

Sources -

Singh, Siddharth. "How Long Will Fossil Fuels Last?" Business Standard. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2015. http://www.business-standard.com/article/punditry/how-long-will-fossil-fuels-last-115092201397_1.html

"Americans Want America To Run On Solar and Wind. " Forbes. N.p., n.d. http://forbes.com/

"Yes, America Wants Solar and Wind, Not Nukes." Safe Energy. N.p., n.d. http://safeenergy.com/

"How Much U.S. Electricity Is Generated From Renewable Energy?" EIA. N.p., n.d. https://www.eia.gov/