Green Options

Last month, the Michigan Legislature passed a bill mandating that 10% of the state’s electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2015, and interim targets take effect three years earlier.

However, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during the first half of 2008, renewable sources made up more than 10% of all domestic energy production.

For the period January 1 - June 30, 2008, the United States consumed 50.673 quadrillion Btus (quads) of energy - of which 34.162 quads was from domestic sources and 16.511 quads was imported.

Domestically-produced renewable energy (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 3.606 quads — an amount equal to 10.56% of U.S. energy consumption that is domestically-produced.

[image via Gaetan Lee]

There was a fantastic article by Peter Asmus in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle about a new movement towards alternative energy. It talks about people who are tired of rising oil and natural gas prices and of their effect on our environment. Rather than waiting for utility companies to come around, these folks are opting to generate their own energy using sources like solar power, small wind turbines and electric cars that give back to the grid.

You’ve heard of the locavore. Well, it’s time to meet the “locavolts!”