![]() In addition to saving money these actions improve our health and the health of our communities. Households now qualify for thousands of dollars in rebates, with the potential to save as much as $1,800/year on power bills. The switch from gasoline to battery electric vehicles (EV), from gas or oil furnaces to electric heat pumps, from gas water heaters, stoves and clothes dryers to electric versions has never been easier. Until recently there have not been many incentives for consumers to switch from fossil fuels, but that has changed as renewables have become cheaper and billions of dollars in subsidies and rebates have become available through the Inflation Reduction Act. We can change this by choosing to electrify as much as we can afford. Most of us burn gasoline to power our cars. We burn polluting fuels (oil, gas or coal) to heat and cool our buildings or to heat water, dry clothes and cook food. If you think about it, our homes resemble mini fossil fuel plants. The challenge is how to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy at the speed and scale required and in a way that protects low- and middle-income households.ĭecarbonizing can begin with decisions we make around the kitchen table. Indeed, solar and wind energy are already cheaper in many places. Further, the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that the technologies and policies needed to mitigate climate change already exist - and the only real obstacles are politics and fossil fuel interests. Clean, renewable energy sources are readily available to replace them. If fossil fuels were our only energy options it would be a different story, but they’re not. The burgeoning economic costs to the public of climate-related heat waves, rising sea levels, chronic droughts, destructive wildfires and other extreme weather events are estimated to reach trillions of dollars. The air pollution alone kills millions of people, currently more than 8 million deaths worldwide every year. For decades, fossil fuel companies - using their enormous financial and political power - have been able to shift the costs of their pollution onto the public. ![]() We dig them from the earth and burn them to generate electricity, warm and cool buildings, as well as power cars, trucks and airplanes. ![]() Our world is powered primarily by fossil fuels (coal, oil and methane gas).
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