SUN DAY
Campaign
6930
Carroll Avenue, Suite #340; Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-6477 x.23
sun-day-campaign@hotmail.com
News Advisory
RENEWABLE ENERGY TOPS 10 PERCENT
OF
DOMESTIC U.S. ENERGY PRODUCTION
DURING
FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2008
For Immediate Release:
September 26, 2008
Contact: Ken Bossong
Washington DC --
According to the latest "Monthly Energy Review" issued by the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (September 24, 2008), renewable
energy accounted for more than 10 percent of the domestically-produced
energy used in the United States in the first half of 2008.
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.
This share is only slightly less
than the contribution from nuclear power (11.98%). And while
consumption of nuclear power dropped by one percent during the first
half of 2008, compared to the same period for 2007 (4.091 quads, down
from 4.119 quads), renewable energy's share increased by five percent
(3.606 quads, up from 3.439 quads).
Biomass and biofuels combined
presently constitute the largest source of renewable energy in the
United States (1.883 quads) followed by hydropower (1.387 quads). Wind
power, however, experienced the largest growth rate -- increasing by
almost 49% from the first half of 2007 compared to the first half of
2008 (0.244 quads, up from 0.164 quads). Solar’s and geothermal’s
contributions were at roughly the same levels in 2008 as they were in
2007 – although both are poised to greatly expand their market share
in the near future.
“The significant contribution
being made by renewable energy sources to the nation’s energy supply
documented by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is far
greater than most Americans realize,” said Ken Bossong, Executive
Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “Repeated statements by nuclear and
fossil fuel interests that renewables contribute only a tiny fraction
of the nation’s energy supply are not only misleading but flatly
wrong.”
A summary table prepared by the
SUN DAY Campaign based on the data in the EIA report is attached. The
EIA report “Monthly Energy Review” can be accessed at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/mer/contents.html
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The SUN DAY Campaign is a
non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1993 to
promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives
to nuclear power and fossil fuels.
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