On March 11, 2011, an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean started a tsunami, which hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant. The coolant systems failed and three of the reactors experienced nuclear meltdown. The contamination from the plant seeped into the water supply and into the ground, making many farmed foods inedible and most of the water undrinkable. In China, factories that burn enormous amounts of coal are emitting poisonous gases like sulfur dioxide (SO?) and nitrogen dioxide (NO?) which in turn help create acid rain. Acid rain itself isn’t harmful to humans, but the US Environmental Protection Agency says that the gases that create it can cause lung problems if inhaled. These issues are a bit extreme, but are still problems that are the byproduct of environmentally harmful, nonrenewable energy sources. This is why as a nation we should spend more money on renewable resources and developing more clean, sustainable, and economic ways of producing energy as opposed to relying mainly on fossil fuels.

First we must recognize the difference between renewables and non renewables. The definition of renewable energy according to the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association is, “any energy resource that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and derived directly from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical, and photoelectric), indirectly from the sun (such as wind, hydropower, and photosynthetic energy stored in biomass), or from other natural movements and mechanisms of the environment (such as geothermal and tidal energy)." These energy sources replenish quickly and are environmentally safe, so it makes sense to rely on them. Non renewables like coal, oil, and natural gas are not naturally occurring, and take a long time to create a small amount. To harness their energy, we must burn them to spin a turbine, which creates a current. When these fuels are burned, they release harmful gases into the air and atmosphere. This pollution is another key point in why renewables need to replace non-renewables.

Another difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy resources is their environmental footprints. The most harm to an ecosystem that building a wind turbine would cause is digging a hole in the ground, putting the turbine in, laying wires to connect it to the grid, and the actual building of the turbine. But according to the California Energy Commision in 2012, the steps to turning oil into electricity include the drilling for oil, transporting it, refining it, and actually burning the oil. All of these steps involve damaging the environment. When drilling for oil, poisonous gases are released and wild habitats are demolished. Refineries and power plants release pollutants into the air and water. Even now, cleaning up and containing these pollutants costs lots of money and time and is killing wildlife. We do have relatively low pollution levels, but those are subject to change if we keep using fossil fuels extensively. These expenses of fossil fuels are just going to keep increasing and the United States is already in enough debt.

A massive debate surrounding renewable energy is its cost compared to fossil fuels. An article from the New York Times on November 23, 2014, said, “the cost of utility-scale solar energy is as low as 5.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind is as low as 1.4 cents. In comparison, natural gas comes at 6.1 cents a kilowatt-hour on the low end and coal at 6.6 cents.” We have managed to reduce the cost of renewable energy enormously over the last few years, but it is still expensive to set up. This is why we are looking for ways to make green energy cheaper. One of the main reasons we rely so heavily on fossil fuel is because it is less expensive to buy. Nevertheless, we spend lots of money in this category. “U.S. fossil fuel subsidies [are] at $37.5 billion annually, including $21 billion in production and exploration subsidies” according to Oil Change International in July of 2014. It is evident that we love our gas. Although we have tons of power, almost all of the electricity that is produced is put on the grid and in turn, we end up wasting some. This costs more money, so a solution for this problem needs to be found.

One of the biggest problems facing renewable energy’s future is finding a way to store excess electrical energy. Right now, most electrical energy is either bought on the grid by homes and businesses, put into the city as a whole, or into the ground. If we could store excess electrical energy from renewables, then we wouldn’t squander the electricity we have and there would still be energy to use on days when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. The Department of Energy and many new companies are trying to develop ways of storing electrical energy efficiently at a relatively low cost. There have been a few ideas created, but none are ideal. According to Scientific American from 2015, Phinergy and Alcoa have created aluminum-air batteries, which are cheap to make, but require the users to switch out the aluminum plates that need to be mechanically recharged. Another project was the flow battery. It basically takes liquid electrolytes and passes them through a cell. The downside is the high cost of electrolytes and ion exchange membranes. We are making progress towards the energy storage solution, but we still have a ways to go before we find the perfect answer.

The United States’ legislature is creating laws requiring energy companies to increase the percentage of energy created from renewables, but the percentage required is around 15%. This is a huge step from almost zero, but we are still moving extremely slow. And although there is no quick, easy, or cheap way to make this switch, it is a necessary switch. It requires a sacrifice but will provide huge benefits later. We need to take decisive action now and start focusing a little harder on finding ways to depend less on fossil fuels for energy. If we put off this problem or take too much time in switching to sustainable energy sources, we are going to have a much larger problem in the future. Although the likelihood of an event like Fukushima happening here is low, we need to stop debating about it and start making a plan for our future.