Setting America’s sights on energy independence and a clean energy economy

Imagine this hypothetical scenario: due to an overwhelming, urgent national need, the United States retools its entire manufacturing sector to produce new products and put Americans to work. Now imagine we set a daunting, seemingly unattainable goal to achieve this in less than 10 years.

Seem hard to believe? Too good to be true? Too ambitious? Not really! The United States has proven many times that it can rally behind an ambitious national goal and attain it. For example, it took only 12 months to retool the auto industry to fulfill the hardware needs of World War II. The Marshall Plan for European reconstruction was executed in four short years, and a moon landing took only eight.

The next stop on the U.S. ambition tour: launching the country, economy, and workforce into a new energy frontier. The new products are solar panels and wind turbines and the ambitious goal is energy independence in less than 10 years—powered by a new clean energy economy.

According to Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy, we can do it. At last week’s regional competitiveness and energy efficiency summit at the University of Minnesota hosted by Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN-D), she described the first steps: weatherizing family homes and increasing energy efficiency across the country. Complete the equation by pairing the resulting energy savings with ambitious federal renewable energy goals to meet the country’s growing energy needs.

Zoi encouraged American citizens to get involved. People should contact their elected officials and urge them to pass smart energy policy like a national Renewable Energy Standard and Energy Efficiency Resource Standard. Each American should also talk to 10 friends, family, or coworkers about the importance of clean energy and energy efficiency—this will help rally the nation behind the new energy frontier, similar to how the nation united during World War II or the race to the moon.

Imagine this hypothetical scenario: due to an overwhelming, urgent national need, the United States retools its entire manufacturing sector to produce new products and put Americans to work. Seem hard to believe? Too good to be true? Too ambitious? Not really!