Clouds. Climate change is because of clouds!
Clouds. That's the culprit. Not coal.
Congressman McKinley is upset because blaming coal alone is too "simplistic."
He says India and China are doing little to help decrease climate change, but you know what? He's wrong.
China is actually becoming a world leader in solar power. According to
oilprice.com, "the Asian nation is cutting its dependence on coal, oil and natural gas and replacing it with solar at a breakneck pace." In fact, coal will be prohibited in Beijing beginning in 2020 (although areas outside of Beijing will still be permitted to use it). Any new buildings are eligible to receive subsidies when they include solar in their plan, and banks are encouraged to offer lower loan rates to would-be solar installers. The "feed-in tariff", or the rate that solar producers are paid to recycle their excess energy, are generous. China has solar quotas for each of its provinces to meet.
If our leaders could only see beyond the pile of coal in their backyards that this could be a real opportunity for our state to shine. Why not create an energy lab at WVU where students could learn to build energy efficient buildings, discover new sources of energy? Why not create a legislative environment that would encourage community solar projects like the one in Shepherdstown instead of trying to kill everything that threatens the fossil fuel industry? The legislature started out this year trying to kill net metering, the ability to sell back surplus energy to the grid. It did succeed in taking away the standard for balancing where our state obtains its energy with HB 2001: this standard required large utilities to source 25 percent of electricity from renewable and alternative fuel resources by 2025, with compliance requirements beginning in 2015. Now we have HB 2021, which defines net metering, but also includes language that would allow power companies to CHARGE customers fees who have solar power!
West Virginia, I don't understand you at all. This is your chance! Quit being such a cormudgeon.
*then, get it out of your ass. Thank you.