In a previous article on the Green New Deal, we spoke with engineering entrepreneur Saul Griffith about what steps the U.S. would need to take to do its fair share in preventing total climate collapse. Griffith’s immediate first response was to “electrify everything.”
To gain an understanding of what it would mean to “electrify everything” in the U.S., we spoke to John Mitchell, a conservation engineer who draws up proposals for The Climate Mobilization, who actually details such plans. While Mitchell has laid out numerous municipal plans for achieving large-scale electrification, he is in the process of detailing how the United States can do so on rapid scale that would fulfill the goals of the Green New Deal.
Making the National Power Grid Renewable
Currently, the national power grid is predominantly (64 percent) running on the burning of fossil fuels (35 percent gas, 27 percent coal). This glorified version of steam power has caused the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide to reach levels last seen3 million years ago. There is an overwhelming consensus that global society, wealthy countries in particular, needs to decarbonize. How we accomplish this is still being debated since the effects of the climate crisis are being felt.
One of the most popular strategies proposed by politicians, businesses and environmentalists alike is to shift society’s sources of energy from fossil fuels to so-called renewable energy, such as wind and…