madam president we will never achieve either energy security or the eighty reduction in our carbon dioxide emissions by twenty fifty if we continue to effectively ignore both the issue of energy security and the critical importance of pan-european high-voltage direct current hvdc interconnection
that includes an hvdc line to north africa smart electrical networks over europe and north africa
having had the opportunity last week to experience first hand the exciting solar thermal operations in grenada and seville and having read over the weekend harvard professor michael mcelroy's views on freeing the united states from its usd seven hundred and fifty billion annual bill for importing oil winning the energy security battle in the us and at the same time saving the planet i ask myself what are we still debating
we know the answers
the smart grid will allow solar wind and hydro-generated electricity to level the security graph
if the wind is not blowing off the irish west coast the sun will be shining in spain or the wind will be blowing off the west coast of north africa as well as the sun shining there
in short what the sun is to spain wind is to the west coast of ireland
our national regulators will breathe easy as their only job as of now if to keep the lights on and our homes and offices heated at peak demand
we can no longer allow our citizens to be hostage to either energy politics or volatile oil prices
wind energy is competitive with coal oil and gas and the fuel is free
yes our challenge is to build a new energy economy an energy economy built on renewable electricity
i conclude the glib expression to cost the earth which we english-language speakers anyway use figuratively with gay abandon now needs to be taken literally
if we do not rapidly change from our almost total dependence on fossil fuels it will as our peer review climate scientists repeatedly and with increasing urgency point out do just that cost the earth through global warming
