America runs on oil
UMICH 20, University Of Michigan Center For Sustainable Systems, The University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems at the School for Environment and Sustainability creates systems analysis methods, models, and metrics for advancing sustainable futures, U.S Energy System Fact Sheet, No Specific Date, 2020, https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/energy/us-energy-system-factsheet [AMoss]
While energy is essential to modern society, most primary sources are unsustainable. The current fuel mix is associated with a multitude of environmental impacts, including global climate change, acid rain, freshwater consumption, hazardous air pollution, and radioactive waste. Renewable energy has the potential to meet demand with a much smaller environmental footprint and can help to alleviate other pressing problems, such as energy security, by contributing to a distributed and diversified energy infrastructure. About 79% of the nation’s energy comes from fossil fuels, 8.4% from nuclear, and 12.5% from renewable sources. In 2019, renewables surpassed coal in the amount of energy provided to the U.S. and continued this trend in 2021. Wind and solar are the fastest growing renewable sources, but contribute just 5% of total energy used in the U.S.