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Alternative Energy Stocks
Alternative energy is a subject that has received considerable interest over the past few years. Calls for alternative energy sources will surely increase in the near future with the price of oil hitting new highs on a seemingly daily basis and the instability of many major oil producing countries. In President Bush's 2006 State 4 of the Union Address, he stressed the need to promote energy efficiency, conservation, and the development of cleaner technology. Eventually, this means that the United States must reduce its dependence on oil as a most important energy source. President Bush stressed the need of the nation to prepare its dependence on foreign entities for oil on many occasions during the year 2005. In one specific speech President Bush noted, "...sometimes we rely upon energy sources from countries that don't particularly like us." Furthermore, he mentioned, "...we're running out of energy in America."
The American energy crisis encouraged congress to pass a determined energy bill in July of 2005. After signing the bill into law in August of 2005, President Bush noted, "...we need to produce more energy. We need to diversify our energy supply, and we need to modernize our energy delivery." The new law gives $14.5 billion in tax cuts over the next ten years and offers incentives to different energy suppliers as well as those that supply alternative energy. Alternative energy sources are plentiful in number, but many are infantile in development or currently cost unaffordable. Energy production from solar and wind sources are well known, while other alternative energy sources are just starting to receive attention. Clean coal technology, hydrogen fuel applications, and vegetable based fuels are just a few of the many alternative energy sources being investigated as an answer for our greater than before energy demands. Another substitute energy source receiving considerable attention is the production of waste to energy.
Even though we don't have as much oil as other nations, waste is one resource in which the United States is stocked in great quantity. Current reports estimate that the standard American produces nearly 1,600 pounds of trash per year. When considering that the US population figures nearly 300 million people, 1,600 pounds of trash per person really adds up! In addition to that, understand that this newly generated trash ends up in landfills that have enormous reserves of waste from preceding years of disposal. With such a gigantic resource at our disposal, the application of converting waste to energy has been profoundly researched and is just now beginning to reach culmination as a viable energy alternative. Even though you may not know it, the US at present uses just about 14% of its solid waste for the production of energy. Current US waste to energy production generates an adequate amount of power to supply over 2 million households. So, if we have all of this waste and we have the technology to change it to energy, why isn't waste to energy more of a conventional source of power? The answer is price. As of now, it is more expensive to generate electricity at a waste to energy plant than it does to produce the same quantity of energy from a coal, nuclear, or hydroelectric plant. This might soon change. With President Bush's call for augmented consumption of different energy sources and the tax breaks/incentives appropriated by the 2005 energy bill, the cost of waste to energy production possibly will soon attain a competitive advantage over conventional electricity production methods.