Tuesday, June 2, 2009

That's alot of money we can save

Here are some interesting statistics from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

If Congress passed legislation consistent with the Union of Concerned Scientists recommendations, we can save the following amount of money:

$900- The net amount of money the average US household would save in 2030 on their energy bills.

$255 billion- The amount of money business and consumers could save in 2030 on electricity, natural gas, home heating oil, and transportation costs.

$1.7 trillion- The net amount of money the US would save from 2010 to 2030.

Go to www.ucsusa.org for more information.

Clearly, taking such action to achieve these cost savings will have an initial impact on our own budgets and livelihoods. As a result, because of the current recession, this is not the best time to ask Americans to support such legislation. However, like many other difficult issues, we cannot continue to hold off taking action until some indefinite period of time in the future. In the end, that future may never arrive.

If we are reevaluating the health care system and the financial markets during this economic crisis, why not reevaluate how we impact our environment. One could argue that without a sustainable environment, there would be not health care system or financial markets. Also, many of us have spent extra money initially to receive significant savings in the future. Therefore, this is concept of spending now to receive future savings is not a novel approach. Previous generations have made sacrifices for the future generations. It is our time to do the same. Winston Churchill once said, "Americans will always do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the alternatives." Let's prove Winston Churchill wrong by taking action now.

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