Speaking before an enthusiastic crowd at a sold-out DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., former Vice President Al Gore issued a challenge to "repower America." Gore's challenge is undoubtedly ambitious: he wants the entire U.S. electricity sector to shift to zero-carbon sources like wind, solar, and geothermal in the next 10 years.

While many energy experts reacted to his challenge with skepticism, Gore believes that he has set an "achievable, affordable and transformative" goal. He noted that whereas the price of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas rise as demand increases, the price of wind, solar and geothermal will decrease as renewable energy demand expands. Currently, fossil fuels provide more than 90 percent of electricity in the United States (see Figure 1).

As for as the short time horizon he has established, Gore remarked that "ten years is about the maximum time that we as a nation can hold a steady aim and hit our target." He then referenced the Apollo space program, which put a man on the moon only eight years after President Kennedy set his own ten-year goal.

Many observers also noticed a slight if apparent shift in Gore's thinking. While he had until recently focused on climate change as the single defining "planetary emergency" of our time, his new talking points underscore that most solutions to the climate crisis overlap with solutions to our energy security, fossil-fuel dependence, and economic recession. He now highlights the "common thread" between these our economic, environmental, and national security problems, saying, "We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet."

Gore emphasized that one of the prerequisites for his vision of a clean energy future is a massive overhaul and expansion of the United States' electricity transmission infrastructure. The majority of the country's renewable resources are located far from most large cities. Winds blow strongly through the flatlands of the Midwest, and the sun shines brightly in the deserts of the Southwest, but both areas are home to few electricity demand centers.

Another recent "energy challenge" also emphasizes the important of renewing America's transmission infrastructure, but comes from an unlikely source. T. Boone Pickens, a well-known Texas oilman and prospector, made a fortune in fossil fuels but is now a leading advocate for wind power. Wary of transferring $700 billion annually to oil-exporting nations, Pickens is primarily motivated by security concerns. He has repeatedly said that he is not an environmentalist, but is out to make money, and sees a bright future for zero-emission electricity generation. His new plan calls for producing all of the country's electricity from wind power, and shifting natural gas reserves for use in automobiles. Mesa Power, his energy company, has already begun development of a multibillion-dollar, 4 MW wind farm in Texas.

Neither challenge will be easy to meet. The political and economic barriers to widespread adoption of carbon-free electricity generation are great. Solar and wind, which experiencing rapid growth in the past few years, are nonetheless growing from minuscule base when compared with fossil fuels.

Yet some see a shifting paradigm. Ever-higher oil prices are pushing up natural gas prices, and even cheap and dirty coal has seen some price rises. Legislation imposing a price on carbon went to the floor of the U.S. Senate for the first time this year, and may become law when a new administration enters office in January. These factors, when coupled with an economy in recession, may provoke the needed investment in clean sources of electricity – and, perhaps more importantly, may bring political will in line for a "repowered" American future.

Top photo from Flickr user openDemocracy

RELATED LINKS:

We Can Solve It – Gore's bipartisan campaign

Energy Information Administration

EARTHTRENDS DATA:

Searchable Database: Energy and Resources

Searchable Database: Climate and Atmosphere