Al Gore challenges America to use 100% renewable energy in 10 years

I applaud Al Gore for his insistent calls to reform America's energy policy. No matter how much people may disagree with his politics, he's been consistently warning America about the need for change and the consequences of inaction for the last twenty years. Even ten years ago, despite pretty much unanimous consensus on Al Gore's claim that the world was getting hotter and that it was inextricably linked to human activity, this assertion was questioned and challenged by both the right and the mainstream media. These days, you have even guys like T. Boone Pickens coming out talking about how we need to reduce global warming and dependence on foreign oil. Mr. Pickens has put forth a very bold plan to reduce reliance on oil greatly through the use of wind power in the Texas Panhandle. Recently, Al Gore issued a challenge to reduce America's dependence on foreign non-renewable resources to nothing within ten years. It's a very, very difficult proposition and if America decides to take up the challenge, probably the most difficult transition we will ever make. But if we did it and even mostly succeeded, America would be so much better off that this generation of leaders would leave a landmark; a legacy for all our succeeding generations that wouldn't be forgotten until the idea of fossil fuels was forgotten. From Al Gore's speech:

To those who say the costs are still too high: I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep relying on quickly depleting energy sources to feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world. When demand for oil and coal increases, their price goes up. When demand for solar cells increases, the price often comes down.

When we send money to foreign countries to buy nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day, they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs. When we spend that money building solar arrays and windmills, we build competitive industries and gain jobs here at home.

Of course there are those who will tell us this can't be done. Some of the voices we hear are the defenders of the status quo - the ones with a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, no matter how high a price the rest of us will have to pay. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, "The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones."

We need to accept this challenge. We need to meet this challenge, not just so that we can quit spending hundreds a month that we don't have on gas that we will never get back, but so that our descendants will never have to face the issues we are now.

Rick Noriega has joined in the call for change by saying that all of Texas should be powered by renewable resource electricity by 2019.

Mr. Noriega said Texas' energy security is incumbent on moving from nonrenewable energy sources – particularly fossil fuels from "unstable" foreign nations – to American-generated renewable sources.

The U.S. must also increase fuel efficiency standards, invest in renewable energy development and improve the electricity distribution system – goals that Mr. Noriega says his opponent, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, hasn't prioritized or has actively fought against.

Help Al Gore. Elect men like Rick Noriega. It's time to end this problem.