Clean power vs. fossil fuels

The latest White House initiative to improve the electrical efficiency of the country's electrical transmission network came as a welcome relief to millions of American households. At least, the White House's move will boost additional energy to millions of American homes that are heavily dependent on the present electricity supplies that are powered by imported fossil fuel mostly coming from the Middle East. This time, it would be a different story because the federal government has committed to develop a "smart grid technology" that is intended to transmit electricity into the millions of consumers' homes using a reliable and much cleaner energy.

Bloomberg cited in its report that the money for the project will be sourced out from the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved by Congress last February. White House officials said the grants, ranging from $400,000 to $200 million, are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs once the projects are fully put on streams, using renewable and clean energy resources like wind and solar that are capable of generating power to serve millions of homes and industries.

In short, America will now be able to loosen up a bit from its over dependence on imported fuel, which costs billions of dollars in taxpayers' money, to power homes, cars and industries. But it has its drawbacks, too. In fact, the country's addiction to imported oil has also posed a threat to humanity through the uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gases that pollutes the earth's atmosphere.

Everybody adheres to the fact that America has more than enough renewable energy resources that have not been fully tapped yet. In the states of California and Florida alone, where the sun always shines almost throughout the year, the development of solar energy as a primary source of power is now gaining ground. An example of these solar power projects are those found in Lancaster, California and in Arcadia, Florida, which is 60 miles southeast of Tampa.What for is Chicago dubbed as the "Windy City" if nothing is done to harness its wind energy to produce a much cheaper and cleaner power sources for the millions of Illinois residents. The biggest wind turbines now operating off the coast of Denmark could also be emulated off the coasts of the states of Illinois and Michigan.

Bloomberg reported that at least 49 states are expected to benefit from the 100 government grants, which will also be matched by $4.7 billion in private investments. When fully put in operations, these renewable energy projects are expected to generate jobs that cannot be sourced out anymore as compared to other industries which had relocated to a much cheaper grounds like China, where labor is the lowest in the world.

However, it is not yet known how these projects would impact on the current electrical grids that are using imported fossil fuel to run industries, cars and light up millions of homes. When these much cheaper renewable energy sources are fully introduced into the markets, it is likely that these would compete with the economic performance of the already existing electricity grids that bring power to millions of American homes nationwide.