August, 22 2019, 12:00am EDT
![Environment America](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012644/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Rob Sargent, Clean Energy Program Director, rsargent@environmentamerica.org; 617-747-4317Â
Josh Chetwynd, Communications Manager, jchetwynd@publicinterestnetwork.org, phone 310-779-1049
New Study: U.S. Clean Energy Use Has Accelerated During the Past Decade
Report shows marked progress in solar, wind, electric vehicles, energy storage and efficiency
WASHINGTON
Since 2009, the United States has increased its solar power generation 40-fold and upped its electric production from wind by more than 270 percent, according to a new report released today by Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group. The study also highlights advances in energy savings, the increased use of energy storage and the tremendous growth of electric vehicle sales.
"Switching to clean, renewable energy can put our nation on a healthier, more sustainable course," said Rob Sargent, clean energy program director for Environment America. "Tremendous improvements in energy efficiency over the past 10 years combined with virtually unlimited reserves of pollution-free wind and solar energy and a willing public mean that a future powered entirely by clean, renewable energy is increasingly within our reach."
The report, Renewables on the Rise: A Decade of Progress Toward a Clean Energy Future, provides a state-by-state assessment of the growth of key technologies needed to power the nation. The categories covered in the study are: wind, solar, energy efficiency, energy storage and electric vehicles. In addition to the growth of solar and wind, key findings include an 18-fold increase in utility scale battery storage and more than 360,000 all-electric vehicles sold in 2018, up from virtually none in 2009. Electric energy efficiency programs also saw significant improvement, saving more than twice as much energy in 2017 as in 2009 -- enough to power 2.5 million homes in 2017.
"In 2001, wind and solar provided enough electricity to power 700,000 homes. By 2018, that number had grown to more than 35 million homes. That's 50 times more clean, renewable power, in less than two decades," said Susan Rakov, chair of Environment America Research and Policy Center's Clean Energy program. "No other technologies have risen to the challenge of climate change with such speed and success."
Key factors that have led to rapid growth in each category since 2009 include innovative policies, improved technologies and lower costs, according to the report.
"Thanks to thoughtful local and state policies, with an assist from federal tax incentives, we've built a solid foundation," said Sargent. "But, with our health and the future of the planet at stake, we can't afford to rest on our laurels."
The report comes as a diverse group of U.S. cities, states, corporations and institutions are committing to 100 percent renewable energy. There are now six states that have made commitments to 100 percent clean electricity. At the local level, 131 American cities, led by a mix of Republican and Democratic mayors, have committed to that goal. In addition, more than 190 major companies, including Bank of America, Google and Anheuser-Busch have committed to power their operations with 100 percent renewable energy.
"The reality is inescapable: Fossil fuels pollute our air, water and land, threatening our health and changing our climate even faster than scientists predicted," continued Sargent. "We need to seize the moment, build on recent progress and lean into a future powered by clean renewable energy."
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
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Progressives Condemn GOP Attempts to Blame Biden for Trump Rally Shooting
"This stuff is basically cooked up in a lab to incite further violence," said one critic of comments made by Sen. J.D. Vance, Rep. Mike Collins, and other allies of Trump.
Jul 14, 2024
As federal law enforcement officials launched a full investigation into the shooting at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, journalists and political observers expressed fear that the act of violence would ramp up political division and turmoil in the United States ahead of the November elections.
Boston Globe reporter James Pindell was among the journalists at the rally who shared that Trump supporters "turned on the media"—a frequent target of Trump during his presidency—after the shooting.
"The crowd was angry," he wrote. "Middle fingers were everywhere. They asked the press if they were happy and blamed the media. 'You did this,' they said to reporters."
Allies of Trump including Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), and former White House adviser Stephen Miller immediately placed blame with President Joe Biden, claiming the attack was the result of warnings that electing the former president to a second term would threaten democracy.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) denounced Collins' claim that Biden "sent the orders," calling it "a continuation of the bullshit rhetoric that drives political violence."
"A likely assassination attempt and gun violence on Trump is awful on many levels," said Pocan. "Adding jet fuel to the political climate is unbecoming of a member of Congress."
Trump, who spread baseless lies that the 2020 election was rigged against him and urged his supporters to riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 as Congress was certifying the results, has said he would act as a dictator on "day one" of his potential presidency.
Dozens of people who worked in his administration helped to write Project 2025, a far-right political agenda aimed at consolidating power with the president and dismantling parts of the federal government, and he has named political opponents he aims to prosecute and pledged to deploy the military to stop political protests.
"One response to Trump's attempted shooting (apparently by a registered Republican) we must NOT take is to stop framing the existential nature of this election," said political organizer Aaron Regunberg. "The problem isn't Democrats saying Trump is attacking our democracy—the problem is that he's attacking our democracy."
One audience member was killed and two were seriously injured after the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired several shots from a rooftop near Butler Farm Show, where the rally was held.
Trump was escorted off the stage after a bullet "pierced the upper part of his right ear," The New York Timesreported. The Secret Service reported that Crooks had been killed after firing his weapon, and that officials found an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle near his body.
Authorities did not identify a motive for the shooting.
Crooks was registered as a Republican in his hometown; records also showed that someone named Thomas Crooks donated $15 to a liberal voter turnout campaign called the Progressive Turnout Project in January 2021.
"This remains an active and ongoing investigation," said the FBI in a statement Sunday, as law enforcement agents closed down all roads leading to the home of the suspect's family in Bethel Park in the Pittsburgh area.
David Hogg, who survived the 2018 Parkland, Florida school shooting and co-founded March for Our Lives, said the gunman's ability to fire at the president and kill an audience member while in the presence of Secret Service agents and police is the latest proof that people across the U.S. are vulnerable to gun violence due to a lack of strict gun control laws, which Republican lawmakers have long refused to pass.
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Trump Bloodied But 'Fine' After Assassination Attempt
"Political violence is absolutely unacceptable," said Sen. Bernie Sanders after the shooting in which one campaign attendee was killed and the alleged gunman was shot and killed by law enforcement.
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This remains a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Update (9:45 pm):
President Joe Biden spoke on Saturday evening about the shooting at former President Donald Trump's campaign rally, saying the attack, like all political violence, was "sick" and "one of the reasons we have to unite this country."
"We cannot condone this," said Biden. "The bottom line is, the Trump rally was a rally that should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem... Everybody must condemn it."
When asked if he believed the shooting was an assassination attempt, Biden said, "I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts."
Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim said on social media on Saturday night that law enforcement agents had recovered "an AR-style rifle" at the scene. Later police identified the gunman killed at the scene as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Cooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a town about 35 miles from where the events in Butler took place.
Earlier:
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was reportedly in "fine" condition after being wounded in an apparent assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The former president appeared to be bleeding from near his ear as he was hurried off stage after a series of pops that sounded like gunshots were heard at the event. The Secret Service then brought him to his motorcade.
A spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, said in a statement that the former president was being examined at a local medical facility.
Richard Goldinger, district attorney for Butler County, Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press that the suspected gunman was dead and that at least one rallygoer had been killed.
The apparent shooting happened just minutes into the campaign event, where Trump had been talking about border crossings and immigration just before the shots rang out.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident at about 7:15 pm.
Police cordoned off a section of the bleachers at the rally after the apparent shooting, and the New York Times reported that the Secret Service began "kicking out the press and declaring it a crime scene."
Shortly after the incident, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle issued statements condemning the apparent act of violence against a presidential candidate.
"Violence has NO place in our democracy," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a surrogate of the Biden campaign. "My thoughts are with President Trump and everyone impacted at the rally today."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the attack "absolutely unacceptable."
"I am absolutely appalled by the gunshots fired at Donald Trump," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). "Violence is never acceptable in our democracy. I pray he was not seriously hurt and for our deeply divided nation."
Federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were mobilizing Saturday evening to assist the Secret Service in responding to the incident.
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Group Behind Project 2025 Already Claiming Election Interference by Biden
The Heritage Foundation is "stoking irresponsible inflammatory fear of election fraud," said one journalist.
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One election law expert warned this week that the right-wing Heritage Foundation is already baselessly claiming that President Joe Biden is likely to respond to the voting results as his predecessor, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, did in 2020: by refusing to accept the will of American voters.
"This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence," Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, toldHuffPost Friday.
The Heritage Foundation, the think tank that has spearheaded the drafting of Project 2025—a policy agenda threatening mass deportation and immigrant detention, the dismantling of federal agencies, and the consolidation of power with the president should Trump win a second term—said in a report released Thursday that Biden may try to continue his presidency "by force" even if he loses in November.
The claim has no basis in statements made by Biden, who has said he will accept the election results.
In May, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that Biden "will accept the will of the American people." Trump has not made the same commitment.
Nevertheless, the Heritage Foundation report went on to say that "the lawlessness of the Biden administration—at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings—makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president."
Mike Howell, executive director of the group's Oversight Project, said at a press conference that "as things stand right now, there is a 0% chance of a free and fair election in the United States of America... I'm formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election."
"This is gaslighting and it is dangerous in fanning flames that could lead to potential violence."
Such comments show, saidNew York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, that "these people are the insurrectionists. Or election terrorists."
Howell's comments echoed Trump's baseless warnings ahead of the 2020 election that voting would be "rigged" by widespread use of mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump relentlessly attacked voting by mail despite admitting that he had used mail-in ballots to vote in numerous elections.
The Heritage Foundation has conducted "role-playing exercises" that it says show "left-wing efforts to interfere with the election" are possible in 2024, HuffPost reported.
The report said voters should "reflexively disbelieve and challenge the intelligence community's allegations regarding Trump, foreign interference, and Republican efforts to legally win the White House."
Hasen told HuffPost that the group appeared to be trying to create doubt among the electorate about institutions that "give voters truthful information they need to evaluate evidence before them."
Journalist Jane Mayer said the group was "stoking irresponsible inflammatory fear of election fraud."
Political scientist Don Moynihan of Georgetown University added that the Heritage Foundation's baseless accusations against Biden likely preview how the Trump campaign could respond to the election results if he loses, four years after the former president urged his supporters to violently attempt to stop the certification of Biden's victory.
"The end game is to allow men in suits finish what the January 6th rioters started," he said.
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