Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-02-Speech-1-150"
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"en.20090202.16.1-150"2
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"Madam President, we will never achieve either energy security or the 80% reduction in our carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 if we continue to effectively ignore both the issue of energy security and the critical importance of pan-European high-voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnection. That includes an HVDC line to North Africa: smart electrical networks over Europe and North Africa.
Having had the opportunity last week to experience first hand the exciting solar thermal operations in Grenada and Seville, and having read over the weekend Harvard professor Michael McElroy’s views on freeing the United States from its USD 750 billion annual bill for importing oil, winning the energy security battle in the US and at the same time saving the planet, I ask myself: what are we still debating? We know the answers.
The smart grid will allow solar, wind and hydro-generated electricity to level the security graph. If the wind is not blowing off the Irish west coast, the sun will be shining in Spain, or the wind will be blowing off the west coast of North Africa as well as the sun shining there.
In short, what the sun is to Spain, wind is to the west coast of Ireland. Our national regulators will breathe easy as their only job as of now if to keep the lights on and our homes and offices heated at peak demand.
We can no longer allow our citizens to be hostage to either energy politics or volatile oil prices. Wind energy is competitive with coal, oil and gas, and the fuel is free. Yes, our challenge is to build a new energy economy – an energy economy built on renewable electricity.
I conclude: the glib expression ‘to cost the earth’ which we – English-language speakers anyway – use figuratively with gay abandon now needs to be taken literally. If we do not rapidly change from our almost total dependence on fossil fuels, it will, as our peer review climate scientists repeatedly and with increasing urgency point out, do just that: cost the earth through global warming."@en1
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