The Importance of Sun Day and Our Loss of Energy Leadership

Starting in the 1970s, Earth Day events were held all around the country, raising awareness about smog, pollution, and the need to protect the environment. That movement resulted in major policy breakthroughs supported by both political parties.

Now, Sept. 21 has been declared "Sun Day". Why specifically celebrate the Sun? An internet meme captures our star's crucial role in our energy future:

"If God wanted us to have unlimited free energy He'd have put a giant fusion reactor in the sky."

Not only is unlimited energy streaming toward us from the sun — we have decreased the cost of harvesting that energy via solar panels by an astonishing 97% since 1980. Solar energy has become the cheapest source of power on earth.

Breakthroughs in our ability to store solar energy mean that, more and more, the sun can meet our energy needs even at night. And that technology is improving by leaps and bounds.

Another reason to celebrate Sun Day is our star s role in providing us with a second major source of cheap, clean energy: wind. By differentially heating the earth s surface, it produces ubiquitous "wind belts" where enormous amounts of electricity can be captured by turbines. The cost of wind projects has dropped by 50% in 20 years. In the U.S., turbines can often outcompete the cost of gas-fired plants.

But here's the problem: The Trump administration has drastically gutted research investment in renewables, killed the rollout of major clean energy projects, and eliminated tax benefits for clean energy uptake. Their claim is that we will achieve "energy independence" and financial rewards by drilling for fossil fuels. Setting aside the fact that fossil fuels are named by virtually every top-level climate scientist as the major cause of the accelerating disruption of our climate — and the widespread suffering and financial losses that have already begun and will continue to get worse — this turning away from the advantages of the sun makes absolutely no sense, financially or otherwise.

These policies will not only lead to higher monthly utility bills in the end; they forfeit our opportunity to establish America as a world leader in renewable energy technologies. In the absence of leadership by the U.S., China will continue to solidify its position as the pre-eminent global supplier of renewable technology, depriving the US of billions of dollars in profits. It is incomprehensible that we would put all our focus on trying to squeeze some more dollars out of dirty and outmoded 19th-century energy technology, while China cements its role as the greatest energy innovator and captures the world market.

This "divorce" from the benefits of the sun will hurt all Americans. In exchange for reaping some short-term profits from fossil fuel expansion, which will mostly benefit a handful of Big Oil investors, we will harvest huge financial losses in the form of climate-related disasters, serious impacts on our health from fossil fuel pollution, and the complete loss of any kind of global leadership in the future of energy.

This is the ultimate devil's bargain, if there ever was one. On Sun Day, Sept. 21, let's speak out in favor of America seizing the spectacular gifts the sun represents. Let's tell our representatives that we need to commit our nation to finding ever better ways to honor the sun s life-sustaining, economical, and inexhaustible gifts — for the sake of all our futures.