Introduction
Despite Pennsylvania’s relatively low energy consumption per capita, it ranks as the second-largest net supplier of energy to other states in the US. This is due to the Keystone state’s abundance of fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, and refined petroleum products.1 While all these energy sources are undoubtedly prosperous for the state’s economy, their production and usage have catastrophic impacts on the environment, disrupting local ecosystems, polluting air and water supplies, adding to the emission of greenhouses gases, and thereby contributing to global warming.2 As such, it is crucial for the Pennsylvania legislature to take immediate action to decrease the use of these fossil fuels and to incentivize the use of cleaner energy sources.
In comparison, clean energy sources generated a mere 4% of Pennsylvania’s in-state electricity in 2022, with about 18% of electricity sold to customers in the state being generated by alternative energy sources.10 Of this 4%, wind energy accounted for 2/5th of the state’s renewable energy production, hydropower accounted for 3/10th, biomass resources accounted for almost 1/5th, and solar energy (both utility-scale and small-scale) accounted for 12th percent.11 While these numbers are far from ideal and there is still much room for improvement, the slight shifts towards renewable energy are a hopeful sign that we can continue to implement the infrastructure needed to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels.
Concerns for the Environment
- Production and collection
- Usage
- Global problems
- Problems in PA
What is renewable energy?
- Definition
- Benefits of using renewable energy in PA
- What policies should we implement?
- How we should implement them
- Feasibility of suggested policies
Conclusion
1. I think the organizational pattern follows the problem, existing plan, and counter-plan arrangement. This is a good structure for the topic since you are trying to change the way that energy production is set up in PA.
2. You don’t have any specific topic sentences yet but I’m sure you won’t have trouble coming up with them. The overall theme of each section makes sense and does point back to the thesis. I think starting off with the current systems we use right now and how they are hurting the environment then moving on to renewable energy makes a lot of sense!
3. There isn’t any specific evidence yet for the middle portion of the paper (I didn’t have any either lol) but the ideas you have won’t be too difficult to find evidence for. I don’t have any ideas for what else you could add as you pretty much cover everything but for the feasibility of policies basing it off of other states who do use renewable energy might be helpful!
4. One idea for an infographic is obviously one that shows the different types of renewable energy/energy in general and maybe the percentages in a pie graph for PA or something similar.