The power of American independence

Celebrating Fourth of July, declaring our energy independence…

Fire­works and flags. Cook­outs and cold drinks. We hope your Fourth of July is a fes­tive day spent cel­e­brat­ing our nation’s inde­pen­dence with fam­i­ly and friends. As the fire­works fade into mem­o­ry, it is worth reflect­ing on how the unique­ly Amer­i­can spir­it of inde­pen­dence remains part of our col­lec­tive DNA 239 years after our nation was formed.

Our sense of inde­pen­dence has served us well. For exam­ple, more than 70 years ago, an inde­pen­dent streak inspired groups of farm­ers across Amer­i­ca’s coun­try­side to band togeth­er and improve the qual­i­ty of life. With Pres­i­dent Franklin Roo­sevelt’s promise of fed­er­al aid in the form of loans and engi­neer­ing exper­tise, rur­al Amer­i­cans brought elec­tric­i­ty to their own com­mu­ni­ties and home. They pulled togeth­er and worked cooperatively—a shin­ing exam­ple of Amer­i­can deter­mi­na­tion and inge­nu­ity.

For the past 40-plus years, near­ly every pres­i­dent since Richard Nixon, dur­ing the 1973 Arab oil embar­go, has talked about the goal of U.S. ener­gy independence—reducing our reliance on import­ed oil and oth­er forms of for­eign ener­gy. Today, while we still have a ways to go, we are clos­er to that goal than ever before. We export more gas and import less for­eign fuel than in recent mem­o­ry. Amer­i­can inge­nu­ity in the form of new tech­nol­o­gy and inno­va­tion is open­ing up more options and spurring greater effi­cien­cy across all forms of ener­gy.

Collective benefits

Co-op mem­bers can play a part in mov­ing us toward nation­al ener­gy inde­pen­dence by tak­ing action in sim­ple, prac­ti­cal ways—insulating and caulk­ing around win­dows, doors and elec­tri­cal out­lets; wash­ing clothes in cold water instead of hot; replac­ing air fil­ters; installing a pro­gram­ma­ble ther­mo­stat; and using more ener­gy-effi­cient appli­ances and home heat­ing and cool­ing sys­tems. Effi­cien­cy efforts can cut costs for indi­vid­ual households—and the col­lec­tive ben­e­fit to our coun­try is even greater.

If we all work togeth­er to achieve increased ener­gy effi­cien­cy and reduce our over­all ener­gy con­sump­tion, we can make even more progress on our road toward ener­gy inde­pen­dence. At YEC, we want to be a resource for you in this effort.

 

Red, white, blue—and green

In addi­tion, YEC, like oth­er co-ops across the coun­try, has active­ly pro­mot­ed renew­able ener­gy resources like wind, solar, hydropow­er and bio­mass. Today, near­ly 95 per­cent of the nation’s 900-plus elec­tric co-ops pro­vide elec­tric­i­ty pro­duced by renew­able sources, all play­ing a key role in pow­er­ing rur­al Amer­i­ca while fos­ter­ing our nation’s ener­gy inde­pen­dence. To sup­port the effort, sign-up for our Green Pow­er pro­gram and learn more about renew­ables at www.yorkelectric.net/renewable-energy.

By redou­bling our ener­gy-effi­cien­cy efforts—and mix­ing some green in with the good old red, white and blue—you’ll be show­ing your inde­pen­dent streak. Now, that’s the Amer­i­can spir­it!

 

Relat­ed Top­ics:
Green Pow­er
Renew­able Ener­gy
MySC­So­lar