Extreme Weather: Strategic Opportunity for Renewable Energy

We know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions by displacing fossil fuels, renewable energy can slow the pace of climate change. It is now clear that renewable energy can also make vulnerable communities more resilient, and save lives and money during and after extreme weather events.

Recently, by a slim margin of two votes, the U.S. Congress passed a $50 billion dollar aid package for recovery in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. With an additional $10 billion dollars approved for federal flood insurance, that’s somewhat less than the price tag for Katrina, which was over $100 billion. The Sandy appropriation will be used to rebuild about 400,000 buildings, repair New York and New Jersey’s devastated transit systems, and prepare for the future.

ASES has convened a cross-disciplinary group of state and local officials, utility, business and finance representatives, researchers and renewable energy companies, to strategize about the role of renewable energy in reducing risk from extreme weather events. View the detailed program for this theme here.