What impact am I making?

The electricity sector accounts for 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than any other economic sector in the U.S.! According to the EPA, carbon dioxide (CO2) released from the combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for a majority of those emissions.

If you participate in Arcadia's Wind Energy program, CO2 isn’t the only greenhouse gas you’ll avert. 

• Energy we use releases
 greenhouse gases 
• Those gases trap heat from 
the sun, and the earth heats up,
 like a greenhouse
• Ice caps melt, oceans rise, extreme weather events get worse and more frequent

Anthropogenic greenhouse gases come from a variety of sources, but the biggest by far comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These fossil fuels produce a ton of heat when burned, and we use that heat to create new forms of useful energy, like electricity. In fact, the generation of electricity is by far the biggest reason we burn fossil fuels. To meet our growing electricity needs in the US alone, each year we burn 37.1 quadrillion Btus worth of fossil fuels. Mechanical energy for transportation is second, at 28.2 quads.

Since the Industrial Revolution, when we started using fossil fuels at much higher rates, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 43%. The amount of methane has doubled.

Overall, electricity accounts for 26.3% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the US. That’s where your home energy use comes in. You may not think about it, but the energy you use every day at home has a big impact on your carbon footprint.

If we want to reduce CO2 emissions, and avoid the most devastating impacts of global warming and climate change, then we need to quickly reduce our fossil fuel consumption. That means finding ways to conserve energy through efficiency, and perhaps more importantly, switching to renewable fuel sources. By connecting your home to clean energy through Arcadia, you’ll be directly decreasing demand for fossil fuels. That means that more coal, oil, and natural gas can stay in the ground where they belong, and more greenhouse gases can stay out of the atmosphere.