The US is one selfish place that just thinks of relative gains and not the overall prosperity of the planet. It's a sad realization but that is the truth of Capitalism. Don't get me wrong, US is the place to be, but there are a lot of big private powers that don't want to see the Oil Companies go out of business. They get lobbyists, desperate scientists, and propaganda to fool the working class of this nation into voting for leaders that will keep Oil Companies number one.
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On the other hand, renewable power is heavily under developed. The transport of wind and hydro electricity from central and northern US is inefficient and expensive. In the end, Renewable energy is hard and expensive but the real question is: Would you rather pay more than you want and live on a clean planet or take the easy route, pay a lot less and slowly kill the earth?