SB19

SB19 Environment and Energy, Conserving Energy - Justin, Sachin, Sophia


 * Title:** SB19
 * Sponsors:** Sachin Gupta, Justin Pavlick, Sophia Arnold
 * Bill:** Dam Up the Rivers Act


 * Purpose:** To set up hydroelectric generators throughout the United States eliminating the use of fossil fuels and utilize the use of renewable resources.

-Any land within twenty miles of a river in the United States -Any land that can stand a generator capacity of 10,000 megawatts
 * Eligibility:**

If we set up hydroelectric dams in rivers across the United States we will help our country and world in many ways. If we do not start now, life will be harder in the future because of global warming and air pollution. With the amount of smoke and gasses released by power plants of all kinds our air pollution will have risen greatly. Also, if we wait until we use most of our coal, fossil fuels and nuclear power, not only will our enviroment be worse, but it will be harder to build all the dams with our limited amount of resources for power. Research on the topic of renewable energy usage shows that if we use our renewable reources instead of fossil fuels and other resources we can help save our planet from the impact of many diseases. The pollution created by fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources can cause reduced lung functioning, cancer, bronchitis, irritation of the eyes, mouth, nose and throat and even premature death. Also by using hydroelectric power where we can, we will decrease the usage of fossil fuels. These can be saved and be available for longer in areas where hydroelectric power is not available. They can also be saved for usage in oil and gasoline for transportation for longer amounts of time. Along with the already given reasons, the installment of hydroelectric generators can increase the current amount of available jobs. People will be needed for teaching, for designing, for building, and for keeping the dams running and in good shape. This will create many jobs for people who are qualified or can become qualified who are unemployed now or may become unemployed.
 * Terms and Benefits**

-The cost of building the dams, depending on the size, can be about $30,000,000 per dam. - With there being about 250,000 rivers in the United States (not all of them may be available to be built on or willing to be built on but some larger rivers will support more than one dam) the estimated price to build a dam on each of them would be about 7.5 trillion dollars. The yearly upkeep, which could cost as much as 15,000 a year per dam, would cost about 3.75 billion dollars. -This does not include wages of the workers who would keep the hydroelectric plants working, their salaries could range from minimum wage ($7.25) to $8.55. - If there were, on average, twenty people working in each plant the yearly wages would add up to be 39.5 million dollars. So, the fiscal impact would be about 7.5 trillion dollars originally, with a yearly upkeep of $3,789,500,000. - For now this much money will go into our debt. but do not worry my friends, once this plan is into action, the residents whom are affected by the electric genorator will instead of having a electric bill, they will pay for this by paying 1.8 cents per kilowatt which will pay for the nessicitys to fulfill this.
 * Firscal Impact**