·
Incentives from the government and private
organizations help motivate companies and inventors to come up with sustainable
solutions to today’s environmental problems. Nonprofit organizations like the X
Prize Foundation, stimulate and encourage research and innovation through “high
profile, incentivized prized competitions.”
·
Governments could remove subsidies to oil
companies that keep oil prices artificially low. This could encourage private
companies to further develop methods of renewable energy.
·
The government could also increase tax credits
to individuals and companies to research and develop renewable energy
resources. In our nation, Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credits offer
citizens tax credits for using more efficient sources of energy, and the
Production Tax Credit grants companies that generate energy from renewable
resources a discount, that help them produce at lower costs.
·
Penn State also supports the Green Energy
Challenge, where students have to audit a building and make recommendations as
to how that building could be more energy efficient. Can this actually affect
significant change or are such efforts trivial?
·
Penn State University takes part in the Dow
Sustainability Innovation Challenge, an international competition focusing on
sustainability, that rewards students and Universities for their innovation and
research in some of today’s most pressing environmental and society issues. Are
programs such as this at our nation’s universities effective? Should more
awards like this be offered to graduate students?
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