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"We're here to release a report called 'Redirecting America's Energy,' " Casey said.
Casey's group, PennEnvironment, is a statewide environmental advocacy group with offices in Philadelphia that has been instrumental in bringing lawsuits against polluters across the state, as well as engaging in research, lobbying and public outreach on environmental issues.
Casey said the group was making an effort to reach out to the communities of Bucks County to gain support for their work at all levels of government.
The group's report was released in conjunction with the worldwide enactment of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement signed by nearly 140 countries aimed at lowering the worldwide production of greenhouse gasses and other forms of pollution. The United States is absent from that agreement.
Casey said part of her group's goal is to encourage lawmakers at the state level to enact their own pollution reduction policies, and to organize people at the local level to press for that aim.
"Redirecting America's Energy" encompasses research the group has undertaken highlighting what it sees as the benefits of a gradual switch-over to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
Along with the environmental benefits, the report suggests economic justifications for investing in renewable energy technologies, from job-creation to energy cost savings.
Specifically it calls for the enactment of a 20-percent renewable energy standard by the year 2020 and a shifting of government subsidies from the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries to renewable energy industries.
Casey suggested that county residents in tune with the advocacy group's concerns should contact their state and local representatives to urge consideration of renewables.
To offer options of working toward renewable energy and energy efficiency on an even more local level, Casey, for her demonstration in Doylestown, brought along Ron Celentano to espouse the use of personal solar-energy systems for homes and businesses.
Celentano, a solar energy system designer and program administrator for the Sustainable Development Fund, brought with him an example of a solar panel and spoke about the benefits of personal solar energy systems.
The Sustainable Energy Fund, created by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, also works to promote renewable energy sources and currently has a grant program that can be used to offset the often high price of a personal solar energy generating system.
Celentano, who said he's been an advocate for solar power for 25 years, said that there are currently over 60 systems set up throughout Pennsylvania, but only four in Bucks - two established through the grant program and two without.
