Ed Markey: “we just celebrated Independence Day and rightfully so. It was a big break with the past, a big break with the whole…”

“we just celebrated Independence Day and rightfully so. It was a big break with the past, a big break with the whole history of the United States, up until July 4, 1776. Well, we have good news. There is another new dawn of independence which has arrived in the United States, and that independence is growing by the day. By ``independence,'' I am talking about how we generate electricity in the United States. For 100 years, we were dependent upon oil, upon natural gas, upon coal as our principal source of electricity in our country, combined with nuclear generation, plus some hydropower. But now, over the last 10 years, we have seen a true American revolution which has broken out. In 2015, in terms of new electrical generation in the United States, 8,600 new megawatts of wind--again, people ask: What is a megawatt? Well, when we think of a big coal-burning or natural gas-burning or electrical-generating facility, that 8,600 of new wind megawatts would be about 8 or 10 new electrical generating plants using coal in our country. Last year: 7,500 new megawatts of solar in the United States. Seven to ten new coal-burning plants never had to be built because, instead, solar was used as the means of generating electricity in our country.…”