Costa Rica just met 100 % of its energy needs with no, repeat, NO fossil fuels used to generate electricity. Not a big country, granted, but 4 million+ people just spent over 2 months contributing almost not at all to global climate change.

The year 2015 has been one of electricity totally friendly to the environment for Costa Rica,” the state-owned power supplier Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said in a press release.  

The ICE says the country’s zero-emission milestone was enabled thanks to heavy rainfalls at four hydroelectric power facilities in the first quarter of 2015. These downpours have meant that, for the months of January, February and so far March, there has been no need to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity. 

Instead, Costa Rica has been powered primarily by hydro power – both pumped storage and run-of-the-river plants – and a mixture of geothermal, wind, biomass and solar energy.   

Note this little phrase: “State owned power supplier”. The reason Costa Rica has done what America will not is encapsulated in that phrase. America has become a nation obsessed with private, profitable enterprises. We think nothing can be done in any other way, so we don’t even try to use government anymore.

America is failing, Costa Rica is succeeding. Maybe we should try what works, like they did.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky