The American Scientific article estimates that there are 250, 000 square miles of land in the Southwest that is suitable for the use of solar generation.

How do the residents of Arizona feel about this land use potential? Arizona governor Janet Napolitano has been quoted as saying, "There is no reason that Arizona should not be the Persian Gulf of solar energy." Arizona passed state laws to support solar energy starting in 2003. Pilot programs were approved to accelerate the market development for distributed PV installations in schools, public buildings, and individual residential and small business establishments. The support for these programs has continued to strengthen. It is viewed as a major job producing effort, a project to maintain reasonable electrical costs and the major benefit of non polluting energy.

The second major announcement is the desire of Abu Dhabi to spend $15 billion makes the oil-rich emirate an epicenter of green technology. Called the Masdar Initiative, it's best known for plans to build Masdar City, a "zero-carbon, zero-waste" urban center. Actually, the far range objective of the Masdar Initiative is to establish the Silicon Valley of renewable solar energy in Abu Dhabi. The intent is to cover the whole value chain - from research to labs to manufacturing to the deployment of technologies. To that end, Masdar is collaborating with European and U.S. universities, including MIT and Columbia, to develop a research institute. We in the US should find condolence that the $500,000,000,000.00 dollars that we are sending to the Middle East are being spent widely. A country that is sitting on an oil rich desert is building solar power plant to free themselves of the escalating cost of fossil fuels and be "zero-carbon, zero-waste" urban center. If the United States continues to stay addicted to the oil of the Middle East we will be paying with inflating costs as the oil fields deplete.

So Yes to the question "Can the USA Be Fossil Fuels Independent by 2050?". But, we will require strong leadership with the visions being demonstrated by Arizona and Abu Dhabi The leadership will have to politically lead our congress to continue the tax incentives to adopt renewable energies credits. Fossil fuels independence will require solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear technologies which other countries are demonstrating.

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