Sustainability is always a topic worth discussing and a goal worth striving to achieve, but it might be worth setting it on the back burner until our economy is strong enough to take on the challenge of revamping the energy industry.

People are losing their jobs and homes. Companies are going bankrupt. The main focus right now should be getting the economy back on track.

The RPS increases the amount of renewable electricity used throughout the state. This electricity would come from using wind, solar and thermal means to generate and reuse the electricity created.

The RPS calls for renewable energy to be created in the most efficient way and at the lowest possible cost. It also aims to increase the amount of renewable energy in the state.

Currently, the RPS is at 4 percent, but legislators are looking to increase that to 10 percent.

Although the percentage has been debated among Michigan legislators — Democrats want it to be higher and Republicans want it to be lower — 10 percent is a compromise.

It’s a starting point.

The 10 percent RPS can be used as a base to see if we can reach an even higher percentage later.

If we are successful in getting 10 percent of our electricity from renewable resources, then surpassing that is another goal to aim for, but aiming too high in the first place is a waste of money.

Although it is a good idea to increase the RPS, now isn’t the time to be discussing this issue.

Investing in renewable energy industries has the potential to create more jobs — an obvious plus for any state suffering from high unemployment rates like Michigan’s 8.9 percent — but at the moment, we don’t have the money to even begin investing in these industries. It would be better to put this on a shelf and come back to it in a year once the economy has had time to recover.

By putting the RPS on hold for a year, there could even be better technology that would help us more efficiently produce and later reuse electricity. Technology improves more each day — imagine what advances can be made in a year.

Though the ideal percentage of renewable energy would be 100 percent, starting off small is the best way to begin, as long as it’s at a time when the overall economy isn’t in a recession or near a depression.

Once the economy isn’t facing such a financial downfall, more money can be budgeted to spend on the RPS.

There’s enough stress on Michigan’s budget. It makes no sense to thin the budget even further for something that isn’t of immediate importance.

Although the RPS increase would be beneficial, it would still be best to let the issue drop for a year then revisit the issue once the economy is out of a recession and not close to a depression.