Wind is almost a limitless energy resource for this country. We have more wind potential in this country than we have need for energy right now, so it’s not just a marginal resource that could add a little bit. As an organization we’re focused on, “How do we grow the wind energy answer as rapidly as possible?” And we see there’s certainly a path forward, through which wind could provide as much as 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030.

 

The biggest obstacle in the near term is the lack of consistent, stable policy in the US. We have the wind production tax credit, which is the major federal policy supporting this technology. But it’s been allowed to expire three times in less than 10 years. When it has been extended, it’s been extended for just a year or two at a time. That hurts wind energy.

 

For example, if you’re a European company that manufactures wind turbines, you’re looking at a global demand for wind turbines that is growing exponentially. You’re evaluating where to invest billions of dollars in manufacturing capability. Are you going to do that in a country where there’s so much uncertainty about policy stability? Or will you go somewhere else in the world? It’s just amazing that the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world, which is the Danish company Vestas, has half a dozen manufacturing plants in China and has yet to build their first manufacturing plant in the US. They are working on a plant to build blades in Colorado that I think will be completed this year. But they’ve gone to China first because they view the business climate there as more stable than the climate here in the US given the on-again, off-again nature of the wind production tax credit.

 

We’re missing a huge opportunity for good green-collar jobs in the US. And the remarkable thing is that the last three years in a row the US has been the largest market for wind turbines in the world. But only one of the top 10 manufacturers in the world is a US-based company because we have not nurtured this industry with any kind of stable policy.

 

Members of Congress listen to their constituents, believe it or not. Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way based on the results. But if enough people speak out and say “We want to see this country embrace a renewable energy future. We want to see the renewable energy tax credit extended on a long-term basis,” Congress will respond. A good time to speak up is at town meetings held by members of Congress when they come back to their district, as they do every couple months.

 

There’s a natural marriage between wind power and rural America. You’re not going to build a wind farm in a suburban subdivision. You need the wide open spaces. And so farmers have been leasing their land for significant amounts of revenue—$5,000 per year per turbine, something like that, based on how much energy is produced. So if you get three or four wind turbines on your farm, bringing in $15,000 or $20,000 or more per year, it could spell the difference between having a farm and making it economically or not. That’s part of the reason some Congressional leaders like Iowa’s Chuck Grassley or North Dakota’s Byron Dorgan have been so supportive of wind. They recognize that it will bring additional revenue to their farmers and additional property tax revenues to rural governments. In some rural counties that don’t have much of a tax base, one large wind farm can bring in maybe 20 percent of the property taxes. And there would be operations and maintenance jobs on the wind farm that would allow people to have good jobs at home and not have to leave the area. So it’s a very significant boost for rural America.

 

 

 

Copyright Environ Press 2008