Saturday, March 27, 2010
A bipartisan group of 29 governors is calling for a national renewable energy standard which would mean greater use of wind-generated power. The Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition released a report that calls for streamlining the process of developing onshore and offshore wind farms and upgrading the interstate electric transmission system to access new sources of wind power.
The coalition wants the federal government to require utilities to draw a minimum of 10% of their electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal and biopower by 2012. Democratic Governor Chet Culver of Iowa, chairman of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, wants the country to go even farther and establish a 25% renewable energy standard by 2025. The governors’ report points out that 42% of new power plants installed in 2008 are powered by wind and it claims that the wind industry would emply an annual average of 150,000 people.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Governors' Wind Energy Coalition Urges National Renewable Energy Standard (Environment News Service)
Great Expectations: U.S. Wind Energy Development (Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition) (pdf)
U.S. Sends Most Clean Energy Stimulus Funds to Other Countries (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Ranchers and Environmentalists Unite (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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