GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

Govs Have 'Great Expectations' for Wind

Governors of 29 states say they'll push the White House and Congress to boost wind energy by enacting a renewable electricity standard, a goal long sought by wind energy trade groups and industry.

A bipartisan group called the Governors' Wind Energy Coalition made its recommendations today in a report to Congress and the Obama administration. The group said that energy cost savings could be as much as $250 billion by 2030, if the U.S. adopted a renewable electricity standard nationwide. The report, titled "Great Expectations," comes as Senate sponsors of a climate bill prepare to unveil their legislation, perhaps as soon as this week.

"We share a common concern that our dependence on imported energy sources poses unacceptable and unnecessary risks to the nation’s energy, economic and national security," wrote the coalition's chairman, Chet Culver, D-Iowa, and its vice chairman, Donald Carcieri, R-R.I., in a letter to congressional leaders. The group sent a similar letter to President Obama.

POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT

Wind advocates have also been touting what they see as the potential employment boost a wind-driven energy economy could bring. In today's report, the governors said that an RES with a minimum requirement of 10 percent would support about 500,000 jobs in the U.S., with more than 150,000 directly employed by wind energy companies. Earlier this year a group of wind industry companies released a study by Navigant Consulting that showed a 25 percent RES could employ 274,000 people directly. 

The governors said that although the House began to address increasing wind power's role in the ACES climate legislation it passed last year, they are anxious to see the Senate follow through. But while the House bill called for an RES of 20 percent by 2020, its unclear what the Senate bill will contain.

STATE LEVEL PROBLEMS

There are more potential problems on the state level, where only some have an RES.

"These standards vary considerably from state to state, complicating compliance by the electric-power and renewable-energy industries," the report said. Moreover, building new transmission lines might cost as much as $75 billion to $100 billion. 

Other recommendations include:

• Create new infrastructure for interstate electricity transmission to connect wind turbines to populations.
• Funding technology to develop wind energy in "wind-rich" coastal areas such as the mid-Atlantic.
• Streamlining permitting process for onshore and offshore wind energy projects.
• Extending an economic stimulus grant program for wind projects, and providing a long-term extension of a wind energy production tax credit.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has vowed to streamline the permitting process for offshore wind production in federal waters. But an ongoing dispute over turbine siting off of Nantucket Sound for the $2 billion Cape Wind project in Massachusetts has sapped momentum at a critical time for the White House, especially as it attempts to convince private sector investors of wind's potential in the U.S. 

Read the governors' report here.

Read the coalition's letter to congressional leaders here.

Read the coalition's letter to President Obama here.