Into the Wind - the AWEA Blog

Cross-posted from National Journal's Energy & Environment Expert Blog.

If clean energy is headed for a crisis in America, it will be a crisis of our own making. Wind energy is humming along right now, creating one of the fastest growing manufacturing sectors and accounting for more than a third of all new electric generating capacity across the U.S.

The key to that growth is the stability of the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC). Congress now has a chance to extend that key incentive for wind and avert this crisis before it ever happens.

It’s clear that the PTC, which was intended to stimulate demand for ...

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Robert Bryce, an energy commentator from the Manhattan Institute (which receives funding from oil and gas interests), wrote a recent National Review article comparing the energy output from an oil pipeline with that of the wind power industry.  The following response was posted as a comment.

Mr. Bryce’s article is provocative, but misleading. One need only look at his paragraph on jobs, which compares construction and permanent jobs that would be produced by the pipeline, not with actual jobs produced by the wind industry, but instead with the jobs lost because of the failure of a single ...

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Apple Computer, Inc., co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak gives some short takes on his impression of wind power and the wind industry in a new video segment from AWEA’s WindTV channel.  The computer pioneer was a featured speaker at AWEA’s annual Fall Symposium in Carlsbad, Calif., a few weeks ago, and the video draws from that appearance.  It’s pretty clear that Woz is an enthusiastic supporter of the clean, abundant energy available from the winds.

More reading:

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak 'loves' wind turbines, November 7, 2011

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This article by Aaron Sarver was cross-posted from Footprints on the Path to Clean Energy, the blog of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Southern Company's Plant Vogtle along the Savannah River, where two new reactors are proposed.

A new report by the Energy and ...

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The petro-funded "Institute for Energy Research" is at it again, this time with a half-baked analysis of the U.S. Department of Energy's 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Technical Report ("20% Report”) that was completed in 2008 under the Administration of President George W. Bush.

Here are some facts that IER chose to overlook:

Is the 20% target reachable? Yes. The U.S. wind power industry is well ahead of the year-by-year schedule of new capacity additions that the 20% Report outlined in order to reach that level of contribution by 2030. The Report envisioned 300,000 megawatts (MW) of wind generation in 2030, and by the end of this year, roughly 50,000 MW, or one-sixth of that total, will ...

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AOL Energy, as part of a "feature week on wind," devotes an article to the U.S. Treasury's "Section 1603" program, which provided a system of cash payments in lieu of federal tax credits to wind farm developers during the economic meltdown.

The story of criticism of the program was first broken more than a year ago and picked at during the 2010 elections. We spent quite a bit of time responding to it then (see American Wind Energy Association response to Investigative Reporting Workshop story on wind tax incentive, October 21, 2010).

To be fair, the AOL Energy story includes most of the correct information on why the program was justified, ...

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In this morning's e-mail:

---------------------------------------
From: Centers, Jimmy [IGOV]
To: Centers, Jimmy [IGOV]
Sent: Wed Nov 16 07:00:54 2011
Subject: RELEASE: Gov. Branstad to attend POLITICO's energy forum; releases letter advocating for wind energy

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
Governor Terry E. Branstad « Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds
 
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Contact: Governor’s Office (515) 725-3518
 
Gov. Branstad to attend POLITICO’s energy forum; releases letter advocating for wind energy
 
(DES MOINES) – This morning, Gov. Terry Branstad will participate in POLITICO’s “Energy and the Presidency” at 8 a.m. at the Embassy Club in Des Moines, ...

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AOL Energy yesterday carried an insightful analysis by Felicity Carus of the outlook for America's domestic wind power industry. Its basic conclusion: the industry is extremely healthy now, but to stay that way it needs for its key federal incentive, the Production Tax Credit (PTC), to remain in place beyond its scheduled expiration at the end of 2012.

Ms. Carus's article is well worth reading in full. Some highlights:

The purpose of the incentive is being fulfilled.  The tax credit's purpose is to help the wind industry attract investment and grow, and in the process attract more competition and reduce the cost of ...

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In a letter addressed to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate, Governors Lincoln Chafee (I-R.I.) and Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) today urged Congress to "promptly pass a multi-year extension of the wind tax credit." Chafee is chair of the Governors' Wind Energy Coalition, a group that includes 23 governors--Republican, Democratic, and Independent--from around the nation, while Branstad is vice-chair.

The letter refers to the wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC), which is currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2012. According to Chafee and Branstad, "Although the tax credit for wind ...

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Some amazing footage was taken November 7 of a wind farm in southwestern Oklahoma withstanding a direct hit by a tornado. Hats off to the engineers who design these majestic, sturdy electricity producers and the workers who assemble, install and operate them. This is a remarkable testimony to their professionalism and skill.

Related articles:

Hurricane Irene and its impact on wind farms, September 8, 2011

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