Governors, Admin Officials on Wind: "We're in a 'Lose it-or-Use It' Situation"

As stars of the energy and environmental world descend on Copenhagen this week, a far smaller—but incredibly influential—group of power players is meeting in DC to lay out plans for harnessing the explosive growth potential of wind energy.

Convening at the inaugural summit of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, Governors Chet Culver (IA), Donald Carcieri (RI), senior Obama Administration officials, members of Congress and top wind industry execs laid out a bold and urgent vision for harnessing the United States’ renewable energy prospects before the opportunity vanishes.

“I want ‘Made in the USA’ to be part of our energy story,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Edward Markey (D-MA), echoing concerns of many other meeting participants that the United States has a critical opportunity to emerge as a clean tech leader, but only if national and state leaders act quickly in enacting a renewable electricity standard and other policies to encourage renewable energy deployment, jumpstart innovative research, and, most importantly, drive private capital investment.

We know full well that to many state lawmakers and business leaders, opportunities for economic growth are hard to come by.  Repeated over and over again throughout the day was the concern that the U.S. economy has a large but brief window to get in on the ground floor of the clean energy revolution that will drive global industrial development in the 21^st Century.  And instead of focusing on the oft-cited territorial rivalries that dominate wind industry gossip, the message from this group was clear: offshore, onshore, blue states, red states—there’s room for wind development everywhere, but only if efforts are coordinated and supported at the federal level. Said Governor Carcieri, “In the absence of clear goals in renewable energy, the U.S. is in danger of falling behind the rest of the world.”

Laying out a particularly strong vision for wind energy development was the Honorable Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Dept. of Energy.  Citing a four-pronged approach to rapidly scale up production (support high-impact innovation, recruiting high-level talent to the sector, and continuing to win over the hearts and minds of lawmakers and the public) Zoi drew a lively response from the crowd when she said: “Let’s make it impossible for lawmakers to say ‘no’ to the RES, emissions reductions and a clean energy economy.”

The coalition, comprised of governors from 30 states, is expected to release official recommendations for federal action early in the next year. Just like renewable businesses around the country, Congress and the Administration will be listening.