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newsroom Wind Energy in the NewsAWEA Welcomes Pickens Energy Plan Confirming that ramping up wind power quickly on a large scale is feasible if the government enacts the correct policies, AWEA welcomed the campaign launched by legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens to strengthen U.S. economic and energy security by boosting wind power production. Pickens this week launched into a public policy campaign for an energy plan that consists of tapping the U.S.’s own energy resources including wind in order to lessen dependence on foreign oil. The “Pickens Plan,” as it has been dubbed, would do that by substantially increasing the use of wind energy for electricity generation and using the natural gas saved from the electricity sector as a transportation fuel. Under the model, a significant portion of the U.S. vehicle fleet would convert to natural gas. The strategy would allow the U.S. to cut imported oil by one-third, saving more than $230 billion a year, according to Pickens. The plan also calls for increased natural gas drilling domestically. The U.S. Department of Energy’s recently released report on how 20% of the U.S.’s electricity can come from wind found that 20% wind penetration would result in a 50% reduction in natural gas use for electricity generation. Pickens’s plan, in fact, also calls for wind to supply 20% of the nation’s electricity, getting most of it under his plan from the “wind corridor” stretching from Texas to Canada. The plan also touches on transmission, calling for lines funded by the private sector to be built connecting wind-rich areas with population centers in the Midwestern, Southern, and Western regions of the U.S. “Wind power has become a key option for our country,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. “Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy, in a major technical report, confirmed that wind can generate 20% of U.S. electricity supply by 2030 while providing benefits that far outweigh the cost. And today, one of the nation’s leading energy businessmen is stating that wind power is not only serious business, but perhaps the single most important strategic investment the nation can make today to strengthen our economy and energy security.” But, underscored Swisher, “In order to make this happen, the U.S. government will need to play its part and enact short- and long-term policies to transform many of our current practices. Of critical and immediate importance is an extension of the federal production tax credit, so that the industry can move ahead with planned investments and keep people at work. Of equal importance will be longer-term policies to plan for more transmission to bring large amounts of wind power from windy areas to population centers.” Upon making the announcement, Pickens launched a self-funded, aggressive multi-media advertising and Internet education campaign designed to focus attention on what he called the “single biggest crisis facing America today”— U.S. dependence on imported oil, much of which he said comes from “volatile” parts of the world. Pickens spent a large chunk of the week making the rounds of the country’s major media outlets, conducting interviews to push his plan. “The plan I am unveiling today is doable in 5-10 years if we can get Congress and the administration to act quickly,” said Pickens. “It is based on domestic resources and it’s clean. This plan provides a bridge to the future where renewable energy can become an even greater portion of our energy framework.” The announcement comes just prior to the final stretch of the campaign season and six months before a new president and Congress arrive in Washington, D.C. “I am calling on the next president and Congress to take immediate action in the first 100 days of the new administration to do whatever is necessary to make this plan a reality,” said Pickens. “We are asking the American public to get behind this plan and to help us reduce our dangerous dependency on foreign oil. This has to be the No. 1 priority in the country starting today, and that’s what this campaign is all about. I am also calling for a monthly report on the reduction in foreign oil imports and a monthly report on progress in the development of natural gas vehicles in this country.” For more information, see www.PickensPlan.com .
Source: Wind Energy Weekly, 11 July 2008
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