WINDPOWER 2009 – BRING THE WIND, BRING THE R.E.S.

The opening session of WindPower 2009 kicked off with a big pitch from American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Denise Bode for the national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) now working its way through both houses of Congress.

President Obama campaigned on the promise of an RES that would require U.S. utilities to obtain 10% of their power from New Energy sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025. Several versions of an RES are being studied by Senate and House subcommittees. The most well-defined of them is the Waxman-Markey bill proposal that begins with a 6% requirement in 2012 and 2013 and ramps up a percent or 2 every other year to the President’s preferred goal of 25% in 2025.

After talking about all the benefits a national RES would bring to the country, to New Energy and to the wind industry, Bode got the big crowd cheering and chanting “R-E-S – Yes! R-E-S – Yes!” before introducing U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

click to enlarge

Secretary Salazar began by describing what the Obama administration has already done for New Energy and what it wants to do.

“You are all engaged in a great project of remaking America. It is a project upon which our nation’s competitiveness, our security and our prosperity depends, a project that will help us build a strong and a stable foundation for our economy for growth again,” Salazar told the wind industry audience, “…a project in which you have a partner in the President of the United States, Barack Obama. And for the first time in the 160-year history of the Department of the Interior, you have a partner in the United States Department of Interior who respects renewable energy…”

click to enlarge

Is the RES at the top of Salazar’s list? Well, Secretary Salazar is busy laying the foundation for New Energy development of all kinds on the hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands. But he’s still an RES booster.

“We cannot accept that the New Energy frontier is too far or the road too rough,” his talk concluded, “for the urgency is a problem and the speed at which our world is changing gives us no choice but to transform a moment of crisis…You and I and this President and the Congress and the American people will succeed in this project of remaking America together. We will succeed because our spirit fills our determination and gives us hope that we can fulfill America’s great promise. We will succeed because President Obama and I will do all we can to support innovation that will repower our nation. Together we will recover. Together we will rebuild. And together our economy will lead the world once again…The weeks and months ahead are absolutely key to the success for this New Energy frontier. We need your help every step of the way to get this done, Thank you very much, YES R-E-S.”

click to enlarge

Bode then introduced Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Wellinghoff is a big New Energy advocate, widely known for having had the frankness and courage to observe that there are better options than building new coal plants, beginning with Energy Efficiency and New Energy.

Wellinghoff has a short list of 3 objectives. Is the RES the first? Well, Chairman Wellinghoff has responsibility for the entire electricity delivery system of the nation.

click to enlarge

Near the beginning of his short talk, he listed the 3 things he wants to focus on. “Number 1 is efficiency. We have to improve the efficient delivery of electricity throughout the markets in this country. We have to improve the operational efficiency of that delivery. Number 2, we have to improve the operational efficiency on the demand side in those markets...lower the cost for consumers…and make consumers better off. And third…we have to integrate renewables into the system…” That’s the RES. It’s 1 of the top 3 things on the To-Do list of (perhaps) the most overburdened energy administrator this side of the President.

Later in the morning, Bode led a panel discussion of Governors from 4 different Midwestern states (Culver – Iowa, Granholm – Michigan, Strickland – Ohio and Doyle – Wisconsin). They all reinforced what Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois had said in his welcoming remarks. They want wind and they want it in a big way.

AWEA CEO Bode, in red, interviews Governors (clockwise from left) Strickland, Granholm, Doyle and Culver. (Image from AWEA, click to enlarge)

Why? Because wind brings with it new jobs and new revenues, just what the Midwestern states in the Farm Belt and the Rust Belt are hungriest for right now. (And, it should be noted, when Governors bring jobs and revenues they get votes, just what Governors are always hungriest for.)

Each Governor in his or her own way said the same thing: They want wind. Governor Culver talked about how important it is for small states like Iowa to have a partner in Washington. Governor Doyle said “drill, baby, drill” means nothing in Wisconsin, where there are no petroleum resources, whereas “turn, baby, turn” (referring to wind turbines) means everything right now. Governor Granholm, who just pushed through a state RES despite ferocious political resistance, said she tells Michiganders that every time they hear the words “climate change” and “global warming” they should think “jobs” and articulated excitingly the many ways Michigan’s fading car industry is fertile ground for a new wind manufacturing industry. Governor Strickland, who also just pushed through an RES, stressed that the federal law should respect state standards and talked about how capable and ready Ohio is to develop a wind manufacturing sector.

AWEA CEO Bode, in red, interviews Governors Culver (left) and Doyle. (Image from AWEA, click to enlarge)

All agreed on 2 things: (1) Pitch as hard as possible in every public appearance, including the one at which they were speaking, to convey what a good home wind manufacturers and wind developers will find in their states; and (2) get a national R.E.S.

To build a groundswell of nationwide support for the RES, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) is operating a Take Action website that makes it easy to reach Senators and Congress people and to know what to say in a phone call, email or letter. Here's the short version of what to say: R-E-S -- YES!