WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The time for wind power may be coming sooner than once thought.
While legislators and the media alike have focused much attention on corn-derived ethanol as an alternative energy source to petroleum, wind is steadily making headway as a viable option to electricity to generate power.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill that would require utilities to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources, including wind and solar. In Minnesota, the state Senate took the proposal still further, passing a bill last Thursday that would require Minnesota's utilities operators to generate at least 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.
Furthermore, the national quest for finding an alternative to fossil fuels and become less dependent on natural resources from overseas might actually be one of the few issues that can unite not only Democrats and Republicans, but also businesses, environmentalists and consumers alike. Indeed, Minnesota lawmakers voted 61-4 in support of the latest legislation, and hopes are high that similar moves at a national level will be equally welcomed.
"This has a huge constituency ... it's a political marriage made in heaven," said Michael Noble, executive director of Fresh Energy, a St. Paul, Minn.-based environmental group.
Scientists too backed the latest governmental proposal to bolster the nation's use of renewable energy.
The latest House bill "gives the American people what they asked for in the election--a smart, cost-effective strategy to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and get America on a track toward energy independence. And because power plants are a primary source of heat-trapping emissions, this bill can be an important part of solving global warming," said Alan Nogee, the clean energy program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The environmental group that represents some of the top U.S. scientists in the field also pointed out that moving toward using more renewable energy sources would make good business sense, as it estimated that about 355,000 jobs would be created should the bill be signed into law. That would be twice as many jobs as would be generated from coal-derived electricity.
Certainly, some states, most notably California and oil-rich Texas, have been far ahead of the federal government in pushing for more use of renewable energy. So the momentum for those pushing for alternatives is now on their side.
"The states have already shown us that renewable standards can be successful," Nogee said. "The federal government should step in with its own standard so the entire country can enjoy the benefits of renewable energy. The nation's security and the health of our planet are too important to leave to the states."
That message has been resonating worldwide. Last week alone, JPower, one of Japan's biggest utilities, completed building the country's largest wind farm that will produce 65,980 kilowatts of energy per year, or enough electricity to power about 35,000 homes annually. Meanwhile, British energy company Eclipse Energy got the green light from the government to complete its hybrid wind and gas generation facility off the Cumbrian coast. The project is expected to generate about 200 megawatts of electricity, and save up to 286,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
But in order to make it financially lucrative not only for utilities but also for businesses that produce the hardware either generating or actually using renewable energy sources, the federal government must have a consistent policy towards it, including a tax code system that remains constant, argued Fresh Energy's Noble.
Production tax credits to encourage manufacturers of renewable resource generators such as wind turbines, for instance, "can't be turned on and off ... that's just mismanagement by Congress" that will ultimately hamper the development of alternative energy, Noble said.
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