NWF Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Report

Thanks so much to the National Wildlife Federation for a great look at using clean energy here in the US.  We will break this up into two reports here on the blog given the story's length.

Energy policy will drive much of our future economic and environmental choices.  Now is the time to evaluate an energy policy based on today's realities, not assumptions we've used for many decades.  As pointed out here, technology allows us to make decisions and investments not available to us till now.  We can put people to work in the new, green economy.  We can build a very different source of power and distribution system.  And we can marry this innovation with much higher efficiency  standards to dramatically reduce our demands for electricity.

All of which leads to less imported oil, less burning of fossil fuels in general, impetus for employment and savings we can use to pay down debt.

We did a great show last week with a rep from Rocky Mountain Institute and talked about their energy ideas outlined in the book, Reinventing Fire.  You can listen here:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/renewable-now/2012/09/12/reinventing-fire

Will Federal and State Leaders Take Advantage of America’s Golden Opportunity?

"America can create hundreds of thousands of jobs while powering our homes and businesses with local, clean energy, but only if our elected officials and regulators take the right steps now, according to a new report released today by the National Wildlife Federation, Environment America, and 45 partner organizations along the Atlantic Coast. The Turning Point for Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy: Time for Action to Create Jobs, Reduce Pollution, Protect Wildlife & Secure America’s Energy Future details the economic and environmental benefits of offshore wind energy, the progress made to-date, potential obstacles to that progress, and a prosperous path forward.

“America’s Atlantic coast has some of the best offshore wind energy resources in the world, the technology to harvest it is ready right now, and we have workers ready to do the job,” said Catherine Bowes, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for new energy solutions and lead author of the report. “We need to take advantage of this golden opportunity to make our electricity supply cleaner, more wildlife-friendly, and more secure.”

“Like many states along the Atlantic, Massachusetts has no fossil fuel resources, forcing us to import almost all of our energy needs,” Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan said.  “Developing offshore wind, an indigenous and emissions free energy source just off the Massachusetts coast, would not only offer a tremendous economic opportunity by creating thousands of new jobs for our citizens, offshore wind will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vastly improve the quality of the air we breathe.”

The Turning Point for Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy includes detailed reports on each Atlantic Coast state. Among the highlights of the report:"

See Part 2 tomorrow: