Salazar Calls for Bold Steps Toward Energy Independence [View All]

[jpak]

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1866

RYSTAL CITY, Va. — “It’s time to take the moon shot” on energy independence, declared U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at the 25x’25 Summit here April 2.

Playing a big role in a potential new energy future are renewable sources — wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric and biomass. The vision of the 25x’25 Coalition is to provide 25 percent of America’s energy from agriculture and forests by the year 2025.
A champion of rural America even as a congressman from Colorado, Salazar sponsored the 25x’25 resolution that was passed by the Senate last year and is including renewables in a change in direction for the Department of the Interior.

“President Obama has made it clear that building a new comprehensive energy plan for our nation is a signature issue of his administration,” said Salazar. He promised that this administration would finally get around to tackling the energy issues facing the country.

Even though the U.S. is going through the worst economic crisis since FDR, some of the bright spots have been in the new energy sector. Salazar said the United States has added more wind power in the last two years than in the last 20, which means new wind turbine manufacturing facilities and new jobs. In Maytag, Iowa, where the Maytag plant went out of business, people are now employed in a wind turbine factory. Across the country, 85,000 new jobs have been created in this sector.

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