The U.S. can greatly boost clean wind power for 2 cents a day.

[JohnWxy]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/17/wind_power/


May 17, 2008 | A stunning new report just issued by the Bush administration finds that for under 2 cents a day per household, Americans could get 300 gigawatts of wind by 2030. That would:

Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25 percent in 2030.
Reduce natural gas use by 11 percent.
Reduce cumulative water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.
Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S.
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While President Clinton began increasing funding for wind, the Gingrich Congress blocked that effort beginning in 1995. President Bush and John McCain are two more conservatives who make positive statements about wind power while failing to support the policies that will help achieve this technology's potential. That includes failing to provide consistent support of the tax credit, which allows wind to compete with better-subsidized power sources like nuclear, and to partly offset the much bigger subsidies other countries have for renewables.

Both Bush and McCain have also consistently opposed a renewable electricity standard that would have set a minimum requirement for utilities to generate part of their power from sources like wind. Most European countries have such standards and Denmark, Germany and Spain have had stable, aggressive policies for years, a key reason their countries have become turbine manufacturing leaders.

While wind power has expanded steadily around the world, it has grown in fits and starts here, with U.S. capacity additions repeatedly plummeting whenever the production tax credit was not extended by Congress and the president. Half the states have renewable electricity standards requirements, which, together with the credit, is the key reason that wind generation has continued to expand and that the domestic industry has not died out entirely in this country.


Since 1996
Oil and Gas industry has contributed 75% to 80% to the Republican party.
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