Wind Capacity Grew 39% Via Recovery Act Investments

According to new numbers from the American Wind Energy Association, America’s capacity to generate electricity from wind grew by 39 percent in 2009 due in large part to investments from the Recovery Act. The wind industry pointed to the billions of dollars in the Recovery Act for clean energy as a driver for the gains in capacity in 2009. The Center supports this increase and hopes the market can continue this trend because wind provides around one percent of America's current electricity production. Wind power also has to be backed up for times when the wind is not blowing, but is an extremely valuable supplemental source of energy because it does not generate any smog forming or greenhouse gases.

The Waxman-Markey clean energy jobs bill that passed the House of Representatives in June would promote the deployment of clean energy technologies through a 20 percent renewable electricity standard, 5 percent of which can be met by energy efficiency. The Center supports renewable electricity standards if nuclear power is included in the standard.