Conference Announced Poll Results; Wind Energy holds Bipartisan Backing-



The 2009 AWEA WINDPOWER Conference kicked off yesterday in the windy city of Chicago, Illinois, with some excellent news regarding bipartisan support for renewable energy. The polling was conducted by Garin Hart Yang Research Group and found that 75% of voters favored the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which requires utilities to produce at least 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by the year 2025. The polling revealed unexpected bipartisan support for the RES; 86 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans were in favor of the proposal. Additionally, the polls revealed that establishing a national RES has tremendous backing throughout the entire country. 84 percent of Northeastern U.S. residents support the issue, 71 percent in the South, as well as ¾ of the Midwest populace. “The American people support an RES because it will create jobs and reduce carbon emissions. Our job now is to make sure that Members of Congress follow their constituents,” stated AWEA CEO Denise Bode, who spoke at the WINDPOWER conference this morning.

The WINDPOWER 2009 Conference is drawing in businesses and individuals from across the nation, who are committed to a future of renewable wind energy; from those seeking wind energy jobs, to those actually manufacturing wind turbines and scalable wind farms. More than 18,000 will be in attendance and over 1,200 companies are displaying their trade equipment. The WINDPOWER 2009 show floor is almost 300,000 square feet and is considerably larger than the 2008 and 2007 WINDPOWER display floors combined. Administration representatives and governors are also in company at the conference, addressing attendees at the opening session where the survey was unveiled. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, is set to talk about the priority of renewable power in the Obama Administration; and Governors Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Ted Strickland of Ohio, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Pat Quinn of Illinois, and Chet Culver of Iowa will also speak at the conference. In addition, Jon Wellinghoff, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman, will discuss the viability of producing significantly more of U.S. electricity from wind and other alternative energy sources. America’s necessity for resilient, comprehensive green energy policies will be a collective dialogue point during conference deliberations.