Why Cape Wind Farm? Investing in America’s wind energy future, not just Canada?s

This is reminiscent of how the U.S.–25 years after dominating the world wind energy industry in the early 1980s–finds itself today playing catch-up in the race to attract the wind turbines factories and jobs needed for a robust domestic supply chain. We temporarily abandoned our wind power industry in 1985 because of short-sighted concerns over the cost of competing, while other more far-sighted countries forged ahead. Today uncertain federal policies still threaten U.S. wind power developers and manufacturers.

Today, Germany, Denmark and the U.K. are already installing large offshore wind turbines projects and planning to build more, many more wind power plants, in the future. In the process, they are further building their manufacturing base and gathering invaluable experience in installing, operating and servicing these giant wind turbines.

American Wind Energy Association supports sourcing our energy needs from within the United States, adding not only domestic energy supplies, but also creating more jobs here and expanding the U.S. wind turbines manufacturing base. That will not happen if New England instead purchases more hydropower from Canada, when domestic wind energy can supply what is needed.

By Tom Gray, www.awea.org/blog/