So far, the story of the US renewable energy transformation has skipped a key chapter, which is the exploitation of our massive offshore wind power potential. In the offshore wind category, the US has been lagging far behind other nations. However, the spotlight is starting to swing out to embrace this wind power option, and we picked up a couple of tantalizing hints that US wind power, both onshore and offshore, is set to explode in the coming years.
Carbon Pollution And Offshore Wind Power
One big hint was dropped on Saturday by President Obama himself in his weekly radio address Saturday morning. The speech laid the groundwork for Monday’s highly anticipated announcement of new carbon pollution rules for power plants, so you can bet that every word was weighed carefully.
In that context, consider that when Obama listed the progress that the US has made in clean tech under his Administration, he cited a laundry list of accomplishments leading off with wind power:
Thanks in part to the investments we made in the Recovery Act, the electricity America generates from wind has tripled. And from the sun, it’s increased more than tenfold. In fact, every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar – and every panel is pounded into place by a worker whose job cannot be shipped overseas.
Now consider that the President touted US wind power even though we don’t have a commercial offshore wind power farm in operation yet, despite our massive offshore wind power resources.
For the record, Rhode Island offshore wind power is on track to be first out of the box, probably followed by Massachusetts, despite the usual Koch brothers shenanigans.
Also, that