Enthusiasm for Wind Power in Los Angeles

Elizabeth Douglas reports in the LA Times today from the wind power convention being held in Los Angeles:

The wind-energy business in 2006 booked its second year of record growth, and executives are pushing the industry faithful to think bigger. Much bigger. By 2030, they want wind farms to supply 20% of the nation's energy — a huge leap from today's contribution of less than 1%.

"It's not a forecast, but it is a plausible scenario," Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Assn., told attendees at the opening session of the group's Windpower 2007 conference.

During one panel discussion, industry executive Robert Lukefahr urged wind advocates to keep their enthusiasm grounded in reality. "We have not yet made the case to the American public broadly about why this is right and why it's worth paying extra for cleaner power," said Lukefahr, president of Power Americas, a unit of oil giant BP's alternative energy business. "It is the most cost-effective low-carbon solution we have today," he told reporters later. "It's not free, but it's affordable."

For an alternative take, try this AlterNet piece by Tara Lohan on the mixed reception for wind power in West Virginia...and, of course, the simplest and most straightforward alternative energy solution is conservation.

More at the ACEEE and this excellent diary on conservation by chapter1 at dailykos.

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