#AmericanCleanPowerWeek: Celebrating The United States of Clean Energy
It’s #AmericanCleanPowerWeek! Across the nation, we are celebrating the thriving clean energy industry—wind, solar, energy storage, and the transmission infrastructure that carries power to our homes and the places where we work. But it’s not just about providing reliable and affordable energy. Clean energy is powering good-paying American jobs across all 50 states.
Today, on Day One of American Clean Power Week (ACPW), we celebrate land-based wind energy, the nation’s leading source of renewable energy and a key climate solution that can help meet our nation’s 100% carbon-free power goal by 2035. Because wind costs have fallen 70% over the last decade, it is now one of the most affordable new sources of electricity in most of the country. That’s why you’ll find wind energy projects from coast to coast, throughout the Midwest and the Great Plains.
More than 116,700 Americans work in wind across the country and wind turbine technician is the fastest-growing career in America. Wind power employs Americans like MidAmerican Energy Wind Site Manager Randy Hinman, who transitioned from working in coal power to wind, and now works on towers that power the future of American energy.
Wind power delivers over $1.8 billion a year in state and local tax payments to communities and landowner lease payments to farmers and ranchers. That’s new income communities can use to invest in schools, fix roads, fund emergency services and invest in the future,. Payments also serve as extra sources of income for farmers, ranchers, and landowners.
And we are just getting started. With continued industry momentum, Congressional passage of comprehensive infrastructure legislation, and stable tax policies in place as part of the Build Back Better plan, the opportunities in clean energy will only grow. In the coming years, over 1 million Americans will have direct clean energy jobs. And Americans want clean power. Newly released polling shows overwhelming support for clean energy and its benefits to the environment, jobs and the economy, including 93 percent of American voters who say clean energy is important to the country’s energy future.
America has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the energy infrastructure we need to accelerate our clean energy future and power more good-paying American jobs. Just this month, the Biden Administration recognized this opportunity facing our nation by declaring the month of October National Clean Energy Action Month. America’s clean power industry is committed to helping our nation reach its clean energy and emission reduction goals while powering American jobs and driving investment into local communities. We can’t miss this moment.
Join us all week long in celebrating the United States of Clean Power during American Clean Power Week!