Delivering the message on manufacturing and transmission
Today AWEA CEO Denise Bode joined a panel at the Energy Biz Forum here in Washington. The audience was largely executives from the electric utility industry.
“[The U.S. is] actually becoming a manufacturing headquarters, with the share of domestically manufactured wind turbine components increasing from 25% before 2005 to over 50% in 2009,” Bode said. “That is why I am so passionate about a long-term policy for renewable energy. We have the opportunity to lead if we take action now.”
When asked about utilities' and and states’ concerns about the progress of Congress granting the federal government authority to break through transmission planning barriers, Bode, a former state utility commissioner, said: “ I come from the view that this can be done. We have to modernize the grid, not just for renewables. The signal is given at the federal level to indicate this is in the national interest, and the implementation will be regional, through cooperative action.”
–Guest Blog by AWEA's Christine Real de Azua
From left to right:
Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)
Marty Rosenberg, EnergyBiz (panel moderator)
Mark Crisson, President & CEO, American Public Power Association (APPA)
Glenn English, CEO, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
Charles Gray, Executive Director, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)