Wind Energy, Congress, the Economy and Tax Credits

I am totally psyched about our panel tomorrow on the economic ramifications of wind energy, the footprint of the 112th Congress, and will tax credits survive the Supercommittee.  Response to this panel has been huge, so I suggest that you plan on getting to this event a little early to grab a seat.

The popularity of this event has a lot to do with the quality of our panelists:

Markian Melnyk is a superstar of new wind energy development.  He literally wrote the book on Offshore wind. Seriously, it’s called “Offshore Power” and you can find it on Amazon. He has an amazing ability to break down complicated issues into an easily accessible concepts. Markian took a sabbatical from his law firm to research and write the book. His research into the need for a backbone transmission line formed the basis for the Atlantic Wind Connection project.

Rob Gramlich has forgotten more about wind energy and transmission issues than most of us know.  He dreams in Energy Transmission.  To give you an example, he is the only non NDN staff person I know that is totally conversant with Michael Moynihan's paper Electricity 2.0.

Laura Haynes is one of those staffers who has “both sides of her Hill ticket punched” – i.e., she has worked in both the House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate.  As the Director for Energy and Environment for Senator Tom Carper, she is very knowlegable on offshore wind transmission.  This past July, Senator Carper introduced the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act which privides the offshore wind industry with enhanced stabiltiy by extending investment tax credits for the first 3,000 MW of offshore wind facilities - an estimate of 600 wind turbines.

Michael Moynihan, Director of our Clean Energy Initiative is a well know thought leader in the issue of the modernization of the Electric Grid System.

All in all this should be an excellent panel and I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.