1: Cape Wind
The 420-megawatt Cape Wind project is big, but the expectations for it are even bigger. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who just last week announced approval for the project amidst some stiff opposition, expects the Nantucket Sound wind farm to do no less than prove the viability of offshore wind in America. Much remains to be done before the first turbine blades start to spin – bank financing and power purchase agreements must be finalized and the project must be built on time and within budget. But Cape Wind has already done a lot. The project’s developers have endured nine years of attempts to regulate offshore sites that played like a bureaucratic version of “Who’s on first?” before finally arriving at guidelines that future developers can follow. More importantly, the Obama administration has decided that the need for renewable energy trumps environmental and cultural concerns that threaten to block large projects. It’s an imperfect solution, to be sure, but it does move green energy forward.
2: President Barak Obama
As skilled a politician as he is, President Barack Obama has benefited from a whole heap of luck in his career. His presidential campaign, you may recall, reached orbit only after the economy crashed with a Republican at the helm. So, perhaps on a cosmic level, it was time for Obama to meet some truly rotten fortune. And he did – when he proposed opening up large swaths of the Atlantic and Gulf to offshore drilling just three weeks before BP’s deep-water rig sank off the coast of Louisiana, releasing 5,000 barrels of oil per day directly into the ocean. What does this disaster mean for Obama’s “pan-energy” strategy? It really depends – if we have to wait for three months for a second well to be drilled, Obama will face intense pressure from his base to back down on offshore drilling. If BP can block the leak soon, offshore drilling could remain politically viable. As Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said this week, “The Challenger accident was heartbreaking, but we went back to space.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: April Top Ten Players In Green Energy
Author: Terrence Murray
