Wind Energy

Solar Power Supporter Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot

Congresswoman Giffords was shot in the head outside a Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona. While the bullet passed through her brain, emergency surgery appears to have been successful and doctors are cautiously optimistic she will survive her injuries. Congresswoman Giffords remains in critical condition.

Among her many initiatives and activities to further renewable energy in her home state and across the USA, Gabrielle Giffords was the author of Solar Technology Roadmap Act, legislation to create a strategic roadmap to advance solar energy technologies through fast-tracked research, development, and demonstration projects.

In July last year, Congresswoman Giffords played an instrumental role in the award of a $1.45 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. federal government to enable construction of Arizona’s largest solar power-generation plant.

On the House Science and Technology Committee, Congresswoman Giffords has a goal of making Southern Arizona the "Solar-con Valley" of the nation. She is also Vice Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition.

In her district, Giffords’ Community Solar Energy Initiative mobilises support and action for the increased use of solar energy. Giffords also advocated for an eight-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit for commercial and residential solar power projects. Giffords is also promoting increased use of renewable energy at military installations throughout the USA.

A suspect in the shooting is in police custody.

Solar is very serious. Between solar hot water, concentrating solar power, and photovoltaics, solar technologies have the potential to make a dramatic contribution to our energy challenges right now. But as they say in politics, perception is reality. That, in my view, is the number one challenge facing the solar industry in the United States.

— Gabrielle Giffords, address to the Solar Economic Forum, 10 September 2009

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