Giuliani misinformed on wind energy contribution

Dear Mr. Mayor,

I wanted to send a quick correction regarding a statement you made about wind power and solar energy accounting for "only one percent of what produces our source of electrical power" during your interview on CNN’s Piers Morgan last night.

To clarify, wind farm generation alone provided 3.4 percent of the nation’s electricity in the first half of 2011, the latest period for which we have complete data, an increase from 1.8 percent in 2009. All forms of renewable energy, including hydropower, together provided 10 percent of the nation’s electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wind turbines continues to play an increasing role in the generation mix of individual states. For the last four years, wind has added 35% of all new generation. Through the first half of 2011, over 20 percent of the electricity generation in both Iowa and South Dakota came from wind energy.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I would welcome an opportunity to speak with you further to discuss wind power as an increasingly cost-competitive source of new electric generation, even as compared to natural gas at today’s unsustainability low prices, as well as our success story as a new source of American manufacturing jobs.

Warm regards,

Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org/blog/