The U.S. wind industry experienced a banner year in 2008, surpassing even optimistic growth projections from years past. At the same time, the past year has been one of upheaval, with the global financial crisis impacting near-term growth prospects for the wind industry, and with significant federal policy changes enacted to push the industry towards continued aggressive expansion. Dr. Ryan Wiser, and others, prepared this detail analysis of wind development in the United States.

Wind advocates like to say "The wind's always blowing somewhere" to counter concerns about the variability of wind power. This is true, and it means that wind can always be relied on to produce some power, but that does not mean that wind can always meet demand. In the United States' Great Plains wind belt, wind is typically anticorrelated with demand.

Iberdrola has proposed a wind energy facility to be erected on national forest lands in the Green Mountain National Forest located in Vermont. The Forest Service released the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) in September 2008. The full DEIS can be accessed at http://www.windaction.org/documents/17983. The US Fish and Wildlife Service submitted comments on the DEIS. These comments can be downloaded by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

The Deerfield Wind Energy facility is the first wind plant to be proposed for US National Forest lands. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement released by the US Forest Service can be accessed by clicking on the link(s) below. Comments will be accepted through until the end of November 2008.

The USDA's Forest Service has proposed sweeping changes to its internal directives governing wildlife monitoring and special use authorizations. These proposed changes will greatly facilitate the siting of industrial wind turbines within our National Forests. The Wilderness Society submitted this letter to the Forest Service detailing concerns about the proposed changes. Windaction.org and over 50 other groups and individuals jointly signed this letter.

This letter, on behalf of Center for Biological Diversity, Hawk Migration Association of North America, The Humane Society of the United States, Industrial Wind Action Group, D. Daniel Boone, and others, was delivered to Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Jan 17, 2008. The letter responds to the apparent industry bias in Kempthorn's selection of committee members for DOI's Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee formed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Minerals Management Service released the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the Cape Wind offshore wind energy facility proposed for Nantucket Sound. The DEIS can be accessed by downloading the file from the below link.

Total U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions were 7,075.6 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent ( MMTCO2e ) in 2006, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the 2005 level according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2006, a report released today by the Energy Information Administration ( EIA ). ...Emissions of carbon dioxide from energy consumption and industrial processes, which had risen at an average annual rate of 1.2 percent per year from 1990 to 2005, declined by 1.8 percent in 2006. The decline in carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 to 2006 can be attributed to a one-half percent decline in overall energy demand and a decrease in the carbon intensity of electricity generation.

North American Electric Reliability Corporation released this assessment of the reliability and adequacy of the bulk power system in North America for the next ten years.