In what could dramatically alter transmission and wind energy development in the Upper Midwest, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling last week shifts virtually the entire responsibility of paying for transmission network upgrades to wind developers in the footprint of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (Midwest ISO). The FERC ruling requires that Midwest ISO wind generators pay 90% of the cost of transmission upgrades for network upgrades for projects rated 345 kV and higher.

If nothing else, the opposition is organized. While members of the U.S. Senate struggle to find the right language for the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the opposition to both measures has grown larger and more vocal. ...In fact many industry leaders say the bills would kill jobs and wreck the economy. Across the country trade associations have lined up to stop the Waxman-Markey bill.

Texas cares little for environmental niceties. Its governor, Rick Perry, bashes the Environmental Protection Agency at every opportunity, and recently branded the climate bill that passed the House of Representatives a "legislative monstrosity." Yet the oil-and-gas state has nonetheless emerged as the nation's top producer of a commodity prized by environmentalists: wind power. Eager developers are covering its desolate western mesas with giant turbines. The world's largest wind farm began operations in Texas this month, and the state now has close to three times as much wind capacity as Iowa, the second-ranked state.

Wind turbinesReuters A government grant program is helping the wind industry's recovery effort. Wind energy representatives are crediting the federal government's stimulus package for restarting their hobbled industry. ...The capital markets are still weak, the developers say. And another government program has yet to get off the ground: The Department of Energy is supposed to issue loan guarantees for renewable energy projects, but just one has been issued.

Eastern states from North Carolina to Maine are working on plans for offshore wind power. Why is nothing happening off the West Coast, where the winds also blow strong? The main problem, experts say, is topography. Whereas the continental shelf extends for miles off the East Coast, the bedrock drops off sharply just beyond the West Coast –- making it too deep to anchor the turbines with current technology.

Across the USA, states are falling short of their goals to increase the use of renewable energy as Congress weighs a national renewable-energy standard. Thirty-five states have set goals to use more electricity from solar panels, windmills and other renewable forms of energy, according to a database funded by the Energy Department. There is no central clearinghouse of states' compliance records, but USA TODAY research and interviews with state and power company officials found nine states that have failed or expect to fail to meet their energy goals.

States from Maine to Maryland are exploring ways to share potential infrastructure, like strings of underwater transmission lines, and know-how about siting, permitting and building fields of turbines off their coastlines. The states met in New Jersey early this week for a clean energy summit, and participants said a main theme emerged: An offshore industry will be created more quickly if they act as a team. That could mean more jobs, local energy in a region that is reliant on borrowed power, and cost savings for a fleet of facilities on the outer continental shelf.

Maine was one of 10 states to create the nation's first market-based system to fight climate change. By putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions, it encourages large power plants to become cleaner and more efficient. It's too early to measure any effects on pollution or on electricity prices, especially given a recession that has reduced production - and thus emissions - far more than any government action.

In the scramble to harness ocean wind power, floating turbine technology may be the holy grail. Turbines that can be floated into position and anchored in deeper water are the solution to much of the politics that confronts shallow-water projects, according to proponents of the concept. A pair of announcements this month seems to herald the next step into deeper water.

Wind power was among several concerns Obama's Ocean Policy Task Force heard during a public meeting in Providence, its only stop on the wind-rich East Coast. The meeting came a week after the task force recommended creating a National Ocean Council to coordinate and hold accountable a hodgepodge of federal agencies responsible for conservation and marine planning.

Business leaders who huddled with Obama administration officials on Tuesday said an infusion of more than $1 billion in federal grants for renewable energy projects is driving a surge of private investment in wind and solar operations. But they said sustaining the boom could depend on whether Congress will require utilities to derive a share of their power from renewable sources.

Wind-turbine makers say growth in their industry could dramatically slow unless the federal government requires more electricity come from renewable energy. New federal stimulus grants helped restart a stalled wind-power industry, but Vic Abate, a General Electric Co. vice president in charge of its wind-turbine business, said orders for wind turbines to be built in 2012 and thereafter have been "extremely light."

While wind energy companies have already invested millions of dollars on Arkansas factories to produce turbines and blades - and recruited suppliers to open shops nearby - they say what they really need are federal policies to assure their survival.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2009. The bill is Rep. Paul Tonko's first piece of legislation as a congressman. The bill authorizes a comprehensive program to improve the efficiency, reliability and cost effectiveness of domestic wind energy systems. The bill passed with bipartisan support in a voice vote.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., aims to ensure that massive wind-generating turbines - some with blades spanning 100 yards - can be more cost-effective in harnessing power from the wind. Right now, wind power makes up about 2 percent of the nation's electricity portfolio. ...Tonko said more research is needed to overcome the "many significant technical issues" facing wind-based electricity generation.

This may be a better time than ever for renewable energy. The climate for passing laws that would create subsidies for it are promising: last year, the Production Tax Credit for wind power was extended, along with a hefty longterm-Investment tax credit for solar power. ...But Bruno Mejean isn't feeling the winds of change just yet. The managing director and deputy general manager of Nord/LB, New York, a German financial institution, ...anticipates obstacles for the wind-energy sector in particular, and the biggest drag on developing renewable-energy projects, he says, is the prospect of a longterm low price for natural gas.

Several U.S. Senate Democrats, including a top leader, on Wednesday questioned whether it would be possible to vote on a climate change bill this year, especially with healthcare reform eating up so much of the lawmakers' time. "It's a difficult schedule" with many members already "anxious" about healthcare reform, Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, told Reuters.

In recent weeks, the oil lobby and a manufacturers trade group ignited a campaign in the Mountain West and Midwest asserting that the House legislation would be a job killer. Environmental and labor groups have countered with a "Made in America" tour to highlight the green jobs they say would be created.

President Barack Obama is still at least a year away from seeing wind turbines take root anywhere off the U.S. coast, even though his administration has promised to make offshore wind a priority, and even though developers are lining up to string wind farms up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The administration, delayed by controversy and red tape, has made "clean energy" one of its top policy pushes.