Salazar: Offshore Wind Resources Could Lead Clean-Energy Revolution

The wind potential off the coasts of the continental United States actually exceeds the country’s entire electricity demand, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently said.

U.S. offshore areas hold enormous potential for wind energy development. More than three-fourths of the nation’s electricity demands come from coastal states, Sec. Salazar told a meeting of 25X’25 America’s Energy Future, a group working to lower America’s carbon emissions.

Salazar said information from the U.S. Geological Survey-Minerals Management Service Report will be a starting point for public comment meetings around the country in the next few weeks, starting in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and New Orleans, Louisiana, next week. 

“For too long we have ignored the true costs of our energy use. Building America’s clean energy future is front and center on President Obama’s agenda," Sec. Salazar said.

"[The President] knows that if we are turn our economy around; that if we are to lead the next great technological transformation in our world; and that if we are to create millions of new clean-energy jobs here at home, we must finally take the moon-shot on energy independence.”