Which States Use the Most Renewable Energy… And How They Made it Happen

In which nation did wind power provide nearly half of all the new electricity added last year?

The United States of America as a whole added more wind power (42%) than any other source to the grid last year, more than any nation in the world – mostly among the states with legislative requirements to get more energy from renewable power.

If this year’s big Climate Bill passes with the best of Waxman’s HR 2454, many more states will find a way to add as much renewable power as these states that already have policies that were designed to encourage it. As you see, it’s not beyond us.

For example, the Dakotas have far more wind potential than Iowa, but no legislative push to get wind going there. Even the smallest goal like Texas’ 3% got Texas moving – and now that’s an unstoppable force!

So when the naysayers say, and they will, that we can only ever supply a few percent of our electricity from renewable power, let them know of these examples. And add the ones I missed in the comments.

As they put it in the Musical; South Pacific:

If you don’t have a dream…how can you make a dream come true?

Image: Nick Hess

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About Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, Earthtechling, and GreenProphet and has been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow and Scientific American.

As a former serial entrepreneur in product design she brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention: solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. 

Follow Susan @dotcommodity on twitter.