John Siciliano of the Washington Examiner probes the wind industry’s potential impact on the 2016 campaign.
The wind industry will begin flexing its political muscle in the run-up to the presidential elections, with the goal of holding politicians accountable for their support, or lack thereof, for wind-generated electricity.
“We are a big industry … we want to flex our muscle more,” said Mike Garland, president and CEO of Pattern Energy, speaking Wednesday to reporters on a panel with other industry officials from its Wind Power 2015 conference in Orlando, Fla. Pattern is a leading wind energy company that owns and operates facilities in three countries.
Garland, with the American Wind Energy Association, will begin holding town forums with presidential hopefuls on both sides of aisle to push them on their commitment to the renewable energy industry.
Industry officials point out that Iowa, the state that holds the nation’s first presidential nominating contest, is one of the largest wind production states. The wind industry also expanded its market in the last year beyond the utility sector to secure long-term agreements from technology giants Google, Microsoft and Facebook.
Garland said “we have been very collegial” in the past, but “we have to be more proactive” by interjecting the voice of the industry into the presidential debate in a much more visible way.
He said the wind industry will be much more assertive on the campaign trail, where the industry will seek to hold politicians “accountable” for their support and call them out when they don’t live up to their obligations.
