WIND POWER SOLUTIONS is an environmental consulting firm dedicated to solving the global climate crisis through the creation of a new energy paradigm for America.
Tom Weis, President
Tom Weis is president of Wind Power Solutions and a social change agent with over 20 years of environmental and political organizing experience. He has been active in the wind industry since early 2004 as a public outreach consultant to enXco, one of the nation's largest renewable energy companies. During this time, he helped permit 600 MW of wind energy projects (valued at over $1 billion) and served as Chair of the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) 2007 Fall Symposium. He was a board member of the Interwest Energy Alliance from 2005-2009 and continues to serve as Strategic Advisor to the Past President of AWEA. Tom received AWEA's 2009 Special Achievement Award for his role in creating the American Wind Wildlife Institute. He is also part owner of Asociados PanAmericanos, a socially progressive enterprise dedicated to the development of renewable energy in Mexico.
From 1996-2003, Tom served as National Field Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER); designed and directed a recycling center for Eco-Cycle (the nation’s largest non-profit recycler); and served as executive director of the National Forest Protection Alliance in Washington, DC. Prior to that, he directed a statewide “Save the Everglades” campaign for Clean Water Action in Florida, where he played a key role in launching a multi-million dollar ballot initiative against the Florida sugar industry and generated extensive print, radio and television coverage (e.g. CBS Evening News, CNN Headline News, Florida Public Radio and U.S. News & World Report) as campaign spokesperson. Tom has an extensive political background, including working on Capitol Hill as an environmental legislative aide to U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and directing field operations for presidential campaigns.
More recently, Tom served on the campaign committee of a Boulder ballot initiative resulting in voter passage of the nation’s first-ever municipal “carbon tax.” He also helped develop a national wind energy agenda for President Obama and the new Congress as a member of AWEA’s Climate Coordinating Committee.
Tom graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1985 with a B.A. in Environmental Conservation. An avid adventurer, he enjoys frequent camping, backpacking, and whitewater float trips throughout the U.S. and abroad. Tom is based in Boulder, CO.
AMERICA'S WIND POWER IMPERATIVE:
A CALL TO ACTION
by Tom Weis The Answer is Blowing in the Wind
© Caroline Treadway for elephantjournal.com
One of the few bright spots in today’s struggling economy, wind power holds the promise of sparking a new economic renaissance for America. As the second largest source of new electrical capacity in the U.S. for the past four years running, behind only natural gas, wind power provided 42% of the nation’s new electric generating capacity in 2008. The wind industry also invested $17 billion in domestic wind farm construction in 2008 alone, bringing good-paying jobs to rural America and to a hard-pressed U.S. manufacturing sector. This is great news, given that the rapidly escalating climate crisis demands that we kick our addiction to fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
More good news: wind currently provides only 1% of U.S. electricity needs, but there is enough wind potential in the U.S. to supply several times our total national electricity usage, meaning we have only begun to tap this huge domestic resource. Denmark already generates more than 20% of its total electricity from wind power, with a goal of 50% by 2025. Germany’s goal is 25% by 2025.
It is time to put America back to work and reclaim our role as world wind leader by setting a national goal of 40% wind power by 2020.