AEP Becomes Corporate Sponsor of the Pickens Plan
March 6, 2009
ShareThisAEP has signed as a corporate sponsor of the Pickens Plan, a proposal to generate up to 22 percent of the nation’s power from wind. The plan calls for creation of an extra-high voltage transmission system to transport renewable energy from places where it is most present to those areas where it is most needed.
“We can’t significantly develop renewable energy resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and introduce competition for liquid transportation fuels without a well-designed, reliable national transmission grid,” says Michael G. Morris, AEP chairman, president and CEO.
AEP first proposed development of a national extra-high voltage transmission system in 2005. The system would more efficiently transport electricity, support development of renewable energy resources and enhance energy independence. The company has proposed more than 2,600 miles of 765-kilovolt transmission projects, including a 1,000-mile project hat would link wind power generated in the Midwest, with the East Coast.
“To rapidly develop transmission to support our renewable goals, we need federal oversight for citing and widespread cost allocation for these long-distance, extra-high voltage transmission projects,” says Morris.
In addition to investments in renewable energy and the transmission grid, the Pickens Plan calls for the development of alternative fuel vehicles, such as natural gas-powered fleet trucks and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). AEP is currently working with automakers and other utilities to determine the effect of PHEVs on the nation’s electricity grid. AEP is also testing PHEVs in its own fleet.
AEP joins a growing number of companies, non-profits and 1.5 million individuals who have signed on to the Pickens Plan. The plan calls for investing in power generation from domestic renewable resources such as wind and using the nation’s abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel, thus reducing by one-third the amount of oil imported into the country.
For the full story, see the release from AEP http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/default.aspx?id=1529
To learn more, or to join the Pickens Plan, visit www.pickensplan.com