Wind power in the United States
The 2011 NREL report, "Large-Scale Offshore Wind Power in the United States", analyzes the current state of the offshore wind energy industry. According to the report, offshore wind resource development would help the country to achieve 20% of its electric power from wind by 2030 and to revitalize the manufacturing sector. Offshore wind could supply 54 gigawatts of capacity to the nation's electrical grid, thereby increasing energy security. It could also generate an estimated $200 billion in new economic activity and create thousands of permanent jobs. NREL’s report concludes that "the development of the nation’s offshore wind resources can provide many potential benefits, and that offshore wind energy could play a vital role in future U.S. energy markets".
Clean Power Plan
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), coal in 2015 in the United States produced 1,364,000,000 metric tons of . This amounted to 71% of emissions from the electric power sector. By switching this coal generation to a cleaner source such as wind power, emissions could be significantly reduced. In addition, evidence suggests that wind power now has a lower cost of production than coal or natural gas, even when subsidies are taken into account. According to the League of Conservation Voters in 2015, the Clean Power Plan "established the first national limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants—our nation's single largest source of the pollution fueling climate change" and was "the biggest step" the United States had "ever taken to address climate change."