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However, such a critique fails to recognize that this scale of support for
wind power is a recent phenomenon. Just three years previous, in 2007, fed-
eral support for wind power was only US$476 million, compared to US$3.9
billion in support for coal, US$2.0 billion in support for natural gas and
other fossil fuel liquids, and US$1.7 billion in support for nuclear power.
Indeed, many of the fossil fuel technologies have enjoyed decades of federal
inancial support far in excess of any support wind power has received. For
example, between 1943 and 1999, federal subsidization of nuclear power
R&D and operations has been estimated at US$144.5 billion. Moreover,
annually, US$4.9 billion are channeled from the federal budget into a fund
to support the legal risk for nuclear plants and US$3.6 billion go to the
maintenance of the strategic petroleum reserve. According to a study from
the OECD, in 2001 US coal subsidies accounted for 70% of all subsidies for
coal worldwide. 75
It also merits noting that federal support for wind power is largely aimed
at supporting capacity expansion not R&D. In 2010, only US$166 million
of the US$5 billion in federal funding for wind power went to R&D activi-
ties. In contrast, US$663 million of the US federal energy support budget
was spent on supporting R&D in advanced coal technologies, US$1.17 bil-
lion was channeled to nuclear power R&D, US$537 was channeled to bio-
mass R&D and US$348 million was channeled to solar R&D. In short, it
appears that the commercial viability of wind power is such that the gov-
ernment views capacity expansion as the best approach for simultaneously
addressing the nation's energy supply needs and reducing wind power costs
(through improved economies of scale).
7.5.3 Technological Political
As described earlier, the technological (and economic) potential for har-
nessing massive amounts of wind power has already been recognized by the
US Department of Energy. 76 his has provided the foundation upon which
to craft policies in support of wind power development. According to the
Department of Energy there are already 29 states (plus Washington, DC and
two territories) that have adopted renewable portfolio standards aimed at
increasing renewable energy capacity. 77
However, as also outlined earlier, signiicant investment will be needed
to reinforce the US electricity grid in order to accommodate ampliied
contributions from wind power. he US$4.5 billion that was earmarked
under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for electricity grid
enhancement represents an important irst step in regard to overcoming
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