Rick Perry loves wind energy.
A couple of weeks ago, I laid out my thesis on this…
Despite Perry’s close ties to fossil fuel interests, he’s probably done more for the wind energy industry than most so-called environmentalist Democrats.
While serving as governor, Rick Perry was quite instrumental in delivering strong incentives, innovative policies, and significant infrastructure investments for the wind energy industry, which included a $7 billion “Competitive Renewable Energy Zone” initiative that featured a 3,600-mile network of transmission lines.
This project actually made it possible for wind-generated electricity to move from wind farms in West Texas and the panhandle to larger population centers, such as San Antonio and Dallas.
Today, the Lone Star State boasts the most installed wind power in the country, generating more than 12% of its electricity solely from wind. And last November, Texas actually broke a record for wind generation after November winds generated 15,033 megawatts of wind power at one time. This accounted for almost half of the entire state’s electricity.
So when we initially got word that Rick Perry was Donald Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary, we had a suspicion that the wind energy industry was about to get a nice boost.
Trump Loves Wind
Last week, we got a peek at Trump’s infrastructure plan, which included infrastructure projects that he considers a priority. Three of those are wind-related projects.
The first is a $2.5 billion transmission line that’ll send 4 gigawatts of wind power from Oklahoma to the Southeast.
The second is a $3 billion line that’ll send 3 gigawatts of wind power from Wyoming to Arizona, California, and Nevada.
The third is a $5 billion wind farm in Wyoming that’ll house 1,000 wind turbines. The first 500 have already been approved by the Bureau of Land Management. My suspicion is that these first 500 will be built by one of three companies — GE (NYSE: GE), Vestas (OTCBB: VWDRY), or Siemens (OTCBB: SIEGY) — as these are the three major players in the wind turbine space, and, more importantly for this administration, they all have manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
While President Trump’s support for revitalizing our domestic coal industry has been covered quite well in the mainstream media, the truth is, it’s wind power that’s got the most to gain under this administration.
The bottom line is that Trump may talk a good game when it comes to coal, but dirt-cheap natural gas has destroyed any meaningful prospects for the coal industry. And quite frankly, there isn’t much big money around that’s interested in coal, anyway.
That’s not to say coal won’t continue to play a role in our overall energy economy, but its influence will continue to wane going forward.
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In the meantime, the Trump administration’s energy department is about to be headed by a guy that turned the state of Texas into a vibrant marketplace for wind energy.
Texas’s wind energy policy under Rick Perry ultimately resulted in the creation of 24,000 wind-related jobs and $33 billion in capital investment. And the state still has another 5,000 megawatts under construction. Now put that on the national stage!
Mark my words: in the next few months, you’re going to see a steady flow of capital getting funneled into new wind energy projects throughout the United States. This will not only benefit us as energy investors, but it’s also going to create a hell of a lot of jobs.
Right now, more than 100,000 U.S. citizens are employed by the wind energy industry. But under a Trump administration, it has been suggested that the industry could now grow by more than 20% every year. With that kind of job growth, don’t think for a second that Trump will not back this.
Bottom line: Wind energy is a part of Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan. Rick Perry will see to it that his buddies in the wind energy industry get a piece of this action, and no one’s going to complain about it because the whole push for wind energy is going to create tens of thousands of jobs. It ain’t rocket science.
Although wind energy only represents a small portion of the U.S. energy economy, it’s going to prove to be one of the most profitable in 2017. Make sure you take full advantage!
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth…
Jeff Siegel
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Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor’s page.
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