Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

Gov. Chris Christie on Monday vetoed a measure that would allow wind turbine development on farmland preserved under a state program designed to protect New Jersey’s agricultural enterprises.

The federal government needs to update the U.S. electric grid and direct more money to clean energy research as part of a plan for making the United States more competitive in coming decades, the Commerce Department said in a report today as Secretary John Bryson cautioned policymakers about a “deeply damaging” trend toward short-term thinking.

The day Maryland lawmakers left Annapolis nine months ago, Gov. Martin O’Malley chided them, saying the legislature had “choked” on his signature environmental initiative: a measure to subsidize development of a multibillion-dollar offshore wind farm.

MidAmerican Energy Co. said Friday that it will build 176 wind turbines with generating capacity of 407.1 megawatts in Marshall, Tama, Guthrie, Audubon and Adair counties by the end of this year. The project was approved in 2009 by the Iowa Utilities Board as part of a 1,000-megawatt request made by MidAmerican

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State speech Wednesday included a plan to upgrade the state’s high-voltage electric transmission system so that power generated in upstate New York power plants and wind farms can be moved downstate. Bottlenecks in the transmission system — mainly between Utica and Albany and south of Albany — make it difficult to move electricity to the New York City area. That makes downstate power expensive and it forces upstate power plants to hold back on resources that could potentially create jobs.

Gov. Bob McDonnell rolled out his 2012 energy initiatives on Thursday, proposing $500,000 to promote the development of wind power off Virginia’s coast and knocking the federal government anew for blocking oil and gas development in the same waters.

South Dakota lawmakers appear to be taking a wait-and-see attitude on a proposal to cut construction taxes on wind farms to help the state compete with its neighbors in attracting projects that generate electricity from wind.

The oil and gas industry wants to thrust energy issues to the forefront of this year’s presidential and congressional campaigns.

Massachusetts’ controversial Cape Wind project cleared a major hurdle last week when the state’s highest court upheld an agreement selling half the wind farm’s energy to a utility.

Marc Spitzer will work in the firm’s Washington, D.C., headquarters on electric transmission, smart grid, exports of liquefied natural gas, pipeline safety and hydraulic fracturing. The firm has more than 500 lawyers and offices in China, Belgium and England.