-Kurt Yeager, president and chief executive officer of the industry-funded Electrical Power Research Institute


THE IMMENSE POTENTIAL OF WIND POWER
'Three of the wind-rich states-North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas-have enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy all the nation's electricity needs. . . . We're looking at a situation now where, within five years, thousands of ranchers in this country will be earning far more from electricity sales than from cattle sales.'
-Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, is president and senior researcher at the Earth Policy Institute

'Instead of simply building clustered wind farms, which are basically central power plants, we are looking at a dispersed system that provides more benefit to more people. The distribution systems would be different, and they would look beautiful in the landscape. Additionally, we're working on small-scale generation . . . microturbines every three blocks.'
-William McDonough, one of the world's leading green designers, leads innovative architecture and industrial design firms


UNIONS AS ALLIES FOR RENEWABLE-ENERGY ACTIVISTS
'The Sierra Club conducted a poll in Michigan last winter: . . . 77 percent of the general public thinks we should make the auto companies produce cars that get 40 miles per gallon; 84 percent of the members of the United Auto Workers think so. This is not the official position of the United Auto Workers, which worked hand in hand with the Bush administration to defeat an effort by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) to raise fuel-efficiency standards.'
-Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club

'In poll after poll, when union members are asked about solar energy, wind power, efficiency, conservation, hydrogen fuel cells, and so on, they are even more in favor of these things than the general public. Clearly, there is a disconnect between the policies that unions champion and the rank and file.'
-Jane Perkins