The shifting political landscape is good news for the wind energy industry, retired Gen. Wesley Clark said during a national wind energy conference in Palm Desert on Friday.

Clark, the keynote speaker at the American Wind Energy Association's 2008 Fall Symposium at Marriott Desert Springs Resort, told the audience the nation's economic woes, the country's growing sentiment toward ending dependence on foreign oil and the pro-renewable energy government is the perfect opportunity to grow the industry.

“We are, in this business, in an ideal position,” Clark said. “We have the ability to expand and we will receive the backing to do so. You can't find a better time,” to be in wind energy, he said.

Clark, a four-star general and former presidential candidate, now is president of Wesley K. Clark & Associates LLC, a strategic consulting firm, and chairman of the board of Emergya Wind Technologies, a North American wind turbine manufacturing company, both in Little Rock, Ark.

He said the election of Barack Obama as president, the gains in Democratic House and Senate seats and the unseating of Rep. John Dingell as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee by Rep. Henry Waxman create a favorable climate.

The renewable energy production tax credit, a credit of 2.1 cents per kilowatt hour, is the primary federal incentive for wind energy and has been essential to the industry's growth, according to the association's report, “Wind Energy for a New Era: An Agenda for the New President and Congress.”

Clark noted President-elect Obama's support of a minimum five-year production tax credit extension.

Clark's words were welcome news for conference attendee Sandy K. Aivaliotis, a senior vice president with the Valley Group, based in Ridgefield, Conn.

His company integrates renewable energy into the existing power grid.

“They have their heads on straight,” Aivaliotis said of the new administration in Washington, D.C. “The past has been all window-dressing.”

A report released in May by the U.S. Department of Energy, “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030,” says that the country has sufficient and affordable wind resources to obtain at least 20 percent of its electricity from wind.

The benefits of 20 percent wind energy include creating 500,000 new jobs and taking the carbon equivalent of 140 million vehicles off of the road, said Greg Wetstone, senior director of government and public affairs for the American Wind Energy Association.

Clark, who has been coming to the valley for the past 25 years, is familiar with the local wind energy potential.

“There's some wonderful opportunities,” said Clark. “You have wonderful wind resources.”