BP focuses on U.S. wind energy
BP has dropped its plans to build an onshore wind farm in the U.K. and will now spend billions of dollars on wind energy in the U.S. Stephen Beard reports why the company is drawn to westward initiatives.
Sign outside of a BP service station (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
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Bill Radke: Obama has promised to foster a renewable energy revolution in the U.S., and foreign companies are listening. Stephen Beard reports from London that British Petroleum is following the winds of change blowing westward over the Atlantic.
Stephen Beard: BP has dropped its plans to build an onshore wind farm in the U.K.. And it will not bid for any of the offshore licences, either. The company will now spend billions of dollars on wind energy in the U.S. By 2010, BP expects to generate enough wind power to run more than a million American homes. Shell has also switched its wind activity away from Britain to America.
It makes perfect business sense, says Mark Nichols of Environment Finance Magazine:
Mark Nichols: You can develop much larger and more profitable wind farms. There are far fewer planning constraints. The subsidy or the tax support system in the U.S. is more attractive. I think there are simply more opportunities that can be exploited more quickly than in the U.K.
And there could be even more opportunities ahead. Barack Obama has promised a 10-year renewable energy plan worth $150 billion.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
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