DES MOINES, IOWA (BNO NEWS) – Governor Chet Culver participated Tuesday in a national release of recommendations for promoting wind energy, his office said.

Governor Culver is the chair of “Great Expectations: The Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition’s 2010 Recommendations,” while Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri is the vice chair. In addition, thirty governors from across the nation are participating in the initiative, sharing a general concern that the nation’s dependence on unsustainable and carbon intensive energy sources is an unacceptable risk to the nation’s energy, economic, and environmental security.

The top priorities of the wind energy policy initiatives include green economic development, job creation, and energy security.

The National Wind Energy Recommendations call for the following actions: the adoption of a renewable electricity standard, development of new interstate electric transmission system infrastructure, coastal, deep water, and offshore wind energy technology and transmission research and development, the streamlining for both offshore and on-shore wind energy development projects, expansion of the U.S. Department of Energy’s work with the states and the wind industry, an extension of the Treasury Department Grant Program in lieu of the Investment Tax Credit, and a long-term renewable energy production tax credit with provisions to broaden the pool of eligible investors.

This report represents the first set of comprehensive wind energy recommendations ever submitted to Congress by a group of the nation’s governors. The recommendations are a bipartisan call to action for Congress to make progress on the present energy challenges.