McDonnell withdraws from wind energy coalition

Gov. Bob McDonnell said this week that he recently withdrew his support from the Governors' Wind Energy Coalition after the group sent out a letter expressing support for a national renewable electricity standard with his name without his permission.

"They sent out a letter with my name on it that I didn't approve, never saw. That's the problem,'' McDonnell said. "Secondly, the contents of the letter said that all the governors that were signatories were supportive of a mandatory (renewable energy standard) that I am not. So that's the problem."

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar met Atlantic Coast governors in February to talk about wind energy and McDonnell joined his wind energy consortium.

"I really want to pursue wind energy,'' McDonnell said. "I think it's a great option for us here in Virginia. We have some of the highest quality winds anywhere in the country. Virginia Beach is supportive of it. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to have -- when you get the infrastructure paid -- a no-cost source of energy but it's going to take a lot of regulatory work to get it done. I'm 100 percent behind quickly exploring the possibility of getting a wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach."

As the United States searches for ways to lessen its dependency on foreign oil, wind energy is getting a second look in states such as Virginia that had not embraced it.

McDonnell said he supports a voluntary -- not mandatory -- renewable energy standard.

"What I don't want is one, people sending out letters without my approval that say I'm supporting something that I'm not so that's the problem,'' he said. "They very apologetic. They know they did it."

Read the letter