WIREC in Washington attracted an army of attendees this week in the caverns of the Washington Convention Center behind Union Station, a stone's throw from Congress. It  was an epochal event in the energy world.

Thousands of energy policy leaders, innovative thought leaders, political leaders and energy executives assembled for a few days to focus on renewables like never before. The themes and arguments advanced were at times deep and profound. I do not intend to get into many of the specifics; rather, many of them will inform future coverage in EnergyBiz magazine. Hermann Scheer, chairman of the  World Council for Renewable Energy, called for the creation of a International Renewable Energy Agency, a "coalition of the willing," to help coordinate efforts to bring down development costs of new technologies to spur raid deployment. He took heart from the fact that the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference was launched in the capital of America. Bringing the US back as a frontrunner in the energy revolution "will help all of us," he said.

President Bush speaking Wednesday did not shirk that challenge. "...America is in the lead when it comes to energy independence;  we're in the lead when it comes to new technologies; we're in the lead when it comes to global climate change - and we'll stay that way."

Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, said, "America is the world's largest energy consumer. Any serious change has to begin here."

Vinod Khosla, founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, said that the only thing that is predictable is that the unpredeictable will occur. "Today's unimagineable is tomorrow's conventional wisdom," he said. "It won't take more than 20 years to change the energy picture completely."

The stakes could not be more enormous. Listen in on Terry Hudgens, CEO of PPM Energy. His company plans to invest $2.3 billion a year on wind energy in the US. Getting wind from 1 percent of US generation to 20 percent - a goal already achieved in Denmark and in the sights of many planners in other industrial countries - what would its implications be? "We could reduce imports of gas by one-quarter billion dollars a day."

That is money - in any language you care to use.

Rep. Jay Inslee, of Washington state, in a side meeting at WIREC, said that the promises may be huge and undefined - but they will lead to major policy shifts. "By December 2009, the United States will have a cap and trade system as aggressive as Europe."

"America is going to demand that America moves forward."