She battled for petroleum businesses for years, fighting for tax benefits and promoting natural gas as the way to ease climate change.

Now she calls wind the best energy solution.

Bode, 56, heads the American Wind Energy Association, the industry's largest trade group and a rising force in the energy world. She is seen as a political powerhouse, though some environmentalists question whether she lacks true passion for green causes. There is also some resentment about her politics, as she switched from Democrat to Republican in the 1990s.

Bode dismisses the criticism, arguing her fossil fuel background is an asset. She knows the strategies of oil and gas businesses, she said, and understands how they can partner with wind. Her change of political parties, she said, means she understands both and can bridge differences.

"Anybody that knows me knows that I don't do things I don't really care about," Bode said in an interview. "I chose this job because it was something I was passionate about, that I felt like I could use all the experience I had, working 30 years in the energy area.

"I know," she added, "where everybody's buried in energy."

Now in her second year at AWEA, Bode leads the organization at what many see as a pivotal time for the wind industry. Congress is considering policies that could bolster renewables. Investments in wind businesses already have boomed, amplifying AWEA's size and importance. The trade group this week in Dallas hosts its annual conference and more than 20,000 people are expected. That is nearly triple the attendance AWEA had at its conference two years ago.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Govs. Chet Culver (D) of Iowa, Bill Ritter (D) of Colorado and Ted Strickland (D) of Ohio open the event today. Former President George W. Bush is scheduled to speak at the conference tomorrow.

But wind also faces major hurdles. Despite a promising year in 2009, wind installations in the first three months of this year fell to their lowest first quarter level since 2007.

Many turbines are being manufactured overseas. China holds a monopoly on the rare-earth metals used to make wind systems.

Because it is more expensive than other energy sources, there is insufficient demand for wind power absent a federal penalty for producing carbon emissions or a requirement that utilities use renewable power, said Kevin Book, managing director of Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners.

Climate legislation could help renewables grow, but the political prospects of that appear to be melting away.

"This is a critical time, possibly the most critical time in the wind industry's history," Book said. Securing federal incentives is key, he said, and "somebody who's a capable steward of relationships in Washington will be a vital part of that strategy."

In an interview at her AWEA office, Bode eagerly detailed why she is the right person at the right time for AWEA. Dressed in a black suit and red blouse, she hopscotched over her previous jobs in politics, heading an oil and natural gas association, regulating Oklahoma utilities and leading natural gas group American Clean Skies Foundation. At each turn, she explained, she worked on issues tied to wind.

Bode calls herself AWEA's "chief nagger," whose job is to keep people on task. She has also adopted the role of booster. She held up a phone displaying the image of a spinning windmill.

"My iPhone also records the velocity of the wind," Bode said. "Is that cool or what? It's the ultimate iPhone app."

Wind icons aside, she has serious goals, and equally serious obstacles.

Ensuring survival

Representing 2,500 companies, AWEA wants a permanent tax credit for wind and a federal requirement that utilities generate a portion of power from renewable sources.

That renewable electricity standard was included the House climate bill and in legislation passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Both times it fell short of the 25 percent standard the wind industry seeks. It is not in the new bill from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)