One of the items on the agenda is the extension of the wind production tax credit, which companies and their employees depend on.

Many employees who work for wind companies, not just in Kern County, but across the country are soldiers coming home from war, and that is why industry officials say they need the tax break to be extended.

"It's vital to manufacturing the plan of the future to have the jobs that these guys can go to," said Jeff Duff, president of Airstreams Renewables.

Coming home from overseas and finding a job is a challenge many soldiers.

"Vets are like a lot of Americans," said Richard Wheeler, of Operation Free, a coalition of veterans working to secure America with clean energy. "They want jobs. They want stable jobs in a growing industry."

The answer for many of those men and women: the wind industry.

"Everything from little pieces of electronics to the turbine blades themselves -- working in the wind industry is making a long term infrastructure that's going to reduce America's energy dependence, energy pricing, and provides long term job stability for veterans and their communities."

To continue doing those things, wind energy experts and veterans said the wind production tax credit, which is set to expire at the end of the year, must be extended.

"It's a tax credit that helps job growth," said Wheeler. "It is helping companies like Airstreams. It's helping the companies who build the wind turbines. It brings jobs to Tehachapi, Kern County, California and all of America."

For veterans, it's not only an investment in job security, but also our national security.

"Convoys that run overseas to bring fuel to a forward operating base -- 1 in 24 of those result in a death," said Wheeler. "If we can support all kinds of renewable technology to help the forward operating bases run more efficiently. (Then it will) take fewer convoys to maintain that forward operating base, and fewer Americans who get killed."

The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at the energy summit he would like the tax credit extension to pass before the November election, but was confident it would pass by the end of the year.