Legislation to create a new federal financing agency to promote “green” power innovation received bipartisan support May 3 in the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. S. 1462 is the foundation for the Clean Energy Development Administration. The agency would augment federal tax supplements and loan guarantees. “It’s the care and feeding of R&D,” said Dan Reicher, executive director of Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) supports the legislation, despite her concern over allowing fledgling companies to become “addicted to government funds.” You want to “give them the kick start and then they’re on their own,” she said. The new federal administration is an attempt to get renewable energy technology companies through what is denoted as the “Valley of Death.” That is, the distance between initial funding and project completion. The administration is set to “create a financing entity to cross the Valley of Death by helping to reduce the risk…and create a more successful and competitive clean energy industry,” Reicher said. Democrats, Republicans, and panelists agreed that research and development is high risk. Conservatives expressed concern that “green” energy technologies may never be competitive with fossil-fueled power.
