The day after President-elect Barack Obama laid out a federal economic stimulus plan that could inject up to $1 trillion into the economy, including $150 billion over 10 years, to develop clean energy and create 5 million new “green” jobs, California legislators began promoting a state-based renewable energy economy. “California has been a leader in investment in green technology,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA), convening a January 7 hearing on the promise and cost of creating a green economy. “In 2007, there was over $1.8 billion in clean tech venture capital investment in California, nearly a 50 percent increase from 2006.” Boxer said without underlying laws promoting renewable energy--instead of just relying on markets--California’s economy likely would be in far worse shape than it is today. For instance, she said state policies to promote solar energy--like the renewable portfolio standard imposed on utilities to bring in 20 percent non-fossil energy into the mix of electricity they sell, and the Million Solar Roofs program that subsidizes photovoltaic installations on homes and businesses--are employing construction workers who otherwise would be out of work due to the housing downturn. John Doerr, partner in the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, told the committee that compared to the information technology revolution that fueled economic prosperity in the last decade it will not be cheap or easy to realize the potential of the green economy. “The capital requirements are an order of magnitude greater,” he said, to create new green products compared to creating new information technology products. However, he predicted that a green revolution can generate for more jobs than the information technology revolution created. Doerr’s comments follow a January 6 report by the Cleantech Group showing that venture capital investment in clean energy technologies fell by 35 percent in the final quarter of 2008, after explosive growth during the first three quarters of the year. Some lawmakers questioned the wisdom of putting a price on carbon during a recession. Under President-elect Barack Obama’s plan launched January 6, the federal government would invest $150 billion with private industry and states to advance renewable energy, a new digital transmission grid, low-emission coal plants, as well as commercializing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and advanced biofuels. The investments also would set a 25 percent renewable energy portfolio standard for utilities across the nation to meet by 2025 and provide money to train workers for new green jobs.
