After the Stimulus, What's Next For Clean Tech?

2010 will be a blockbuster year for the American Clean Tech industry as billions of dollars in Stimulus money draw in private capital and create tens of thousands of jobs. But when the money runs out, and without a price on carbon, what's next for Clean Tech? Join us to discuss what's at stake for America's Clean Economy and how policy makers can maintain the momentum of the Stimulus.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act instructed the Department of Energy to invest more than $50 billion in appropriations,, tax credits, and borrowing authority into energy efficiency, energy infrastructure, and the clean technology industry. By March of this year, many of those investments were making their way into the field, joined by an estimated $100 billion in private capital. During 2010, Recovery Act money will create or retain more than 100,000 direct energy jobs, according to the private firm Onvia. But by late 2010, most of the Stimulus money will be spent.

Then what's next for Clean Tech? How will the thousands of companies that have expanded continue their momentum? Can they develop markets, with or without a price on carbon yet in place? What strategies can policy makers adopt to continue the growth in the mid-term? Can the Stimulus be the start of a longer game plan for Clean Tech? Are particular policies needed to assure the growth of a "Smart Grid?" And what are the stakes of failure? California invested millions developing its wind and solar industries in the 1980s, only to see them fail without consistent policies. Now the most of the industries and jobs California fostered have left the US.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/stimulus_clean_tech

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