InfoUse at Washington DC Clean Economy Summit
With a palpable optimism, and a vibrant ecosystem of participants from a variety of fields, the January 2011 Clean Economy Network Summit in Washington DC was a historic event.
The Clean Economy Network is explicitly a non-partisan organization, serving essentially as an advocate for the booming clean technology sector by creating a conduit for communications between entrepreneurs, investors, businesses and government. Two days of panel discussions, presentations and informal discussions between participants clarified policy issues, identified business opportunities, and brought some of the best minds and leaders together in the industry.
InfoUse was there to identify and discuss opportunities to support the Clean Economy through its work.
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) kicked things off by bemoaning the Obama administration's connection between the need for “Clean Technology” with what he sees as a politically controversial issue - global warming. Instead, Senator Lugar urged a less controversial reframing of the debate towards reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil - so called "energy security" - through Clean Tech.
Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) both gave passionate talks about the dangers to the US economy of being technologically leapfrogged by China and India as they rapidly expand their clean tech sectors. They spoke about the clean tech opportunities to create jobs, and about the innovation historically at the core of the United States economy.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, perhaps gave the most surprising talk of the event. He spoke of the military need for clean technologies to reduce and eliminate costly and dangerous fuel convoys. He spoke of the biofuels currently used both for some vessels as well as for a fleet of fighter jets. He talked about solar panels currently used in combat arenas in Afghanistan, and dreams of a time that Afghan farmers might switch from growing opium poppies to growing cotton used for the production of biofuels to support the war effort. When leadership in the US military is pushing for rapid advancement in clean tech, we know that we are involved in a massive movement.
From the private sector, John Woolard, CEO of Brightsource Energy talked about the challenges of establishing the largest solar thermal project in the world in the world in California. John Woolard hit on the need for a greatly expanded transmission line network to foster more clean energy development.
David Crane or NRG talked expansively of the opportunities and challenges facing clean tech development in the United States.
After the conference, many of the CEN participants gathered at a local eatery to watch the president's 2011 state of the union address. If the conference wasn't enough to convince one of America's need for the rapid development in clean tech, our president's speech made it abundantly clear. Our president's message? For jobs, global competitiveness, energy security and for our future, America needs to put as much attention into clean tech as it did into getting to the moon. He wants to eliminate the billions of annual subsidies given to oil and instead massively support the research and business development within the clean economy to get there.
