“THE American economy is once again tilting toward danger,” reports the New York Times today.

Despite an aggressive regimen of treatments from the conventional to the exotic — more than $800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth of credit from the Federal Reserve — fears of a second recession are growing, along with worries that the country may face several more years of lean prospects.

How should President Obama respond?  The NYT editorial board suggests the following:

Mr. Obama also needs to inspire Americans who have been ground down by the economic crisis and Washington’s small-bore sniping. He needs to rally the nation around a big idea — a project that is worth sacrificing for, worth paying for, worth working for. One that lets them know that there is more ahead than just a return to a status quo of lopsided growth in which corporate profits surge while jobs and incomes lag.

That mission could be the “21st century infrastructure,” that Mr. Obama mentioned on a multi-city trip this month, “not just roads and bridges, but faster Internet access and high-speed rail.” It could be energy independence, with high-tech green jobs and a real chance for addressing global warming. Either of the above would make sense, economically and politically.

How about a national clean energy competitiveness and innovation project?

Yesterday, the White House released a report touting the recovery act’s success at fostering innovation in key economic sectors, most notably clean energy.  ARRA’s $30 billion clean energy investment is unique in its comprehensive approach, the White House notes, containing “investments across the innovation chain – from retooling current auto factories to new manufacturing and commercial deployment to research and development of electric drives and batteries.”

According to the report, the energy investment spike will achieve three major breakthroughs:

“1) Cutting the cost of solar power in half by 2015, putting it on par with the cost of retail electricity from the grid.

2) Cutting the cost of batteries for electric vehicles by 70 percent between 2009 and 2015, putting the lifetime cost of an electric vehicle on-par with that of its non-electric counterpart.

3) Doubling U.S. renewable energy generation capacity and U.S. renewable manufacturing capacity by 2012, a breakthrough that would not be possible without the Recovery Act.“

Robust federal investment in clean energy technologies has created the foundation for an energy industrial revolution in the United States, but the subtext of all this good news is that the achievements are being threatened by an impending funding cliff.  When the funding dries up, the fruits of many of these investments could wilt on the branches before they ever have time to ripen.  As Jesse Jenkins and Devon Swezey noted at Breakthrough Institute:

“Yet while the White House report highlights the considerable clean energy momentum established by the Recovery Act, it also inadvertently raises the specter of an impending clean tech funding cliff which risks sending U.S. clean energy industries into deep freeze as stimulus funds begin to expire over the coming months…. Facing such intense global competition, and with Recovery Act funds poised to expire soon, sending U.S. clean energy markets off a clean tech funding cliff, the U.S. is in dire need of a long-term clean energy investment strategy to regain economic and technological leadership in this new growth sector.”

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America’s energy crisis could be worsened by  a looming education crisis.   The DOE, as well as AEL, have expressed concern in the past over a lack of education and work force training in energy related fields.  Today, Kristina Johnson, the Under Secretary for Energy, wrote on this subject as well as the DOE’s Energy Education and Workforce Development Request for Information (RFI),

“Reports like this one from the nonprofit Center for Energy Workforce Development are a cause for concern, as they warn that 40% – 60% of the current energy utility workforce could be eligible to retire by 2012. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory cautions that a shortage of training and skills is ‘a leading barrier to renewable energy and energy-efficiency growth.’”

The goal of the RFI is to gather data through September 3, 2010 to get a better sense of the “status, prevalence, quality, and gaps in education and workforce development relevant to energy technologies.”  The results will likely highlight what has become an astonishing truth, America is not preparing its students for one of the largest growth industries of the future.  This reality is well documented, just this year a report by the National Science Board pointed out that, “the United States has fallen from one of the top countries in terms of its ratio of natural science and engineering degrees to the college-age population to near the bottom of the 23 countries for which data are available.”

The emerging workforce and STEM education gaps, if not addressed, will jeopardize America’s ability to compete in a clean-energy economy. That is why earlier this year AEL strongly supported RE-ENERGYSE, a proposal to increase federal funding for education in clean-energy related fields by $74 million for universities, community and technical colleges, and K-12 schools.  It is also why 107 student body presidents signed a letter asking congress to pass the legislation.  Unfortunately RE-ENERGYSE was not passed and problem has not gone away, but is good to see the DOE continuing to lead the charge for an educated clean-energy workforce.

Since the collapse of climate legislation, advocates have issued a number of post-mortems and ideas for moving forward.  One of the leading commentators on this front is Andrew Revkin — the lead New York Times environment reporter from 1995 through 2009 — and today at NYT Dot Earth he defined what he calls “The Technology Imperative for Energy and Climate“:

“If you care about fostering prosperity in poor places while limiting the buildup of greenhouse gases in the globe’s shared atmosphere, it’s time to recognize the technology imperative that lies behind the world’s entwined climate and energy challenges… Without greatly intensified work to advance and disseminate energy choices that don’t come with heat-trapping emissions, there’s no smooth path as human populations and appetites crest in the next two generations.”

As an example of what the next agenda might look like, Revkin republishes our op-ed from last week at the National Journal Energy Expert Blog.  In the article, we argued that the United States must quickly pivot from pollution regulation to an aggressive clean energy competitiveness and innovation agenda, including robust and targeted federal support for clean energy research and innovation, manufacturing, and domestic market demand, as well as infrastructure, education, and industry cluster formation.

This builds on the ongoing leadership of groups like Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Metro Policy Center, ITIF, Third Way, American Energy Innovation Council, Bipartisan Policy Center, and others who are helping define a new and robust energy and climate agenda.  We encourage you to follow their work in the months ahead, as well as Andrew Revkin’s commentary at Dot Earth.

Last Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that 150 students have been chosen to receive graduate fellowship awards for the Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship program.  The award includes tuition, living expenses, and research support for three years:

“The exceptionally talented students selected as graduate fellows are part of our nation’s next generation of scientific and technical leaders,” said Secretary Chu. “This investment in the training of scientists and engineers is part of the Administration’s continued effort to ensure that America has the scientific and engineering workforce we need to secure our energy future and our continued economic competitiveness.”

The goal of the fellowship program is to encourage students to pursue graduate degrees in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, engineering, and environmental and computer sciences—fields that will prepare students for careers that can make significant contributions in discovery-driven science and science for national needs in energy and the environment.

The goal of the program is to strengthen the nation’s scientific workforce, which is currently at serious risk, especially in the energy sector.  The National Science Board reports that science and engineering make up only about one-third of U.S. bachelor’s degrees, compared to 63 percent in Japan, 53 percent in China, and 51 percent in Singapore.  This step to address the problem was made possible by $12.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.