Business Titans Urge Lawmakers on Energy Innovation Spending

On 09.14.11, In News, By Staff

On Tuesday, a group of the nation’s most formidable business leaders — including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Bank of America Chairman Chad Holliday – gathered in Washington, DC to deliver a full-throated warning to lawmakers: increase the federal government’s investment in energy innovation or risk losing out on a $5 trillion global industry.

“If the U.S. fails to invent new technologies and create new markets and new jobs that will drive the transformation and revitalization of the $5 trillion global energy industry, we will have lost an opportunity to lead in what is arguably the largest and most pervasive technology sector in the world,” they stated.

The seven-member group, called the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), also includes Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric; Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin and undersecretary of the U.S. Army; John Doerr, a leading venture capitalist; Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corp.; and Tim Solso, CEO of Cummins Inc.  The group gained national recognition in 2010 in releasing its first report, A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future, which called for a three-fold increase in federal energy innovation budgets.

This week, the group released a new report called Catalyzing American Ingenuity: The Role of Government in Energy Innovation. In a rare move for high-profile business leaders, the report directly challenges the notion that government should cut investments in technology and calls energy innovation spending “a top national priority.”

“In these debates, some argue that government serves little essential role in innovation… Based on history and on our own experiences leading innovative companies, we disagree,” states the report. “In a time of austerity, the last thing one should do is under-fund R&D and high technology priorities… to do so is the equivalent of removing an engine from an overloaded aircraft in order to reduce its weight.”

(more…)

Tagged with: •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

Bill Gates: Increase Federal Energy R&D to Drive Innovation

On 05.11.11, In News, By Staff

Bill Gates, the world’s second richest man and American business magnate, has been using the microphone at several recent events to send a strong and simple message: the U.S. federal government needs to dramatically expand its investment in advanced energy research and development.  As the New York Times reported today via ClimateWire:

At home, the government isn’t doing enough to invest in basic research and development and should more than double it, Gates said. A few good things have been done, including the founding of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. But even that doesn’t get much money and almost had it all cut, Gates said.

Last year, Gates, venture capitalist John Doerr and General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and a few others founded the American Energy Innovation Council, which lobbied the federal government to spend $16 billion a year on renewable energy development. It didn’t pan out and, in face of a conservative House, probably won’t for a while.

Still, Gates was adamant that research and development can only come from government. He said he’s shocked that there’s virtually no current bipartisan support for it… The energy sector is going to be underinvested in unless the government promotes research and encourages investment by making its policy positions on incentives and regulations clear, Gates said.

Over the last year, Gates has significantly ramped up his energy R&D advocacy.  It began with his winter 2010 TED talk, when he declared that if he were granted “one wish” for the next fifty years, it would be to develop low-carbon energy technology at half today’s price, which he claimed would have the “greatest impact” on the world.

Later in the year, he helped organize a group of CEOs under the  American Energy Innovation Council, which released a report calling on the federal government to increase energy R&D up to $16 billion annually.  This week,  Gates said he was “stunned” that more bipartisan developments haven’t happened on energy R&D, but he was hopeful that progress could be made over the next two to three years: (more…)

Tagged with:
 
2 Comments
Leave A Response

The Energy Debate with Bill Gates

On 08.31.10, In Notes, By Teryn Norris

Update Sept 2: Bill Gates has responded at Dot Earth

Andrew Revkin is hosting an interesting discussion at New York Times Dot Earth right now on energy innovation policy.  It began with a post about Bill Gates’ recent interview with MIT Technology Review, which focused primarily on energy, and a rebuke from one commentator,  Richard Rosen, in “A Challenge to Bill Gates on Energy Research.”  Revkin encouraged discussion in an email to several experts, and this was my initial contribution.  Bill Gates is apparently offering a response at Dot Earth tomorrow, so stay tuned:

The White House recently released its report on how ARRA is promoting innovation, particularly in solar PV, batteries, and DNA sequencing.  ”Near-term improvements will be able to cut the cost of solar power in half, as second generation thin-film solar panels such as the rapidly emerging CIGS and Cd-Te technologies compete with ever improving traditional silicon-based panels,” the report noted. “Beyond that, breakthrough technologies could make solar as cheap as new fossil fuel plants without government incentives.”

This assertion stands in direct contrast to one of Richard Rosen’s most basic assumptions, which is that it is thermodynamically infeasible for low-carbon electric generation technology to provide electricity as cheap or cheaper than coal-fired power plants.  Secretary Chu’s own assessment that we need several Nobel-caliber level breakthroughs to make low-carbon energy cheap enough to compete also stands in contrast.  I think we can assume that Secretary Chu understands the second law of thermodynamics! (As well as Dr. Holdren and his team, for that matter, who I’m sure played an important role in the White House report).

(more…)

Tagged with:
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response

A Bipartisan Strategy for Energy Leadership

On 06.28.10, In Columns, By Teryn Norris

By Teryn Norris & Clifton Yin
Published by The Huffington Post

When President Obama and key Senate leaders meet today to reach a compromise on energy and climate legislation, they should strongly consider increasing federal investment in clean energy technology to at least $15 billion annually. This is a comprehensive third way strategy to improve U.S. energy independence, economic competitiveness, and climate security, and it deserves bipartisan support.

We are a Democrat and Republican. One of us campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008, the other as a delegate for John McCain. One of us worked on energy and climate policy for the progressive Breakthrough Institute, while the other worked on similar issues for the conservative American Enterprise Institute. We disagree on a wide range of issues, and we hold different economic philosophies.

Despite our differences, we are strongly united behind a serious federal agenda for clean energy innovation. Regardless of the future of cap and trade, robust federal investment in clean energy technology can effectively tackle both energy and climate policy reform. In addition to reducing our oil addiction, it can help build new export-oriented and manufacturing-intensive industries, seize global market share, drive down the price of clean energy technologies, and accelerate the transition to a cleaner, low-carbon economy.

(more…)

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • •
 
0 Comments
Leave A Response
Go To Top »