Kathleen A. McGinty |
When it comes to America’s current energy picture, it’s the best of times and the worst of times, according to Kathleen A. “Kate” McGinty, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department on Environmental Protection and former chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Ms. McGinty, who delivered the opening keynote address to the UCEAO conference, said clean energy, is “on the radar” thanks to the nation’s enhanced environmental consciousness. However, like so many other areas of the economy, the clean energy industry has been hit hard by the overall financial crisis. Clean technology is a new and different kind of venture investment. When financial markets and credit become tight, it is challenging to find capital for clean tech, she said. From this point of view, clean energy appears to be in the worst of times.
Enter the federal stimulus program, with an infusion of funds for advanced energy programs. In this respect, she explained, clean energy is experiencing the best of times, with the prospect of adding thousands of miles of new grid capability and the electrification of the U.S. transportation fleet.
We have moved from renewables as rhetoric to being reality – we can’t just talk about it; we need to build it! |
Ms. McGinty, who serves as a founding partner of Peregrine Technology Partners, a firm focused on the commercialization of clean and resource efficient technologies, added that, for Ohio, the advanced energy portfolio standard offers the best of times as we build a green jobs economy. She noted that the “usual suspect” green states are not leading the way in this effort. Rather, it is states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that have existing infrastructure which can be adapted to invest in efficiency that are out in front on this issue. She characterized the climate for jobs development in Ohio and other efficiency leading states as intensively interdisciplinary, combining energy and information technologies to create green jobs.
She concluded by telling the UCEAO audience that Ohio is in the enviable position of having the opportunity to invent new technology through its university and private sector research base, the ability to create businesses and jobs, and the synergy to flourish and grow as a clean energy leader.
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Issue Two, 2009
