Support for Clean Energy Plan in Jobs Bill
January 21, 2010
05:26 PM
In a letter to President Obama today, a dozen leading green tech entrepreneurs, investors and stakeholders called for the immediate creation of a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA), the same as the one included in the Senate’s bipartisan American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009.
Chairman Bingaman appreciates this impressive, and rather muscular, endorsement of the bipartisan proposal that the Senate Energy Committee reported last year.
“If enacted today, CEDA can create countless new jobs this year in new companies across the country by helping breakthrough clean energy technologies get introduced into U.S. markets and expanded as quickly as possible,” Bingaman said. “CEDA would facilitate tens of billions of dollars in new investment in entrepreneurial companies with innovative technologies by giving investors the confidence that financing will be available later for first commercial-scale deployment. This is critical in helping emerging clean tech companies grow in an environment that is highly capital intensive, making our economy more competitive, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.”
The Senate version of CEDA provides support to private sector lending for deployment of existing clean technologies and direct support for innovative technologies currently mired in the “valley of death,” both of which are key to America’s economic competitiveness in clean energy. Moreover, in contrast to similar proposals which would create a new government-sponsored enterprise, the Senate’s version of CEDA would be affiliated with the Department of Energy and could take advantage of their substantial technical expertise and be up and running much faster than an entity started from scratch.
January 21, 2010
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
As entrepreneurs, investors and industry stakeholders active in the transition to a low-carbon energy economy, we urge you to work with Congressional leaders to craft a jobs package that includes the immediate creation of a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA). We believe CEDA’s swift enactment will both spur the creation of jobs in 2010, and position the U.S. as the global leader in the development and deployment of clean energy technologies for years to come.
Last year, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee adopted bipartisan legislation to create CEDA, as Title I of the American Clean Energy Leadership Act. The pending Senate proposal would establish and fund CEDA to provide various types of flexible credit support for the development and deployment of clean energy technologies throughout the economy. CEDA would be affiliated with the Department of Energy, but have largely independent operations including its own Senate-confirmed Administrator and Board of Directors.
A critical feature of CEDA, as created in the Senate bill, is its focus on innovative technologies. We believe the availability of CEDA financing will help America’s emerging clean energy technology companies cross the so-called “valley of death” between the invention of a technology and its commercial deployment, and thus substantially accelerate and increase private sector investment necessary to position the U.S. as the global clean energy leader. In short, CEDA will help finance the scale-up of precisely the kinds of innovative technologies that will create new, 21st Century American jobs and position the U.S. to capture the economic benefits of the global transition to low-carbon energy infrastructure.
We would be pleased to discuss this matter with Administration officials. Thank you for your consideration -- and your leadership in the emerging clean energy economy.
Sincerely,
Neil Z. Auerbach
Managing Partner
Hudson Clean Energy Partners
John Denniston
Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Josh Green
General Partner
MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures
Mark G. Heesen
President
National Venture Capital Association
Paul Holland
Partner
Foundation Capital
Ralph Izzo
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated
Elon Musk
Chairman and CEO
Tesla Motors, Inc.
Kevin Walsh
Managing Director
GE Energy Financial Services
Andrew Perlman
President and Chief Executive Officer
GreatPoint Energy, Inc.
Arati Prabhakar
General Partner
U.S. Venture Partners
Ray Ramsey
President
TechNet
Dan Reicher
Director
Climate Change and Energy Initiatives
Google Inc.
Director
Climate Change and Energy Initiatives
Google Inc.
Alan E. Salzman
CEO
VantagePoint Venture Partners
Cc: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
The Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader
The Honorable John Boehner, House Republican Leader
The Honorable Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader
The Honorable Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader
The Honorable Dick Durbin, Senate Majority Whip
The Honorable Eric Cantor, House Republican Whip
The Honorable John Kyl, Senate Republican Whip
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