U.S. NEW ENERGY GETS A GENTLEMAN’S C

Doerr Gives U.S. a ‘C’ for Alternative-Energy
Ari Levy, August 3, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"John Doerr, head of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’s alternative-energy practice [and member of the White House Council on Jobs], said he would give the U.S. a C grade for development of green technology, which trails innovation in Internet and biotechnology.

"His grade would have been a D or F without $20 billion in loan guarantees for clean-energy projects under President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan and collaborative work between the government and private sector, Doerr said…"

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"Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill provided tax breaks and other incentives to projects such as those focused on developing alternative sources of energy, modernizing the electricity grid and creating advanced batteries…[but] the marketplace has been slow to emerge because of a lack of privately funded research and development, and the failure of the financial markets to support the industry, Doerr said…

"…The U.S. spends more money on potato chips than clean energy research and development…[but there] are some positive signs, Doerr said. Automakers last week agreed to double the fuel economy of the vehicles they sell in the U.S. to a fleetwide average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025…"