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Renewable energy investment going to China, not USA

Senate Inaction Cedes U.S. Energy Race to China: Bloomberg,   By Eric Pooley – Jul 30, 2010 “….. On July 27, when Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled the “Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act,” the two most powerful clean energy provisions were missing: a cap on carbon emissions from the electric power sector and a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which would require utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021…..……The disappearance of the renewable energy standard, however, was a shock. Both the House and Senate have passed RES bills in the past, yet it has never become law. With elections looming, this may be the last chance for years to set the rules of the road for energy investment……

….Instead of funding U.S. projects, banks and venture capitalists increasingly are putting their energy money into China, where the market is large and secure, thanks to government mandates. In the second quarter, for example, China attracted more clean-tech asset financing than Europe and the U.S. combined, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Financing of wind turbines, solar panels, and low-carbon technology in China climbed to $11.5 billion, a 72 percent jump from the year-earlier quarter. U.S. investment in clean energy for the quarter measured $4.9 billion; Europe’s, $4.5 billion. “Where investors are placing their bets,” says BNEF Chief Executive Michael Liebreich, “is changing rapidly.”

On the same day that Reid pulled the plug on the carbon cap, China Daily announced that the People’s Republic would begin an experiment in carbon trading — a policy mechanism invented in America, used by Republican George H.W. Bush to fight acid rain, and vilified by today’s GOP as “cap and tax.”

Senate Inaction Cedes U.S. Energy Race to China: Eric Pooley – Bloomberg

July 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | antinuclear, climate change, energy efficiency, global warming, renewable energy, renewables, solar, wind