David Herron .com

A $5 billion expansion of clean energy manufacturing tax credits for wind, solar and electric vehicles is exactly what the doctor ordered. Vice President Biden announced today that the $2.3 billion of tax credits currently available under in the ARRA stimulus package’s section 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program will be expanded with an additional $5 billion. The additional funds will leverage $15 billion in private investment, work immediately to create new clean energy manufacturing jobs, and boost the America’s competitiveness in global clean tech innovation.

A $5 billion expansion of clean energy manufacturing tax credits for wind, solar and electric vehicles is exactly what the doctor ordered. Vice President Biden announced today that the $2.3 billion of tax credits currently available under in the ARRA stimulus package’s section 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit program will be expanded with an additional $5 billion. The additional funds will leverage $15 billion in private investment, work immediately to create new clean energy manufacturing jobs, and boost the America’s competitiveness in global clean tech innovation.

The Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing incentive is meant to advance the green agenda while stimulating the economy by spurring the development of cleaner, greener automobiles. Ambitious. The energy department has approved direct loans to Nissan, Ford, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive totaling about $8 billion out of a budget of $25 billion. The magnitude of this program dwarfs other DOE campaigns like the $2.4 billion given to battery and electric vehicle component manufacturers and the $4 billion disbursed for “smart grid” projects.

There's a long list of Dept Of Energy and other government grants sending funding to promising CleanTech companies. The article's focus is on the funding of Fisker and whether/how VP Bidens people were involved with setting up the deal. This article is one of a wave of articles questioning whether "venture capitalist" is the right role for government. The principle may be that government venture capitalist activities interfere with the free market. However government loans and grants to businesses did not start with the Obama administration but has a long history.

There's a long list of Dept Of Energy and other government grants sending funding to promising CleanTech companies. The article's focus is on the funding of Fisker and whether/how VP Bidens people were involved with setting up the deal. This article is one of a wave of articles questioning whether "venture capitalist" is the right role for government. The principle may be that government venture capitalist activities interfere with the free market. However government loans and grants to businesses did not start with the Obama administration but has a long history.

Copenhagen Update: European Countries Agree to Construct Offshore Wind Supergrid | Sustainability | Fast Company

Nine European countries--Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Ireland--signed the "North Seas' Countries Offshore Grid Initiative," a plan to create an offshore wind power supergrid in the North and North West seas. The plan means interconnection between the power grids in Europe allowing for electricity sales. In this case it's wind power in Ireland being sold to the rest of Europe. The article also mentions Desertec, a plan to put solar panels in North Africa to send electricity to Europe.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced an international agreement that will see developed nations give $350 million to developing nations. The Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (REDI), plan will fund technology in the developing world, including solar lanterns, standards and labels for energy efficient appliances, and online clean energy communication tools.

The Oil Drum | There is plenty of oil but . . .

One of the promising sources of natural gas is shale formations. There has been many articles recently claiming our energy problems are solved by shale gas. However this Alternet article points out that shale gas extraction involves piping water into the shale formation. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique that releases natural gas trapped in underground shale formations by injecting water, chemicals, and sand to "frack" the rock structures and release the gas.