The L.A. Times hit on an issue I’ve been harping on for weeks now- we have the opportunity to pump a bunch of money into truly clean technologies and Washington is dropping the blue marble big time. $8.8 billion for nuclear, support for offshore drilling and just a few hundred million for the rest of the clean energy world. But where the Times really focused was on how the stalemate in Washington is hampering any kind of green energy investment- the kind that could create jobs.

PSGE in New Jersey is ready to build a wind farm. NextEra wants to double its $2 billion national investment in wind. Nobody can move forward because they don’t know what Washington is going to do.

"It's one thing to manage risk. It's another thing to gamble. We're not gamblers. And we're therefore a bit paralyzed." said Ralph Izzo, PSEG's president and chief executive office.

Will the government support new energy taxes, tougher emissions standards and guarantee markets to wind and solar startups? Nobody knows. This is where I start harping. If we put $8.8 billion in guaranteed loans to clean energy in the market that new nuclear plant is supposed to serve, you know they would figure it out. But they can’t even agree on basic energy policy. China and the EU are already building the clean energy future. They are investing in solar and wind power and working on new, improved power grids and, essentially, making definitive calls on what their energy futures will look like. If the U.S. were to make our calls right now it would be on coal and oil and nuclear. Depressing.

China passed the U.S. last year on private clean energy investment. China, Japan and Korea will outspend the U.S. on public investment.

"The investments being made in China are just huge government investments that the venture capital industry couldn't hope to match," said Tom Baruch, veteran venture capitalist of CMEA Capital in San Francisco. The International Energy Administration estimates $10 trillion (cq) in international spending on clean energy over the next several decades, according to Reuters- in this climate of clean energy investment, it’s saddening to see the U.S. venture capital investment cut to half of what it was in 2008. Yes, part of that is overall economic conditions- but still, come on, America. And right now the Obama administration is not giving a clear sign that it is betting on clean energy future.
PSEG is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on clean energy technologies at present – but Reuters says that would and could be billions if Congress would get its act together. Right now, it’s just too uncertain to put money into.

More than one person is quoted as saying creating sustained demand is crucial. The point is, the technologies are there and if we put the money toward developing them, they will develop. If we don’t, they won’t. It’s up to Congress to put the money where the hope is and right now it’s not happening.

I only hope that the sunrise happens for the currently windswept clean energy future.

Photo Credit: Nepanee gal (via Flickr under CCL)