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Connected Organizations for a Responsible Economy

CORE Sustainability Breakfast

  • December 23, 2009
  • 07:30 AM - 10:00 AM
  • World Trade Center, 1625 Broadway, 8th Floor, Denver

Registration

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
 
Sustainability Breakfast
Feel-good Government Grants Lead Cleantech Astray?? 

David Gold, a partner in Access Ventures, in Denver and long-time player in cleantech investment, recently wrote a hard-hitting article on his blog http://www.greengoldblog.com/2009/12/feel-good-government-grants-leading.html. He argues that the government has no business using our taxpayer dollars to hand out huge sums in grants (subsidies) to hundreds of (mainly) renewable energy  companies in the hope that this process will create a "new energy economy". 
 
CORE is the first to support the idea that we must move toward a more sustainable global economy. But we agree with David that these subsidies are a serious misallocation of capital and that the feeding frenzy sparked off by their availability represents a misdirection of effort in the business community at a time when private funding for cleantech development significantly signficantly decreased, notably for renewable energy.
 
David argues that government has a rotten track record of picking technology winners. It should be directing its efforts, firstly, at basic energy research and secondly, to addressing the factors that support the fundamental economic advantages existing our exsiting energy economy. Unless these factors can be can be adjusted to create market drivers that support the development of clean  energy, ongoing subsidies across the complete spectrum of new energy technology will just increase the Federal deficit without making much of a dent in our overall energy (or emissions) picture.
 
If we can't get legislation passed to put a significant tax on carbon emissions (and what is the likelihood of that after last week's tame outcome in Copenhagen?) or a European-style tax on gasoline (dream on), I for one don't want to see my shoveled dollars shovelled into a pile of renewable energy technologies, many of which have little chance of ever being competitive.
 
Nothing changes behavior faster than being hit hard in the pocketbook so perhaps our best hope is for a dramatic and sustained surge in oil prices. While this would create the same howls as the idea of taxes on carbon or gasoline, it wouldn't be in our power to control it, it would give real, ongoing life to the commercialization of clean energy technologies, and the market would see to it that the best ones came out the winners.
 
Join CORE at our Sustainability Breakfast on January 13th and hear David Gold present his ideas. We'll have someone from the DOE there to argue the other side of the story! 

WHEN:    7:30 AM-10:00 AM
WHERE:  1801 California Street, Suite 4900,  Denver
PRICING: CORE Members -  $15
              Non-Members   -  $30
              WALK IN (ALL)  -  $35 (cash or check ONLY)
 

   CH2MHILL.gif   Patton Boggs 4c_hi-res.tif   WWFoods.gif         CORE Address: 1801 California Street, Suite 4900
                                                                                                                               Denver, CO 80202
                                                                                                                  Phone:  (303) 894-6333