U.S. Losing Green Race,Leading Venture Capitalist Warns

Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr has warned Congress that the U.S. is falling behind in the global competition to develop renewable energy technology and has presented a five-point plan to put the country on a path to a clean energy future. Speaking before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, Doerr — whose investments helped launch Google and Amazon — said that only six of the world’s top 30 solar, wind energy, and advanced battery companies are American. But he expressed optimism that the incoming Obama administration would reverse the downward trend and recommended a five-point energy plan to Congress: modernize the electricity grid to accommodate solar and wind energy, put a price on carbon, set a national renewable energy standard requiring utilities to generate increasing amounts of alternative energy, offer incentives to utilities to promote energy efficiency measures, and allocate far more federal money for research and development of clean energy technologies.