With this week’s inaugural festivities, there’s been a lot of buzz in the news about who was at what party. One of the most buzz-worthy parties was the Green Inaugural Ball whose guest of honor drew dreamy-eyed admirers by the hundreds. While Wyclef Jean was there, I’m not talking about him–I’m talking about Al Gore. Host Gore, and a couple of the most influential renewable energy figures in the country–Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, and Rhone Resch, president & CEO of SEIA–hung out and talked shop on the green carpet for a while. The party itself was full of chatter about climate change legislation, what the economic downturn means for solar, and all sorts of other really fun things that you talk about at parties.
What seems to be happening is that it’s suddenly way cool to be involved with renewable energy on Capitol Hill. Consider the last administration’s treatment of climate change and insistence on using our fossil fuel resources to the last drop: this is a sea change for Washington. And the Obama administration, not even 48 hours after the inauguration, approved $20 billion in tax credits & other incentives for renewable energy as part of Obama’s economic stimulus package. (Yesterday, in related news, Adam talked about how Washington is reconsidering the ITC in favor of direct grants.) So he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, concerning renewables–if you were holding your breath, I think you can let it out now.
