Is it just me, or has there been a lot of recent chatter about state and city governments trying to attract cleantech investment? As outlined by CNET News, the recently passed fiscal stimulus package will extend billions of dollars in grants, tax credits, loans and loan guarantees to the renewable energy sector, including:

  • A three-year extension to the tax credit for wind, which would have expired at the end of this year, and an extension until the end of 2013 for geothermal and biomass renewable-energy projects. The credit has been increased to 30 percent of the investment.
  • $4.5 billion in direct spending to modernize the electricity grid with smart-grid technologies.
  • $6.3 billion in state energy-efficient and clean-energy grants and $4.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient.
  • $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy systems, biofuel projects, and electric-power transmission facilities.
  • $2 billion in loans to manufacture advanced batteries and components for applications such as plug-in electric cars.
  • $5 billion to weatherize homes of up to 1 million low-income people.
  • $3.4 billion appropriated to the Department of Energy for fossil energy research and development, such as storing carbon dioxide underground at coal power plants.
  • A tax credit of between $2,500 and $5,000 for purchase of plug-in electric vehicles, available for the first 200,000 placed into service.

With so much federal money on the table, it makes sense that states (and cities) would redouble their efforts to bring green-collar jobs home to roost. Among those vying for “cleantech hub” status, several states and municpalities have received extra attention in the past week:

On Sunday, the El Paso Times reported on efforts in the Texas legislature to attract funds and promote solar energy research:

So far this session, Texas legislators have filed more than 20 bills dealing with solar and other forms of renewable energy, including a state sales-tax exemption, a green-jobs training program and a move to devote money from the Emerging Technology Fund to solar energy research.

Industry and government leaders are also waiting to find out how much money could be available in the new federal stimulus package. Nationally, $78 billion will be allocated to renewable energy.

Also on Sunday, the Fort Collins Coloradan profiled a local incubator program that aims to bring cleantech to the Fort Collins area:

Fort Collins continues to entice renewable energy companies from as far as Europe and as near as CSU, thanks, in large part, to a local incubator.

Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative’s, or RMI2, incubator program has added two new companies this year to its ever growing list of start ups. …

Mike Freeman, the city’s chief financial officer, said RMI2 has been successful in attracting innovation-based companies such as Symbios and Wirsol. The commitment of the region to renewable energy presented a unified front for Wirsol.”We do compete heavily, not only in Colorado, but nationally for clean technology,” Freeman said. “Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we are not. But I think we compete very well as a region.”

Finally, on a related note, investment is a two-way street. The Elmira, NY-based Star Gazette reported on T. Boone Picken’s recent efforts to woo the National Governors Association into backing his plan for energy independence:

Pickens made a pitch Saturday to members of the National Governors Association to join the 14 governors who already have signed onto his plan for American energy independence.

“After listening to him, I gave a lot of thought to it,” New York Gov. David Paterson said at the association’s winter meeting in Washington.

”So I’m going to have to get the plan and read it. I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.”

The governors who have signed up already are mostly from Western states that could become part of what Pickens envisions as a windmill corridor stretching from Texas to Canada, and a solar energy corridor stretching from Texas to California.

For more information on these and related issues, check out the Apollo Alliance.