Obama’s win: Bright future for CleanTech?
November 5th, 2008 by 
After Obama’s win, it did not take long for the first blog and news articles to appear speculating about the future of CleanTech.
One of these articles is coming from the Cleantech Group asking ”Does Obama’s win spell victory for ethanol and carbon trading?” (link to article):
Cleantech awaits word on cabinet members as certain sectors expect boost with new presidency.
As Democrat Barack Obama handily won the U.S. presidency Tuesday night, cleantech insiders began projecting corn-based ethanol, carbon trading and transportation as winners too.
Obama and opponent John McCain were both considered as having favorable policies toward cleantech, said Neal Dikeman, founding partner at Jane Capital Partners.
What will be the next steps to reach greater energy independence? Where do you think CleanTech is heading with Obama as the new president of the U.S.?
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Tags:  Carbon Research ethanol Obama presidency trading | [ Permalink ] |
I don’t think that the man’s arrival into the office will have immediate impact. What i do know is that his DOE team is going to be stacked with people like Dan Kammen, Sanjay Wagle, and Andy Karsner – if not these people then people like them that are ardent believers in renewables and know that sustainable solutions need to be economically and environmentally sustainable. They know that investing in the resources and infrastructure to make these technologies scale is critical, and they have been loud supporters of doing so. Hopefully Obama can get in there and shake things up, by harnessing the enthusiasm and goodwill that that he is taking into the Oval Office.
He and his team (many of which were on the CT4O board) have lain out some very compelling rhetoric, it will be interesting to see which he targets first, and which he tosses under the bus. The fact that he has a majority in Congress should mean he at least has an ability to have good dialogue with legislators, at best a fast track to get his policies forward. That is a double edged sword though…. As a taxpayer I would prefer some stronger oversight by opponents, but the Republicans have not been particularly effective at shepherding renewables and oil alternatives.
Let’s see what happens, either way I’m excited.