CALIFORNIA LEADS NATION IN GREEN TECH
This post is excerpted from a story by Carolyn Said that appeared Oct. 7, 2010 in the San Francisco Chronicle.
California stands on the forefront of green technology and has gained an economic edge by cutting carbon usage, according to a report to be released today.
“California is unique as a leader in green innovation for the United States and the world,” said F. Noel Perry, a businessman who founded Next 10, a nonpartisan public policy group that produced the report in conjunction with research firm Collaborative Economics. “Energy is the largest industry in the world and California is very well-positioned to reap the benefits of creation and innovation in the energy technology arena.”
In fact the state’s economy is already benefiting, the report said, because pioneering energy-efficiency efforts started in the 1970s have reduced costs for businesses and consumers.
“For energy productivity – GDP per unit energy – we’re 68 percent higher than the rest of the nation,” said, CEO of Collaborative Economics. “That’s a very important measure of green innovation’s impact on the economy. Increased productivity promotes competitiveness.”
Manufacturers are reining in their greenhouse gas emissions. “For every dollar of GDP generated in 2008, the state’s economy requires 32 percent less carbon than it did in 1990,” the report said.
The state’s per capita electricity use continues to drop, falling 6 percent from 1990 to 2009. However, overall consumption rose 22 percent as the population burgeoned.
The report disputed some common assumptions that the state suffers from high costs and an inhospitable business climate.
It’s not true that businesses are fleeing the state, Henton said. Adding up the numbers of businesses that started up compared with those that closed or moved elsewhere showed that the state gained a net average of 58,500 new businesses each year from 1995 to 2008, the report said.
California’s leadership in green technology bodes well for its future, the report said. The state has attracted $11.6 billion in clean-tech venture capital since 2006, about one-quarter of all global investment in the sector. In the first half of this year it drew 40 percent of all global clean-tech VC. More than half that money was invested in Silicon Valley.