In this week’s State of the Union address, President Obama once again made it clear that one of his top priorities is ensuring U.S. global leadership in the emerging industries of clean energy and energy efficiency.
Clean energy not only represents one of the greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century, it is also critical to our nation's ability to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and clean up our environment.
To support entrepreneurs all across America who are developing clean energy and energy-efficient technologies – installing wind turbines and solar panels, developing improved batteries for hybrid cars and putting the pieces of the next generation electricity grid together – the Department of Commerce is focused on several key areas.
This is quite a few different initiatives. But there's a thread that holds them all together.
They are all designed to empower American clean energy and efficiency businesses to grow and to hire.
We know government can’t solve all the problems facing our county. What we can do is help lay a foundation for growth and create smart incentives for private sector companies to build something special on top of that foundation.