Clean Energy Innovation: A Clean Energy Deployment Administration Will Spur Domestic Clean Energy Production

Well designed government support for clean energy innovation has the potential to increase U.S. energy independence and promote innovation and green jobs while reducing global warming pollution. Currently, financing provisions to support clean energy deployment are critically absent from the government's portfolio. The Clean Energy Financing Title of the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 (ACELA, S. 1462 in the last Congress) passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year provides a framework for a Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA) to assist proven technologies in moving beyond the "valley of death" between demonstration-scale and commercial-scale projects. Critical changes, however, must be made to this legislation to ensure that CEDA's supports home-grown energy technology innovations that are truly clean and are so new that they need government assistance, and that the program includes taxpayer protections.