California Call for Clean Tech Mecca
Cleantech, Applied
On Wednesday, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, in his annual State of the State Address called for support of green technology to create new jobs to boost the economy.
Schwarzenegger highlighted how the Californian dream is not over –calling the state a pioneering mega-state that is the greenest, mostdiverse, and most globalized state in the union with an unparalleledengine of innovation. Two of his proposals go to the heart of moving clean tech rapidlybeyond the dream stages into reality: 1) a measure to streamline theconstruction permitting process for projects that have completedenvironmental reports – this could eliminate costly delays for projectslike utility scale solar; and 2) a proposal to exempt the purchase ofgreen tech manufacturing equipment from sales tax.
According to the Governor, California leads the world inenvironmental technology – with over 10,209 clean tech companies, it isthe home base to innovative minds and year-round sunshine that canpower the clean tech industry. Exempting clean tech manufacturingequipment would not cost the state ‘precious tax dollars’; in fact, itcould potentially increase revenue by expanding the number of cleantech companies that locate in California.
With this vision in mind, perhaps California, long seen as thehigh-and bio-tech center for the U.S., will now also become the meccafor clean tech.
