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, most diverse, and most globalized state in the union with an unparalleled engine of innovation. Two of his proposals go to the heart of moving clean tech rapidly beyond the dream stages into reality: 1) a measure to streamline the construction permitting process for projects that have completed environmental reports – this could eliminate costly delays for projects like utility scale solar; and 2) a proposal to exempt the purchase of green tech manufacturing equipment from sales tax.

According to the Governor, California leads the world in environmental technology – with over 10,209 clean tech companies, it is the home base to innovative minds and year-round sunshine that can power the clean tech industry. Exempting clean tech manufacturing equipment would not cost the state ‘precious tax dollars’; in fact, it could potentially increase revenue by expanding the number of clean tech companies that locate in California.

With this vision in mind, perhaps California, long seen as the high-and bio-tech center for the U.S., will now also become the mecca for clean tech.

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