Industry groups encourage clean energy exports

Industry groups encourage clean energy exports    A group of large industry associations released a set of principles on Capitol Hill Wednesday to encourage lawmakers and administration officials to seek a more 'coordinated and aggressive' U.S. clean energy export promotion program.
   The principles, titled 'Encouraging U.S. Clean Energy Exports: A Set of Private-Sector Principles,' highlight how demand for U.S. clean energy products and services is critical to creating U.S. jobs and maintaining U.S. leadership in the global economy.
   'More active and aggressive promotion by the U.S. government of clean energy exports will drive U.S. leadership of the global clean energy economy,' said Jake Colvin, National Foreign Trade Council vice president for global trade issues. 'These principles outline for the administration and Congress specific policies that will create American jobs and improve the environment and economy.'

Colvin

   In addition to NFTC, the principles' signers were the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Business Roundtable, Coalition of Services Industries, Emergency Committee for American Trade, Information Technology Industry Council, National Association of Manufacturers, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, U.S. Council for International Business, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
   The proposal was released at a briefing featuring Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, and Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., chairman of the House Rules Committee.
   Also at the briefing, a panel of senior representatives from the business and environmental communities and U.S. government discussed how promoting U.S. clean energy exports can help unlock foreign markets and grow businesses and jobs in the United States.
   The business groups put forward a six-point plan to help guide action by the U.S. government in promoting green technologies:
   ' Ensure 'technological neutrality' in efforts to encourage clean technology exports.
   ' Activate U.S. commercial diplomacy, including the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, in support of clean tech exports.
   ' Require robust monitoring and reporting on clean technology export programs.
   ' Further develop 'flexible' clean technology funding mechanisms.
   ' Protect U.S. intellectual property rights globally.
   ' Reduce barriers to international trade in environmental goods and services.
   'Taken together, these efforts would help clear away significant barriers at the domestic and international levels to American clean energy exports, thereby supporting robust job creation and innovation in this critical sector,' said Rob Mulligan, USCIB's senior vice president in Washington.