Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Commerce Launches Initiative to Expand Exports of Clean Energy Products, Services

  The Department of Commerce and seven other federal
  agencies launched a program Dec. 7 to help renewable
  energy and energy efficiency companies market their
  products and services overseas.
  The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export
  Initiative, the government's first coordinated effort to
  expand clean energy exports, will increase trade
  promotion, offer new financing mechanisms, and enhance
  market access, according to the Commerce Department.
  “The Initiative lays the foundation necessary to help
  U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency companies
  take better advantage of current market opportunities,”
  Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. “It
  also positions federal government programs to better
  support U.S. global competitiveness in these sectors over
  the long run.”
  The initiative is part of a plan to incorporate clean
  energy exports into President Obama's National Export
  Initiative, mentioned in his State of the Union Address,
  which seeks to double the amount of American exports by
  2015 (25 DER A-11, 2/9/10).
  Online Portal, Trade Missions
  In addition to the creation of an “online portal to
  provide renewable energy companies easy access to U.S.
  Government export resources,” the initiative will include
  an increase in the number of renewable energy and energy
  efficiency trade and trade-policy missions, the Commerce
  Department said.
  The plan include calls for:
     • creation of foreign buyers' guides for American
     clean energy technologies;
     • commitment by the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
     to invest an additional $300 million in financing for
     renewable resource projects in emerging markets and to
     introduce new products to support the exports;
     • streamlining of clean energy financing applications
     at both OPIC and the Export-Import Bank of the United
     States;
     • formation of a new subcommittee at the Office of the
     U.S. Trade Representative to address market access
     barriers facing the nation's clean energy industry in
     foreign markets, and
     • expansion of USDA's Market Access Program to include
     biomass wood pellets.
  “Expanding U.S. clean technology exports is a critical
  step to ensuring America's economic competitiveness in
  the years ahead,” Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said in a
  statement.
  “The initiatives we are announcing today will provide us
  with a better understanding of the global clean energy
  marketplace and help boost U.S. exports,” he said.
  The initiative was developed through the Trade Promotion
  Coordinating Committee Working Group on Renewable Energy
  and Energy Efficiency, which includes representatives
  from the departments of Commerce, Energy, State, and
  Agriculture, as well as the Export-Import Bank, OPIC, the
  U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and the Office of the
  U.S. Trade Representative.
  The initiative, the subject of a report released Dec. 7
  by the Commerce Department, comes as the department
  formed a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory
  Committee, which had its inaugural meeting Dec. 7.
By Ari Natter

     The Commerce Department report on the Renewable Energy
     and Energy Efficiency initiative is available at
     http://export.gov/reee/eg_main_023036.asp.
     The Commerce Department's Renewable Energy and Energy
     Efficiency Export Portal is available at
     http://www.export.gov/reee/.
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