US in danger of losing green-tech competition, experts say

The next industrial revolution will not be in IT, but in ET -- energy technology -- and the U.S. is in danger of missing the boat, two green tech experts said Wednesday.

The U.S. is investing only a fraction of the money needed to drive innovations in green tech, and the U.S. government is not providing enough incentives for companies and residents to adopt energy alternatives, author Thomas Friedman and venture capitalist John Doerr told a U.S. Senate committee.

The U.S. government needs large-scale programs to provide research and development funding for energy startups and loans for alternative energy companies, Doerr told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In addition, the U.S. government needs to tax the use of carbon-based fuels as a way to drive users from oil and gas to alternative energy sources, both Doerr and Friedman said.

If U.S. residents want to continue to burn carbon fuels, they should pay the entire cost, including the cost of environmental clean-up and the cost of maintaining troops in the Middle East, Friedman added. Without new carbon taxes, U.S. residents won't adopt new energy alternatives, he said.

Government action is needed "establish America's leadership on green technology, because that is not assured," said Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm that has invested in several IT companies. "What we are doing in recent years is not enough. We must act now, and we must act with speed and scale."

Only six of the world's top 30 alternative energy companies are based in the U.S., Doerr said.

The implications of the U.S. not being a world leader in green tech are staggering, said Friedman, author of economic-focused books, "The World is Flat" and "Hot, Flat and Crowded." The U.S. is in a race with other countries to come up with alternative energy industries, he said.

"Whichever countries or communities can come up with energy innovation, efficiency and conservation, with a source of abundant, cheap, clean, reliable electrons and molecules, will ... be able to undermine petro-dictatorships, mitigate climate change, ease energy poverty, and I think dramatically reverse biodiversity loss," he said. "The country that owns that is going to have the most national security, energy security, economic security, innovative companies, health climate and global respect."

The most innovative green tech company must be the U.S., Friedman told senators. "If it's not the United States of America, the chance that our kids enjoy the standard of living we have enjoyed is zero," he added.

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