TechPulse 360

The federal government has dangerously under invested in clean-energy technology.

The government has woefully under invested in green technology, said venture investor John Doerr

Yet the green economy is coming faster than many observers believe, legendary start-up investor John Doerr said Wednesday.

“I think we will get to a low-carbon economy much faster and at a lower cost than anybody believes,” the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture capitalist said at the GreenBeat 2009 conference.

Doerr sounded a warning that America may not lead this next technology revolution the way it did the last. U.S. companies such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Facebook are the hands down leaders of the Internet.

But only four of today’s top 30 clean-tech companies were founded in the United States. Even if people haven’t yet accepted man’s role in creating greenhouse gases, they should be alarmed by the entrepreneurial shift, he said.

Part of the reason is the lack of federal investment under the head-in-the-sand Republican George Bush. “In green (tech) we’re woefully under funded,” Doerr said. Federal funding was less than $1 billion last year, and research at universities is nothing like it was during the early years of high tech.

President Barack Obama has changed direction. The Obama Administration has steered billions into promising solar, smart-grid and energy-conservation efforts.

“The president has a very clear agenda when it comes to green” he said. As a result, the country will be better prepared when the green economy arrives.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.