America Competes Reauthorization Act Of 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman, the amendment I am offering today, along with the gen tle lady from California (Mrs. Capps), would add a new R&D program specifically focused on increasing our Nation's capacity to turn new innovations into new jobs. A clean energy consortium would be regionally based, selected by the Secretary of Energy through a competitive process, and include research universities, national labs, industry, and other State and nongovernmental organizations with expertise in clean energy development.
Moving to commercialize innovations in the clean energy sector is critical to our ability to compete for jobs with China and India. The faster we bring clean energy technologies to market, the faster we end our addiction to foreign oil from the Middle East. Our amendment will connect professors with producers, inventors with investors to move energy innovations out of the lab and into the factory.
Unlike research in biotech and defense, technology developed through energy R&D must break into a deeply entrenched market at a competitive cost in order to be successful. We need policies that can help overcome the valley of death where great ideas frequently stall before they have reached the critical proof-of-concept stage. That's what we do in this amendment.
We have worked with business, universities, and venture capital groups in developing this legislation. It has received endorsements from TechNet. The National Venture Capital Association has endorsed this amendment. The Clean Economy Networks, the companies across this country that want to focus on this energy sector, create millions of new jobs want this as part of the plan that we put together to make sure that it's not just research; it's research that turns into jobs rapidly in our country.
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