Las Vegas yesterday was the epicentre of the renewable energy industry and politics as the city played host to the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0: Jobs and the New Economy. The event brought together a wide array of representatives from the industry, science, government, and advocacy organizations to discuss a policy agenda for the creation of jobs in the new economy.
The 2009 edition focused more specifically on the progress made since the first Summit in 2008, including the major clean energy and energy efficiency investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and looked at upcoming legislative opportunities.
Bill Clinton was one of the speakers. According to a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Mr. Clinton made repeated references to the “7 million jobs the nation has lost since the recession’s 2007 start. He talked of restoring some of those jobs by unlocking private capital locked down in a credit freeze, and he urged the nation to “take what Nevada is doing and put it on steroids” to develop a green economy.”
Elsewhere. Greentech Media dubbed the event “speed dating for the cleantech set” and listed some of the highlights of the event.
Finally, the Las Vegas Sun observed that “the summit more than anything else promoted a single idea: Make sure that the public support is vast enough to allow 60 senators to vote for an energy bill that includes higher costs for carbon emissions and a national requirement to acquire a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources.”
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