Setti Warren on Technology

Take advantage of a clean energy economy

• Making the R&D tax credit permanent and more accessible to emerging firms;
• Reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and expanding it;
• Extending renewable energy cash grants: This cash grant program has helped drive growth in the renewable energy industry by providing a quicker return to investors than a tax credit does.
• Cutting capital gains taxes for small business investments;
• Getting the Energy Dept. to choose Mass. for its next clean tech "regional innovation cluster";
• Guaranteeing loans through the DOE for large-scale projects: Even though clean energy investment globally shrunk in the first part of 2011, China has overtaken the U.S. with $54 billion in these investments and is still the top manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels.

50 years since serious national commitment infrastructure