12/13/06 Moving Ahead with Clean Energy

Moving ahead with clean energy. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Dependency on fossil fuels and foreign oil has its days numbered. More and more people and businesses are recognizing the need to develop clean renewable alternatives. Not only agriculture and rural leaders, but investors and technology entrepreneurs in the Northwest are recognizing that a thriving clean energy industry can bring new prosperity to our region. Rhys Roth with Harvesting Clean Energy and Climate Solutions ROTH: Well there's a growing recognition that clean energy is the growth sector for the 21st century and it is an opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs in the Pacific Northwest both in our cities and in our rural communities and this is a sign on campaign to bring the business voice to policy makers to let them know enacting a strong set of policies is key to help our ability to compete in this sector. The sign on campaign is an effort to build critical support. ROTH: We are looking to get business leaders of all shapes and sizes from all parts of Oregon and Washington to join Nancy Floyd and David Giuliani in signing on to this letter to policy makers which will then be delivered to the governors, state legislators and our congressional delegation so that we have a strong business voice saying that we do need clean energy policies to create the environment so businesses can thrive in this sector. Nancy Floyd is one of the top US clean energy investors, and David Giuliani is a leading technology entrepreneur who are heading up this campaign. According to Roth the time is right for this clean energy push. ROTH: All the signals tell us that clean energy is going to grow dramatically worldwide in the coming decade and so to get out front of this is really to our advantage so I think proactive policies and business innovation can go hand in hand and create a lot of opportunity for job creation and wealth creation in the northwest. For more information and to sign on to the effort visit the web site www.climatesolutions .org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.