U.S. Behind Foreign Competitors in Manufacturing Green Technologies

(NextGov.com – Jill R. Aitoro)

The United States is falling behind other countries in developing and manufacturing green technologies and will continue to do so unless the federal government provides financial incentives to American companies and changes domestic trade laws, according to a panel of government and industry experts that testified before Congress on Wednesday.

The U.S. trade balance in green technologies fell from a $12 billion surplus in 1997 to an $8.9 billion deficit in 2008, according to the New America Foundation, a nonprofit public policy think tank.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, referenced the statistic in his opening statement during a hearing on Wednesday. He also noted that only six of the top 30 green technology companies worldwide are American.

"Through insufficient investment and lack of policy leadership, the U.S. continues to lose ground to countries willing to back their companies with capital and create incentives" that support the development of green technologies, said Andrea Larson, an associate professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. "First we must get our own house in order. It is only then that we will have built the necessary platform for leadership in world trade."

Larson acknowledged that the United States declared in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to have 25% of the nation's energy demands supplied by renewable sources by 2025. But she said, "We come to the table late. Read more here.