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9. Business Luminaries Strive to Jumpstart New Energy

Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, and other forward-thinking business and technology leaders are encouraging the private and public sectors to get serious with energy research and development.

The group spoke at a press conference at the Newseum in Washington, DC on June 10 to announce their initiative through the American Energy Innovation Council.

The council has released a business plan that brings to the forefront the sobering reality that most New Energy Times readers know: "the energy challenge is much worse than most people realize."

Their Business Plan for America’s Energy Future lays out five recommendations:

• Create an independent national energy strategy board.
• Invest $16 billion per year in clean energy innovation.
• Create Centers of Excellence with strong domain expertise.
• Fund ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency--Energy) at $1 billion per year.
• Establish and fund a New Energy Challenge Program to build large-scale pilot projects.

Considering that some countries in the Far East have energy plans that span decades while America's energy strategies seem to last only four years at best, this plan looks like the right stuff.

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