The country could miss a key opportunity for growth if it doesn’t soon follow Colorado’s example in pursuing the new-energy economy, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said Monday.

By Aldo Svaldi and Drew FitzGerald

“I can tell you we need an energy policy in the United States,” Locke said while visiting Denver for a forum of U.S. and Brazilian chief executives held in conjunction with the Biennial of the Americas.

Colorado earlier this year required that utilities obtain 30 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, one of the nation’s strictest mandates. That was an increase from an earlier voter- approved requirement of 20 percent by 2020, and the mandate has helped the state attract thousands of jobs in wind, solar and other technologies.

Locke said many companies and investors are sitting on the sidelines when it comes to renewable energy, fearful the technology they invest in won’t line up with U.S. energy policy.

“Why would shareholders or management sanction or allow investment into technology A if a year or two years from now U.S. policy favors technology Z?” he asked.

China, by contrast, is investing $9 billion a month in the clean-energy field, and not just to meet its own internal energy needs or improve emissions. The Chinese want to export the technology to other countries and reap the millions of jobs that could come from doing that, Locke said.

“If we don’t act soon on an energy policy . . . we will wake up and say, ‘How is it that Shanghai, China, or Berlin, Germany, have become the next Silicon Valley of clean energy?’ ” he said.

read the entire article HERE.