Government Grants for Alternative Energy

In his State of the Union Address for 2007, President George W. Bush called for a
22% increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative energy.
However, in a speech he gave soon after, he said to those assembled, I recognize
that there has been some interesting mixed signals when it comes to funding.

Where the mixed signals were coming from concerned the fact that at the same time
the President was calling on more government backing for alternative energy
research and development, the NREL�the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of
Golden, Colardo�was laying off workers and contractors left and right. Apparently,
the Laboratory got the hint, because soon after the State of the Union Address,
everyone was re-hired. The second speech of the President's was actually given at
the NREL. There is almost unanimous public support for the federal backing through
research grants, tax breaks, and other financial incentives of research and
development of alternative energy sources.

The NREL is the nation's leading component of the National Bioenergy Center, a
�virtual� center that has no central bricks and mortar office. The NREL's raison
d'etre is the advancing of the US Department of Energy's and the United States'
alternative energy objectives. The laboratory's field researchers and staff
scientists, in the words of Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, �support critical
market objectives to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-
viable alternative energy solutions. At the core of this strategic direction are
NREL's research and technology development areas. These areas span from
understanding renewable resources for energy, to the conversion of these resources
to renewable electricity and fuels, and ultimately to the use of renewable
electricity and fuels in homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles.� The federally-
backed Laboratory directly helps along the United States' objectives for
discovering renewable alternative fuels for powering our economy and our
lifestyles.

The NREL is set up to have several areas of expertise in alternative energy

research and development. It spearheads research and development efforts into
renewable sources of electricity; these would include such things as solar power,
wind power, biomass power, and geothermal power. It also spearheads research and
development of renewable fuels for powering our vehicles such as biomass and
biodiesel fuels and hydrogen fuel cells. Then, it seeks to develop plans for
integrated system enginnering; this includes bringing alternative energy into play
within buildings, electrical grids and delivery systems, and transportation
infrastructures. The Laboratory is also set up for strategic development and
analysis of alternative energy objectives through the forces of economics, market
analysis and planning, and alternative energy investment portfolios structurings.

The NREL is additionally equipped with a Technology Transfer Office. This Office
supports laboratory scientists and engineers in the practical application of and
ability to make a living from their expertise and the technologies they develop.
NREL's research and development staff and its facilities are recognized for their
remarkable prowess by private industry, which is reflected in the hundreds of
collaborative projects and licensed technologies that the Laboratory now has with
both public and private partners.