What the election means for alternative energy

With Barack Obama as the President elect for the United States, the coming years will bring many changes to this country (as we so often heard in the past few months). Either candidate would have hand their hands full come inauguration. The economy is in a slump due to the falling stock market and credit crunch and home prices and consumer confidence continue to fall, but what lies ahead for alternative energy? Both candidates favored the use of alternative energy as a way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, so the alternative energy sector would have performed well in the future regardless of what happened on Election Day. In reality, the sector will win out one way or another over time.

Change (it will be hard to use that word in the future without sounding partisan) in energy technology will start to become more and more visible throughout the United States in the coming years. Subsidies for alternative energy projects will increase making more opportunities for solar, wind, and biofuel firms to take on projects. Natural gas will become more widespread as a transportation fuel and dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power plants may become less dominate in electricity generation.

Some alternative energy technologies are approaching the cost effectiveness of traditional fuels such as oil and coal. Although natural gas is used in a similar manner as petroleum fuels, it is highly available domestically and is clean burning. Subsidies for alternative energy will probably become easier for startup companies to obtain. Increased research and design will give more advancement opportunities in various alternative energy technologies.

According to Obama’s energy plan, the administration plans on creating 5 million “green collar” jobs and investing $150 billion in the next 10 years. This injection of capital will help build a future of continued alternative energy use. The energy plan also includes cutting greenhouse gases, putting more plug-in hybrids on the road, and having 10 percent of the nation’s energy come from alternative sources by 2012.

Regardless of the candidate elected, green energy will be big business in the years to come. The industry itself is very diversified and the opportunity for job growth will be high. Hopefully the increase in alternative energy will stimulate the economy and bring more jobs across the nation.