States starting to eat CA’s cleantech lunch
Joel Makower, founder of cleantech research and publishing firm Clean Edge, recently remarked that other states are starting to "eat California’s lunch" when it comes to attracting and retaining clean technology companies. This point was called out on page 25 of the CALSTART Industry report on the state’s barriers and opportunities for economic and environmental leadership.
In the same report, venture investor, Vinod Khosla warned that high costs and slow permitting processes were threatening to drive many advanced biofuels companies out of California.
In another study recently released, the Milken institute took a look at high tech manufacturing growth. Of course many of the cleantech industries come out of this particular sector. The results were stunning when it came to California’s major competitor, Texas. Their high tech manufacturing as a percentage of GSP grew by 86 percent in 7 years. California’s grew by only 7 percent.
Meanwhile, many leaders and policymakers either ignore the impediments to growth and some even say their is no reason for concern. If that continues, we deserve to go lunchless.
