President's Council on Jobs & Competitiveness: Green Recommendations Ahead?
Last week President Obama’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness began in earnest with a meeting of its members at the White House. According to the President, the Council was created to “provide non-partisan advice to the President on continuing to strengthen the Nation's economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States and on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people.” Based on the first meeting, it is clear that clean energy and energy efficiency will be part of the ultimate recommendations from the Council. As this process moves forward it will be interesting to see what specific recommendations on a clean energy economy are made by business interests at the table.
Chairing the Council is Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric and leader of their Ecoimagination program. Mr. Immelt stated five clear priorities during the initial meeting:
- Learning from a diverse set of actors from different industrial and labor perspectives.
- Focusing “like a laser” on creating jobs and developing clear aspirational goals.
- Developing short-term, job creating tactical approaches in critical sectors and areas: education, global trade, economic integration and energy.
- Engaging in a 90-day process with a view to reporting specific outcomes and recommendations to the President in that timeframe.
- Ensuring public outreach across geographies, industrial sectors and supply chains and doing most of the Council work outside of Washington, D.C.
Some early signs that this process will include clean energy and is taken seriously by the White House:
- Secretaries Chu and Geithner along with Chief of Staff Daley were all in attendance for the entire session.
- Lewis Hay, CEO of NextEra Energy and Florida Power & Light, led off the Council comments after opening remarks by Immelt and the President. He emphasized the need to increase investment in power production and noted his company focus on building more solar energy.
- President Obama specifically noted he would like to see some recommendations on increasing jobs to retrofit and construct energy efficient buildings, stating this as an area to “move the needle” on job creation in the short-term.
- Penny Pritzker, CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, identified the creation of a “green real estate appraisal” template that values efficiency in buildings as a specific policy step that President can take under existing authority.
- With respect to streamlining regulation, the President stated that he wants to hear from the Council on this topic but without compromising public and environmental health. He also stated an openness to streamlining regulations to make them more efficient.
With Immelt, Hay, Pritzker and John Doerr on the Council, one can anticipate some interesting suggestions for the clean energy sector. The challenge will be how to take those ideas forward in a difficult political environment.
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