I.Am.Just.Saying.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that:

Venture capital funding for energy technology jumped to 4.2 percent of all venture-capital investments, according to a survey to be released today by Nth Power and Clean Edge, the Wall Street Journal reported. The funding level was up from 3.3 percent in 2004, with the bulk of that money - $917 million - going to clean energy companies.

Wrote the Journal: "Driven by growing demand for more-reliable and more-affordable alternatives to fossil fuels, which have been soaring in cost amid political volatility abroad, energy-technology as a percentage of total venture-capital investments has more than quadrupled from 1999 when it stood at just less than 1 percent, according to the survey."

Ron Pernick, co-founder and principal of Clean Edge, was quoted by the newspaper as saying: "Right now, there is sort of a perfect storm lining up behind clean energy."

Solar power firms brought in $156 million in venture-capital investments in 2005, but some contend that solar and wind power cannot be viable without government support, the newspaper reported. Industry officials have rejected that claim. By 2015, annual sales for biofuels, solar, wind, and fuel cells will more than quadruple to $167 billion, Clean Edge estimated.


Broken record time: Cleaning up the environment would be GOOD for our economy.