President Obama announced yesterday that he would provide$2.3 billion dollars of stimulus money to spur the job market.  That money would be available, in the form of tax credits, to companies, like TPI Composites, a wind turbine company, and other companies for investment in “clean energy” manufacturing initiatives.  The US is being outpaced as a clean energy provider by countries like China, Germany, and Japan.   The competition worldwide, according to the president, is good, but the US

US Environmental Protection Agency

wants to be able to compete, and win.  After all, the US is the leading technological developer of green energy and should be leading the manufacturing as well and not send those jobs overseas.

The stimulus money is intended to provide approximately 17,000 jobs to the US clean energy manufacturing market, to produce products like wind turbines, mentioned before, solar energy equipment, cutting edge batteries to power hybrid automobiles, and harnessing new forms of energy.  There is a hope that this money will help in three ways; reduce our dependency on foreign oil, combat the threat of climate change, and propel US manufacturers to close the clean energy gap and eventually lead the market in production.   The program has been so popular that there are 180 projects being funded in 40 states, and there are many more applicants that money available.  Thus the president is asking Congress for an additional $5 billion dollars in future funding for the program.

The word project is bolded for a reason.  For emphasis, that is $7.2 billion dollars in funding for “green” projects, because whether it is “harnessing new forms of energy” or developing “cutting edge batteries” (new product introduction) or expanding manufacturing capabilities, like TPI Composites, those projects are defined in our upcoming book as “green by definition.”  Like other projects, these will require someone to manage those projects.   We feel that project managers who “view their projects through an environmental lens,” will have an advantage managing all future projects , especially  those that are “green by definition.”