Thinking Inside the (Green) Box: Targeted Tax Incentives for Small Green Businesses
Plenty of manufacturing and installation jobs will be available as a result of this plan, and combined with California’s commitment to reducing our state’s emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the introduction of targeted tax incentives for green businesses will help create and cultivate innovative companies in a state desperately in need of new employment. With California facing a 10.1 percent unemployment rate, the highest in over a quarter century, we must attract businesses that will employ locally and have a sustainable long-term vision, substantially increasing our net tax revenue potential in the process.
When I visited the World Ag Expo last month in Tulare, I discovered “Green Boxes,” a product manufactured by a local start-up called EnergyRecyclers. Nominated one of the Top 10 New Products of 2009 by the World Ag Expo, the Green Boxes optimize the energy usage of industrial equipment, leading to a cost savings for the producer or farmer while simultaneously reducing demand on California’s strained energy grid and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
EnergyRecyclers is the type of company California must continue to attract and nurture if we hope to remain as competitive in the 21st century as we were in the 20th century. California’s innovation did not come through luck but through the mutual willingness of the public and private sectors to invest in our economic and educational infrastructure. Our leadership in stem cell research and Internet technologies came about in part through sound state investments. It’s time for us to think outside the box (or perhaps think inside the Green Box), get people back to work, and continue to accelerate the Golden State’s green transformation.
Surely, those with vision will encourage all kinds of new companies that support conservation, new means of energy production and transport, and other innovative but green products. This applies to the entire world as well as to the USA and each state and municipality.
While I’m not totally against green incentives I think we need to be wary of the potential for greenwashing these incentives might bring. A lot of ideas are being pitched as green and a lot of money is being given to businesses who simply are using “green” as a ploy to get more money.
While I’m not totally against green incentives I think we need to be wary of the potential for greenwashing these incentives might bring. A lot of ideas are being pitched as green and a lot of money is being given to businesses who simply are using “green” as a ploy to get more money.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
John Garamendi: why not make the Berkeley First program a statewide program?
Municipal tax assessment financing easily solves the only thing stopping most of us from going solar;- asking a bank for the loan.
Since solar pays for itself in most homes within ten years, and since people would have had to pay that $100 or so for for that electricity anyway, there’s little risk of the loan going bad.
I think incentives are a great idea. We need to encourage new businesses for economic and employment growth but do not want to incur more waste or spur an irrationally exhuberant economy. Green is the only way to go.