Cord Byrd: “I have strongly supported efforts to advance opportunities to open markets abroad to an array of clean energy…”

“I have strongly supported efforts to advance opportunities to open markets abroad to an array of clean energy technologies. At my urging, the Bush administration, in October 2002, released the Clean Energy Technology Exports, CETE, strategy. This action plan outlined a 5-year, nine-agency initiative that is intended to ``increase U.S. clean energy technology exports to international markets through increased coordination among Federal agency programs and between these programs and the private sector.'' The CETE directive is geared at helping to address three major challenges in global energy policy: increased U.S. competition in developing country markets; environmental sustainability, including climate change; and energy security. Even though the participating Federal agency partners released this strategic plan last year, no funding has been identified by any of the agencies to implement the CETE strategy. All too often, this is the case with multi-agency initiatives that do not have the explicit support of the administration, and I fear that, once again, this is the case.”