Energy Innovation on the Hill 2014
Event Summary
The Center for Clean Energy Innovation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation hosted an informal reception at the Capitol Visitor Center to showcase some of today’s leading clean tech innovators fresh from the annual ARPA-E Summit, which took place earlier in the week.
The reception provided a unique opportunity to hear from and mingle with Acting ARPA-E Director Dr. Cheryl Martin, Congressional policymakers, and energy thinkers and innovators including researchers from Georgia Tech, Brown University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UT Dallas, and General Electric.
Presenters and policymakers alike stressed the importance of supporting energy innovation policy through strategic and proven programs like ARPA-E. The agency’s support for high-risk, high-reward energy research has leveraged millions of dollars in private funding for projects that, as Dr. Martin put it, “turn things that are plausible into things that are possible.”
Speakers who gave brief remarks at the reception included:
- Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA)
- Representative Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY)
- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
- Acting Director of ARPA-E Dr. Cheryl Martin
- Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA)
- Representative Rob Woodall (R-GA)
The message of the evening was clear: federal funding for the energy innovation ecosystem is integral to enhancing U.S. economic growth and advancing clean energy technologies that are cheap and available to all. ARPA-E’s projects show a compelling example of U.S. innovative potential, which should be further supported in pursuit of a cleaner energy future for the United States and the rest of the world.
