The Obama administration took several actions in December to promote U.S. high-technology and renewable energy exports as part of the president’s National Export Initiative, which seeks to double U.S. exports over the next five years as part of a comprehensive strategy to provide employment to an additional two million U.S. workers. The administration has said that it plans to focus its export promotion efforts on U.S. sectors with considerable export potential, including renewable energy and energy efficiency. To promote this goal, eight federal agencies launched on 7 December 2010 the first-ever initiative co-ordinating U.S. government programmes in support of renewable energy and energy efficiency exports.
The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative includes 23 new commitments to promote such exports by offering new financing products, enhancing market access, increasing trade promotion and improving the delivery of export promotion services to current and future RE&EE companies. Participating agencies include the departments of Commerce, Energy, State and Agriculture, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. RE&EE exports covered by this initiative include biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar and wind technologies, as well as goods and services that are specifically designed to use less energy to perform the same function, to improve performance with the same energy inputs or to incorporate previously wasted by-products to reduce overall energy use. Examples of energy efficient goods and services include green building design services and materials, industrial energy efficiency applications such as combined heat and power, district energy systems, and, where clear standards can be identified, appliances and electronics designed and marketed as energy efficient.
A report describing the initiative was released at the 7 December inaugural meeting of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee. The initiative begins with an assessment of the competitive position of U.S. RE&EE industries and sets benchmarks of RE&EE exports against which progress can be measured. The United States exported roughly US$2,064 million of manufactured renewable energy goods in 2009, up from US$1,820 million in 2008 and US$1,261 million in 2007. While U.S. government agencies involved in the NEI are developing reliable methodologies for acquiring and measuring RE&EE export and import data, the report acknowledges that accurate information on actual trade levels will take years to develop. Another important challenge is the lack of data to track services exports related to the RE&EE industry, which are believed to be significantly larger than RE&EE goods exports.
The report includes an action plan that outlines the following commitments for new programmes, actions and deliverables. The action plan seeks to address three common roadblocks facing U.S. RE&EE companies seeking to export: a shortage of appropriate financing, limited market access and a lack of contacts with qualified foreign partners and customers. The action plan also lays out a series of steps to strengthen existing U.S. government programmes. The measures summarised below are designed to be implemented under existing budgets and authorities, but additional funding and continued engagement will be required to sustain some of them.
Tailored Financing to RE&EE Companies
The report recognises that access to financing and credit is often the most significant barrier facing U.S. companies as they seek to export RE&EE technologies. Accordingly, the first priority of this initiative is to expand the financing available to U.S. RE&EE companies by:
- streamlining agency processing of RE&EE transactions at both the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation;
- an OPIC commitment to offer new energy efficiency subordinated debt to finance the engineering and architectural design for the most energy efficiency measures possible;
- an OPIC commitment to invest an additional US$300 million in financing for renewable resource projects in emerging markets;
- supporting the leasing of U.S. renewable energy and clean technology equipment; and
- increasing USTDA funding for RE&EE projects through additional reverse trade missions and pre-feasibility studies.
Improved Market Access
The U.S. government will address trade barriers facing U.S. RE&EE companies in foreign markets and create new RE&EE export markets through policy advocacy and technical assistance to high-potential countries. This effort will include:
- renewable energy and energy efficiency trade policy missions organised by the DOC;
- the expansion of USDA’s Market Access Program to include biomass wood pellets;
- the development of standard RE&EE technical documentation through USTDA to expedite RE&EE projects in developing and emerging markets; and
- the creation of a new USTR subcommittee to address market access barriers facing the U.S. RE&EE industry abroad.
Enhanced Information and Trade Promotion Efforts
The U.S. government will seek to “greatly expand” opportunities for U.S. RE&EE companies to develop relationships with overseas partners by improving the information available to U.S. companies regarding foreign markets and to foreign buyers on U.S. technology. To achieve this, the DOC will rate those markets most likely to result in RE&EE exports for U.S. companies and the Department of Energy will work with U.S. RE&EE trade associations to assess the potential for creating foreign buyers guides for U.S. RE&EE technologies. In addition, the DOC will lead multiple trade policy missions in association with other agencies and in collaboration with the U.S. private sector; the DOE will prepare a study to assess the export potential of energy efficiency products and services; there will be a unified U.S. government outreach effort at key RE&EE trade shows; the State Department will boost the U.S. government’s involvement in the EcoParnerships Program, which was established under the U.S.-China Ten-Year Framework for Cooperation on Energy and Environment; the Green Embassies Program will be expanded; and the USDA will actively seek to identify an appropriate U.S. wood pellet industry partner to undertake foreign market development and export promotion activities under the Foreign Agricultural Service’s market access and foreign development programmes.
U.S. Government Services
In order for this initiative to be effective, U.S. government programmes must be well-co-ordinated and adapt to the dynamic nature of the RE&EE industries. Accordingly, the U.S. government will solicit industry advice to improve implementation of the initiative, address new barriers and identify new market opportunities, as well as provide U.S. companies with better information on U.S. government export programmes. The DOC has created an advisory committee on RE&EE that can provide advice directly to the secretary of commerce on competitiveness issues facing RE&EE industries in the United States and worldwide. Moreover, the DOC will develop and maintain a Web portal on www.export.gov that will include information on all U.S. government trade facilitation programmes for U.S. RE&EE exporters. This Web site will include a comprehensive on-line guide to U.S. government programmes, market information, recent news and a list of upcoming trade promotion events. The DOC will also develop a brochure to be distributed at trade events.
