tradable research and development tax credit that could be a source of funds for pre-revenue companies, which would sell the credits to mature businesses that have state business and occupation tax obligations. “It is a small and worthwhile investment,” Inslee says, noting similar programs have been successful in states including New Jersey.
Inslee also repeated his call for a system to accelerate commercialization of research and inventions from Washington’s universities.
“If we did this at one half the rate the University of Utah did this, we would create hundreds of millions of dollars of economic opportunity in the state of Washington, and I intend to do this,” he says. “We have some kind of artificial inhibitions in our ability to commercialize, to take what the scientists have discovered and actually start a small business. We’re going to remedy that.”
Related to this, Inslee wants to “invest our state resources into research, development, demonstration, and deployment of clean technology,” make “public investments of research dollars in our public research institutions,” and build an education system that will “focus on [science, technology, engineering, and math] degrees like a laser beam.”
“This is a horrendous situation now,” Inslee says. “We have 600 students waiting to get into the UW engineering school last year with jobs lined up for them, couldn’t get in.”
Former Defense Secretary and Texas A&M president Robert Gates, speaking before Inslee at the policy conference, argued that the evisceration of federal and state support for scientific research is short-changing America’s future. And while a nearly $1 billion state budget deficit will make discretionary spending increases difficult, Inslee’s proposal holds promise for cleantech supporters who want to see state government become an early adopter of local products and services.
Demand for new renewable energy projects has slowed in part because most Washington utilities are on track to meet the goals of the state’s voter-approved renewable portfolio standard. Inslee wants to see incentives for renewables expanded. “There’s multiple ways to do that,” Inslee says. “We’re going to do it in multiple ways.”
Inslee also wants Washington to work more closely with the Department of Defense, the largest single energy consumer in the world. He says Martinac is ready to build hybrid-electric tugboats for the Navy, and that he was planning to meet with Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus in coming days.
Washington will also become a center of excellence for aviation biofuels, Inslee says. Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Washington State University and several other organizations made a public push in that direction almost two years ago through an initiative called Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest.
He also envisions a transportation system planned and built with “the goal of reducing carbon pollution throughout the system.”
“We aren’t doing this today,” Inslee says, “but are going to be doing it in the near future.”
Photo of Inslee by Michael B. Maine. Photo of Inslee with Duggan via Flickr.
