On the BP Spill Anniversary -- Has anything changed for clean energy?

On the anniversary of the BP oil spill, cleantechies can take a look back at the progress made in the last year to take steps away from oil and instead toward a renewable energy future.

Despite clean up efforts that are still on-going in the Gulf, a Republican congress continues to push to expand offshore drilling. Obama's energy security speech on March 30 does gives some confidence to renewable energy supporters who wish to overcome this legislative barrier.



The Department of Energy continues to support renewable energy projects with loan guarentees. Just yesterday the DOE announced a 2.1 billion loan guareentee to a solar project in California, along with 5 million in partnership with Google to support cities as they build their electric vehicle infrastructure. It is unclear how many more loans the DOE will give, or if this agency will remain the prime benefactor to the renewable energy industry.

What is clear -- Germany continues to charge forward as the leader in renewable energy, and the U.S. will have to make significant policy changes to reach these same production levels in the near future.

A year has passed and still there is oil to clean-up. A year has passed and we are still struggling toward a more diversified energy porfolio.