Passage this week of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) will provide the critical ingredient to accelerate energy efficiency adoption and clean tech growth: a robust financial marketplace. By establishing a carbon cap and trade program, the measure puts a tradeable value on reducing energy emissions. It also creates achievable U.S. benchmarks for replacing carbon- based electricity generation with renewable sources and diversifying sources of energy through all kinds of clean energy alternatives. It will reduce our dependence on imported high carbon fuels. And it starts the standardization process essential to modernizing and adding the "smart" intelligence to our energy transmission and distribution system.

The Center for American Progress released a report this week that attemps to predict the new investment in the U.S. economy that will come out of ACESA and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Its authors predict a total of $150B per year in net new investment, yielding 1.7M net new jobs per year. Specific forecasts include:

1. Energy efficiency: $80B/year
2. Smart Grid: $44B/year
3. Public Transportation: $5B/year
4. Cogeneration: $5B/year
5. Renewable Energy:
    On-Grid: $30B/year
    Off-grid: $8B/year
    Nonelectric Renwable Energy: $3B/year
   Alternative Motor Vehicle Fuels: $5B/year

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