Leverage is not something that has been kind to us in recent years. Leverage, of course, is simply a principle of amplification. After decades of unfettered financial leveraging, the entire world is now in a painful spiral of deleveraging.
But the principle of leverage has an opportunity to clear its name and restore its honor. There is now before us an opportunity to apply the principle of leverage towards good. Barack Obama has an opportunity to leverage the current lackluster prospects for growth in consumer spending driven industries by sending a strong and unequivocal signal that his policies will support breakneck growth in the renewable energy industry. Given such a signal, growth starved capital that is desperately hungry for the next fertile grounds for spectacular returns will flood into the green tech sector like a deluge.
To be sure, there has been a quiet and steady flood of substantial amounts of venture capital into solar startups over the past few years. The current divot in the price of oil caused by the Credit Crisis puts a damper on the appeal of renewable energy technologies in the short term, but this can be compensated for by the political will to revitalize the economy with the creation of new jobs in this sector, and the will to seriously address Global Warming.
This is a very exciting time to be looking at the renewable energy industry, as it has decades worth of headroom for growth ahead of it before it even makes a substantial dent in the fossil fuels industry. This boom could be likened to Silicon Valley's computer industry boom that started seriously ramping up as early as the mid 70's and has been going strong for decades since. This is an opportunity for long term investment in the future of our society - a commitment that future generations will thank us for.