Obama Green Energy May Lag Growth Pace of Bush Years (financial crisis)

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqsoXwTzuSSM&refer=us

Obama Green Energy May Lag Growth Pace of Bush Years (Update1)

By Jim Efstathiou Jr.

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama may find it harder to increase renewable energy than his predecessor during a financial crisis that halted lending by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other alternative-power financiers, investors said.

New loans to harness the wind, sun and biodegradable waste will need extra government backing in a deepening recession, said Clayt Tabor, finance director at Midwest Wind Finance, a wind-farm developer in Minneapolis. Obama’s goal to double U.S. renewable- energy by 2012 may take years longer because even fully funded projects take at least three years to develop, he said.

Obama, more supportive of clean energy than George W. Bush, may struggle to shift quickly from coal-burning plants that spew global-warming gases. In Bush’s last three years, solar and wind production doubled, helped by easier financing and tax breaks that attracted loans from Lehman, now bankrupt, and insurer American International Group Inc., later taken over by the government.

“The project-development cycle is three to five years, so you can’t just stop and start on a dime” in a tough environment, said Brian Redmond, managing director of CP Energy Group LLC, a Boston-based renewable-energy advisory firm, in an interview.

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