Cleantech's Obama celebrations tempered by mixed bag of green votes

Barack Obama may have delivered a major boost to the confidence of the US, and by extension global, cleantech industry when he won the US election earlier this week, but the victory was slightly soured for some green businesses, after several bit-ticket environmental measures included on the ballots were rejected.

In perhaps the biggest blow to the renewables industry in an otherwise celebratory week, California voted down proposition 7, which would have required utilities to generate 20 per cent of their power from renewable sources by 2010, rising to 40 per cent by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2025.

Proposition 10, which would have earmarked almost $5bn (£3.2bn) for alternative fuel and energy development, was also nixed by Californian voters. Under that proposal, $3.43bn would have been spent on creating tax incentives for purchasing alternative fuel vehicles, with a further $1.25bn spent on renewable energy R &D.

However, other states fared a little better than California in renewable energy.

Missouri passed proposition C, known as the Clean Energy Initiative, which requires utilities to increase their usage of renewable energy gradually with a goal of generating 15 per cent of the energy from renewable sources by 2021.

Ohio also approved a proposition that allowed the state to borrow $400m for environmental cleanup, while Rhode Island got the right to spend $2.5m on purchasing or otherwise protecting green open spaces.

On the upside for environmentally conscious Californians, the state approved proposition 1A, to provide a high-speed passenger rail link.

The high profile 220mph network will link southern California counties with the Sacramento/San Joaquin Valley region, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The proposition calls for $10bn to be set aside via a bond issue to support the project. A fiscal analysis of the project said that it would cost $19.4bn overall, assuming that the interest and principal will be paid back over 30 years.