VentureBeat

In less than a decade, cleantech has gone from a geeky, derided niche of the tech world to a growing industry juggernaut. In another decade, could it be the centerpiece of the American political landscape?

The perfect storm is brewing for just that scenario. Concerns over global warming — potentially the greatest challenge the world has yet faced — have coincided with supply shortfalls in oil, which in turn has driven up gas prices during the housing crunch. Security concerns about the Middle East are at the forefront, due to the Iraq war.

Riding the storm wave is Al Gore, who said today at a speech that the United States must generate all of its electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. And because Gore doesn’t believe in carbon capture and storage (CCS), that means he wants to cut out coal, oil and natural gas. Everything would have to depend on renewables like geothermal, solar and wind power, perhaps with some nuclear power thrown in for good measure.

Drawing comparisons to the moon race of the of the 1960s, Gore called for a complete overhaul of the American economy, capped by a carbon tax paired with a reduction in personal taxes. “We should tax what we burn, not what we earn,” he said.

Why 10 years? Gore said in a later interview with CBS that a compressed timeline is necessary because, on the more accepted 40-year goal, “nobody takes that seriously.” The danger for Gore, of course, is that nobody will take him seriously.

But Gore is also fairly transparent about his own aims. “I see my role as trying to change the public opinion,” he told Katie Couric. “I think the real solutions to this climate crisis must involve a sea change in public opinion.”

One way to tell that climate change and energy security are becoming serious issues on the American stage is the profusion of public figures reaching for prominence. Along with Gore, conservatives and Republicans have begun pushing for a new energy infrastructure, like oil baron T. Boone Pickens, who is pushing hard for wind power, as well as natural gas for transportation. Cleantech is becoming a powerful chip to use for business and personal motives.

The energy generation companies that are, in a way, being used as pawns in a political debate — from solar power energy generation to energy efficiency through advanced building materials — could well find themselves in a flood of attention they didn’t fully expect.