Green Energy's New Proliferation

Traditionally, when a Republican is elected president, smart investors fatten their portfolios with energy and health care stock. When the Democrats get their hands on the White House, the tech and telecom sectors experience growth explosions.

However, Barack Obama is a whole new animal. Not only do we now have an environmentally friendly administration in Washington, but one that actively promotes and rewards green energy development.

This is good news for all green investors, as everything from wind and solar to energy efficiency development and recycling are going to continue experiencing solid growth. According to a June 10 New York Times story, 80 percent of 2008's venture capital poured into the "cleantech" sector. Further, for the first quarter of 2009, cleantech outperformed telecom, which typically experiences massive growth under Democratic administrations. This indicator alone should alert investors of what's to come.

A study released by the Pew Charitable Trust called The Clean Energy Economy, attributes much of this year's growth spike in clean development to Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As for employment in the American green sector, the study states that “by 2007, more than 68,200 business ... accounted for about 770,000 jobs.” Further, over the last decade, green employment grew 9.1 percent, as compared to the 3.7 percent overall job growth rate for the nation. For the entire decade of the 1990s, green represented slow yet steady growth markets, but all of that is about to change.

As Ken Kesey once said, “You're either on the bus, or you're off the bus.” These days, the bus runs on vegetable oil.