Last week, United States Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a new report, “The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy through Innovation,” which concluded that the Recovery Act’s $100 billion innovation is accelerating significant advances in science and technology that will cut costs for consumers, save lives, and help keep America competitive in the 21st century economy. 

The Recovery Act is investing in projects ranging from building a nationwide smart energy grid and health information technology infrastructure to growing the emerging electric vehicle industry, expanding broadband access and laying the groundwork for a nationwide high speed rail system. 

Vice President Biden says, “From the beginning, we have been a nation of discovery and innovation – and we continue in that tradition as Recovery Act investments pave the way for game-changing breakthroughs in transportation, energy and medical research. We’re planting the seeds of innovation, but private companies and the nation’s top researchers are helping them grow, launching entire new industries, transforming our economy and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process.”

According to the study, the United States is now on-track to achieve major energy innovation breakthroughs thanks to Recovery Act investments: cutting the cost of solar power in half by 2015, putting it on par with the cost of retail electricity from the grid; reducing the cost of batteries for electric vehicles by 70 percent between 2009 and 2015, putting the lifetime cost of an electric vehicle on-par with that of its non-electric counterpart; and doubling U.S. renewable energy generation capacity and U.S. renewable manufacturing capacity by 2012, a breakthrough that would not be possible without the Recovery Act.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says investments made possible by the Recovery Act “are unleashing the American innovation machine to change the way we use and produce energy in this country. Just as importantly, these breakthroughs are helping create tens of thousands of new jobs, allowing the US to continue as a leader in the global economy and helping to provide a better future for generations to come.”

More information on investments the Administration is making in innovation through the Recovery Act and other means can be viewed at the new Innovation page launched on the White House Web site: www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/innovation.gov today.

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