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Blog Category: GET

Obama Administration Jobs & Innovation Accelerator Competition Boosts New York’s Renewable Energy Cluster

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez at the State University of New York Orange campus in Newburgh, New York celebrating the award of $1.95 million in federal Jobs & Innovation Accelerator Challenge funding.

Guest blog post by John Fernandez, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

I was pleased to join U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey today at the beautiful State University of New York Orange (SUNY Orange) campus in Newburgh, New York to celebrate the award of $1.95 million in federal Jobs & Innovation Accelerator Challenge funding to catalyze the growth of the Hudson Valley region’s alternative energy cluster.

The federal investments will help to establish the New York Renewable Energy Cluster (NYREC) by allowing The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC) to expand its industry-led clean energy manufacturing cluster into Orange County through a partnership with Orange County Community College and Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows (GET).

The Jobs & Innovation Accelerator Challenge (JIAC) is just one example of how the Obama administration is collaborating to ensure a smarter use of existing federal resources to foster regional innovation in support of sustainable economic prosperity. 

Supporting bottom-up regional strategies through inter-agency collaboration is not only smart government, but the type of support regional economies need to grow and prosper.  It’s not about new programs, it’s about better programs.  It’s not about new money, but smart money.