Time Magazine Gives Austin the Clean Tech Crown

I spent a good part of my childhood living in New Mexico. My parents use to make fun of how obnoxious the neighboring Texans were, who visited nearby ski resorts every year. My Dad, in particular, complained about the loud Texans, skiing down the ski slopes in their colorful, brand-spanking new oufits, singing their Texas songs, all the while, bailing down the slopes (his theory was they can't ski). I'm not sure why it drove him so crazy to see how proud the Texans were about their state. Well, I hate to do this to my parents (who I love dearly), but now I'm that bugger Texan, talking excessively yet again about how great my state is. Or city, in this instance.

Time Magazine just dubbed Austin the clean tech leader of the U.S. That's right. Not too shabby, especially being that we're competing with east and west coast venture capital meccas, such as the Bay Area, which has poured millions into the effort. Not that it's a competition, we're all in this together, right? Sure, we're going after the same market for the good of our country. And the environment is on the minds of some, but definitely not all, of the participants. But in the end, it's a massive new market (or an evolution of the energy market, in the long run), and right now it's still attracting more venture dollars than any other market in the U.S.

While I'm at it, I want to flag the fact that Katie Couric gave Austin kudos last year on the CBS Nightly News for bucking the recession better than any other city in the country. Yes, there's something in the water down here - Austin has it going on. And it's nice to see that our clean tech leadership continues to attract widespread recognition. It's not just marketing, we have more businesses running on 100 percent renewable energy than any other city in the country - along with all of our municipal government's electricity. So we're talking - and walking - the walk. Pretty cool, if you ask me.