California's Global-Warming Solution

In fact, some of us in venture capital are already seeing "green tech" as a growth area. We're backing breakthroughs in energy generation, storage, conservation, transportation and distribution. Clear carbon-emission limits are generating even more demand, and entrepreneurs are rushing to meet it. Just this year my firm has received hundreds of proposals for innovation and opportunities that are breathtaking-- and breath saving. American innovation can end our oil addiction the same way Brazilians kicked their oil habit using ethanol grown from sugarcane.

Four out of five Americans support efforts to curb global warming, but our leaders in Washington have been slow to act. And it's not the first time. Many of the most important advances in clean-air and environmental policy, including energy-efficiency standards for appliances and clean-car laws, have started in California, spread across the country and finally been embraced and consolidated in national legislation. So Washington, do you hear us? A national approach is inevitable, and we should start now, before states form a patchwork of 50 different plans. Predictability and consistency will encourage businesses across America to invest in going green. Going green may be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century. It is the mother of all markets. Going green is the next big thing. And the next generation insists we do it.

> John Doerr, a founder of the Greentech Network, is a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, Calif.