All hail Barack Obama! President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to revive the economy and cut unemployment is a very clever method of solving the global economic crisis and save the environment. His vision for investing in alternative fuel technology and promoting hybrid carscomplements his approach. But in reality, who is going to invest in renewable energy and alternative energy technologies when profits won’t be seen for many years?

Take the wind and solar industry struggles right now. In the past, banks were more than willing to fund these projects but with the economic woes, funding has been significantly curtailed.

The core of the problem, experts say, lies in the tax structure for these industries.

Banks invest large amounts of money in renewable energy through “tax equity” structures. This works by giving huge tax credits that the wind and solar industries receive. But investors need adequate profits to take advantage of them, because the credit is used to offset tax liability.

Developers don’t have the money to invest, so they turn to banks. But banks are short for cash and the only other alternative is to turn to the investment banks. Now, we all know of recent problems here, like the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Congress, meanwhile, is trying to restart wind and solar development. The industries insist that the best way forward is to make the tax credit “refundable,” so that the money from the tax credit would be available directly, and investors would not need big profits to invest.

But there is still a problem. Renewable energy projects need clearance from various government agencies, such as the EPA to give approval to these projects, and the Department of Denergy to get a federal grant program for energy projects off the ground.

Unless Barack Obama and his administration can push these agencies to move rapidly, the effectiveness of Obama’s “New energy for America” may be in serious doubt.

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