WHO WE ARE
Americans for 21st Century Technology is a bi-partisan independent expenditure Super PAC. We will fund political messaging during the 2024 election cycle supporting federal candidates such as Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, who favor continued government investment in the technologies that will shape the 21st Century, including battery technology, energy storage, semiconductor manufacturing, renewable energy technologies, and supercomputing. We will oppose candidates, such as Donald Trump, who do not.
This effort will highlight the importance of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act to American economic growth. Terminating these investments, as Donald Trump and some Congressional candidates are advocating, would have severe negative consequences for many U.S. companies and millions of American workers. It would also threaten America’s economic and military security given China’s large and growing investments in these 21st Century technologies.
Americans for 21st Century Technology will fund ambitious digital, TV and radio campaigns designed to reach persuadable voters in key states and districts. Messaging will focus on the importance of U.S. economic leadership to the American people, the relationship between technological leadership and economic growth, and the stark choice in this election between candidates who support the critical investments needed to preserve American leadership and those who would put their heads in the sand and fecklessly hope to Make America Great Again.
For the past century, the United States has been the leading economic and political power in the world. This position of leadership brings enormous benefits to the American people and to American businesses. But today these benefits are very much at risk.
The U.S. Dollar, for example, is the world’s reserve currency. The ability of American businesses to price goods and services in U.S. Dollars provides stability and certainty that many of our competitors lack. America’s economic leadership bolsters our diplomatic and military power enabling us to build strong alliances all over the world, giving us freedom to pursue domestic policies of our own choosing. That is a luxury many nations do not have.
America’s century of economic and diplomatic leadership has been a direct result of its leadership in the most important technologies of the 20th Century. American innovation and dominance in automotive, steel, aerospace, petroleum, computer software and hardware manufacturing have been the envy of the world. Without that leadership, America would not have been the most powerful nation of the 20th Century.
But new and different technologies are shaping the 21st Century. Leadership in battery technology, semiconductor manufacturing, renewable energy technologies, advanced grid technologies, and supercomputing, among others, will determine who the leading nations of the future will be.
Today America faces the greatest challenge to its technological and economic dominance in more than 100 years. China has learned from the United States. It is making massive investments in the technologies of the 21st Century, hoping to become the leading power in the world and to gain for its people and businesses the unique advantages that Americans have enjoyed for the last 100 years. It is uncomfortably close to succeeding.
THE CHALLENGE
CRITICAL INVESTMENTS AT RISK
Over the last four years, Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration moved to reassert American leadership with the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. Collectively those laws have invested more than $2 trillion to spur American development, manufacturing and deployment of 21st Century technologies. This public investment has catalyzed trillions more in private sector investment in these same technologies.
This critical investment in the nation’s future is now at risk. Donald Trump and Congressional candidates who support him make no secret of their intent to undermine and reverse these legislative achievements--essentially pulling America out of the race for 21st Century leadership.
This destructive tack, potentially including retroactive changes to tax laws, would undermine the profitability of the many companies that relied on the new federal incentives in making their own investment decisions, putting the officers, directors, employees and shareholders of those companies in great peril.
OUR GOALS
The choice is stark. In 2024, voters can support the programs that Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration put in place to spur American economic growth and innovation or cede leadership in 21st Century technologies while our competitors move relentlessly ahead. The choice we make in 2024 could have immense consequences. Leadership in many important technical fields will likely be firmly established over the next few years.
The goals of Americans for 21st Century Technology are:
Defeat Donald Trump and Congressional candidates who oppose critical federal incentives for 21st Century technologies.
Elect candidates who support the federal incentives for 21st Century technologies contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act regardless of party affiliation.
Americans for 21st Century Technology is managed by Jim Greenberger, the Executive Director and founder of NAATBatt International, and Greg Wetstone, the immediate past President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). Neither Jim nor Greg will be compensated for their services overseeing Americans for 21st Century Technology.
OUR LEADERSHIP
Jim Greenberger
Jim currently serves as the Executive Director of NAATBatt International, the trade association for advanced battery technology in North America. Jim founded NAATBatt in 2008 at the request of Barack Obama in order to make sure that the lithium-ion batteries needed to power electric vehicles would be made in the United States. NAATBatt currently has more than 380 corporate and research institution members. NAATBatt is not affiliated in any way with Americans for 21st Century Technology.
Jim also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Battery Materials Association, the Advisory Board of the New York State ChargeUp Battery Accelerator, and the Advisory Board of the Center for Renewable Energy at Illinois State University. He was the co-founder and Chairman of Spiers New Technologies Inc., a battery repair and remanufacturing company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Before entering the battery industry, Mr. Greenberger practiced corporate law in Chicago, Illinois for more than 30 years, most recently as a partner at Reed Smith LLP.
Greg Wetstone
A longtime advocate for renewable energy, Greg has more than three decades of experience promoting the tax and energy policies and financial structures essential to the clean energy transition. He has overseen an array of political and legislative campaigns through a succession of important private sector and nonprofit positions. Most recently, he served for eight years as President and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), during which time the organization’s impact and budget increased dramatically.
Prior to his term at ACORE, Greg served for four-years as Senior Vice President for government and public affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, and for seven years as Vice President for government affairs at Terra-Gen Power. Earlier in his career, Greg served as the founding Legislative Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the founding Executive Director of the NRDC Action Fund. Greg has written and spoken widely on energy and environmental issues, and his commentary has been featured on a range of high-profile platforms, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Constitution, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, the PBS News Hour, NBC World News Tonight and National Public Radio.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Americans for 21st Century Technology seeks donations from American business leaders, corporations, partnerships and labor unions that recognize the need for government support for developing, manufacturing and deploying advanced technologies in the United States, including battery technology, energy storage, semiconductor manufacturing, renewable energy technologies, advanced grid technologies, and supercomputing.
Many American companies have benefited or stand to benefit greatly from the incentives provided by the Federal government over the last four years. These benefits do not come for free. They need to be supported financially and politically or they will be lost. No one who understands the importance of advanced technologies to the future of our country can afford to sit on the sidelines in this election.
To have a significant impact on the 2024 elections, Americans for 21st Century Technology needs to achieve adequate scale. Please consider making a substantial contribution. Your financial support will go directly to developing and delivering strategically impactful messaging to key voters.
Americans for 21st Century Technology is an independent expenditure Super PAC and contributions to it will be used in connection with federal elections. Americans for 21st Century Technology must make its best effort to obtain, maintain and report the name and address of each contributor, and the occupation and employer of each individual contributor, who gives more than $200 in a calendar year. Contributions can only be accepted from U.S. business entities, U.S. labor unions, U.S. citizens and green card holders.
For more information about Americans for 21st Century Technology and how to contribute, please contact us at: Info@Americans21.org