Consumers have a strong interest in renewable energy and efficiency projects, but lack the money to take advantage of such efforts even when they pay off very quickly, a panel of experts told U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders Thursday.

Sanders, a Vermont Independent, brought a bit of Washington, D.C. to Montpelier Thursday as the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works' subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy met with local environmentalists.

The two-hour session at the Statehouse featured more than a dozen leaders in the clean-energy sector in Vermont discussing the projects they are working on – and what Washington, D.C. can do to make it easier.

Between federal and state programs, it has become cheaper than ever for Vermonters to weatherize a home or install solar panels. But the credit markets are so bad right now that people can't get the loans they need to jumpstart the project, experts told Sanders.

"What's halting job growth in this sector is that there is not enough working capital to get these programs going, even when they have excellent payback guarantees," said Jim Merriam, the chief operating officer of White River Junction's groSolar. "If there is capital, you will see hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the Northeast alone."

David Blittersdorf, the CEO of Williston's Earth Turbines and the founder of Hinesburg's NRG Systems, told Sanders that his and other companies in the field are "poised for major growth … there is a transition happening and we are in the middle of it."

He added that every time the companies have a job opening, they get 200-500 applications from interested people.

"Everyone wants to work in this field," Blittersdorf said. "But we hire Vermonters first. We hire here because we want Vermonters working for a Vermont company."

Among the Vermont projects touted during the hearing was Middlebury College's $12 million biomass gasification system, which will save the college $700,000 a year in fuel costs; Green Mountain Power's plan to install 10,000 solar panels in 1,000 days, and the Vermont Energy Investment Corp's plan to retrofit 12,000 Vermont homes by the year 2020.

There were some panelists endorsing energy projects outside of solar or wind. Mary Powell, the CEO of Green Mountain Power, expressed her company's support for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, saying officials there hope it is relicensed if there are no safety concerns.

"We support relicensing of the plant, which has a carbon profile similar to renewable resources, but we will ramp down our purchases over time as we ramp up renewable resources," she said.

And Vermont Public Service Department Commissioner David O'Brien, who promoted the state's plans for a smart-grid electrical system, said the costs of producing renewable energy needs to come down closer to the price of more traditional energy sources

Despite some pessimism over how the recession is affecting clean energy projects, many of the panelists said Vermont has a lot to be proud of, especially in the area of energy efficiency.

Blair Hamilton, the co-founder of Efficiency Vermont, said that since the program began, Vermont had reduced its energy needs by about 10 percent – and he thinks that trajectory will continue. It's cheaper to improve efficiency, he pointed out, noting that the cost of these programs is three-quarters less than the cost of additional sources of energy on the market.

"Another way to look at the savings is consider the cost of extra energy to Vermont if we were less efficient," he said.

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