Could California's $3 billion in proposed green tech investment turn pilots into real products?

Here's a quickie post from Green Technology Forum on some legislation being considered in California that could inspire more investment in green technology and, here's a concept, maybe turn some of the gazillions of projects and prototypes and pilots that are being hosted by utility companies into some real-life, bonafide services.

One big caveat that I think will color the progress of green tech: These proposals are by no means sure things. Even though oil prices reached another all-time high this week, the spreading doom and gloom on the economic front is likely to put a damper on some of the green tech progress many companies have made in the past year. It should be interesting to see whether corporate sustainability efforts will be spared in the cost-cutting that's likely to permeate corporate America. This is especially true in the financial services industry, which has turned out some of the biggest green champions, like Bank of America. You've got to wonder if all the green technology and facilities investments that many of the banks are making can survive multi-billion-dollar writedowns related to the subprime mortgage mess.

Then again, green tech is very closely tied to cutting energy costs, so there's hope yet.