PRIVATE-EQUITY INVESTORS
GreenEnergyActiveInvestors.com

President Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress will have free reign to launch their green energy new economy initiatives in early 2009, and we expect many new tax breaks, including but not limited to 100-percent (or highly-accelerated) depreciation, tax credits and other fiscal incentives.

We will expand this section soon to include many interesting green energy project ideas. To get started, please read our general article on our index page.

We plan to soon offer several free conference calls to discuss these strategies and opportunities, so please join us. To receive your invitation, kindly join our email list (dialog on the bottom of any Web page). Select the GreenEnergyActiveInvestors list only.

If you have any questions about our other services, please e-mail us at greenactiveinvestors@greencompany.com or
call us at 646-405-4809 or 888-900-2136 (toll free).

If you would like to consult with Robert A. Green personally on these ideas, please sign up here.

Green Energy Active Investor intern jobs and projects: We are looking for interns to promote our green energy active investor tax and business ideas and develop green energy active investor projects as LLC businesses. Our internships can lead to full-time employment either with these green projects or other green ventures, or directly within our company.

These exciting opportunities are geared toward those who share our passion for going green. We need your efforts to put our ideas into motion. We are calling for your green grass roots efforts, including viral marketing, green social networking and green community activism. President Obama’s generous tax incentives, stimulus spending and subsidies, and plenty of ways to profit (fairly) from these green ventures are creating more green jobs and business opportunities. These jobs could be yours for the taking after gaining valuable experience with us. We are interested in hiring interns from all backgrounds, including accountants, attorneys, architects, engineers, designers, builders, trades people, marketing and sales, business management, politicians, government service and more.

If you are interested, please contact us at greenjobs@greencompany.com.

Green energy entrepreneurs: Contact us to find ways of working together and utilizing the services of our interns.

Hometown project:

Feb. 9, 2009 update on these ideas. Click here to learn about a simple home-based green energy tax-advantaged business plan.

Invitation to green energy solution providers, including green builders, installers, and equipment/service providers. Our firm can show (our common) customers how to use your green energy equipment/solutions to set up their own home-based green energy business providing great tax benefits and profits. Are you interested in working with us? Click here to read about this plan.

Jan. 17, 2009. I emailed our Green Energy Active Investor content to the editor of my local newspaper The Redding Pilot in Redding, CT. The editor was very interested and she called me to arrange a sit-down interview scheduled for Jan. 22. Click here to read that published interview. Online view.

The editor told me how well Redding, CT is doing with its two-year old active participation in http://www.smartpower.org and http://www.ctinnovations.com/ to support clean energy, the environment and the alternative energy market place in Connecticut. Click the links above and Google the programs to learn much more.

This well funded, highly publicized and increasingly popular grassroots program is based on residents and businesses (power users) signing up for a clean-energy option for a small extra surcharge on their monthly utility bills. Participating in the program means that state utility service providers will purchase additional power from alternative energy providers and use less energy from old-technology sources, such as coal. It doesn’t necessarily mean the energy user will receive power generated from an alternative energy provider. So it’s sort of like a cap and trade or credit transfer program.

This program contains incentives too. Town residents and businesses (power users) earn alternative energy equipment (for the town) for their green energy surcharges—sort of like a rewards or frequent flyer program.

To date, Redding has earned three solar panels toward its master plan to add approximately eight solar panels onto the local elementary school.

Wow! This was my exact idea (see main page) and sorry to say, I was not aware of this smart power initiative to date. I live in Manhattan on weekends and don’t always read the local paper (plus my wife pays the bills). This clean energy utility option trend is growing quickly worldwide.

The current state of Redding’s clean energy initiative and elementary school solar panel project is ideal for the interjection of a Green Energy Active Investor plan. If we so desired, we could form a group of GreenEnergyActiveInvestors to purchase the remaining solar panels needed along with ancillary equipment and services, so the school doesn’t have to wait too long to earn the added solar panels from the rewards program. New reward-generated panels added in the future can be used on a second project.

If the school doesn’t want to mix and match with us on this project, we can do the next alternative energy project in town, perhaps on another school or for residents in general. The important point is that Redding has already decided to go green and it’s embracing these projects, thereby probably overcoming the NIMBY syndrome (see below).

In my view, this project (with Smart Power, CT Innovations and the existing and newer green energy utility companies) is a great idea, but there is still an important missing component. And that’s private equity ownership by local active investors. We can own more of the supply, which might be extremely inexpensive after benefiting from escalating tax advantages coming under an Obama administration and a Democratically controlled Congress. Why let out-of-towners enjoy those tax breaks and wind up owning our supply? We can match our demand to our supply and not ship these green cash profits elsewhere.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman points out this problem in his opinion column and book Hot, Flat, and Crowded. We ship our energy-consumption money to Middle Eastern-based vendors and they often funnel some of that money into schools teaching Islamic fundamentalism. Why not funnel some of this money instead into our local schools?

The successful SmartPower and CT clean energy programs have wisely focused on the consumer/citizen. I respectively suggest that the next focus should be the consumer/citizen as supply owner too.

For example in the state of Texas, oil men generate great profits from wildcatting oil and gas wells, and they often channel much of their expenses into local jobs and earnings into local communities (spending, property and sales taxes). Texas has been so profitable from energy that it doesn’t even need a state individual income tax.

We can adopt this same local business model with green energy in Connecticut and other states using windpower, the sun, water and other renewable energy sources. Green energy works best when it’s close to the consumer, as more energy is wasted the farther it is transmitted. A new smart energy grid may take a long time to get fully up and running.

Since the green energy and conservation movements were conceived in the 1970s under the Carter administration, as a result of the Middle Eastern-producer oil embargo/crisis and long gas lines, there has been a destructive battle between conservation and the environment versus the economy. Old thinking dictated that what was good for the environment was bad for the economy. We now know differently.

President Obama, Vice President Al Gore, author Thomas Friedman and many others have ushered in a new way of thinking about this that attempts to reconcile the environment with the economy.

They (correctly) argue that what’s good for the environment is also good for the economy. Some young people say the environment should come first and economic concerns should not matter. I suggest that young people may care more about economic concerns later on, as they look for jobs in this recession and find their own self-supporting ways in this economy.

As pointed out on our index page article, local school children want green energy. They want to save their environment and grow up to perhaps have a green job, They don’t want more non-clean energy projects, which are financed with more bonds and more interest, which they and their own children will have to pay back. By owning the supply, the consumers earn the profits and they save interest expenses.

Residential power users don’t need to be passive and wait for things to happen outside of town to then trickle back to Redding. We can take charge and invest in green energy equipment ourselves, get the tax breaks, earn a reasonable profit and solve our town’s energy and environmental needs.

Redding has several wealthy residents, who can afford the cash flow to make this profitable investment. Pay-back with tax benefits happens fast and cash flow profits will happen over a few years.

Right now, neither the town of Redding nor its school district is earning any tax benefits. Consumer-residents do not deduct their utility bills (unless they deduct a portion of them with a home office). So we are leaving many tax breaks on the negotiating table.

Our grassroots efforts can deliver the green power solutions we all want, in addition to productive income-generating investments for our residents. Many people in Redding and across the country are facing job cuts or have already lost their jobs. And more people still have suffered declining retirement plans and investment programs in this savage bear market. Many financial service and insurance companies, which have suffered significant job cuts, are based in Fairfield County. One thing we are all learning in this hurtful recession is to DIY (Do It Yourself), as the Wall Street Journal reported on this trend in recent days. We can do it all ourselves by adding this active investor (equity) missing link.

I am confident that many of my fellow residents in Redding and surrounding towns are anxious to help out, interested in making a green profitable investment. We have all the pieces of the puzzle that we need right here in Redding. We have local engineers, electricians, plumbers, builders, architects, attorneys, accountants, town and school officials already on the case, and several people who have worked hard to make the exciting clean energy programs happen to date. We also have the local paper behind these initiatives.

The biggest obstacle to going green in the past has been the Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) sentiment and that obstacle is now becoming our biggest advantage. Yes, bring clean energy, cheaper power and new business and profits into our back yards; it solves most of our energy and economic problems in one clean swoop. Environment = Economy mc squared, as I am sure Einstein would have said himself.

Recap of the tax advantages
See our main index and Active Investor Tax Benefit pages for the full explanation of the tax breaks and how they work for you.

In summary, the pass-through-tax-entity (an LLC) owning the green energy assets (equipment and more) generates revenues, operating expenses and depreciation (which is accelerated, probably at 100 percent in the first year), plus various tax credits.

Each active investor owner gets a Schedule K-1 for their respective share of these tax-treatment items. At that point, there are already accelerated tax benefits, mostly related to 100-percent depreciation. Even if there are normal revenues from day one, there will be initial-year tax losses due to 100 percent and/or accelerated depreciation.

Only active investor owners, meeting the "material participation" standards (explained on our index page, see the article) may utilize these tax losses on their current-year tax returns. With material participation, they navigate around the passive-activity loss rules. In years the LLC is profitable, all owners, both active and passive, will enjoy the tax advantages. Passive-activity losses are deferred until there are passive-activity gains (including any other passive-activity investments)

The goal is to have many active investors involved, but there is room for some passive investors too. Active investors get even more tax breaks, but on their personal tax returns, expend and deduct those expenses on their own. These expenses are not deducted on the LLC level.

Active investors may set up and use a home office and use their car and other personal-type assets and expenses for this business purpose. These business-related expenses are "unreimbursed partnership expenses" (UPE) and the individual active investor may deduct UPE expenses on Schedule E, underneath where they report the net income or loss from this active investment activity. These UPE expenses add extra tax benefits and it's appropriate for some active investors but perhaps not others.

There are tax risks in connection with this plan. If you are counting on navigating around the passive-activity loss rules, you must be able to document that you satisfied the material participation requirements. These can be somewhat complex and we will offer more details on this subject on these pages soon. We have the exact rules on our index page.

If you deduct the UPE expenses, it must be reasonable and fully believable. Like any tax deduction on your tax return, you need to use reason and follow www.irs.gov rules. As a CPA myself and owner of a national CPA firm (focused on traders, smaller hedge funds, now active investors and more), we can help you in this regard. But this part is your own business and not the business of the LLC. The LLC will not have an "accountable reimbursement plan" for these types of expenses.

There will be plenty of jobs for all of us to do to meet the material participation standards, and probably the 100 hours per year standard should suffice. We also can use our entity to develop projects outside of Redding, first starting in surrounding towns.

If you are interested in this Green Energy Active Investor project or a similar project in your town, please e-mail us at greenactiveinvestors@greencompany.com.

Feb. 9, 2009 update on these ideas.
A simple home-based green energy tax-advantaged business plan.

A leading local builder (recently turned “green” builder) and long-term resident of Redding, Connecticut, called me soon after he read my interview in The Redding Pilot. He expressed his strong interest in my value-added ideas on tax and finance in the green energy market. As someone who is knowledgeable in the green building market, he felt my ideas were the missing link to green success. This green builder is already involved with green building projects around Redding and in neighboring communities.

We discussed the following ideas and agreed to meet to explore them further soon. Hopefully, others will join us as well. After all, it’s a green grassroots effort.

Here’s one simple idea that’s easy to execute quickly for great after-tax value. Start your own small home-based energy business with a guaranteed good paying customer from day one!

Install enough solar panels on your home (roof) and property (solar gazebo) to satisfy not only your own hybrid-energy needs (still use some existing propane, gas and oil assets in place) but to also sell a meaningful amount (say 50 percent) of this solar-generated energy back to the local utility company. Best of all, in many states (including CT), the local utility company must purchase back from you all this excess power, the reverse flow of this energy into the local power grid (as opposed to when you pull energy from the grid). There are few businesses opportunities in America that guarantee an automatic paying customer on new business start-up sales.

In CT, not only can you sell your excess power back to the utility, but you can probably also lease the equipment and get several other significant rebates and incentives from CT Clean Energy Fund (and tax breaks too).

• Power company guidelines/links for getting started and selling your excess power.
  CT Light & Power Generator Interconnections, including Distributed Generation information Generator Interconnection Guidelines (the exact how to guide in CT).
  CT Clean Energy Fund Incentives including leasing options and rebates.
  Energy Purchase and Sales & Purchase Power Agreements in NorthWest.
  Example Power Purchase Agreements (see a CT Light & Power agreement for alternative energy up top).

Yes, oil and gas energy prices have recently dropped, but this idea still makes great sense. Energy still costs a large amount each month and many people have suffered declining incomes in this escalating recession, so existing energy sources still cost too much money for many monthly budgets. Turn this budget buster into a new business opportunity.

This local builder also specializes in measuring homes for exact energy usage and cost, which appliances use the most energy, etc. This green builder can show you how you can save money using green energy systems. But the obstacle he runs into the most is the cost of a green energy building project. In this recession, who can easily part with thousands of dollars to finance a home green energy project? By turning the project into a business, you can make money on it over time, in addition to financing your own energy savings needs. This is where Green Energy Active Investors comes in—and is probably the reason this local green builder called me so quickly.

Before we tackle the money details, let's tackle the other leading obstacle; the design and aesthetics. This local green builder has worked his entire life to build beautiful homes in Redding and to preserve historic landmark homes and buildings as well. It’s part of the Redding lifestyle, ushered in by Redding's Mark Twain himself. We are not talking about wind turbines in the middle of your lawn, but rather highly designed homes, sometimes with hidden green energy equipment. What is visible blends in with your overall home design, and it tells your neighbors that you are a smart small businessman who cares about the neighborhood and the environment. Think of it as a Prius hybrid from Toyota rather than a Lexus from Toyota in your driveway. Turn your over-consumption McMansion (more characteristic of southern Fairfield county than Redding) into a GreenMansion. Best of all, cut the power bill out of your monthly budget and add a new revenue line to boot.

Back to the money issues. If you don’t have the money to finance your own green energy project (with great after-tax values), consider raising money from Green Energy Active Investors, or active investors you line up yourself using these tax strategies. Active Investors can finance the cost of the solar panels and they can then reap the subsidies from government or quasi-governmental organizations (like the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund). Plus, the active investors receive most of the tax advantages, since they have the “tax basis” cost required to receive tax breaks (ownership of the assets for depreciation etc., before turning them back over to you in the future).

Active Investors also receive the lion’s share of the power sale revenues and cash flows until they make their money back with a reasonable profit. The homeowner active investor business person receives free power and a share of power sales and cash flow later on. The home owner puts up with the work on location, but again they get free power and a share of revenues. The homeowner also gets the equipment turned over fully to them later, which increases their home resale value. Hopefully, Redding won't charge more real estate tax on this added property value, as that makes no sense!

The homeowner business person also does their role in supporting green energy and the environment. There are many financial engineering options in this model and it can be worked out based on the needs of the homeowner-small business entrepreneur and the green energy active investors. Every deal can be different.

If you have sufficient cash to finance the purchase of the solar panels yourself, you don’t need any other active investors. You get all the tax breaks and revenues and cash flow yourself. It’s a business-activity simply because you are selling power to the utility company.

You can also lease solar panels in CT rather than purchase them outright. Learn about the CT Clean Energy Fund solar leasing program.

Taxpayers are funding green energy. You can sit back and be a taxpayer who funds others using this equipment and others making business profits on this equipment or you can take the reins to do it yourself. Be a taxpayer/receiver rather than just a taxpayer who only redistributes tax dollars to other people’s green homes and green communities.

Thinking bigger?
Town residents can join together in a public/private energy cooperative project which also serves as an education center to area children and adults too (who for the most part still have lots to learn about green energy and building).

New Pond Farm in Redding is a very successful and cherished non-profit organization. It's Web site says "New Pond Farm is a broad-based nonprofit environmental education center that provides opportunities to learn about and appreciate natural science, Native American heritage, farming traditions, astronomy and the arts." In fact, I am their direct neighbor myself and an appreciating member. Our project can be a Green Farm non profit organization similar to New Pond Farm with a slightly different model and mission; to be a working energy farm and advancing education on green energy and green and passive building solutions.

Can’t we combine efforts with open land organizations—like the Redding Land Trust—to buy land for open public/private space for our Green Farm? I visited a green barge on the Hudson River in Manhattan this past summer, and it was all set up with solar panels, small wind generators and other green energy and farming projects—all to educate the public (with a green café too).

We can do the same thing in Redding. On some open land (purchased already or to be purchased), we can install solar panels (solar gazebos, solar covered recreational facilities and more) and maybe even some wind turbines (if Redding will allow a tower over 150 feet). This Green Farm should have walking and biking trails, dog walks and other recreational installations, all powered by and paid for by the Green Farm. The farm will also generate excess energy to pay back the private investors.

Please don’t view these ideas as stereotypical “tree hugging” schemes or something for hippies who are being cheap. Like the IBM TV commercials say, we are talking about real money here. I am a proven business man in the tax arena and I am talking about tax benefits, great new small business opportunities with a guaranteed customer and cutting the power bill out of your monthly budget.

This is the smartest thing you can do in a recession and it should not wait for the recovery. Cut out your power bill now and replace your declining income with new business cash flows. Yes, at the same time honor your children, grandchildren and neighbors by using clean energy and improving the environment.

Redding should turn green and not red, when it comes to red ink. Why ship these great green ideas, tax breaks and profits out of our town? We can even put ourselves on the green map and be a great business hub without anyone ever realizing it while they drive through our community of open land and beauty. Our Redding management team can build these green projects around the state and even nationwide, while enjoying our profits in our small town of Redding.