Cleantech firm Fat Spaniel calls for action

By David Goll
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Article Launched: Friday, January 30, 2009

The sea change in federal environmental policy ushered in by the Obama administration could provide a wave of prosperity for cleantech business in San Jose and other Silicon Valley cities.
But companies such as San Jose-based Fat Spaniel Technologies Inc. aren’t sitting idle waiting to be thrown a bone.
Chris Beekhuis, president and chief technology officer for Fat Spaniel, recently spent several days lobbying officials at the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as California legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives. His company, which provides monitoring and reporting devices for renewable energy systems, got an infusion of $18 million in venture capital funding from a group of environmental investors a year ago.
“We take the view that growth in our industry generally will certainly benefit our company specifically,” Beekhuis said. “Obama is looking for oversight and transparency, and the changes in federal policy we are suggesting will create the exact opposite of what happened with the bailout of the financial industry, where companies refuse to report what’s being done with taxpayers’ money. Our industry wants to show exactly what kind of economic benefits can be achieved when government changes the way it does business.”