“The federal government is probably the largest obstacle to job retention in the United States.” That was the assessment of Stephen Barry during Thursday’s Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce Innovation Conference.

Barry, of California-based MiaSole, a manufacturer of photovoltaic cells used in the solar power industry, told the crowd of approximately 125 at Berry College that federal tax policies are stifling an opportunity for job creation and expansion which is going overseas to countries like China, Malaysia and Thailand.

German attorney Florian Stamm pointed out the irony of the alternative fuel industry, which was born in the U.S. out of the energy crisis of the late 70s. Interest in research and development fizzled during the conservative swing of the 1980s. It was about that time that German fossil fuel plants burning low grades of coal were creating acid rain issues that were “literally melting our cathedrals away. Our trees were just falling over.”

So the Germans in particular took up the cause of alternative energy, notably wind power, essentially refining the technology which is now coming back to the U.S., but not Georgia, adding “for wind energy we’re completely in the wrong place,” Stamm said.

He said that his law firm is currently representing three German firms looking to come to the southeastern U.S. with alternative energy, largely solar power operations. He also said that his clients could bring more than 4,700 alternative energy jobs to the U.S. in the next couple of years.

Jill Stuckey, director of the Georgia Energy Innovation Center, hinted that the best bet in Georgia involves development of biomass, largely from the state’s timber industry.

“If we take 15 percent of forests and croplands in Georgia, we can take 15 percent of that fuel — we can produce every drop of fuel Georgia needs,” said Stuckey. She said that realistically speaking, that would probably take at least 20 years.

Lindsey Evans, with SOYMET biofuels in Coosa, pointed out that ethanol plants in Georgia went bankrupt before they ever got off the ground. Stuckey responded saying Georgia needs another feedstock to produce more gallons per acre to make the fuel cost competitive.

Diane Lewis with Lewis Chemicals in West Rome asked the panel how to go about creating a market of “willing customers rather than compelled customers” for alternative energy sources. Stamm said that at the consumer level, perhaps the best market right now is solar thermal water heating.