U.S. Commitment to Energy Research Still Insufficient, Say Business Leaders

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/535486/us-commitment-to-energy-rd-still-insufficient-say-business-leaders/

Mike Orcutt
February 26, 2015
[font face=Serif][font size=5]U.S. Commitment to Energy Research Still Insufficient, Say Business Leaders[/font]

[font size=4]Five years after a stern warning from Bill Gates and other business leaders, U.S. funding for energy R&D remains stuck in the mud.[/font]

[font size=3]Five years ago the American Innovation Council, a group of six prominent business leaders including Bill Gates and GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt, published a “business plan for America’s energy future,” which included recommended investments the group said would “unleash America’s technological potential” in a way that would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

At the time it didn’t feel like such a stretch. Excitement about new energy technologies was riding high, thanks in large part to the big infusion of stimulus funding the year before. Five years later, there has been so little progress that the group’s second report, published this week, reiterates several of the exact same recommendations from five years ago.

In 2009 and 2010, federal funding for energy R&D through the Department of Energy reached $6 billion (in 2014 dollars)—the highest levels seen during the past decade. But that was still $10 billion less than the government should be spending, according to the original report. In subsequent years, annual funding dropped back to around $5 billion, where it has stayed.

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