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Business heavyweights, think tank thinkers on the right and left, and even climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg spent the better part of 2010 calling for significant increases in energy research R&D to stir up the fires of technological innovation, drive economic growth, and reduce pollution.
Now, along come House Republicans, lumbering into the budget china shop and battering the crockery in a ham-handed attempt to appear fiscally responsible.
Their proposed budget resolution, setting spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, has knives out for energy science and technology research – for example, a 35 percent chop from 2010 levels for energy efficiency and renewables, and a 15% cut for nuclear R&D.
Yes, a fair argument could be made that all federal programs need to share the pain, but energy science and technology research doesn’t amount to a teaspoon in a hurricane. All of the some $5 billion allocated to energy R&D each year could be zeroed out and the accountants at Treasury would hardly notice.
More importantly, energy R&D is long-range tech development that likely would not be picked up by private sector CFOs seeking more near-term returns for their risk capital. Once promising lines of inquiry are bunged up by federal budget politics, innovations that might have spawned new industries and smarter ways to use America’s energy resources would fall by the wayside.
That would be a false savings. Academic studies have found that technological innovation was responsible for about half the economic growth that the U.S. experienced in the second half of the 20th century. Energy technologies could play the same role in the 21st century, especially if they cut pollution, create product export opportunities, and wean the U.S. off the OPEC sauce.
The federal government could drive energy technology innovation forward with research, demonstration, and procurement that forces down costs and encourages adoption, similarly to the migration of health and telecommunications innovations from federally supported labs to marketplace.
Energy has been an R&D stepchild. As a percentage of domestic sales, energy research amounts to 0.3 percent. Equivalent percentages are 7 percent for computers, 12 percent for pharmaceuticals, and 26 percent for communications.
Supporting energy R&D doesn’t mean splashing out funds on poorly focused projects that fail to move technologies to market. In a thoughtful report published last fall, three think tanks occupying diverse habitats on the ideological spectrum – American Enterprise Institute on the right, Brookings on the left, and the category-defying Breakthrough Institute – proposed upping federal R&D funding by a factor of five, and coupling the extra support with technology-neutral reforms that would put public and private-sector researchers together in clusters that shape technology ideas into real products.
Under the think tanks’ blueprint, promising technologies could be deployed with the help of incentives that ratchet down over time, so that technologies aren’t stuck on a never-ending subsidies treadmill. Technologies that become cost-competitive would be ready to fight it out in the market. Those that don’t would become useful learning opportunities.
There would be an important role for the armed forces to demonstrate technologies at the realistic scale that only defense installations are capable of. Military demonstration would not be a feel-good favor that detracts from the defense mission. The armed services have a strong interest in adopting more efficient, less tactically dangerous ways of supplying deployed forces with energy.
The think tanks’ recommendations might or might not be exactly the right formula for federal energy R&D. At least, however, they put some careful thought into balancing the strong public interest in technological innovation with the equally critical need to correct fiscal imbalances.
Unlike the bulls cavorting around the china shop at the House Appropriations Committee.
You’re ignoring the obvious. The main reason to cut this funding is dfh’s are for it. Angering liberals is now the highest calling for Republicans. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that most Republican politicians give a rat’s ass about policy.
I just assume they would, as the GOP is fueled monetarily by the big oil businesses.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that most Republican politicians give a rat’s ass about policy.
That seems a bit off the mark to me.
How about, “no Republican politician gives a rat’s ass about policy.” That fits the experiences of the past ten years quite a bit better, doesn’t it?
(Exception: Dick Lugar supports New START.)
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As long as they leave in the money for modular nuclear reactor R&D I don’t care what they cut.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-16/small-nuclear-reactors-may-spur-factory-jobs-exports-u-s-says.html
Yup real Murrikans hate all that sissy enviro stuff like windmills and Priuses and are just dying to have a nuclear power plant nearby and drive their 4 door 4WD full size pickups two blocks to the McDonald’s drive through.
Tell me, what would you rather have down the road from you, some solar collectors and windmills or an atomic power plant?
Why not cut all the tax breaks and give-aways to the old power industry (oil & coal) and funnel those funds to new stuff?
It doesn’t raise taxes and puts our money towards the future instead of towards the past.
Because it does not count unless your party has the Presidency…
They might do it if they can get it but the chances are looking slim.
“Energy has been an R&D stepchild. As a percentage of domestic sales, energy research amounts to 0.3 percent. Equivalent percentages are 7 percent for computers, 12 percent for pharmaceuticals, and 26 percent for communications.”
Good to see that the GOPpers are still dancing to the tunes the Oil Industry play. After all, we wouldn’t want the US to be the leader in the most advanced techonology for generating power. Let China sell us the electricity we’ll need in 30 years.
We can keep throwing taxpayer money at the API and have them come up with new ways to get pertroleum from turnips and dandelions and perfect cold fussion.
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Rightwingers will take chain saws and axes and perhaps a backhoe or frontloader to work on the federal budget. They won’t know what they are cutting, they won’t have evaluated pluses and minuses of what a program provides its constituency. Its a program and maybe they hate because it helps undeserving poor people and encourages dependence on the Federal Government which means its got to go. Aid the poor childen. Say bye bye boys and girls. Money to secure possible rogue nuclear weapons. Who cares just cut it. Just place it on the block. More a thirst for blood and the thrill of power of taking down government and displacing and disadvantaging already struggling working poor. Government without a heart. Conservatives with consciences. Hope some responsible adults step in the staunch the random and careless bloodletting. Real people are being terribly hurt by the mindless of it all.
I dunno Mickster, most of the budget is for wages, pensions and benefits for employees not handouts or RD
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jakester: “Tell me, what would you rather have down the road from you, some solar collectors and windmills or an atomic power plant?”
I live in New England, where the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. I would rather have a nuclear power plant, whose electricity is always available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
No solar advocates or wind power advocates can guarantee electricity in an area whose weather is as fickle as New England. Hence we will ALWAYS need a supplementary source of base power, whether it’s fossil fuel or nuclear, as a backup against adverse weather conditions.
“Tell me, what would you rather have down the road from you, some solar collectors and windmills or an atomic power plant?”
I’m not happy about photovoltaics at this point. They’re pretty much solid sheets of battery acid, which aren’t that much easier to dispose of than nuclear waste. That and they consume non-renewables like heavy metals in mining much like nuclear does.
Windmills are even more of an eyesore than a nuke plant, IMHO. If they do the job better in your geography though, then go for it.
—
I’d be up for switching some Defense spending from operations and weapons research to an alternative energy “manhattan project”.
I get the impression that the R&D budget of the government should be near that of defense, in an ideal world. There’s a lot of research that just doesn’t make sense for the private sector to engage in.
Patrick,
Amen. Got to look at the total picture like you just did. Think of how much we spend on oil subsidies for starters. That would easily fund that sort of effort. Funny, but few here seem to take that on.
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