"Green" Energy Initiative Needs A Big Leap

A very good article that discussed the issues surrounding energy efficiency and renewable energy research in the US. It has as much to do with the organizational problems of coordinating and directing such research efforts as it is with the science involved.

There are also roadblocks within the federal government, the Energy Department report and two other new studies suggest. Experts from the Brookings Institution said this month that the way federal energy research was being managed was "holding back innovation and rapid deployment of clean energy technology."

And Harvard researchers said the government had "fallen short in what it can do to promote the development and deployment of advanced energy technology."

All three reports call for more research funding, and they suggest institutional changes to spend research dollars smarter.

Especially when there's a lot of money to be spent after the stimulus package has been passed, it is imperative that some coordinated effort is in place to figure out where the money should go to.

Zz.