Clean Energy: U.S. Lags in Research and Development

I'd have to agree that the U.S. is behind on the renewable energy front. We have numerous excuses NOT to invest in renewable energy (costs to much, we can drill our way out of our problems, the RE output of solar and wind is lower than fossil fuels such as coal and oil, CO2 emissions aren't that bad, blah, blah, blah). The excuses not to invest in RE are based on fear or excessive hand-wringing or outright ignorance. But when we compare the Apollo missions to this potential race to be the global authority with respect to RE, we can begin to see the bigger picture.

In the short term the Apollo missions were expensive ($125 billion in today's dollars) and there were probably naysayers who said that we should take care of this planet rather than reach for the stars, or that launching a manned rocket ship to the moon is not only impractical but insane. But in the long-term those naysayers were proved wrong. By putting all of America's good qualities together - ingenuity, will power, and hard work, we beat the Russians to the punch, instilled a gigantic national pride, and were seen as innovators of great proportions over the next several decades. Not to mention all of the new inventions, entire industries that were spawned and jobs created from this one $125 billion project.

So we are behind with respect to renewable energy R&D but it's because we are listening to the blowhards that continue to demean everything that is American.