American Prospect article 2007 Pub Inv and RE

Global Warming in an Age of Energy Anxiety
Peter Teague and Jeff Navin
June 26, 2007
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=global_warming_in_an_age_of_energy_anxiety

• Public very sensitive to potential changes in energy prices; will vote down measures that threaten to do this (or that big corps tell public will do this)
• Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC - 30-yr policy blueprint to make NY "greener and greater," inspired by Apollo Project. "simultaneously addressing the need for housing, jobs, clean air, clean water, and public parks." calls both for new fees and regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions and for a $5 billion investment in the city's new green economy.
• Global warming experts like U.C. Berkeley's Dan Kammen suggest that the current energy R&D budget, which is less than half what it was in 1979 (in real dollars), should be increased ten-fold, to roughly $30 billion annually.
• To the extent that public investment in innovation is mentioned (a survey of environmental web sites and public statements found little on the subject), it seems to be regarded as a hoped-for by-product of the regulatory scheme rather than its core intention.
• What's more likely to happen is what is happening. Regulation, or the promise of regulation, is sending billions of dollars in venture capital chasing short-term gains in the alternative energy field. This investment is as unlikely to produce the long-term technological breakthroughs we'll need as it is to result in the broadly-shared benefits that would drive the creation of sustainable political majorities.
• The kinds of large-scale, long-term investments that were instrumental in producing the Internet, the interstate highway system, and the biotech revolution came from government, and for a reason: Private capital won't stay in the game long enough, and the benefits of private investment are likely to be largely private.
• But it appears we have reached a point where the public is less sensitive to congressional spending than they are to regulations that will increase the cost of energy. Today energy costs seem to generate the kind of ire taxes did a decade ago. Based on this analysis, we believe that investment as a frame can help build support for comprehensive global warming legislation.

Gristmill response and more reader comments at
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/29/1125/70814

• Some concern about public investment being used ineffeciently or for wrong things.
• R&D for RE highest during Carter admin; ended by Reagan