When the U.S. sent Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969 it wasn’t without incredible funding. The government’s willingness to spend what would be an equivalent today of $125 billion allowed the Apollo mission to succeed, putting America in the front seat of the space race.
In today’s world, there is a similar urgency for scientific development to progress in the renewable energy sector. The U.S. was the global leader in wind power development in 2008, and President Barack Obama is on his way to creating a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide. But funding for renewable energy in general has been extremely insufficient; the Obama Administration has dedicated $150 million to clean energy R&D, not nearly enough to invest in the proper ventures.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is addressing Congress for more money, claiming that the science, basic research and development for renewable energy is not nearly where it needs to be. Chu has goals to spend $280 million on eight new research lab centers. Each center would work on a different aspect of clean energy development, and would collaborate on general focuses. While Congress might meet the suggested investments, the House would only give Chu $35 million — enough for just one research center.
In addition to insufficient funding in certain important areas, Congress is pushing bills to allocate $200 million to hydrogen fuel technologies — an idea that the Bush Administration supported but has since been determined an ineffective long-term solution. Congress is also pressing a bill that would make the Energy Department spend $30 million on natural-gas vehicles, despite the Obama Administration’s lack of interest in natural gas as a viable fuel alternative. Treehugger.com reported that out of 3,500 recent federal energy proposals, the Obama Administration accepted only 2 percent, which could be too small to spark the clean energy revolution the President is hoping for.
President Obama’s energy stimulus package of $150 million may be too small to make any significant measures. Compared with the proportion of federal budget spent on space travel in the 1960’s, the U.S.’s budget allotment of renewable energy investment compared to other expenses is inadequate to make it the forerunner in today’s clean energy race. TIME reports that South Korea plans to spend $85 billion over the next five years in clean-energy R&D; China reportedly will be spending $660 billion over the next ten years. If the U.S. does not want to fall behind to these other countries, it is going to have to change its strategies and shoot for the moon.
