Grateful Bill Gates calls for government investment in energy innovation at the same scale as defense and health

By Clark Gilman
Climate Solutions

I spend most of my time working with rural people who are putting proven renewable energy and energy efficiency measures to work on their farms and businesses. Their efforts don't attract the media limelight.

Well known public figures have access to a national soapbox. That opportunity is used in many different ways, for better or worse. 

Seattle’s Bill Gates is known across the planet as a brilliant man and as a business leader. I was both heartened and appreciative that Gates stepped up on the soap box this week to speak forcefully for increased US government investment in the transition to a clean energy economy.

In a Science magazine editorial, Bill Gates says it is essential to our national interest to play a leading role in the fast-growing global clean energy industry. Gates wrote that as part of a group of business leaders (the American Energy Innovation Council) he is urging the United States to increase federal energy research funding from $5 billion to $16 billion a year.

Here is Gate’s rationale for investing in clean energy: “There is really no other choice. Carbon-based fuels are prone to wild price gyrations and are causing the planet to overheat. The United States spends close to $1 billion a day on foreign oil, while countries such as China, Germany, Japan, and Korea are making huge investments in clean energy technologies.”

Bill Gates makes a strong case for the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy being in all of our best interest, despite the economic crisis. It matters when someone who 99% of the people will agree is really, really smart says that we must get to near-zero emissions to “keep the Earth from getting even hotter.” 

"The United States is uniquely positioned to lead in energy innovation, with great universities and national laboratories and an abundance of entrepreneurial talent. But the government must lend a hand. Market incentives, alone, will not create enough affordable, clean energy to get the nation to near-zero CO₂ emissions, the level of emissions that developed countries must achieve if we are going to keep Earth from getting even hotter."

As existing Federal energy programs face the budget axe, advocates of specific energy technologies have begun to consider programmatic fratricide. Rather than calling for a sibling program to be cut and the funds transferred to our favorite, perhaps we should join Gate’s call for government investment in energy innovation at the same scale as health and defense.

"I believe it is imperative that the government commit to clean energy innovation at a level similar to its research investments in health and defense…  History has repeatedly proven that federal investments in research return huge payoffs, with incredible associated benefits for U.S. industries and the economy. Yet over the past three decades, U.S. government investment in energy innovation has dropped by more than 75%. In 2008, the United States spent less on energy R&D as a percentage of gross domestic product than China, France, Japan, or Canada."

I'm thankful Bill Gates stepped up on that celebrity soap-box to call for the US government to lend a hand and accelerate the transformation to energy independence based on renewable power.