Letters to the Editor
A Long-Term Energy Research Strategy Is Sorely Needed
“A Broken Model for Energy Change — Our Current Energy RD&D Isn’t Working” by Gary Shu is an excellent article. The author well pinpointed fundamental problems in the energy field, which I have observed from my own work experiences in the industry and DOE national lab. The bottom-line issue for implementation of any energy efficient or alternative energy technologies is cost. Breakthrough technologies and tenacious development work are needed to bring down the cost of all the nice clean or alternative energies and make them competitive with existing options (largely fossil fuel-based). It seems that the energy research in this country has gone through ups and downs with the oil price so far. A long-term energy technology strategy and highly competitive R&D programs are really needed to come up with hard core technologies and create high value jobs.
I hope that Shu’s article can reach the decision makers who control funding resources.
Richland, WA