Trump Wants to Cut Funding for Clean Energy Research In Half

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Meanwhile, China, India and the European Union aim to double funding for clean energy R&D.

Climate change is expected to drive demand for clean energy in the decades ahead, giving an edge to countries that invest in the manufacture and export of low-carbon technologies.

Despite this, President Trump is pushing to slash spending on clean energy research, even as America’s chief economic rivals aim to double public funding for the same. In doing so, experts say, the president is threatening to undermine U.S. competitiveness.

In recent years, technological advances have helped drive down the cost of wind, solar and other advanced energy technologies, boosting sales and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States. Much of that innovation has been fueled by federal funding. A 2013 study found the recent boom in wind and solar patents to be the result of “public investments in R&D and a fast rate of growth in markets for these technologies.”

Experts say that if the clean energy sector is to continue to create jobs and generate exports, the federal government must provide generous funding for research. “I think it’s important for the government to look out for growing sectors and to invest in competitiveness,” said David Hart, director of the Center for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy at George Mason University. The cost of research into emerging technologies, he said, is often prohibitive, “and the risk is really intimidating for private companies.”


Much more: https://nexusmedianews.com/trump-wants-to-cut-funding-for-clean-energy-research-in-half-cf27a7dbecf6