US Department of Energy is Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution

The lower costs and greater adoption shown in this slide is DESPITE falling gasoline prices.

The question is whether we'll "go back" or will this clean energy revolution continue? The actions undertaken by the new political administration seems dead set on preserving the power of the fossil fuel industry, giving Industry the leeway to resume their old dirty polluting ways, and so forth. They've not yet torn the solar panels off the roof of the White House, as President Reagan did in 1980, but we shouldn't be surprised when they do so. Maybe, oh just maybe, the clean energy revolution is now firmly entrenched enough that it cannot be stopped.

The presenter, David Friedman, is no longer with the Dept. of Energy, according to his LinkedIn profile. One wonders what will happen to the clean energy revolution Mr. Friedman describes under the new political administration, given the radical policy shift underway.

That's what Acting Assistant Secretary Friedman wants us to believe.

What the EERE office did is to develop new technologies, in collaboration with various companies, to develop the technology. The Dept of Energy operates a series of national research laboratories with facilities to develop and validate new technologies, fund research programs, and more. That's not new under the Obama Administration, that's been the DoE's charter for decades.

What will bring jobs back to America -- one of President Trump's big promises -- is not only the clean energy revolution, but revolutionizing manufacturing processes. The DoE is/was at the forefront of leading that change.

The impetus for continuing this revolution in technology and manufacturing is -- Climate Change. This new political administration is in denial of Climate Change, the vast majority of scientists are not. Anyone paying attention to the climate recognizes climate change is already underway, and our future is scary.

This should capture the attention of any investor/entrepreneur. Pres. Trump claims to be a successful businessman (he's had 6+ major bankruptcies and been sued thousands of times - hardly sounds like a success to me), so surely he, and any other businessman, should be drooling at amounts like this. So, why the resistance? Will America be able to capture a big piece of that market, or not?

Asia (China) is driving more investment in renewable/clean energy technology than America is. China is playing to win. If "we" take our foot off the accelerator, we'll lose.

These and other technologies are on the "Cusp of Revolution". That is, breakthroughs are close which will drive the clean energy revolution even further. Grid-scale batteries will make intermittent solar or wind practical for large-scale use in the electricity grid. Smart buildings can sense the energy or other resources they actually need, and optimize their resource consumption. Lowering the weight of vehicles reduces energy consumption, increasing efficiency, reducing the environmental impact, etc.

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy home page: https://energy.gov/eere/office-energy-efficiency-renewable-energy