In the 1970s, refrigerators were growing in size—and energy consumption. In one of the more successful government-supported programs for energy-efficient technology, research and development of better compressors now have provided refrigerators that are larger still—but use roughly the same amount of energy as the smaller iceboxes of the past.
Similar examples of the federal government at work range from the creation of an industry for producing natural gas from coal seams to the ongoing Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), a small-scale funding agency with outsized ambitions. As the U.S. faces what Secretary of Energy Steven Chu calls a "Sputnik moment" on energy—falling behind China and others in the race to develop clean energy technologies worth trillions of dollars—the question is: can the U.S. compete? And how?
To read the full, original article click on this link: Is the U.S. Falling Behind in the Clean Energy Race?: Scientific American
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