PCMag reports:
John Doerr was most passionate in talking about green technology. The green companies Kleiner Perkins has invested in, including Silver Spring Networks, Enphase Energy, and Bloom Energy, did $1.4 billion of business in 2011; last year, the same companies did $2.4 billion.
“There are reasons to be optimistic, but I’m still basically panicked,” Doerr said in thinking about energy and climate change.
Science tells us that by 2050 we need to reach 20 percent of today’s carbon emissions and to do that we need to get the developed world to zero percent using technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear power. “We don’t have the technology,” he said.
The government is spending only $4 billion on energy research—about the same as Americans spend on potato chips—and Doerr would like to see that doubled to $8 billion. For comparison, he noted the government is spending $80 Billion on border security.
Doerr is “panicked” for fear of a collapse in the “green energy” market and his investments along with it.
Government has no business investing in “energy research” – and has the track record to prove it. If the potential returns had any merit, the free market would invest and would be far more successful and efficient than government ever could. Doerr laments the low level of government “investing” because his companies depend on income from it.