>> You know, I think that's actually, you know,
I, I can speak you know, from, from being on the research side.
So, so David's exactly right.
There are sort of two components to that question.
So on, on the climate change side, I think one of
the interesting you know, problems that I see associated with that is,
we can get much more precise at measuring climate change.
But it, it's almost like, you know, it,
it, it doesn't really matter how much more research we do on that,
because the arguments against it are not based on science.
So, having more scientific data or more precise scientific data
isn't going to convince those people who don't want to believe climate change is
real because their arguments are not science based.
Their arguments are based on some belief that it can't possibly be true because it,
it's not going to happen in their lifetime.
So, but the other half of the question which is, can we actually come up
with renewable, low carbon energies that will replace the fossil fuels we have now.
We did have a big amount of money that was spent on those you know,
both from the Federal side, but also a huge amount of investment that was
put in on the private side.
So in 2007 and 2008, there was an enormous investment from
the venture community into all kinds of companies that worked on renewable energy.
Then a very interesting hap, thing happened over the last few years, and that
is, as fracking technologies, so fracking technology is not new technology, right?
What happened is we got to $100 a barrel oil and
that allowed fracking to be deployed.
And when we deployed it at a very large scale, right, 175
billion invested last year in the United States, that allowed an increase in oil.
There is now a general belief in the United States and probably worldwide that
fracking was new technology that has allowed us to discover new sources of oil.
And therefore, there is this renaissance of oil that's going to come back, and
the price is going to decrease.
So I have actually talked to hedge fund and
venture managers that will tell me, oh, but we think there's no risk,
that the price of oil will be back to $40 a barrel in the next couple of years.
And you can read headlines in the newspaper that say that.
So, even though as an, as an person who works on energy, and even if
you ask the department of energy or the international energy administration.
They would tell you, absolutely no chance that the price of
oil is going to decrease dramatically in the next few year.
There's still this general idea out in the investment community, and
they are risk averse.
So they are not going to put money into renewable technologies if they have this
fear that it sort of requires a $100 a barrel oil for renewals to be competitive,
and the price of regular fossil fuels going to drop to 40.
So, it's not a reality of science, but it's a, it's a perception.
And that has dramatically decreased the investment that came from
the private sector.
And I also think that, that spills over a bit into the public sector.
That there are lots of people in Congress you know, both the Senate and
the House, who believe that tracking technology is going to allow us to
become energy independent in the next few years.
Therefore the urgency on renewable energy is not what it was a few years ago.
I personally think that,
that pendulum is going to swing back in the next couple of years.
All technologies, you know, having watched these things in the biomedical side for
25 years, all technologies get about four or five years in the spotlight.
And so right now, fracking is front and center, everybody loves it, it's
a great investment, and it's changing, you know, our energy landscape here.
We're in about year three of this.
Two more years, and when the amount of liquid fuel, you know,
petroleum is not increasing, then I think that pendulum may swing back.
And you know, it's sort of like the tides.
High tide and low tide on investment right now, it's low tide for energy investment.
But in a couple years, I, I suspect that will swing back.
That, that is sort of independent though of the problem of CO2 emissions.
Those things are very closely tied together on, you know, cause and effect.
But a bit separated in people's minds on, on investment.