If it fails it fails. If not, and if they have stumbled onto some previously unknown phenomena, then the scietific community has the data to study, the patent office might consider a patent for it, and then they can make some money and we can tell the ragheads to go eat sand and drink their oil.
From my point of view, I have nothing to lose and am quite willing to keep an open mind and sit back and watch.
I may not be a physisist, but I'm smart enough to know, or at least surmise, that what we know about the universe could probably fill a thimble.
Relatively speaking.
The community of epistemologists doesn't need any data. They would need only a rumor, a hint that it is possible. Any of them can come up with the solution just from knowing it is posible.
From my point of view, this is also used as an approach to secure federal funding for further research. I pay for it whether I want to or not. If the darn thing worked, they can patent it and make a small scale product to prove the process.