Every action has a reaction. With all the if's ands and buts I am surprised anything gets accomplished!! In the case of energy, all talk, all reaction, no action.
Thats why we have leadership.......but if leadership is weak, we get exactly what we deserve because we elected them.
Congress has never properly done this as it applies to basic research. Instead, Congress has basic research done by tax dollars.
This applies to energy production in this way:
Right now, for most purposes, petroleum is the cheapest energy with other fossil fuels becoming economically efficient for various purposes. If basic research were protected, as the constitutions says it ought to be, then energy research would largely be private because everyone can see the "crossing points" where alternative energy sources become truly economically competitive with fossil fuels on the graphs of rising costs for fossil fuels plotted against cost of alternatives.
We shouldn't be needing public financing here. We wouldn't be wanting public financing if Congress acted To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.