There are a nearly unlimited number of ways the federal government could significantly increase renewable energy use in the short term. A number of federal programs already subsidize renewable energy use, including subsidies for ethanol, a fuel made from corn, and subsidies for the development and sale of energy from windmills, solar cells, geothermal and biomass. Apart from the additional cost to taxpayers and energy consumers, these subsidies can increase the use of these renewable energy sources in the short term, but in doing so distort the development of these technologies and tend to smother other potential renewable technologies. Getting government approval for projects weeds out some of the nuttier ideas, but also tends to block workable but unusual and unexpected proposals. That is, innovations change the attractiveness of each source compared to the others.
Innovations boost efficiency, which in turn allows each power source to burn cleaner.
Every unburned molecule of fuel that escapes the smokestack of a power plant and from the tailpipe of a car is energy lost. Each innovation that saves millions of dollars by rescuing formerly wasted fuel and raw materials also reduces pollution released into the environment. H Notes 1. J. Jewkes, D. Sawers and R. Stillerman, The Sources of Invention, 2nd Ed., New York, Norton, 1969. See also Space Policy Reconsidered, Westview Press, 1989.