Barack Obama is betting on public universities to help America get off fossil-fuels and invest new alternative green techologies. According to the President’s stimulus plan, $150 billion will be invested over the next 10 years to develop new clean-energy technologies, and a significant portion of this sum will go to public research universities.

Much of the research that goes on at a state institution is based on state needs.

While developing alternative fuel solutions is an important key to a cleaner future, researchers acknowledge that there is no short-term solution to replace fossil fuels.

For Ohio, that means finding ways to use and develop clean coal technology. The state of Ohio has one of the largest supplies of coal in the country.

“All of our systems are dependent on fossil fuels,” Pinto said. “We’re not going to change the car engine shortly.”

Because of this, a lot of the research at UC focuses on mitigating the negative effects that fossil fuels have on the environment.

According to Pinto, the challenge of cleaning up energy is a two-headed monster: dealing with the short-term problems of the fossil fuels we depend on and breaking away from those fuels by developing new technologies that reduce the impact people have on the environment.

When it comes to alternative energy sources, UC is doing significant research in the development of fuel cells as well as biological alternative fuels that mimic the natural world, among many other areas of research.

All forms of scientific research require significant time and financial support, and Obama’s plan would enhance the country’s ability to develop better fuel technologies in multiple ways.

More money for a field means more scientists are attracted to that particular field, and the increase in funding works secondarily as an economic stimulus by creating new jobs.

Because of the increased research, the amount of funding in a scientific field is related to how quickly advancements are made in the field, Pinto said.

“It’s definitely the federal government that sets the directions,” Pinto said. “I’m optimistic that this new administration, I think, fully recognizes the need to continue to invest in a major way and enhance significantly the funding for energy research … In the context of the environmental impacts and all that … It’s not just coming up with alternative energy sources.”

Researchers around the country are calling for an increase, and Obama’s plan is an indication that the Department of Energy’s funding will go up significantly in the near future.

Additional funding is so significant because research by its very nature is not always fruitful. Many times research leads to dead ends before it yields practical solutions to problems.

“You don’t exactly know where the solution is,” Pinto said. “You’re almost betting.”

Currently, the federal government spends more than $3 billion per year on energy innovation research at publicly funded research institutions and universities. Obama’s plan, if approved by Congress, would double that amount to more than $6 billion per year.

Additionally, the plan allocates funds toward the development of technologies to lessen the environmental impact of fossil fuels such as coal.

source: newrecord.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 8:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.