Is innovation key to economic progress?
I agree that innovation towards alternative energy is a key to economic progress since it would enhance technical performance and demarcation of a product or service while improving technological cost-competitiveness. While sustaining the economy for the long term, innovation would not deplete natural resources that growth and social well-being ultimately depend upon.
Economic growth is also influenced by innovation at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels to efficiently enable firms to respond to the overwhelming energy demand while contributing to capital, multifactor productivity (MFP), and labor (Schlossstein, 2010).
Should the federal government invest more in energy innovation during these tough economic times?
The federal government should invest more in energy innovation during these tough economic times since it will help speed up economic recovery and growth while creating jobs and building industrialized services, which are not only essential to the energy sector, but also in other areas. Investing in innovation will help future prosperity, quality of life, and eventually future job prospects as a transformational intervention (Schlossstein, 2010).
It will also help create and develop regional, national, and international partnerships with the aim of facilitating market-driven and challenge-led innovations that will ultimately improve capital share, economic intelligence, and recovery.
Should there be a concern that countries like China will overtake the U.S. in the energy sector?
Yes, there should be a concern that China will overtake the U.S in the energy sector because they have recently moved assertively to decrease energy intensity by sufficiently funding energy-saving technologies while intensifying the production of wind, solar, and other sources of renewable energy.
Most strategic industries in China have highly enlisted these measures, while the politics witnessed in America may hinder the full exploitation of renewable energy and innovations. Also, China has also set up investment initiatives in its clean energy policies that will engineer them into the renewable energy market and a lucrative future (Shannon, 2010).
References
Schlossstein, D. F. (2010). Institutional Change in Upstream Innovation Governance: The Case of Korea. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers. ISBN-3631602464, 9783631602461.
Shannon, K. (2010). United States Renewable Energy Sector Is Falling Behind the Rest of the World. Web.