Michael Giberson
I’m not necessarily opposed to government funding for research, but does General Electric really need taxpayer funds in order to do research on high-temperature electronics intended to support high tech oil and gas drilling? Isn’t this exactly the kind of applied product research that, together, patent protections and markets can manage just fine? Really, couldn’t General Electric, perhaps with the support of the oil and gas industry or the oil and gas equipment manufacturing industry, come up with a few million dollars more without U.S. Department of Energy support?
It always seems that the big corporation have their hand in the money bag long before anyone else even knows there is a money bag.
The US Department of Energy does imply that there are few other options than to go with the leaders in the field and that General Eelctric is just that – I don’t really agree, but what do I know.