This View­point exam­ines data on inter­na­tion­al trends in ener­gy research and
devel­op­ment (R&D) fund­ing, pat­terns of U.S. ener­gy tech­nol­o­gy patents and
R&D fund­ing, and U.S. R&D inten­si­ties across select­ed sec­tors. The data
present a dis­turb­ing pic­ture: (i) Ener­gy tech­nol­o­gy fund­ing lev­els have declined
sig­niÞ­cant­ly dur­ing the past two decades through­out the industrial
world; (ii) U.S. R&D spend­ing and patents, both over­all and in the energy
sec­tor, have been high­ly cor­re­lat­ed dur­ing the past two decades; and (iii) the
R&D inten­si­ty of the U.S. ener­gy sec­tor is extreme­ly low. It is argued that
recent cut­backs in ener­gy R&D are like­ly to reduce the capac­i­ty of the energy
sec­tor to inno­vate. The trends are par­tic­u­lar­ly trou­bling giv­en the need for
increased inter­na­tion­al capac­i­ty to respond to emerg­ing risks such as global
cli­mate change.