Congressional Lead Gordon: From Sputnik to DARPA-Energy

Image credit: Defensetech.org


DARPA is being tapped as a go-to, small and agile agency to go to work on the strategic national need for clean energy. Will it be clean energy for dual use?

Source: Public release, House.gov/science
Gordon Marks 50 Years of Defense Innovation, Calls for Similar Dedication to Energy Advancement (Washington, DC) This year marks the 50th Anniversary of a small federal research program with a long list of blockbuster technologies to its credit. This week that golden anniversary is being marked in ceremonies in Washington, DC. The results of research conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, can be seen in everything from stealth technology for warplanes to Global Positioning Systems in vehicles, body armor for soldiers to semiconductors and even the mouse for household computers. However, DARPA may be best known for development of a computing network called ARPAnet, the precursor to today’s Internet. With such well-known technological successes under its belt, House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) today remarked that Congress looked to DARPA as a model for research in other areas, most notably in the field of energy research with the recent authorization of an ARPA for energy, or “ARPA-E”... “I remember as a child looking on in both fear and wonder at the blinking red light of Sputnik as it flew overhead. Everyone knew then that the U.S. was on the cusp of a new era, and we wasted no time building up our technological defenses with such groundbreaking programs as DARPA,” added Gordon. “While the adversary may have changed over 50 years, the imperative to constantly evolve the U.S. science and technology enterprise has not. Given the geopolitical instabilities that threaten global energy supplies, the skyrocketing costs of energy to consumers, the looming threat of global climate change, and the resulting costs from the likely regulation of carbon dioxide emissions, there is a critical need for ground-breaking science-based energy solutions that can be deployed in the marketplace. The status quo in energy is simply unsustainable. I believe that to move away from the status quo, we must rethink the federal government’s approach to energy technology development and establish an ARPA-E.”