The point remains that oil is underpriced enough to spur further R&D in alternative
fuels research. The other alternative is the type of program that got Jimmy Carter dis-elected from the presidency; massive federal spending on dubious energy projects. And the basic axiom there is that, were it so laden with profit potential and long term viability, private industry would be doing it already. Only government is capable of spending trillions on a pig in a poke. Private enterprise usually stops after a few millions are wasted.
CD should feel free to invest as much as he wishes into alternative energy and research. There are actual investment funds that do so. They don't make any money but they'll invest your's for you. But that's not what CD is really after; he's after my tax dollars for Uncle Sam to disburse to some chosen companies with potential in the eye's of government. CD, I've got news for you. Been there, done that. Check out the decade of the 1970's under "how not to run government".