The Economic Benefits of Saddling U.S. Industry?

From the Chris Horner piece here:

The “root cause” of this thinking seems to be a strain of American exceptionalism that says once the U.S. government applies the spurs to U.S. industry in the form of a threat to their competitiveness — possibly styled as a market opportunity for innovators — we will answer the call and produce stunning advances in “new” technologies pioneered anywhere from millennia (wind) to centuries (solar) ago.