No consensus here: Pachauri vs Bill Gates on whether US clean energy research is super-duper

India's clean tech research “abysmal,” says Pachauri

In contrast, “there is no getting away from the fact that in some of these cutting-edge technologies innovations will probably originate more from the U.S. than anywhere else,” he said. Describing the extent and intensity of research that takes place in U.S. universities as “quite amazing,” Dr. Pachauri argued that neither Europe nor any other part of the world was as yet at the same level.

[Feb 2012]:  Bill Gates: The lack of energy funding is crazy — Cleantech News and Analysis

Bill Gates told an audience of energy entrepreneurs, scientists and investors at the ARPA-E energy conference on Tuesday that “It’s crazy how little we’re funding energy.” Energy research is underfunded by a factor of two, Gates said, referring to the amount of current U.S. government investment in energy research...Underfunding energy research means there is a higher risk that we won’t be able to deliver the needed energy breakthroughs, said Gates.