&gt; <i>It feels a bit like we&#x27;re sitting here with this &#x27;money&#x27; abstraction and pretending that energy research is too expensive, when realistically, governments across the world have the might to make clean energy the next Apollo project. Why aren&#x27;t they?</i><p>I think we&#x27;re scared we won&#x27;t find a cheaper source of energy than fossil fuels. At least for a few generations. Confronting the reality that society will have a smaller energy budget going in the future compared with the past is a scary prospect for democracy, because it challenges a leg of the &quot;growing pie&quot; assumption.