Bill Gates backs grossly misleading ad on clean energy R&D

This is an outright falsehood*:

*Actually, it is still false with or without the asterisk — even if the ad is well-meaning in a far-too-little, far-too-late sort of way.

In fact, the asterisk goes to a statement in the bottom half of the ad (see below) that is also false:  "In 2007, American consumers spent $6 billion on potato chips; U.S. spending on clean energy R&D that year was $1.8 billion."

Here's why those statements are both false and misleading:

The ad — sponsored by the American Energy...