Abundance

by Ezra Klein

Reagan’s election was the most important factor in the slowdown of US solar development, according to Nemet.28 His conservative revolution coincided with a huge drop in gasoline prices, as Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap oil in the 1980s. Consumers embraced gas-guzzling SUVs, and alternative energy fell out of favor. The spirit of imagining life after oil seemed to shrivel up and die. As late as the early 2000s, federal energy R&D spending was still 80 percent below its level in the 1970s.29 The US solar industry gradually withered. Many companies couldn’t survive without government support. By 2001, renewable energy accounted for 5 percent to 6 percent of total energy consumption—the lowest share since at least 1989.30 As American firms pulled back from solar power, other countries picked up the slack.