Date: 11/01/07

Summary: Gingrich acknowledges that both the political right and left have not done their part in encouraging the discovery of real solutions to America’s energy challenges. Government rules currently hold up needed development, hindering the use of innovations by knowledgeable and talented individuals.

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“Well, I think that it’s a dual failure. I think on the Left there has been a relative unwillingness to consider incentives as opposed to punishment, entrepreneurs as opposed to regulators, scientific breakthroughs as opposed to litigation. So on the Left there hasn’t been any—simple example: The current rules in Congress and in the Office of Management and Budget make it virtually impossible to establish a prize, because one of the things I’d like to see is a billion-dollar prize for the first hydrogen engine that can be built at a reasonable price and becomes competitive in cars. Because the outcome of a hydrogen engine would be so radically different that it’s worth way more than a billion dollars to us as a society to get that kind of effort. And I want a prize rather than a process run by the Department of Energy because I don’t want Ford and General Motors and Chrysler and Toyota and Honda and people like that to be the center of activity. I want every graduate student at Cal Tech and every graduate student at Georgia Tech and every graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, anyone who thinks they can do it. The Wright Brothers were, after all, bicycle mechanics. Henry Ford who built his first car at night while working for the Edison Electric Company. Thomas Edison who invented his own laboratories. I want anybody who thinks they can do it to go out and try it. And I’m convinced that you will see an explosion of creativity.”