(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why is America losing the research and development war? Selling taxpayer funded ingenuity to China. – Daily Montanan [1] ['More From Author', 'February', 'Miguel Contreras'] Date: 2024-02-22 I wanted to congratulate the Daily Montanan and John Bruggeman for the excellent commentary on the state of America’s research and development. I wanted to share my personal experience on the subject since I was an R&D scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy for 27 years and another seven years in the private sector prior to my retirement, so I am very aware of the loss in technological leadership we have suffered. Although the article is excellent in providing some root causes for the loss of our technological leadership in the world, it does not mention other very significant causes that have led to this fact. For instance, when I was at the DOE-National Renewable Energy Laboratory doing solar energy research, my team and I created intellectual property and eight U.S. patents, using taxpayer monies that we hoped would create the high technology jobs in our country. However, you may already know the story: It all went to China. But why? My personal opinion is that the U.S. government, the DOE in particular, failed to protect taxpayer funded intellectual property and was inept in understanding the importance the role energy plays in our national security. In the case of DOE/NREL, foreign spies disguised as scientists were literally allowed to see our developments, photograph our equipment, access to documents, etc., in that national lab. I never understood the why that was allowed to happen. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy, with the blessing of the Committee on Foreign Investment In the U.S., gladly and willingly allowed the sale of the taxpayer funded research and development, and intellectual property to China. It was practically a “gift on a silver platter” to our competition. I saw a similar thing happen in the private sector; the China Energy Group, a supposed Energy Company in China, stole the intellectual property and know-how from my employer, a publicly traded company. The Chinese came with the promise of partnering with us, to be the “No.1 leader in photovoltaics manufacturing in the world” they said. It was a big deception. After a team of Chinese engineers and scientists came to visit our company in Thornton, Colorado, to start the supposed technical collaboration, they were allowed access to our technical records, photograph the equipment, the procedures developed for the technology. After they learned everything from us, they never returned. We, as they say, were left to dry. I see this happening now in other high tech technologies, like batteries for energy storage and electric vehicles. Nothing has changed at the DOE and CFIUS. Additionally, American government scientists like I was, need protection from the U.S. government itself. Allow me to explain: Under President George W. Bush, the “Solar America Initiative” was launched with the objective to create the high-tech jobs in the U.S. We were asked by the Department of Energy to “help U.S. industry by any and all means.” Well, something very strange happened at DOE/NREL; many of the brilliant scientists that were creating the research and development, and intellectual property to accomplish the goal were suddenly dismissed. This happened during the subsequent administrations — Barack Obama through Joe Biden. Nearly the whole division of the best scientists in the field were let go for no apparent reason. Some of us, if not all, were investigated by the Office of the Inspector General and later charged by the DOJ in Colorado for helping U.S. industry. American scientists, specially government scientists, need protection against the U.S. government itself. I am willing to chalk it to incompetence at the U.S. government, particularly the DOE rather than corruption. But it is not my role to find those answers. The net result? The technology went to China. China is today what we, the United States of America, could have been. More alarming (to me), but no one seemed to care at the time, was the fact that some of our technology that was “gifted” to China, provided a tactical advantage for our military in terrestrial, low orbit and space applications, all gone to China with the blessing of DOE and CFIUS. Thus, and my point, the reasons for the decline in our leadership goes beyond the shortcomings mentioned in the article. Contreras lives in Helena and holds a doctorate. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2024/02/22/why-is-america-losing-the-research-and-development-war-selling-taxpayer-funded-ingenuity-to-china/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/