How long will a smooth transition to non-carbon fuels take?

Podesta points to the Obama administrations broad goal of becoming essentially carbon-free by 2050. He says in order to reach that goal, the government is going to have to enact policies and make investments toward that goal immediately. He also says energy efficiency is critically important to reaching that goal. According to Woolsey, the two technologies that keep improving are energy storage and photovoltaics. Eventually, this could allow us to delegate some portion of our electricity needs to solar and battery. Harbert counters that efficiency is good, but we still need a lot of energy and much of this has to come from carbon-based fuels. Whitman adds that she gets nervous when she hears the government, rather than the private sector, will direct the price of energy. Podesta says the Bush administration did pick winners—the big oil companies.

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