Subsidies are hugely important; they represent America's de facto energy policy.

People want smart energy policy.

Our current energy policy is bankrupt.

You can't have an energy policy that means you can only have a bath when the wind blows.

When it comes to climate and energy, Gates is a radical consumerist. In his view, energy consumption is good - it just needs to be clean energy.

In reality, Republicans have long been at war with clean energy. They have ridiculed investments in solar and wind power, bashed energy-efficiency standards, attacked state moves to promote renewable energy and championed laws that would enshrine taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels while stripping them from wind and solar.