Controversial 60 Minutes cleantech story features Brooklyn CUSP Director

A head of a major tech scene anchor institution got grilled this week on 60 Minutes for work he did at his previous job, where he took part in allocating Federal stimulus funds to renewable energy startups.

Those who buy in to the entrepreneurial mentality of failing toward success will find themselves squirming through Lesley Stahl‘s coverage of clean technology investments under President Obama. The piece has gotten considerable criticism for missing successsful trends of clean tech. Stahl never provides the level of subsidies made to fossil fuel industries as context.

For commentary, she turns to the Director of the Center for Urban Science Progress [CUSP], Dr. Steven Koonin. CUSP is a research and graduate education program based downtown, and part of NYU. We covered its welcome of its first class in 2013.

• Koonin was a high ranking scientist at the Department of Energy during stimulus allocations
• Estimates in the 60 Minutes report that he was directly involved in green-lighting some 30 energy projects for public dollars.
• Koonin describes the investments as ones he thinks advanced the technology and will ultimately pay off in terms of useful new technology down the road.
• He faults VCs who moved from internet startups to energy startups for not understanding that returns would take twenty to thirty years.
• Nevertheless, Koonin says, “I think it was good value for the money.” Though, he also tells Stahl that he never believed the investments would yield significant near term job creation.

The larger takeaway from the piece is that the best way for the government to support new industries is by backing the university level basic science research that inspires entrepreneurs, rather than trying to pick winners among those trying to make money. If the public purse doesn’t have a stomach for failure than it should stay as far away as it can from venture funding.

Which is not to say that there’s anything wrong with the venture model. Vinod Khosla is Stahl’s main interlocutor in the story. He attempts to explain the fact that he’s quite proud of the number of times he’s failed in his career, because it means he’s trying hard, and you can almost see Stahl’s amygdala shake out of the back of her head when the camera cuts back to her.

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