Should the government or private industry shoulder the initiative for meaningful strides in alternative energy breakthroughs?  The level of disruption necessary cannot be achieved on any practial time horizon by private industry without some enormous stroke of luck.  Obama's references to JFK, an energy moonshot and government initiatives in this area is the best hope, but the logistics of propelling this economically and pragmatically are unclear.  An encouraging answer is some combination of private and public effort such as the DOE's initiative to partner national laboratories with VCs.