[jeromec]

Baseless assertion? Those are President Obama's sentiments, although I happen to agree with them. Energy is an important part of any economy. I don't think you'd find any credible economist say finding innovations in energy would not likely yield noticeable economic effect, not to mention the compound benefit of foreign sales and investment, as well as jobs from the new industry. As for naval supremacy, I believe that's currently the U.S., but in case you haven't noticed we're still pretty vulnerable to economic problems.