whitehall,

I suspect that your characterization of the field is spot on. I know someone in a very different field working in the missile defense program (God, I hope he realizes his job is in dire jeopardy! He’s married to one of my sisters.) He’s an electrical engineer and he does talk with people on the cutting edge of a lot of research. He tells me that the whole “renewables” cackling is a lot of hot wind. It really is all about rent-seeking.

“Rent seeking” pretty much describes how “zero sum” economic thinking of socialists like Obama understand the world. Lawyers typically fall into this way of thinking about business activity.