A man in California wants to build a “hydrokinetic wave farm” that would bring hydroelectric power ashore near the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Another California developer has received a $3m grant from the US Department of Energy, The Washington Post informs us, to generate energy from kites. And then there is President Barack Obama, who on Wednesday gave an address about the future of energy, promising to use a “critical, renewable resource the rest of the world cannot match: American ingenuity”. Mr Obama, like his boffin compatriots, was laying claim to one archetypically American trait (self-confidence) while exhibiting signs of another (self-delusion).
一个加利福尼亚人想要在圣奥诺弗雷(San Onofre)核电厂附近建造一座“潮汐水力发电场”，将水电引上岸来。据《华盛顿邮报》报道，加州还有一家开发商从美国能源部(Department of Energy)得到了300万美元资助，用于利用风筝发电。还有就是美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)，他在上周就能源的未来发表演说，承诺要利用“世界上其他国家难以匹敌的一项关键的可再生资源：美国的才智”。就像他的书呆子同胞一样，奥巴马号称彰显一种典型的美国特质（自信），而实际上表露出另一种特质（自欺）的迹象。