As of 12 o'clock midnight on the 30th September 2013, the US federal government has officially shutdown due to Congress's failure to pass a new budget for the coming fiscal year. Since 2012 the government has been running on a Continue Resolution, an extension of the previous budget, but this time a new decision was needed; and it wasn't made.
Most people will concentrate on the political implications that this shutdown will lead to, but the fact is that it's directly impacting on America's overall capacity to drive global energy innovation. The short-term lack of a federal government means that many of the nation's top energy innovation institutions and laboratories must scale down their operations, of completely shutdown.
Read the full article at: The Energy Collective
Matthew is a contributor at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation More