Last night during his State of the Union address, in addition to calling for investment in infrastructure and education, President Obama called for our government to end subsidies to oil companies and instead invest in clean energy technologies:

OBAMA: We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.

Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they're selling. So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all - and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.

Today on his radio program, Glenn Beck responded to Obama's call for government investment, and tried to draw a contrast between the type of government-funded innovation Obama was calling for, and what Beck thinks entrepreneurs like Bill Gates would prescribe:

So, according to Beck, it's “guaranteed” that innovators like Gates would say to Obama: “The first thing I need is the federal government to get out of my face.”

Rather than try to read Gates' mind, Beck would have been better served by looking into what Gates has been up to lately. Bill Gates is a member of the American Energy Innovation Council, which has, very publicly, called for the government to drastically increase its investments in “accelerating energy innovation.”

The AEIC explains on their website why the government “must play a key role in accelerating energy innovation.” In contrast to Beck's call for the government to get out of the faces of people in their garages who are trying to innovate in private, Gates and the other AEIC members explain that due to the required “investments of capital” and high “risk threshold” of energy innovation, government investment is necessary:

There are two reasons the government must play a key role in accelerating energy innovation. First, innovations in energy technology can generate significant, quantifiable public benefits that are not reflected in the market price of energy. These benefits include cleaner air and improved public health, enhanced national security and international diplomacy, reduced risk of dangerous climate change, and protection from energy price shocks and related economic disruptions. Currently, these benefits are neither recognized nor rewarded by the free market.

Second, the energy business requires investments of capital at a scale that is beyond the risk threshold of most private-sector investors. This high level of risk, when combined with existing market structures, limits the rate of energy equipment turnover. A slow turnover rate exacerbates the historic dearth of investments in new ideas, creating a vicious cycle of status quo behavior.

The government must therefore act to spur investments in energy innovation and mitigate risk for large-scale energy projects.

And, if that's not clear enough for you, here is the AEIC's Mission Statement:

The mission of the American Energy Innovation Council is to foster strong economic growth, create jobs in new industries, and reestablish America's energy technology leadership through robust, public investments in the development of world-changing energy technologies.

Furthermore, in 2008, Gates traveled to DC and urged Obama to increase government spending:

“In a crisis, there is always a risk that you take your eyes off the future and you sacrifice long-term investments for short-term gains,” Gates said in a speech at George Washington University. “You have to seek both. . . . We should have a bigger goal than getting the economy growing again. I think we should expand the number of people who are contributing to the economy and benefiting from it.”

Gates described the financial crisis as an opportunity for innovation, likening it to the economic woes of the 1970s, which gave rise to America's information technology boom, during which Microsoft was born. “Difficult times can launch great ideas,” he said.

So, if Beck thinks that we should ask Bill Gates what to do, he should be prepared for an answer that completely contradicts everything he believes in.

Whoops.