This quote from the article:

"The government's push for these developments parallels the expansion of railroads in the 19th century, when the government granted blocks of land to companies laying track, says Jack Brown, an associate professor in the University of Virginia's Department of Science, Technology and Society.

One difference, Brown points out, is that clean energy is such a vast field that government could make the wrong choice in backing one type of technology over another."

Hmmm...? Just what does Prof. Brown think the government has been doing for decades - backing nuclear power, insuring the plants and making sure citizens can't sue? Or fighting wars for the control of oil?
I would argue THOSE were wrong choices, which have cost this country and its citizens dearly.