Potential Energy Game Changer

You may have heard of Robert Bussard who died a couple of years ago. He was a prominent physicist (PhD Princeton 1961) who is best known in popular culture for his interstellar propulsion concept, the Bussard ramjet, which was used in several science fiction stories as well as Star Trek, The Next Generation. He worked at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and several aerospace companies, as well as the Atomic Energy Commission and was a leading researcher in nuclear spacecraft propulsion systems. Starting in the 1980s, his research focused on developing nuclear fusion as a practical power source for both space propulsion and terrestrial power generation. Toward the end of his life, in 2005, he came very close to succeeding.
The company he founded in the 1980s, EMC2, was devoted to developing Inertial Electrostatic Confinement, also known as Polywell Fusion. The idea is to use electromagnets to create a quasi-spherical magnetic field focusing at the center of the sphere. Plasma injected on the periphery flows to the center of the sphere and, under the right circumstances, nuclear fusion is induced there. The beauty of this technology, if it works, is that it would produce essentially unlimited, non-polluting power with no nuclear waste and negligible radiation. EMC2 estimates it will take 5-6 million dollars to prove the concept which was showing VERY encouraging results just before the Navy cut off funding in 2005.
The really good news is that the DOD (thank you President Obama) has decided to resume funding the work to the tune of 8 million dollars. This should get us through phase one of the development process and, if it is successful (we should know in about 2 years), I would assume money will be forthcoming for phase two which will scale up the technology for large-scale power generation. As EMC2 says on their website, a successful phase 2 means the end of fossil fuels.
So... imagine the possibilities of unlimited cheap electricity with no environmental consequences. Global warming would be stopped in its tracks. Internal combustion would be obsolete - hydrogen powered cars would become economically viable since electrolysis of water will make hydrogen cheap and abundant. A single Polywell fusion plant would generate enough electricity to power a couple of medium sized cities. Burning coal would become a thing of the past and coal fired power plants would no longer be competitive. The Columbia River dams could be torn down and we would see Celilo Falls again. Barges on the river would be replaced by electricity-powered trains to bring Idaho and Eastern Washington wheat and produce to the Pacific ports where fusion powered ships would replace the diesel-powered vessels of today to transport the food to Asia. The middle east would lose much of its strategic importance and we would no longer feel the need to expend our blood and treasure to ensure access to the oil reserves in that region.
But not only that. Fusion could also be used for space propulsion. Dr. Bussard maintains that use of Polywell fusion for space flight would result in the holy grail of spacecraft propulsion: high specific impulse at high thrust levels. What this means is that manned exploration of the solar system would become practical to, not only Mars, but Jupiter, Saturn and beyond. No more thoughts of spending a year or more in transit to Mars. We would be able to get there in weeks.
Finally, we would become a truly space-faring civilization with all that that implies. It could happen.