I have always argued that fusion is the future...
...I just don't expect to see it commercially deployed in my lifetime.
It has it all; it's theoretically efficient and economical, fuel is endlessly abundant, and it's beyond "green". (although I know the "greens" will find plenty wrong with it, and the economic prosperity that will inevitably follow)
Fusion also opens up solutions to many of our other industrial/ecological problems. Imagine being able to molecularly transform "toxic" waste and compounds to benign, or even alternatively useful material. It's the ultimate in recycling. All of a sudden, landfills would be highly valuable as sources of raw material.
Back in the late '80s/early '90s, there was a debate in Congress to either fund the International Space Station or a giant supercolider in Texas. I always felt that the supercolider would have been the better investment, because it would have contributed towards fusion research, which will benefit us far more as a society in the long run than orbiting the Earth.
