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Reagan at the 1980 debate "I just happen to believe that free enterprise can do a better job of producing the things that people need than government can. The Department of Energy has a multi-billion-dollar budget in excess of $10 billion. It hasn’t produced a quart of oil or a lump of coal, or anything else in the line of energy. " DOE’s mandate was mainly to support research and innovation and it was not in the business of producing energy. In fact, most of the agency’s budget goes to nuclear weapons... The conservative movement that Reagan led rejected government planning. They also rejected conservation and, for example, repealed the 55-mph speed limit that Nixon had enacted... Industry experts spoke of a “scorched earth” vindictive campaign against solar. Despite the early uses in the military and the independence enabled by off-grid systems, PV seemed to fly in the face of conservative thinking. Solar advocates were characterized as left-wing ideologues.... Reagan appointed a dentist, James B. Edwards, as Secretary of Energy with orders to shut down the DOE. He fired Dennis Hayes of SERI and by 1985 cut its budget to one fifth of its 1981 level. Second, in October 1985 Saudi Arabia flooded the oil market with excess production causing the price of oil to collapse and subsequently stay low, a 20-year body blow for alternative energy... Nemet, Gregory F.. How Solar Energy Became Cheap (p. 76).