Herblock commented on his belief in the long-term need to explore solar energy sources by showing people laboring to clean up damage from oil, coal, and nuclear energy while dismissing solar energy as impractical. Despite the increased discussion among scientists about the “greenhouse effect” caused by fossil fuels, oil remained the world’s most valuable commodity in the 1980s. Power companies scarcely invested in solar energy because start-up costs exceeded the expense of purchasing oil from abroad, especially after the Reagan administration reduced federal funding for solar research by eighty percent.