The energy challenge is the most important issue in the world.
"Green" innovations in energy (solar, wind, bio-fuels) are good, and we should be researching them, but they have major flaws, and are not sustainable for the future, particularly at the rate of growth in population in the United States, as well as how much energy we use.
According to Chris Llewellyn Smith, Vice President of the Royal Society and Visiting Professor at Oxford, lithium from one laptop battery and 40 liters of water would be able to produce energy for every man, woman and child in the USA for 15 years with fusion technology.*
That alone should be sufficient reason to fund research to fusion.
*More information: http://youtu.be/oeGijutBSx0