Half a century on from the initial space race, we should have limitless energy from orbiting solar power satellites. However there were more important things to worry about, because if we hadn't taken care of them, we'd all be speaking Vietnamese, Cuban, Argentinian, Creole, Serbian or Arabic by now.
You know, I finally got off my ass and rented the series 'From the Earth To The Moon'. There is a very telling statement made in the first episode that everyone should learn, and then realize exactly why our space program died just after we got to the moon. To paraphrase:
"What's the point of going to the moon? We'll collect some rocks, take some pictures and come home. It's all a big political stunt to score point against the Russians".
And THAT is why there are no space stations, or orbital power stations, or zero-g industry, or anything else that makes sense. The first push to the moon was a stunt, with no real goal at the end of it. So it ended. Yay us.
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