think of it this way, this relatively trivial amount of energy is being consumed by a massive number of gpgpu equipment (equivalent to about about 1400 ati 5970s maybe).

bitcoin is subsidizing improvements to gpgpus by increasing sales to the manufacturers and is furthering the science of distributed computing.  these will help make gpgpus more affordable for science.

it is all being paid for with non-government spending (well, most of it anyway)