Think Tanks Release 'Post-Partisan' Proposal for Energy Innovation
A report released by the conservative American Enterprise Institute and liberal Brookings Institution and Breakthrough Institute says the United States should emphasize innovation to drive down the cost of clean energy technologies and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Policies focused on improving technologies to drive down clean energy costs will win support, they said. Their report focuses on four “post-partisan” approaches:
· Expand spending on energy science and education: Double the budget of the DOE Office of Science to address scientific obstacles and put $5 billion per year toward innovation institutes to tackle energy challenges and $500 million per year toward energy education.
· Overhaul the energy innovation system to focus on private sector and Defense Department needs: Form a national network of innovation institutes bringing public and private researchers together with investors and give DOD a greater role in administering DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
· Overhaul federal subsidies to reward innovation that results in lower prices: Provide $5 billion per year toward the testing, demonstration and purchase of energy technologies that will be beneficial to DOD and also to the private marketplace
· Make energy investments cost-neutral: Phase out existing subsidies, increase oil and gas royalties, add a fee for imported oil, place a surcharge on electricity sales, impose a modest carbon price
"This framework is direct because the federal government would directly drive innovation and adoption through basic research, development, and procurement in the same way it did with computers, pharmaceutical drugs, radios, microchips, and many other technologies,” Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute, coauthor of the report told press.
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