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A new report from the Brookings Institution highlights methods for states to establish loan funds that leverage private investment into clean energy. With dwindling state budgets, reductions in incentive programs and falling prices for renewable energy resources, the timing is now for states to consider such financing structures.[read more]

Currently, near-term-focused clean energy policies fall well short of spurring the kind of transformative energy technologies we need. To realize drastic carbon emission cuts, we need significantly better clean technologies in energy storage, solar, electric vehicles, critical materials and biofuels that are cheaper than their fossil fuel equivalents without subsidy in addition to the incremental improvements spurred by deployment policies.[read more]

State-level clean energy funds (CEFs) are a growing source of investment in nascent clean energy markets, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation. The paper, co-authored by Post-Partisan Power collaborator Mark Muro and the Clean Energy Group's Lew Milford, highlights the...[read more]

Last week in New Hampshire, and this week in South Carolina, Mitt Romney fielded questions about our deteriorating infrastructure. This is an important environmental issue, since potholes and traffic don’t mix well. Consequently, you get more congestion on our roads. And congestion means idling engines and more pollution. It’s also...[read more]

There’s a lot to like in Post-Partisan Power, a proposal for how the federal government should address the climate and energy crises. The proposal was written by the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution and the Breakthrough Institute. Focusing on energy innovation and providing $25 billion a year to fund the work...[read more]

Only a couple short months after the demise of cap and trade, a new bipartisan flag for national energy and climate reform has officially been flown. It stands as a report released yesterday called “Post-Partisan Power” by scholars at three major U.S. think tanks – including the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the centrist Brookings Institution, and the Breakthrough Institute – and represents a powerful new rallying point for U.S. clean energy and climate advocates of all stripes.[read more]

Written by Daniel Goldfarb and Clifton Yin Post-Partisan Power, a report released today by the unlikely triumvirate of the Breakthrough Institute, American Enterprise Institute, and Brookings Institution, provides the most compelling argument to date for a bipartisan energy agenda.  National hyper partisanship has made it difficult...[read more]

As new reports confirm a stark decline in long-term U.S. economic competitiveness, the United States needs a new economic paradigm to refocus economic policy and rebuild its damaged economy. That new paradigm should focus on strengthening America's "regional innovation clusters," according to a new report authored by Mark Muro and Bruce...[read more]

The latest from the Brookings Institution's Mark Muro is a perfectly succinct summary of how one should judge the coming Kerry-(Graham?)-Lieberman Senate climate and energy bill, reportedly scheduled for release this Wednesday: What is clear, though, is this: To get to a good bill senators need to deal properly with the revenue--whether...[read more]

The climate and clean energy bill that narrowly passed the House has three problems related to cost containment (CC) that the Senate should — and I expect will — address: Fence-sitting Senators (and industries) worry that its CC provisions aren’t hard-nosed and specific enough to protect the public and businesses from carbon prices...[read more]

By Johanna Peace, Breakthrough FellowThe American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) that passed by a margin of 219-212 in the House on Friday needs a major makeover in the Senate in order to redress its critically insufficient provisions for funding clean energy R&D, according to Mark Muro, policy director at the Brookings...[read more]

Less than a postage stamp a day.  That’s what it will cost the average American to cut US greenhouse gases 83% in four decades and give the world a chance of avoiding catastrophic global warming while jumpstarting the transition to a clean energy economy. The right wing likes to take economic analyses that don’t model the House...[read more]

The Brookings Institution and Google have started a two-day conference on plug-in hybrids elective vehicles you can listen to here. Needless to say for Climate Progress readers, PHEVs are a core climate solution and probably the best way of significantly reducing US oil consumption (see “Plug-in hybrids and electric cars — a core...[read more]

The Brookings Institution released a report today examining and ranking the per capita carbon footprints of the 100 largest metro areas in the country. Do give it a read. A couple of key points: 1) The way a metro area generates its power is important, as is climate. The western part of the country performs very well in these rankings...[read more]