r&d

algae biofuel R&D

ExxonMobil has been quietly researching algae biofuel in partnership with California-based Synthetic Genomics Inc. for the past four years, and it just announced a new co-funding agreement last week.[read more]

Energy Innovation via Shutterstock

Simultaneously managing environmental externalities and inducing technical change isn't easy, but commitment to credible institutional arrangements and policy rules offers a good shot.[read more]

Either you have Feed-In Tarrifs or you have direct investment in power plant or production (R&D) of power plants. The fact is there is no other way to get to the size of R&D and production where RES are competitive to fossil fuels.[read more]

  The FY2012 Omnibus Appropriations bill, passed through the House and Senate conference committee last week, provides a small 2.5 percent increase in DOE energy innovation investment-related Offices and programs compared to FY2011. The budget includes key investments for new Energy Innovation Hubs, next-generation small modular...[read more]

The Washington Post ran a piece in its Outlook section this weekend on government investments in energy that is rightly getting significant push back. The question it poses is: “What does Washington have to show for these investments?” The answer, by all accounts, is Plenty. And plenty more would be gained by increased investment in energy innovation.[read more]

Today, the Romney campaign released his 59-point economic plan in a 160-page book (PDF here). While most of the energy policy section is spent debunking the “green jobs myth” and calling for expanded domestic fossil fuel production, it endorses a significant role for federal investment in alternative energy research and development (R...[read more]

There are times when the nation’s political leadership in Washington is perfectly in sync with the realities of the day, and there are times when much of that leadership is out to lunch. Exhibit A: the current energy debate. Even as global demand and instability threatens to challenge affordable supply, and as overseas states are...[read more]

Doing Due Diligence To people who follow the energy industry closely, it’s a common occurrence to come across announcements from companies proclaiming to have developed the key to the ‘next big thing’ — for solving the world’s energy crisis. Maybe they say they can take any sort of waste biomass and turn it into fuel — ethanol, diesel,...[read more]

As I noted in a previous blog (in conjunction with just about all of my colleagues), the Continuing Resolution currently being debated in the House means deep cuts for a disturbing amount of energy and environmental programs.  One especially problematic cut would reduce the DOE’s new Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E...[read more]

Both Democrats and Republicans, at todays Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Department of Energy’s proposed $29.5 billion budget, expressed concern over increasing funding for the DOE’s renewable initiatives while simultaneously cutting its spending on fossil fuels. On a day in which the Wall...[read more]

In thinking about a new focus for U.S. energy policy over the next few years, A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future, published last June by the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), makes for a good read. The Business Plan proposes a number of interesting ideas with respect to national energy policy, the most compelling of which is that the federal government should spend $16 billion per year on energy R&D.[read more]

 In a new article for Foreign Affairs, “Globalizing the Energy Revolution: How to Really Win the Clean-Energy Race” (subscript. req’d), Michael Levi and colleagues at the Council on Foreign Relations argue that the world is “woefully underspending on clean-energy innovation” and needs to pursue a new international strategy:...[read more]

The governments of six developing countries may now be investing more in energy research than the governments of twenty-one of the world's most developed economies, according to a new report by the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. The report takes a close look at the federal energy innovation policies of...[read more]

“We have the technologies for a global clean economy, but they will not deploy in significant numbers without greater public policy certainty and incentives,” said Andrew Liveris, Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company. “Even without the optimal policy environment, however, we are investing in energy efficiency, in research,...[read more]

A new article I co-authored, “Dynamic Balances: American Power in the Age of Innovation,” was just published in the latest volume of The SAIS Review of International Affairs. The SAIS Review is the biannual journal of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where my co-author Neil Shenai is a PhD Candidate. (PDF...[read more]