The Breakthrough Institute: Home

Breakthrough is looking for a Senior Editor. Click here to learn more.

"Climate of change on White House site"
Politico
8.19.10
"The Case of the Missing Climate Pledge"
NY Times
8.19.10
"Legislation Seeks A Green Payoff To Offshore Drilling "
CNBC
8.19.10
see more...

Green Book Award, 2008

“Prescient” –Time

“Could be the most important thing to happen to environ- mentalism since Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring.'” –Wired

Read the Overview

Brookings Report: Mountain West Can Lead the Way on Energy Innovation
In a new report, the Brookings Institution details the unique role the U.S. Mountain West can play in driving innovation to make clean energy cheap and calls for the creation of new regional clean energy innovation centers to better integrate energy research efforts with private sector technology commercialization -- institutions that will be key to addressing national energy priorities as well as stimulating regional and national economic growth. The Mountain West, with world-leading energy research facilities, leading science and technology universities, and abundant clean energy resources, can lead the way.

Tracking a Rising Tiger: China
Earlier this month, China surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy and since, has snared a flurry of clean tech headlines that collectively tell a very clear story: China is rapidly and effectively securing its position as a global clean technology leader as the U.S. watches in stagnated wonder. But the story is still developing and Breakthrough will continue to aggregate some of the most important updates coming out of China as it surges to the front of the global clean technology sector.

See also: "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant" Report Overview

Gates: Invest in Innovation to Make Clean Energy Cheap
In a new interview with Technology Review, Bill Gates once again nails the global energy and climate challenge and discusses the need for dramatic increases in energy innovation funding to make clean energy cheap. Gates discusses why dismissing the difficulty of the challenge is counter-productive, and argues that carbon pricing can never drive the dramatic innovation required to transform the global energy system. Instead of raising the price of fossil fuels, Gates argues that the time has come to shift our attention to raising the revenues necessary to fuel innovation and make clean energy cheap.

See also: Deutsche Bank's Parker: Senate Clean Energy Policy Failure Driving Investor Exodus

White House Report: Stimulus Driving Clean Energy Innovation, Manufacturing, Markets -- But What Comes Next?
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has funded breakthrough innovation and new growth industries that are driving down the cost of clean energy and building the foundation for competitive 21st century U.S. industries, according to a new White House report released today on the impacts of the U.S. stimulus bill. Yet while the new report highlights the considerable clean energy momentum established by the Recovery Act, it also inadvertently raises the specter of an impending clean tech funding cliff which risks sending U.S. clean energy industries into deep freeze as stimulus funds begin to expire over the coming months. With global competition mounting and Recovery Act momentum poised to fade, can the Obama Administration secure a lasting clean energy legacy?

In Defense of Industrial Policy
In the midst of a fragile economic recovery, a new debate over industrial policy is heating up, with high-tech luminaries like former Intel Chairman Andy Grove and Bill Gates calling for a much greater federal role in technology development. Meanwhile, a front-page story in the Economist warns of the dangerous government wrapping its tentacles around the the throat of private business. With many examples of both successful and failed industrial policy experiences, the debate should turn to how to make such policies effective. The Breakthrough Institute and other colleagues weigh in with a series of articles defending the new champions of industrial policy and calling for a more effective industrial policy to create a badly-needed clean energy technology revolution.

The Series:
Barack Obama: A Quiet Revolutionary

The Economist's Strange Attack on Industrial Policy

A Needed Debate on Industrial Policy

In Defense of Andy Grove: Toward a More Effective Industrial Policy

In Defense of Bill Gates: Investing in Clean, Cheap Energy

Bucking the Debate: Clean Energy Industrial Policies At Work

Myths About the Death of Cap and Trade
Democrats pulled the plug on ill-fated climate and energy legislation that finally collapsed under its own weight and - believe it or not - that is a good thing. Now a new window is open to shift the overarching goal of climate policy toward unleashing a clean energy revolution brought about by large scale government investment in clean energy technology innovation. In a series of posts, Breakthrough highlights the means by which we can develop a new strategy for achieving transformative clean energy progress that is capable of overcoming the policy and political barriers that have always doomed cap and trade.

See also: "Time to Bury Cap and Trade and Plan Anew"

"Shellenberger Q&A with Ezra Klein: 'This is the end of cap-and-trade for a long time'"

"Cap & Fail: The Collapse of our Climate Policy Paradigm"

Breakthrough Institute Featured on NPR's Morning Edition	Time Magazine names Ted and Michael "Heroes of the Environment 2008	Michael Shellenberger debates key proponents of Cap and Trade Legislation.
Jesse Jenkins on KCRW's "To The Point"	Will Environmental Policy Change in Wake of Oil Disaster? Ted Nordhaus on WNYC's "The Takeaway"	Beyond the Carbon Tax: M. Shellenberger on ABC Australia

Subscribe to RSS Feed

Follow the BTI on Twitter

Join the BTI on Facebook

to Breakthrough

Brookings Report: Mountain West Can Lead the Way on Energy Innovation
08.31.10 | 5:29 PM

Tracking a Rising Tiger: China
08.30.10 | 9:43 PM

Barack Obama: A Quiet Revolutionary
08.27.10 | 5:14 PM

Strengthening Clean Energy Competitiveness: Opportunities for America COMPETES Reauthorization

The Hartwell Paper: A New Direction for Climate Policy

DOE Death of Environmentalism

ECC The Emerging Climate Consensus: Global Warming Policy in a Post-Environmental World

Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate Clean Energy Race By Out-Investing the United States

Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy

Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Rev National Energy Education Act

Case Studies in American Innovation

Proposals to Make Clean Energy Cheap

Collected Analysis of Congressional Climate Bills (Kerry-Lieberman "American Power Act")

Copenhagen Coverage

Joe Romm and Climate McCarthyism

"Protecting Nature, or Saving Creation? Ecological Conflicts and Religious Passions"

Michael and Ted, along with Bruno Latour and several other prominent European intellectuals will be speaking in Venice, Sept 14 - 16, at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Order your copy of Break Through, now in paperback.

: :