Get introduced to the "Breakthrough Dialogue," a unique annual gathering of heterodox thinkers dedicated to the challenge of modernizing liberalism for the 21st century. This video provides a quick overview of the inaugural Dialogue, hosted by the Breakthrough Institute in June 2011.
Update 1/31/11: If you missed Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, and Steve Hayward at Duke last week, check out the video of their full lecture, "Hitting the Reset Button on Energy Policy," below:
Next week Breakthrough's Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus begin a university speaking tour focused on taking a look at energy policy beyond the climate wars. The duo will discuss "Post Partisan Power," an October 2010 report co-authored by think tanks on the left, right, and center, which calls for $25 billion in federal funding to accelerate energy innovation.
The first leg of the tour will take them to Duke and NYU, along with Steve Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute, a co-author of the "Post-Partisan Power" report. Later in February, Ted and Michael will extend their tour with an event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
On January 26, the two stop at Yale for a special retrospective on "The Long Death of Environmentalism." Michael and Ted last visited Yale in 2005 to defend their thesis that the modern environmental movement was incapable of effectively addressing the planet's most serious ecological challenge, global warming, and will return to discuss the evolution of the environmental movement and where we stand today.
Nobel Laureate physicist Dr. Burton Richter discusses the three dimensions of the global energy challenge - economy, security, and environment - in his keynote at the "Energy Innovation 2010" conference in December.
"Energy Innovation 2010" keynote presentation delivered by Nobel laureate physicist Dr. Burton Richter on December 15, 2010.
(Richter's Keynote begins at 5:56 in the video below)
I have been asked by the organizers to be provocative at this discussion of energy innovation - the more provocative the better, I was told. So far, the talks have focused on the need for innovation to get the technologies of the future developed and deployed so that the issue of climate change can be effectively addressed. We all know that the country is not getting the action on the Federal front that the issue warrants, and thinking about how we might do better leads me to three questions.
1. Have we focused so exclusively on climate change as a justification for action on energy that we have excluded potential allies?
2. Have we emphasized ultra-green technologies that are not yet ready for the big time, and so had our desire for the perfect drive out the available good?
3. Have we pushed policies that are so narrowly targeted as to prevent much larger and less costly emissions reductions to be made in the nearer term than have been made with the renewables?
On December 15th 2010, hundreds of leading thinkers, scientists, public officials, and innovators gathered in Washington, DC for the Energy Innovation 2010 Conference to initiate a new conversation on a new energy policy paradigm for the 21st century
For 35 years, government and the market have been trying and failing to get energy policy right. Congress has failed to pass large-scale clean energy and climate legislation, while China and other competitors are moving aggressively to take the lead in new energy technology. And the market has failed to create needed low-carbon technology on its own. Meanwhile, the nation's dependence on oil and coal deepens and global temperatures continue to rise. To address these issues, we need to get past the old energy policy paradigm - and we just may be turning the corner.
On December 15th 2010, hundreds of leading thinkers, scientists, public officials, and innovators gathered in Washington, DC for the Energy Innovation 2010 Conference to initiate a new conversation on a new energy policy paradigm: one that recognizes the central role of innovation in resolving the world's looming energy challenges and boosting American competitiveness. Climate change aside, we can't rely on carbon-based fuels for the next 150 years the way we did for the last 150. And we can't create the transformational energy innovations we need without putting innovation front and center.
"Energy Innovation 2010" merely begins a new national energy dialog that must continue well into the coming years. Breakthrough Institute and our partners will continue to spearhead this conversation as we seek new strategies to address the multifaceted energy challenges facing America and the world.
In case you missed the conference, held before a packed house at the National Press Club, or if you simply want to revisit the top notch presentations delivered throughout the packed day, videos from the full conference can be viewed below.
Breakthrough's Devon Swezey speaks at an event unveiling a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation about how economic doctrines inform our views on how to address climate change, how conventional doctrines are failing, and what policies are needed for clean energy progress.
Last week, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released an important new report that explores the ideological origins of different policy responses to climate change, and helps clarify why there has been a lack of consensus (and lack of progress), on tackling climate change or nearly two decades.
The report, "Economic Doctrines and Approaches to Climate Change Policy," examines three competing economic doctrines--neoclassical economics, neo-Keynesian economics, and innovation economics--and describes how the doctrines shape different policy responses to climate change.
Neoclassical economics emphasizes the need to get prices right, and has provided the intellectual basis for the dominance of carbon pricing as a solution to reducing carbon emissions. Neo-Keynesian economics is most concerned with managing the demand for goods and services, and has led to clean energy policies that seek to boost the demand for low-carbon sources of energy, including regulations and mandates like renewable portfolio standards. Innovation economics recognizes the limitations of both pricing and regulation to drive the adoption of clean energy technologies, and argues that dramatic innovation is needed to reduce the cost and improve the performance of clean energy technologies before they can be adopted around the world at a scale that can significantly impact carbon emissions. Innovation economics therefore concerns itself not only with prices but also with developing and strengthening the institutions and public-private collaborations that drive technological transformation.
The full report is well worth the read, and can be accessed here.
I was also fortunate enough to speak at the event unveiling the report. You can watch a video of the event below or read a shortened version of my opening remarks below.
Breakthrough Institute Chairman Ted Nordhaus gives the keynote address at the World Climate Solutions conference at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, the very building where international climate negotiations collapsed less than one year ago.
In late September, Breakthrough Institute Chairman Ted Nordhaus gave the keynote address at the World Climate Solutions conference--northern Europe's biggest annual clean tech event. The conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark in the Bella Center, the very place where the international climate negotiations collapsed less than one year ago.
Nordhaus was introduced by Anders Eldrup, CEO of DONG energy. What follows is a video of the introduction and speech, as well as each speaker's full remarks.
Accelerating U.S. clean technology innovation, manufacturing, and market creation has become not just an environmental necessity but an economic imperative. A presentation and essay by Jesse Jenkins and Devon Swezey.
Current climate legislation in Congress, with its low price on carbon, ineffective renewable electricity standard, and collection of efficiency regulations, will not be enough for the United States to catch up to countries like China in building the clean energy industries of the future. Without a clean energy competitiveness strategy that can competed with those implemented around the world, America will lose out on one of the greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century.
By Jesse Jenkins and Devon Swezey
Accelerating U.S. clean technology innovation, manufacturing, and market creation has become not just an environmental necessity but an economic imperative. A recent Pew study showed that the global clean energy industry has experienced rapid investment growth over the last five years. New clean tech investments in 2009 reached $162 billion, which is expected to grow 25 percent to $200 billion in 2010. With the global clean energy economy emerging as one of the largest economic opportunities of the 21st century, government policy and public investment will be critical determinants of which countries come out on top in the race to attract private sector investment in clean energy technologies.
The United States is currently behind other nations in this race, and lacks an effective national strategy to compete. Climate legislation proposed in Congress to date, with its low price on carbon, ineffective renewable electricity standard, and collection of efficiency regulations, will not be enough for the United States to catch up to countries like China in building the clean energy industries of the future. To regain leadership in the global clean technology industry, the United States must enact a comprehensive clean energy competitiveness strategy that prioritizes major public investments in clean energy innovation, manufacturing, market development, education, and infrastructure.
This was the topic of a presentation we gave at the World Energy Technologies Summit in New York City last month. The theme of the conference, which was sponsored by TIME Magazine, was providing a "Reality Check" on the current state of energy technology and policy. The two of us therefore presented a wake-up call about America's lagging position in the global clean energy race, uncovered the realities behind several common myths about U.S. clean energy competitiveness, and outlined what the United States government must do to truly compete for the clean energy industries and markets of the future. After the video of our presentation below, this post summarizes each of these three key topics.
CBS profiles the state of the clean energy race between the United States and China. The result is not pretty. In order to stay in the game, the U.S. government policies should support technological innovation and highly efficient manufacturing, according to the CBS report.
The CBS Evening News has profiled the U.S. position in the global clean energy race for a segment called, "Where America Stands," and unsurprisingly, America stands behind China and other nations in developing and producing the technologies that will underpin the tremendous growth of the global clean energy sector over the coming decades.
CBS correspondent Celia Hatton reports, "China is the country cashing in on the green revolution." The video echoes the findings of a recent report on clean tech competitiveness by Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," which notes that other countries have surpassed the United States in the production of virtually all clean energy technologies, from solar and wind, to nuclear and high-speed rail.
Hatton reports that China also dominates manufacturing in other "eco-products" like electric bikes, solar hot water heaters, and electric vehicles.
What should the United States do to stay in the game?
Some have argued that all the United States needs to do to stay competitive is to put a price on carbon, and wait for the market to do its magic. But CBS takes a closer look at what's needed to compete: "In the long-term, experts say U.S. government policies should build on America's strengths: technological innovation and highly efficient manufacturing to compete with China's unbeatable wages." Investing in clean technology research and development is particularly critical since other countries, including China, are moving quickly to close the innovation gap with the United States.
Without such investments, the new clean energy technologies may not just be manufactured in China, but invented there, too.
Speaking to a packed auditorium at Stanford University, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu called for a Manhattan Project for energy, emphasizing the need for "tens of billions of dollars" annually in public funding for energy technology innovation, but he missed a golden opportunity to inspire and rally our nation's future leaders to tackle the political, economic, and technological hurdles standing in the way of a clean, prosperous U.S. energy economy.
Video: View the Secretary Chu's speech at Stanford in its entirety here and view the "Educating the Energy Generation" panel at Stanford here.
The federal government should be investing "tens of billions of dollars" annually to drive a Manhattan Project-style pace of innovation necessary to address the scale of the energy challenge facing the U.S., said Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday.
"If you look at the amount of funding for that [the Manhattan Project], and the amount of funding to put a man on the moon, it was a huge spike in funding. I think we do need that. The recovery act actually was the start of that...you still need I think tens of billions of dollars as a minimum per year invested in these technologies and the associated science. The DOE, our base budget for energy research is on a scale of $3 billion...the primary energy industry budget is about $1 trillion, if it's a high tech industry 10-20% is the usable amount of sale that you invest so that's $200 billion, so what we're investing in federal dollar is less than 1% of that or on a scale of 1% of what should be invested."
The Secretary highlighted the steps the Department of Energy was taking to encourage innovation given the limited funds available, including including the launch of the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy and several Energy Innovation Hubs (nicknamed Bell-lablets) based on the storied Bell Labs innovation model.
Despite the philanthropic focus of his foundation, Bill Gates confided to a rapt audience at the TED conference last week that if he could have one wish granted he wouldn't ask for "vaccines or seeds," he'd ask for clean, cheap energy, and fast.
Bill Gates wants clean, cheap energy more than he wants to pick the next 50 years worth of presidents, even more than he wants a miracle vaccine. At least that's how he ranked his number one wish while describing climate change as the world's greatest challenge to a rapt audience at the TED conference last week.
Just weeks after lending his voice to a growing "innovation consensus" by writing on his blog, Gates Notes, that innovation, not just insulation, must be the focus if we are serious about "getting to zero," Gates' TED speech expanded on what we need to get there:
"We need energy miracles. The microprocessor and internet are miracles. This is a case where we have to drive and get the miracle in a short timeline."
Gates emphasized the need for an energy miracle portfolio that includes carbon capture and storage and nuclear as well as wind and solar. According to CNN's coverage of the conference (the video is not posted yet), Gates showed particular interest in the potential for nuclear waste reprocessing as a source of clean, cheap energy.
Jesse Jenkins joined ABC's Diane Sawyer on "The Conversation" via Skype today, to discuss clean technology competitiveness in the United States. In the interview, Jenkins emphasized the findings of the Breakthrough Institute/ITIF report, "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," explaining to Ms. Sawyer that a national strategy for clean tech competitiveness -- something China, Japan, and South Korea all have -- is the primary limiting factor for the U.S. in its effort to keep pace with rising clean tech tigers, as well as the E.U.
Benchmarking clean-tech competitiveness: A new report by the Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation provides the first comprehensive analysis of competitive positions among the U.S. and key Asian challengers in the global clean energy race.
The report examines the competitive position of each nation in core clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, advanced vehicles and batteries, and high-speed rail, as well as the government strategies each nation hopes will strengthen its position in the global clean technology sector. The report also offers recommendations for U.S. federal policymakers for regaining U.S. competitiveness.
Senator Joins Experts from Third Way, Breakthrough Institute in Unveiling New Report, Hasten Call to Increase Federal Investment in Clean Energy Research and Development
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today joined experts from Third Way and the Breakthrough Institute in unveiling a new clean energy report that calls for increased investment in clean energy research and development. Brown led the panel discussion to outline the urgent need for Congress to strengthen support for clean energy technology innovation.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown joined Third Way and the Breakthrough Institute today to unveil a new report calling for both the creation of a "National Institutes of Energy" and a dramatic increase in federal funding for energy research and development to jumpstart a clean energy revolution.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and leading DC-based think tank Third Way are the latest political figures to issue a call for significantly increased public investment to catalyze clean energy innovation. The Ohio Senator and the moderate progressive think tank joined the Breakthrough Institute today to unveil a new report calling for both the creation of a "National Institutes of Energy" and a dramatic increase in federal funding for energy research and development. The report, titled Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy, argues that these two measures are necessary to make clean energy cheap and get America running on clean energy.
"Clean energy is the future of our nation, but it can also create jobs now - in Ohio and across the Midwest," Senator Sherrod Brown said. "Done right, increased research and development of new clean energy technologies will drive innovation and reduce our dependence on foreign energy. Already in Ohio entrepreneurs and workers are leading the way."
"Our nation has a history of rising to meet pressing challenges by investing the resources necessary to overcome them," said Jesse Jenkins, Director of Energy and Climate Policy at the Breakthrough Institute and one of the report's authors. "Now, America must dramatically increase our investment in clean energy research and development and employ new and effective models to put that money to work. Clean, cheap energy technologies are needed to revitalize our economy, secure the nation's energy independence, and avert the risks of climate change," Jenkins added.
Modeled after the National Institutes of Health, a New National Institutes of Energy (NIE) would be designed to most effectively channel R&D funding toward the development of new, low-cost commercial clean energy technologies. The NIE would function as a nationwide network of regionally based, commercially focused, and coordinated innovation institutes. Alongside other effective research institutions, the new NIE would critically strengthen the nation's energy innovation capacity.
The report also calls for a sustained increase of $15 billion in annual federal energy R&D funding, consistent with President Barack Obama's proposals. This would result in a total annual R&D budget of roughly $20 billion per year. The purpose of both the R&D increase and the establishment of a new NIE is to close what the authors call "the clean energy price gap" - the difference between the current low price of carbon-intensive energy production like coal and the comparatively higher price of today's non- or low- carbon emitting technologies.
"Getting America running on clean energy is the defining challenge - and opportunity - of our time," said Josh Freed, a co-author of the paper who runs Third Way's Clean Energy Initiative. "Establishing a National Institutes of Energy and fully funding R&D will drive the research that will lead to the next generation of clean technologies. These not only will fight global warming, they will allow the United States to be the energy leader in a carbon-constrained world."
The Breakthrough Institute joins the Brookings Institution and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to discuss the need for a explicit innovation policy to discuss the price gap between fossil fuels and clean energy, and what innovation policies are needed to overcome it.
As the House considers climate legislation, many have come to believe that regulations alone will result in a reduction of emissions. But energy and technology experts say a more explicit federal investment in technology is needed. Please join the Brookings Institution, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and the Breakthrough Institute to discuss the need for a explicit innovation policy to address the challenge of global climate change. At the event, policy experts will discuss the price gap between fossil fuels and clean energy, and what innovation policies are needed to overcome it.
Robert Atkinson
President, The Information and Innovation Foundation
Speakers
The Honorable Jay Inslee (D-WA), United States House of Representatives
The Honorable David Wu (D-OR), United States House of Representatives
"The Technological Barriers to Climate Mitigation"
Nate Lewis
George L. Argyros Professor of Chemistry, Caltech
"Climate Policy Requires Making Clean Energy Cheap"
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
President, The Breakthrough Institute and Chairman, The Breakthrough Institute
"The Case for Energy Discovery Institutes"
Mark Muro
Fellow and Policy Director, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
William B. Bonvillian
Director, Masschussettes Institute of Technology, D.C. Office
Shellenberger interviews with Planet Forward TV and argues that rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels in the 21st century demands large-scale public investment in technology innovation to make clean energy cheap. See the clip here, and look for this new show which premieres at 8 p.m. April 15, 2009 on PBS.
