Full Title: Creating a Clean Energy Century: Recapturing the lead in clean tech innovation
Author(s): J. Freed, S. Hodas, S. Collins
Publisher(s): Third Way
Publication Date: November 1, 2010
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In 1969—when UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock sent the first Internet message from his laboratory—and for years after, companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix were not even imaginable. Back then, DARPA, NIST, FCC and NASA were the drivers of the nascent Internet.
What does this tell us? That when we invest in research and innovation, the opportunities are boundless. That American capitalism can take a seed of an idea and create revolutions in our economy and society. That America can dominate economically, as it has with information technology, if we invest in innovation.
Looking back at the economic evolution from 1969 to today prompted a simple question: how can we drive a clean energy revolution in the United States? What we found is that:
• Innovation is needed now, because while the world is moving to clean energy, today’s technology is neither cheap enough nor reliable enough to replace fossil fuels.
• The United States has a lot of catching up to do, thanks to market failures in the private sector and too little leadership, organization or investment from the federal government.
• There is a roadmap for American innovation leadership if we create a true public-private sector partnership to make clean energy cheap, reform existing structures, and commit to investing the necessary resources to get the job done.