Articles by Breakthrough Institute

Credit: thebreakthrough.org The federal production tax credit for wind energy (PTC) should be extended -- and reformed. The debate over the fate of the PTC, whether to extend in its current form or allow it to expire outright on December 31 of this year, is not without nuance. Opponents of the credit argue that energy sources should be cost competitive without subsidy -- a reasonable concern. Proponents of extension argue, also correctly, that all major sources of energy generation have receive...

Credit: GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Plutonium is the nuclear nightmare of nuclear power. A by-product of conventional power-station reactors, it is the key ingredient in nuclear weapons. And even when not made into bombs, it is a million-year radioactive waste legacy that is already costing the world billions of dollars a year to contain. And yet, some scientists say, we have the technology to burn plutonium in a new generation of "fast" reactors. That could dispose of the waste problem, reducin...

Four Corners Coal Plant. Credit: US National Archives Over the last decade, a handful of progressives and climate policy experts have argued that the dominant approach to dealing with global warming -- capping emissions, putting a price on carbon -- could not work. Our focus ought instead to be on making clean energy cheaper through public-private investments in technology innovation and deployment. But the conventional wisdom rejected the technology solution as too slow. Its advocates were at...

Credit: eia.gov U.S. emissions have dropped 7.7% since 2006 due to the rapid switch from coal to shale gas.  All this cheap gas came from a concerted, public-private effort dating back to the mid-1970s to cheaply extract gas from shale. There is a clear lesson for those concerned about global warming: seek public-private investments in technological innovation to make clean energy cheap. Breakthrough Institute has since 2007 made the case that a public-private technological push on clean energ...

Organic orchard. Credit: fbworld.com It is a truth universally acknowledged - amongst my friends and relations at least - that organic agriculture is better for the planet. Environmentally-conscious consumers typically are prepared to pay a hefty premium for organic meat and vegetables, whilst baby foods are nearly all organic these days - reflecting the equally widespread belief that organic is healthier due to the absence of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers. Everyone wants the best for th...

A glut of emissions allowances in Europe has made coal the continent's most profitable electric power fuel. Despite highly touted climate policies, European utilities are rushing to capitalize on the cheapest and dirtiest source of electric power in the continent: coal. A combination of low carbon permit prices under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and increased coal imports from the United States has made coal the most profitable fuel for power generation. Meanwhile, the ongoing American...

In the 50 years since Silent Spring was published, the environmental movement it helped create has accomplished a great deal. It may be less popular to suggest, but it is no less true, that this seminal book and the movement it helped spawn have also caused a great deal of harm. As much as Rachel Carson's inspiring work deserves significant credit for our cleaner air and water and progress on so many other environmental issues, it also deserves some of the blame for having helped foster a set of...

The roots of liberal policy failure are intertwined with the dark side of scientific rationality. During the 1980s and 1990s, experts working for the World Bank and development agencies persuaded African nations like Malawi to stop subsidizing fertilizer. Subsidies for fertilizer were extremely popular among Malawi's people -- roughly 90 percent are small farmers growing staples on depleted soils who cannot afford fertilizer at market prices. Malawi's political leaders resisted the expert advic...

The Washington Post has called on lawmakers to put innovation at the center of federal policies supporting wind power, in the latest endorsement of the findings in "Beyond Boom and Bust," a report by leading energy experts at the Breakthrough Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the World Resources Institute. The endorsement followed congressional testimony on the role of government in energy innovation delivered last month by Breakthrough Institute Energy and Climate Policy Director and r...