The New Center Unveils Plan to Combat Climate Change; Highlights How Innovations in Fossil Fuel Past Point Way to Clean Energy Future
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The New Center—an organization focused on creating the space for a political center in today's America— released a new policy paper entitled "Energy and Climate: Double Down on Federal R&D for Breakthrough Energy Technologies."
The right wants to ignore climate change. The left wants to radically disrupt virtually every part of America's economy and society to fight it. Neither approach makes sense.
The fight against climate change is a multi-decade challenge, which means it needs to be sustained across multiple presidencies and sessions of Congress. If recent history is any guide, that will include periods of unified Republican and Democratic control as well as divided government. That's why any climate change solution—to have any chance to last—must be forged in the center.
In its new paper, The New Center suggests looking at our fossil fuel past—and the role government played in spurring the fracking revolution—as a guide to how we can forge a solution to a cleaner energy future:
Double Down on Federal R&D Funding for Breakthrough Energy Technologies
According to the Pew Charitable Trust, energy investments have accounted for only one percent of the federal government's R&D budget since the 1990s. In 2018, the Department of Energy received $15 billion for energy R&D and related activities; only $353 million of that $15 billion went to ARPA-E, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which funds some of the most ambitious and cutting edge energy research.
With increased funding, the Department of Energy and other government entities would be able to explore and invest in several possible breakthrough energy technologies—with the potential to increase our supply of energy and to combat climate change—like carbon capture and storage, energy and battery storage, and next generation and modular nuclear reactors.
The full paper is available for download at www.newcenter.org
About The New Center
American politics is broken, with the far left and far right making it increasingly impossible to govern. This will not change until a viable center emerges with an assertive agenda that appeals to the vast majority of the American people.
This is the mission of The New Center, which aims to establish the intellectual basis for a viable political center in today's America.
We create and promote ideas, news coverage, and commentary that helps Americans see common-sense solutions to the problems we face.
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SOURCE The New Center
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