President Obama's State of the Union address reflects a shift in the government's approach to climate change. The focus has shifted from divisive issues like climate science and carbon pricing to a focus on energy innovation and regulation of conventional pollutants, which has earned support from both Democrats and Republicans. We outline this new approach in our report, "Climate Pragmatism," which shows that liberals and conservatives can agree on the need for advancing clean energy R&D and pollution reductions. By minimizing extremist views in both parties, Obama has offered a new pragmatism that could be a path forward on climate change.

President Obama's State of the Union speech rightly noted the importance of manufacturing to sustaining America's economic prosperity, but any effort to "bring manufacturing back" must recognize how globalization has fundamentally changed the sector. The rise of regional supply chain clusters--where key industrial components are produced in many different countries around the world--demands new thinking and new strategies about which industries are key to American economic competitiveness, and how to create a new era of advanced manufacturing.
Read more about the importance of advanced manufacturing in this Breakthrough Institute report.

For the second year in a row, Breakthrough research has played an integral role in President Obama's State of the Union Address. This year, Obama referred to a Breakthrough Institute investigation, which found that all the major technologies related to shale gas extraction--massive hydraulic fracking, horizontal drilling, 3-D mapping--came from federal funding. Breakthrough's research was published in the Washington Post, with a longer history of shale gas and key interviews published at The Breakthrough. Breakthrough deflated the popular mythology that it was private oilman George Mitchell acting alone--without the help of the government--who caused the shale gas revolution. Beyond the critical technologies, Breakthrough's investigation also found that Mitchell benefited from a special federal tax credit for unconventional gas, and help from the Department of Energy's Sandia National Lab.

After twenty years of climate policy discussions, global emissions of climate destabilizing greenhouse gases continue to rise. There's a growing recognition that our current trajectory holds dangerous climate impacts in store. In this five-part series with our friends at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, we take stock of our current climate trajectory and outline the best routes to rapid progress.

Part 1: Taking Stock of our Climate Outlook
Part 2: Is Economic Contraction a Climate Solution?
Part 3: Clean Energy Innovation Imperative
Part 4: Building Resilience Through Climate Adaptation
Part 5: Slowing Warming by Cutting Methane and Pollutants

Groundbreaking research, two years in the making, reveals that the existential threat of terrorism to the United States has been significantly exaggerated. Contrary to the apocalyptic worries of some commentators, hirabi (aka jihadi) terrorists are employing a polarization and recruitment strategy that does not benefit from WMD attacks - and, bluffs aside, they are nowhere near capable of developing or acquiring such weapons. Instead, they will continue their attempts to inspire a violent movement striving for an (increasingly) unpopular theocracy. Furthermore, they will persist with their longstanding repertoire of weapons and attack styles - gravitating around Planes, Trains, and Car Bombs - because it is so adequate for the goals of creating spectacle, shocking the senses, and intimidating governments.

Click here to read the full report.

President Obama will miss a huge opportunity if he doesn't link expanded drilling for oil and natural gas with investment in next-generation clean energy, according to Mark Muro and Kenan Fikri of the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. In his State of the Union address this week, the President highlighted the expansion of domestic oil and gas production during his administration, and the vital role that federal investment in technology played in America's ongoing shale gas boom. Failing to push for policy support to carry the lessons from shale gas over to clean energy technologies would be a serious misstep in Obama's otherwise very encouraging energy agenda. Mark Muro, a collaborator on Breakthrough's 2010 report "Post-Partisan Power," writes that "a smart 'all of the above' approach to the nation's energy challenges might channel royalties and fees associated with increased off-shore and inland fossil fuels extraction into programs like ARPA-e."