Breakthrough is best known for its work on energy and climate, though in 2009 it expanded its reach to include national security policy with a focus on counter-terrorism.

Renewing America's economy, reducing the threat of global climate change, and finally securing the nation's energy independence all compel the transformation of the U.S. energy system. The nation that moves first to develop and harness new energy technologies will take the lead in the next powerful growth sector of the 21st century. Meeting this imperative and capturing the energy opportunity requires new federal policies to rapidly develop and deploy clean, affordable, and scalable U.S. energy technologies. It is time to invest in new American energy and make clean energy cheap.

Read more here...

Key Documents:

• "Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy" (Policy Report)
  (September 2009)


• "Invest in New American Energy: Pathway to a Clean and Prosperous American Energy Economy" (Policy Recommendations Brief)
  (PDF, 113KB, May 2009)


• The Emerging Climate Consensus: Global Warming Policy in a Post-Environmental World (PDF, 540KB, April 2009)


• "Fast, Clean, & Cheap: Cutting Global Warming's Gordian Knot"
  (PDF, 208KB, January 2008, Harvard Law & Policy Review)


• More...

Related Essays and Articles:

• "The Innovation Consensus: $15 Billion for Clean Energy R&D"
  (October 2009, The Energy Collective)


• See more on our writing page

Indeed, the global clean energy industry is expected to be worth trillions of dollars over the coming decades, but today America is coming up short in the race to develop and deploy clean energy technologies, and our economic prosperity is at risk.

Through massive public investments in clean energy R&D, manufacturing, and markets, economic competitors in Asia and Europe are aggressively positioning themselves to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the burgeoning clean energy industry. Many nations, including China, have comprehensive clean energy strategies that have propelled their domestic industries to the forefront of the global clean energy race.

Without its own strategy, America will continue to fall behind. To secure America's long-term economic prosperity, the United States government must launch a comprehensive clean energy competitiveness strategy and invest in each of the areas critical to developing a robust domestic clean energy economy, including energy innovation and R&D, advanced manufacturing, domestic markets, infrastructure, and education.

Key Documents:

• "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate Clean Energy Race By Out-Investing the United States." (Report)
  (November 2009)


• "Real Numbers: Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant."
  (PDF, 648KB, February 2010, National Academy of Sciences, Issues in Science and Technology)


• "Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy" (Policy Report)
  (September 2009)

Related Documents

• "Clean energy jobs CAN be shipped overseas (and what to do about it)"
  (April, 2010)


• "A Clean Energy Competitiveness Strategy for America"
  (April, 2010)


• "Winning the Clean Energy Race: A New Strategy for American Leadership"
  (November 2009, Stanford Review)


• "Will America Lose the Clean Energy Race?"
  (July 2009, San Francisco Chronicle)

Ten years later it has become clear that the law had worked in motivating former welfare recipients to go back to work. What it didn't do was create the conditions for former welfare recipients to climb out of poverty. What's needed is new legislation that helps the poorest Americans get a fresh start. Americans who work should not be denied health care, day care, or retirement security simply for lack of money. Fresh Start legislation would establish a new social contract and achieve the goal of welfare reform: to truly reward work.

Key Documents:

• Fresh Start: A Proposal to Rebuild Lives through the Redemptive Power of Work
  (PDF, 1.5MB, November 2006)

Related Documents:

• Putting Government Back to Work: A Proposal to Restore Civic Pride
  (PDF, 972KB, November 2006)
• Toward a Renewed Social Contract
  (PDF, 909KB, November 2006)

Whatever you think about its causes or its solutions, one thing we can all agree on is that we had better prepare for it. We know that Greenland's glaciers are melting. We know that the north Atlantic Gulf Stream that brings warm water to the northern hemisphere has slowed by 30 percent since 1992. We know that surface ocean temperatures are getting warmer, and we know warmer oceans more severe hurricanes. More ominously, a recent Pentagon "future scenarios" report concluded that global warming could trigger and exacerbate wars over water. There's no more time for twisting our hands and having political arguments. What's needed is a national Global Warming Preparedness Act that requires every federal and state agency to report on and prepare for global warming disasters. The Act should also require global warming disclosure so that investors can properly evaluate risk.
 
Key Documents:

• A Plan for Global Warming Preparedness: A Proposal to Manage Risk and Invest in Risilient Communities
  (PDF, 266KB, November 2006)