The Brookings Institution -- in collaboration with Breakthrough Generation founder Teryn Norris and Yale Environment 360 -- sets forth a new environmental research agenda to lower the cost of innovative fuels.  Beyond a carbon tax, this proposal details how actors in government and in academia can join forces to integrate low-cost fuel into the larger economy.

The Brookings Plan is designed to integrate renewable fuels into the national and global economies so that they are affordable.  The goals are to promote "energy security," protect the planet and promote innovative partnerships between academia, business and government.

The policy is to create Energy Discovery-Innovation Institutes (EDIIs).  EDIIs would draw funding from local and national government, academia and private industry to research, develop, mobilize and market cost-effective renewable fuels.  Each Institute would specialize in a certain aspect of clean energy research.  Examples offered include developing more efficient solar panel technology, new battery technology, and new energy storage capacity.  Institutes would benefit from regional resources and specialties.  They would be located at major universities or on research campuses.

The budgets of the research institutes would vary, as would the sources of funding.  State government, federal government, research institutions and private industry would all contribute to the expense.  The proposal notes that institutions failing to fulfill their mission should have cease their operations; thriving institutions should receive more funding.  The market-based process of instiutional survival would seem to be supported by government grants and intellectual property licensing, though the exact methods are unclear.