What Should the Government Do To Encourage Technical Change in the Energy Sector?
Name
MITJPSPGC_Rpt120.pdf
Size
223.15 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9e84687e7e1c25aeb897cc8898b06526
Author(s)
Deutch, John M.
Date Issued
May 2005
Publisher
MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
Citation
Report no. 120
Series/Report no.
;Report no. 120
Abstract
Government support of innovation—both technology creation and technology demonstration—is desirable to encourage private investors to adopt new technology. In this paper, I review the government role in encouraging technology innovation and the success of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies in advancing technology in the energy sector. The DOE has had better success in the first stage of innovation (sponsoring R&D to create new technology options) than in the second stage (demonstrating technologies with the objective of encouraging adoption by the private sector). I argue that the DOE does not have the expertise, policy instruments, or contracting flexibility to successfully manage technology demonstration, and that consideration should be given to establishing a new mechanism for this purpose. The ill-fated 1980 Synthetic Fuels Corporation offers an interesting model for such a mechanism.
Description
Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/).
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