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Sounds like an approach that would coexist nicely alongside technology funding efforts! ARPA-E and EERE have done some great work in that regard; thankfully and
by HillRat 8y ago
Sounds like an approach that would coexist nicely alongside technology funding efforts! ARPA-E and EERE have done some great work in that regard; thankfully and a bit surprisingly Congress has so far declined to defund them, despite the Trump administration’s consistent efforts to shut them down, so hopefully they’ll continue to support innovative and incremental advances. Adding carbon incentives to a tax-and-rebate scenario (should we ever get to that) would seem prudent.
- dv_dt 8y agoI not intimately familiar with ARPA-E and EERE funding programs, but if the follow the common model of selection of funding to a expert tech evaluators, they are a bit different from what I was musing about. They aren't bad, just far too constrained for what we need. Instead, I'm for transferring funding decisions under the program to a much more open set of actors to originate investment loans (much like mortgage brokers). The investment performances are evaluated on their successes/feasibility, the loans purchased from their originators with high feasibility (i.e. we're scaling known limits), as well as opening up higher origination limits (if they prove out better carbon negative/netural tech). It's more of a financial tooling solution than a tech centered solution. This increases the possibility of failures, but provides a regulated scale out needed with a optimization criteria to keep scaling along successful lines with more organizations rewarded who make successful carbon investments. Experts like ARPA-E could definitely be involved in assessment, but the scale would be completely different then what has gone on before.