Now that everybody has formally given up on comprehensive climate legislation in the US Congress, a disparate group of think tanks is proposing a fall back plan that would turn the focus away from regulation and toward a coordinated federal research and development programme for clean energy (Bloomberg).

Unveiled Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute and the Breakthrough Institute, a new report dubbed “”https://www.nature.com/news/2010/101013/full/467762a.html">Post-Partisan Power" seeks to find center ground on an issue that has become wildly polarized (for more on that, see this week’s election coverage).

The backbone of the proposal is a $25 billion annual R&D program for clean energy innovation. The document builds in part on a proposal to create a new network of regional energy innovation institutes proposed earlier by the Brookings Institution. The idea is similar in concept to the Energy Innovation Hubs being rolled out by the current administration but would focus on developing – and deploying – regional solutions with the involvement of businesses and universities. The group recommends $5 billion annually for that and another $1.5 billion annually for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

Other proposals would target science education, reform energy subsidies and expand government – and in particular defense – procurements of clean energy technologies. Various mechanisms are proposed to pay for these ventures, including phasing out unproductive subsidies, creating surcharges on oil and electricity, tapping oil and gas leasing revenues, or even creating “a very small carbon price” to generate new revenues.

That last piece sounded a bit like a carbon tax, which has never been popular among politicians. But given the lack of consensus in other areas, long-term R&D intended to bring the cost of clean energy down might well be one area where lawmakers will be able to agree.