Private-sector heavyweights push for more energy R&D federal spending

The chart above shows how the share of federal spending on energy research and development has largely declined over decades.

Driving the news: It's one of the data points in a report last week urging Congress to greatly expand the federal programs that help develop and commercialize climate-friendly tech.

What they're saying: Recommendations from the American Energy Innovation Council — a group of private-sector heavyweights including Bill Gates and Royal Dutch Shell chairman Chad Holliday — include...

• Boosting funding for the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program (ARPA-E) to $1 billion per year, which is over twice current levels.
• Also expanding funding for DOE's Office of Technology Transitions and its lab-embedded entrepreneurship program.
• Creating a federal Clean Energy Deployment Administration and transforming today's renewable energy tax incentives into a technology-neutral credit that would support newer technologies.

Go deeper: 2020 climate plans have lofty goals for energy research and development