---
title: "CCEI Comments on the State of the Union"
summary: |-
  The President talked about carbon emissions and climate leadership, but didn’t say one word about innovating solutions that will meaningfully cool the planet.
date: "2015-01-21"
content_type: "Press Releases"
canonical_url: "https://itif.org/publications/2015/01/21/ccei-comments-state-union/"
---

# CCEI Comments on the State of the Union

WASHINGTON – In response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address, the Center for Clean Energy Innovation (CCEI) made the following statement:

“The President talked about carbon emissions and climate leadership, but didn’t say one word about innovating solutions that will meaningfully cool the planet. Giving a speech without substance a week after it was announced 2014 was the hottest year on record is like throwing our head in the sand. The United States must take aggressive action to spur low-carbon innovation, and fast.

To be clear, the United States has made progress. During the past six years, the President has made historic investments in clean energy innovation, took aggressive steps to counter international green mercantilism, and announced a bilateral climate deal with China that included energy innovation policies.

Unfortunately, global carbon emissions continue to rise at a dangerous pace. Clean energy costs have fallen, but not far enough so that everyone has access to affordable, clean energy. And as CCEI has argued, public investments in clean energy innovation have been cut at a time when they need to be tripled to develop the technologies we need to dramatically cut carbon.

After years of climate policy gridlock, innovation policy offers a pathway to real carbon cuts. There is certainly no reason why Democrats and Republicans cannot come together to pass pragmatic and aggressive clean energy innovation policies to develop new technologies and grow the economy.

As CCEI has championed, Congress and the President should immediately pass the bipartisan America INNOVATES Act to begin the process of reforming the nations National Labs and accelerating the development of breakthrough energy technologies.

Congress should quadruple the budget of ARPA-E, the government’s breakthrough energy research agency, which not only enjoys bipartisan support, but is also making critical investments in the most innovative clean technology ideas.

And the President should propose global clean energy innovation investment targets as a new path away from the failed voluntary carbon targets that are plaguing international climate negotiations.

For all the President’s words about climate leadership, the United States’ actions on clean energy innovation policy have been everything but. With the world staring climate catastrophe in the face, the President shouldn’t mince words – he should make big investments and actions on clean energy innovation. It’s a win-win climate policy that holds the greatest potential of deeply decarbonizing the global economy and mitigating climate change.

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*Source: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)*
*URL: https://itif.org/publications/2015/01/21/ccei-comments-state-union/*