Robert Fri, former deputy administrator of the EPA and the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, former president of progressive think tank Resources for the Future, says the government isn’t very good at doing energy research, and that a price on carbon would do more to stimulate productive energy research than targeted grants for specific research programs.

Meanwhile, RFF publishes a paper saying that "broad-based policies like emissions pricing are substantially more cost effective than more targeted approaches, such as R&D subsidies." (This all via Keith Johnson.)

I guess RFF isn’t going to be on Breakthrough’s Christmas list.