A new paper from Brookings, the World Resources Institute, and the Breakthrough Institute shows exactly how much trouble cleantech is in:

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Depressing, no? Some of that rapid decline comes from the end of stimulus spending. But the researchers found that even discounting those funds, federal support for cleantech dropped 47 percent between 2011 and 2012.

Around these parts, we all agree solar and wind and electric vehicles (and, yes, even biofuels, sometimes) are a good thing for the federal government to be supporting. We weren’t particularly fazed by the whole Solyndra “scandal.” So we’re hoping Congress heeds the report’s ideas for avoiding a cleantech death sentence.

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Otherwise, we’ll be a country without a cleantech policy, China and Germany will win the day, and we’ll sink into the sea amidst a cloud of carbon pouring out of coal plants.