Alex Trembath is a policy associate, Energy and Climate Program, with Oakland, Calif.–based Breakthrough Institute and co-author of Beyond Boom and Bust: Putting Clean Tech on a Path to Subsidy Independence,a new report co-authored by researchers at the Breakthrough Institute, the Brookings Institution and the World Resources Institute. Tyson Freeman, I3 contributing editor, spoke with Trembath about the report, including how a drop in U.S. public sector funding will affect clean tech investment.

Why did you and your collaborators choose to write this report now?

The work began as a conversation among the co-authors about the impending expiration of key federal cl