Brookings Mountain West at UNLV says that Nevada can be at the heart a transformation in how the country reduces its carbon footprint. By establishing federally funded innovation centers across the intermountain West, Brookings says the region can capitalize on its many world class assets.

A nonpartisan think tank Wednesday outlined an ambitious plan to boost renewable energy development in America and placed Nevada and the West in the center of it.

The United States Mountain West has long been a hotbed of experimentation and innovation, due in no small part to a decades-long partnership between government, universities and private enterprise. Throughout the 20th century, the federal government invested in dams, transportation infrastructure and military installations that facilitated economic expansion and the emergence of new private industries.

The United States Mountain West has long been a hotbed of experimentation and innovation, due in no small part to a decades-long partnership between government, universities, and private enterprise. Throughout the 20th century, the federal government invested in dams, transportation infrastructure, and military installations that facilitated economic expansion and the emergence of new private industries.

The Intermountain West will be a good place to further research into energy, given the assets from universities and national research operations already in the region, according to a Brookings Institute study out Wednesday.

The study calls for the development of “centers of invention” to connect New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Utah, with hubs for various renewable energy infrastructure.

Four to six federally funded research centers should be developed in Colorado and other western states to find better ways to develop and commercialize clean energy, a report Wednesday from the Brooking Institution and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, recommends.

The report says Colorado should be considered as a site for clean-energy "innovation centers" focused on advanced biofuels, "smart grid" projects and carbon management.

The Intermountain West will be a good place to further research into energy, given the assets from universities and national research operations already in Arizona and the region, according to a Brookings Institute study out Wednesday.

The study calls for the development of “centers of invention” to connect Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah, with hubs for various renewable energy infrastructure.

Arizona could be a key member of a regional clean-energy research network proposed in a report released today.

The report from Brookings Mountain West calls for an expanded network of federally funded research and innovation centers focused on solar, biofuels, geothermal and other alternative-energy sources, with the centers to be established in Arizona or five nearby states.

In 19th-century America, the government awarded land grants to start what would become the transcontinental railroad and establish universities such as Rutgers and Michigan State.