For many Americans, the confluence of a recession and a growing realization that the nation needs to end its reliance on fossil fuels seems like a double dose of bad news. But for the nation's research universities, it may be an opportunity. A Brookings Institution, a policy-study group with ties to the Democratic leaders now controlling the White House and Capitol Hill, proposal may raise the likelihood that research universities will win a significant share of new money planned for energy research. Two principal recommendations include: (1) that the federal government begins spending $20-billion to $30-billion a year on research and development of energy; and (2) that it distributes at least $6-billion of that money through a series of regional "energy discovery-innovation institutes" based at universities. Critics caution that a research-and-development system for energy that relies heavily on universities may not be able to meet market needs; others agree that there is need for all parties to get more deeply involved in finding renewable and nonpolluting sources of energy.