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The United States must change the way it produces and uses energy by shifting away from its dependence on imported oil and coal-fired electricity and by increasing the efficiency with which energy is extracted, captured, converted, and used if it is to meet the urgent challenges facing the energy system, of which climate change and energy security are the most pressing. This will require the improvement of current technologies and the development of new transformative ones, particularly if the transition to a new energy system is going to be timely and cost-effective. The nation is, in fact, at a historical point where the energy innovation system is being examined, significantly expanded, and reshaped. This provides not only a rare opportunity, but indeed a responsibility, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system to make sure that this investment yields the maximum payoff. The importance of improving and better aligning the management and structure of existing and new energy innovation institutions to enhance the coordination, integration, and overall performance of the federal energy-technology innovation effort (from basic research to deployment) cannot be overemphasized. The technology-led transformation of the U.S. energy system that the administration is seeking is unlikely to succeed without a transformation of energy innovation institutions and of the way in which policymakers think about their design.