Big week in climate and clean energy to discuss today.
1. House GOP rallies around free-market climate platform
Almost 30% of House Republicans — 62 members and counting — have already signed on to the Conservative Climate Caucus announced Wednesday.
What’s clear: The swift support is no surprise. Republicans have made tremendous strides on climate change and have real solutions — ones that are technologically realistic, economically feasible, and politically sustainable.
The platform: The climate is changing, but America’s private-sector innovation, resources, and R&D investments are yielding lower emissions and affordable energy — positioning the U.S. as a global leader.
The plan: To educate Republican lawmakers on climate policies and legislation consistent with conservative values.
Rich’s take: This caucus will be an “invaluable forum,” broadening the climate conversation among conservatives and keeping policymakers informed on the latest risks, solutions, and tech.
Leading members include Reps. John Curtis (R-UT), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Garret Graves (R-LA), Frank Lucas (R-OK), Bruce Westerman (R-AR), Glenn Thompson (R-PA), and Michael McCaul (R-TX).
Plug in: Keep up with the Caucus on Twitter: @climate_caucus.
What’s clear: Bipartisan, bicameral support for carbon capture technologies continues to build on the Hill.
The sponsors: Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), John Hoeven (R-ND), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Rich’s take: “Expanding the 45Q credit could drive deep reductions in power plants and industrial facilities across more than 30 states.”
“We are talking nearly 4 gigatons of CO2 emissions reduced by 2050 — possibly more with an increase in the value of the credit.”
3. Infrastructure deal could fund clean energy demos
There’s real potential for the bipartisan agreement announced yesterday to include robust clean energy innovation funding.
Rewind: Senate ENR Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) released a 400-page energy discussion draft late last week that would fund the Energy Act of 2020‘s clean energy demonstration programs.
It also includes provisions aimed at boosting nuclear energy, clean hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture technologies.
The path ahead: Prospects are unclear in both the House and Senate, but this is a huge opportunity. Fully implementing the Energy Act of 2020 will produce tangible clean energy and global competitiveness benefits for Americans.
4. ESIC — “the best thing we can do for the planet”
Finding common ground — and keeping it — is the key to an effective federal climate policy, according to a new Arnold Ventures analysis:
“To make lasting impact, we need policies that are durable over time and do not change with political tides depending on who happens to be in power.”
Those principles define ESIC, the bipartisan Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act, which uses smart tax policy to spur innovation and emissions cuts.
It’s bipartisan: Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) proposed ESIC, building on a House bill sponsored by Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA).
It’s future-focused: ESIC is market-driven, so it incentivizes new clean energy sources without the flaws of existing energy tax credits, which can distort markets and pick winners and losers among technologies.
What’s clear: We know this recipe works. Some of our most effective CO2-cutting policies were strongly bipartisan and often leaned on tax reforms:
1980’s Section 29 production tax credit, which paved the way for hydraulic fracturing and the natural gas boom.
1992’s wind production tax credit.
2005’s Energy Policy Act, which included the solar investment tax credit.
2018’s Section 45Q tax code reforms, which created robust tax incentives expected to slash emissions by tens of millions of tons annually.
5. Advanced nuclear closes in on commercialization
We’re in a watershed moment in the race to take next-gen nuclear to market, with more than 30 commercial-scale demonstrations underway around the globe.
What’s clear: For America to remain the global leader in nuclear energy, we must continue to invest in targeted demonstration programs and support U.S. companies competing in the global market.
Where things stand: We could see two fully operational reactors by 2027 under the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), with five other companies getting support to commercialize their designs.
The Defense Department’s Project Pele is on track to demonstrate a prototype mobile nuclear reactor by 2024.
Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse microreactor is undergoing its licensing review with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone.
Globally, competition is heating up. Countries from Argentina to Ukraine to Saudi Arabia are either planning their own domestic reactors or partnering with other countries on new designs.
Canada is supporting multiple deployments as part of its SMR Action Plan.
The UK included nuclear in its 10-point clean energy plan and is investing in a small modular reactor design by Rolls Royce.
Russia and China continue to build their domestic designs in other countries and demonstrate their own next-generation technologies.
Plug in: Read the latest industry report from our friends at Third Way, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Clean Air Task Force, Pillsbury, and our own Niko McMurray and Natalie Houghtalen.
6. ICYMI
Researchers tallied 152 stalled projects and 100 restrictive permitting policies crippling renewable energy growth nationwide — but we have the antidote: If You Permit It, They Will Build.
Start-up Holy Grail is prototyping a direct air carbon capture device that is modular and small, a fundamentally different technical approach to carbon capture.
Oil and gas company Devon Energy set a 2050 net-zero target, with a 2030 goal of cutting scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 50%, and methane emissions by 65%, from 2019 levels.
Republican policy proposals are emerging to go along with the increased ambition.
