Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Nov. 30. Feedback is always welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
REED BILL ENVISIONS A TECH-NEUTRAL ENERGY TAX CODE
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) introduced a new bill Thursday that would aim to incentivize a greater mix of next-generation energy technologies in the tax code.
His Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act, cosponsored by Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), would benefit new and innovative energy technologies, while scaling down as production scales up. The credit is technology-neutral, meaning new technologies and advanced retrofits may access the credit.
It would apply to the value of the energy when it is sold, thus not rewarding unneeded power, while also not allowing double dipping to those already receiving existing production and investment tax incentives. Instead, it could allow technologies such as energy storage, along with other cutting-edge and first-of-its-kind technologies, to break through the innovation valley of death that often prevents promising ideas from being commercialized.
“This Energy Sector Innovation Credit would bring the energy portion of the tax code back to the essentials by help cutting-edge technologies break into the market and upend the status quo without distorting the free market,” ClearPath Action Executive Director Rich Powell said. “Congressman Reed’s bill will help clean energy sector innovation be more like Silicon Valley: fast, disruptive, exciting and good for consumers.”
NELA SPOTLIGHTED AT SENATE ENERGY HEARING
The Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, a bipartisan comprehensive blueprint for advanced nuclear, was spotlighted Thursday at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee hearing.
“We’ve been slow to come together around any form of a coherent strategy,” Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski said at the hearing. “In order to be a serious player in a global nuclear future we have to develop, we have to commercialize and we have to sell the most advanced reactors in the world.” If the U.S. doesn’t do this, it risks losing its role as the world’s nuclear arbiter and “put in the hands and control of nations like Russia and China,” she said.
Murkowski sponsored the bill, which is also supported by an impressive group of members who are all returning next Congress.
ICYMI: NELA ALSO SPOTLIGHTED BY EXPERTS
ClearPath joined the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Third Way and the Atlantic Council in hosting a Nov. 13 briefing at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center dissecting the benefits and inherited challenges of NELA.
It featured a panel of experts who discussed how the bill addresses national security challenges created by burgeoning advanced nuclear efforts in China and Russia, along with setting specific “moonshot” and other goals to create necessary testing infrastructure and ensuring a domestic supply of fuel needed for most advanced reactors.
Among the top takeaways from the discussion:
NELA addresses nearly all of the Department of Energy-related issues to get advanced nuclear off the ground
The bill further pushes the DOE towards a new strategic plan and moonshot reactor demonstrations
It also solves a crucial missing link – the lack of a commercial advanced reactor fuel supply
If you weren’t able to make the briefing (or would like a handy refresher on the discussion), we put together some highlights.
A new study released by the International CCS Knowledge Centre underscores that the capital cost of Canadian Utility Saskpower installing carbon capture capabilities at the Shand Power Station would be 67 percent less per ton than their first build, the Boundary Dam coal-fired plant. This news reaffirms steady progress toward commercializing a high-impact technology in a clean energy economy.
As designed, the Shand Power Station project would be the world’s largest carbon capture facility and could capture carbon emissions equivalent from more than 430,000 cars every day.
The Shand Power Station comes amid landmark advances in the U.S. as well toward commercializing carbon capture technologies. That includes the launch of the retrofitted Petra Nova coal plant near Houston, first fire in May of the nearby NET Power 50-MW demonstration plant that would be the world’s first industrial-scale zero-carbon natural gas plant, and the bipartisan extension of a key tax incentive for carbon capture projects.
“Canada and the U.S. continue to help show the way for other nations to develop and commercialize carbon capture technologies,” ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell said. “Building on lessons learned from the ground-breaking Boundary Dam project, the Shand Power Station represents a step change in carbon capture economics.”
Meanwhile, Great Britain plans to help develop the country’s first large-scale project to capture, storage and use carbon emissions by the mid-2020s. British officials will offer more details next year on a strategy that includes an investment of 315 million pounds ($402 million).
SENATE ENERGY APPROVES BARANWAL NOMINATION
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by voice vote approved Rita Baranwal’s nomination to head the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office.
Baranwal’s extensive and senior nuclear policy experience includes as director of the Gateway for Acceleration Innovation in Nuclear effort housed at Idaho National Laboratory since August 2016. Her appointment comes as the Trump Administration is conducting an extensive review of the U.S. nuclear sector. Energy Secretary Rick Perry appointed ClearPath Founder Jay Faison to the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, which will offer advice and recommendations on scientific, commercial, technical and programmatic issues to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
BUSINESS LEADERS TOUT ENERGY INNOVATION INVESTMENTS
A consortium of business leaders, including ClearPath Founder Jay Faison, issued a new report Wednesday arguing that larger investments in energy innovation will make the United States more globally competitive, increase economic prosperity and maintain America’s energy leadership position in the world.
The recommendations from the American Energy Innovation Council include better prioritizing innovation work at the Department of Energy, investing $16 billion annually in advanced energy innovation and funding the ARPA-E effort at $1 billion annually (but at least $400 million per year in FY2020).
NEWS NUGGETS
NuScale Power signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian nuclear generator Bruce Power L.P. to develop a business case to introduce NuScale’s small modular reactor technology to the Canadian market. NuScale also selected Minnesota-based PaR Systems, LLC to begin engineering work for the manufacturing of its Reactor Building Crane (RBC), an important element of NuScale’s SMR design.
Small modular nuclear reactors received a lot of attention during Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s recent trek to Eastern and Central Europe, he told Politico Pro. “There was a substantial amount of interest in SMRs in each of the places we went to,” Perry said, noting that Ted Garrish, a nuclear expert who runs the Energy Department’s international affairs office, tagged along to several meetings and met with Czech officials, who are looking to expand nuclear power capacity.
The governors of Wyoming, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah and Kansas sent a letter to congressional leaders urging passage of the bipartisan USE IT Act, which would boost CO2 pipelines and other carbon capture infrastructure. “Passage of the USE IT Act furthers the advancement of new, critical technologies that will help develop industries, jobs and markets by transforming carbon emissions into an economic resource,” they wrote.
THE PATH AHEAD
WEDNESDAY Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on “The Future of Nuclear Power: Advanced Reactors,” featuring Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Ed McGinnis, Oak Ridge National Lab Director Thomas Zacharia and General Atomics Vice President Christina Back. The hearing will start at 2:30 p.m. in Senate Dirksen Room 138.
