Happy Friday! And a huge congratulations and sincere thanks to our CEO and friend, Rich Powell, on an incredible decade of leadership at ClearPath.
1. From the desk of Rich Powell…
I could not be more excited to see Jeremy Harrell take the helm at ClearPath. He’s a brilliant policy and people leader, and a wonderful human and dear friend.
Jeremy now leads hands-down the greatest team of energy policy professionals in DC, led by the amazing Andrea Steiner, Luke Bolar, Chris Tomassi, Colleen Moss and Niko McMurray.
I am eternally grateful to Jay Faison for his irrationally optimistic gamble in founding ClearPath, and for taking me on the greatest journey of my life. He’s been an incredible founder, partner and friend.
The many team members, supporters, partners, alumni and advisors of ClearPath are now too many to thank individually, a good problem to have. To all of you: thank you for everything you have done, are doing and will do.
I am honored to continue to serve and advance the mission on ClearPath’s advisory board.
The world needs ClearPath’s vision of American leadership for a clean energy future. Its best days and brightest impact are all ahead.
Onward and upward!
-Rich
2. Plant Vogtle Unit 4 is officially online
This week, Georgia Power announced that Plant Vogtle’s Unit 4 is now commercially operational.
With all four units operating, Plant Vogtle is officially the largest clean energy generator in the nation. Plant Vogtle aims to produce over 30 million megawatt hours of electricity each year.
What’s clear: The plant will produce enough clean electricity to power an additional 1,000,000 homes and businesses for the next 60 to 80 years.
Plug in: Read ClearPath’s op-ed to learn more about the need for nuclear innovation in the energy space.
3. Congress sends bipartisan bill to ban Russian uranium imports to the President
This week, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to limit American reliance on Russian nuclear fuel. H.R. 1042, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, which was led by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-WA), is headed to the President’s desk for signature. Champions of the import ban include Sens. James Risch (R-ID) and John Barrasso (R-WY).
What’s clear: This legislation is important because today, Russia supplies about one-quarter of the low-enriched uranium powering America’s civilian nuclear reactors and is currently the only commercial-scale source of HALEU. In 2022, a rough equivalent of 1 in 20 U.S. households was powered by Russian-enriched nuclear fuel.
Plug in: Read ClearPath’s blog to learn how America can lead in uranium and nuclear fuel production.
4. Project permits’ uphill battle with new NEPA rules
The Biden Administration released a final rule to implement changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), likely making the permitting process more burdensome and introducing new litigation risks.
A glimmer of progress in the final rule were the reforms House Republicans championed in H.R.1, and then codified in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), including:
Page limits and deadlines to keep reviews on track,
New authority to share categorical exclusions across federal agencies for projects with little environmental impact; and
Allowing agencies to reuse existing review documents for projects with similar impacts.
Important to note: NEPA is 50 years old and has not been adequately updated to meet increased energy demand and modern technology. The FRA was the first legislative update to NEPA in decades, and this CEQ rule largely reverts back to the 1970s regulations.
What’s clear: “The Administration continues to self-sabotage its climate goals under this final rule,” said ClearPath Action Chief Strategy Officer Jeremy Harrell. “We need to deploy more clean energy projects, not fewer, and do so at a much faster pace and scale than we do today.”
Plug in: Read ClearPath’s blog understand the negative impacts of Biden’s NEPA ruling.
5. ICYMI
Senate EPW voted 18-1 to approve NRC Chair Christopher Hanson for a second term.
U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions decreased by 3% in 2023, driven primarily by power sector emissions reductions.
