Welcome to your Friday Rundown, for the week ending Feb. 15. I’m your driver, ClearPath Communications Director Darren Goode. Rundown takes a break next week but please let us know anything we missed at goode@clearpathaction.org. Thanks for reading.
GROWING GOP CHORUS FOR SENSIBLE CLIMATE STRATEGY
There is unmistakably a growing chorus of congressional Republican leaders calling for technological innovation to be the core of a pragmatic climate strategy.
Three senior House Energy and Commerce Republicans – Ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Environment Subcommittee ranking member John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Energy Subcommittee ranking member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) – followed up on a hearing in the panel last week with a Feb. 13 op-ed in RealClearPolicy calling for greater deployment of carbon capture and utilization, hydropower and nuclear power, as well as investment in clean energy technologies and energy storage to combat climate change.
“We must address climate change in ways that focus on American prosperity and technological capabilities while maintaining America’s leadership in clean and renewable energy innovation,” they wrote. “Let’s harness our great American ingenuity to develop new tools that we can market to the world, as we’ve done before.”
In a Feb. 13 hearing in the House Science Committee, panel ranking member Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) echoed that he wants “realistic, technology-driven solutions” to climate change, rather than “pie-in-the-sky policies that demand 100% renewable energy at the expense of reliable power from nuclear and fossil fuels and raise energy prices for businesses and consumers.”
Similarly, the House energy panel Republicans called the Green New Deal “a policy of regulation, taxation, and ultimately, economic stagnation.” They add, “Americans deserve better. That’s why we back sensible, realistic, and effective policies to tackle climate change.”
Some see opportunity with the heightened focus on climate change brought on by the Green New Deal debate. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has a new white paper touting natural gas as a “pro-jobs approach to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the Green New Deal push could provide an opportunity to revive a comprehensive energy bill she co-authored last Congress, while stressing any climate deal has to include nuclear power.
ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell took to the BBC World Service airwaves this week to debate Cornell Professor Robert Hockett, who is an adviser to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and defender of the Green New Deal. The resolution from Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is not “viewed as a real climate policy proposal,” Rich argued. Serious climate policies must pass three big tests – technical feasibility, political realism and global impact. “And as I read this messaging proposal, I don’t see how it passes those three hurdles,” Rich said.
A new white paper from ClearPath and other experts explains just why U.S. and global climate and clean power goals won’t be achievable without existing and next-generation nuclear generation.
The scale of global environmental challenges demands that we continue developing and improving on a range of low-carbon options, not just one or two technologies, argues experts from ClearPath, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, American Council for Capital Formation, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) Forum and the Bipartisan Policy Center.
1. Modern power systems need clean energy that is available on demand
2. Taking nuclear out of the mix undermines our ability to achieve deep carbon cuts
3. Importance of focusing on outcomes and being technology-inclusive
Corporate leadership can show the way toward addressing carbon emissions. Companies interested in maximizing their contribution to clean energy and environmental protection should adopt targets that are both more ambitious and technology neutral.
To achieve very deep carbon reductions, the power system needs low-carbon emitting generators that are available on demand, such as nuclear and carbon capture, to complement variable resources like wind and solar.
Given the energy technologies available to us today, taking nuclear out of the mix will undermine our ability to achieve climate goals. And since no energy source is perfect and all involve trade-offs, it’s critical to focus on outcomes – such as carbon emission reductions – without favoring or discriminating against particular technologies.
Nuclear power was also touted widely at the latest Atomic Wings briefing on Capitol Hill co-sponsored by ClearPath, the Department of Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) previewed a bill he is working on with House Science Chairman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) that would authorize a dedicated funding source for a versatile test reactor that could be a proving ground for fuels that would drive many next-generation nuclear technologies.
Building a VTR at a national lab that can handle energy neutrons that can go far faster inside a nuclear reactor than traditional reactors, can have huge implications for future reactors that, among other big differences from existing reactors, won’t use water that slows down or moderates the neutrons released inside reactors that are necessary to create power.
ClearPath’s policy chief Jeremy Harrell and nuclear expert Spencer Nelson explained why the U.S. needs to catch up to China and Russia, who are already trying to corner the global VTR market.
“This is an imperative for the industry, we absolutely have to have this,” said Jon Ball, executive vice president for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, which has created the PRISM design being used for a versatile test reactor at Idaho National Lab.
Ball was joined on a panel at the Atomic Wings event by Third Way’s Todd Allen, Micah Hackett of Kairos Power and Terrestrial Energy CEO Simon Irish, who detailed his company’s work on an integral molten salt reactor design.
Weber and Bernice Johnson previously teamed up to help lead successful passage of the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, which would strengthen partnerships between the private sector and government researchers to test and demonstrate the next generation of clean advanced nuclear reactor concepts.
BIPARTISAN HOUSE CARBON CAPTURE BILL INTRODUCED
House lawmakers introduced the bipartisan USE IT Act, a companion to a bipartisan Senate bill introduced last week that would make carbon dioxide pipelines and other infrastructure projects eligible for streamlined permitting.
The House bill, H.R. 1166, is led by Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), David McKinley (R-W.Va.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.). The Senate bill, S. 383, is led by Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and co-sponsored by several others in both parties.
The bill is a sequel of sorts to last Congress fixing the 45Q carbon capture tax credit, which in turn will lead to significant deployment of technologies that can capture and store roughly 49 million metric tonnes of CO2 annually in 2030, according to a report by Clean Air Task Force.
The estimated CO2 that will be captured and stored is equivalent to removing roughly 7 million cars from U.S. roads. For perspective, that is greater than the number of new cars sold in the U.S. in all of 2017.
NEWS NUGGETS
DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory will announce a new carbon storage funding opportunity, likely in the second quarter this year. It will target accelerated commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage through a new regional initiative, with up to four financial assistance awards lasting three to five years.
DOE’s ARPA-E announced $21 million for seven projects pursuing methods to create high-value carbon and hydrogen from methane, or to produce super strong and durable concrete with lower cost and environmental impact.
Several former Obama administration officials – including Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren, ARPA-E Director Ellen Williams and acting Undersecretary of Energy David Sandalow – are among the inaugural board members of a University of Michigan initiative aiming to develop technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into useful products such as concrete and construction materials.
