Turning the U.S. Hydrogen Field of Dreams Into Reality (Utility Dive)

This op-ed was originally published by Utility Dive on October 14, 2024. Click here to read the entire piece.

Perhaps a line from the classic American film “Field of Dreams” best summarizes the approach to hydrogen production and infrastructure: “If you build it, they will come.”

Increasing manufacturing and energy production in the U.S. is obviously good economic policy, but also strong climate policy, because our environmental standards are some of the strongest in the world. Unlike fuels in use today, hydrogen produces no carbon when it’s burned or used as a feedstock and has applications for the industrial sector including steel, cement and chemicals. The U.S. is sitting on the potential to produce more, we just need policies that work.

Clean energy project developers and those invested in lowering global emissions have rallied around hydrogen as a piece of the puzzle. The $8 billion Department of Energy Hydrogen Hubs have the potential to get these projects off the ground, but the clock is ticking on deployment.

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An Innovation Agenda for the Department of Energy (American Affairs)

This op-ed was originally published by American Affairs on August 19, 2024. Click here to read the entire piece.

The world is about to need more energy. A lot more. The combination of providing basic energy services to emerging markets and powering a new generation of data centers and manufacturing activity means the era of flat energy demand is over. Grid operators all across the United States are grappling with a rapid uptick in load growth projections and scrambling to build the energy infrastructure necessary to meet those forecasts.

As the world enters this new phase of energy growth, one thing is certain: the United States must lead the world and pioneer the technologies to make it possible. America is blessed with a world-class energy innovation engine led by the Department of Energy and the seventeen National Labs that have launched countless new technologies into the market. The Department of Energy (DOE, the Department) is the world’s largest funder of research for physical sciences and applied energy research, development, and demonstrations (RD&D). It is the sole federal entity with the capacity to advance innovative clean energy technologies in coordination with the private sector. These public-private partnerships are critical to commercializing breakthrough technologies domestically and ultimately exporting them to key partners around the globe.

Congress has recently enacted legislation to reinvigorate these efforts, providing billions of dollars in new funding to support innovative energy demonstration projects and the commercialization of new technologies. The conditions are right for America to meet this challenge, but the next presidential administration must agree to prioritize energy deployment first and foremost.

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U.S. Development Finance Helped Rescue Europe from Russian Energy (The National Interest)

This op-ed was originally published by The National Interest on June 18, 2024. Click here to read the entire piece.

America is facing a critical period of intensifying international challenges. The aggressive maneuvers of adversaries demand an increasingly robust use of U.S. foreign policy assets. Energy to sustain growing economies is at the heart of these issues. America has the opportunity to ensure its influence on the world stage as a provider of affordable, reliable, and clean energy security for decades to come. As Congress considers reauthorizing the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC), whose authorization expires in 2025, it’s time to supercharge this agency as part of an integrated international energy security and climate strategy.

The DFC, the modernized U.S. government development finance institution ramped up during the Trump administration, with bipartisan Congressional support, is a crucial player in helping America compete in geoeconomic rivalries over the future of energy leadership. In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, America demonstrated its capacity as a global energy powerhouse. For decades, the European Union (EU) had depended on Russian natural gas imports, which grew in share even after the invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. In just one year, the U.S. surged its LNG exports, driving Russian market share in the EU down from 40 percent in 2021 to just 8 percent in 2023.

This lifeline to Europe was partly enabled by the DFC, which provided over $1.5 billion in financing to support Europe’s energy diversification away from Russian gas. This is just one example of how the DFC has become a key federal agency in supporting America’s geopolitical and geoeconomic interests.

Energy projects supported by the DFC cut across various sectors, ranging from diversifying natural gas supplies in Poland to developing an energy supply hub in Greek shipyards to fostering clean energy generation in Bulgaria and Georgia. This provides allies and partners with U.S. alternatives to malignant energy producers like Russia and the predatory lending for energy infrastructure performed by actors like China. Furthermore, unlike most federal agencies, the DFC typically generates a financial return for taxpayer dollars. In FY 2023, the DFC returned a net positive income of $340 million to the U.S. Treasury from projects it invested in abroad.

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Building the Global Nuclear Energy Order Book (RealClear Energy)

This op-ed was originally published by Real Clear Energy on May 22, 2024. Click here to read the entire piece.

The outlook for nuclear power is bright on the world stage. Global demand for clean nuclear energy is higher than we have ever seen. The U.S. and 20 allied nations pledged to triple global nuclear energy capacity by 2050 at COP28, and a multinational survey reaffirmed last year — the world wants new nuclear.

In Washington, D.C., bipartisan support for nuclear energy has never been greater. Propelled by the House passing the ADVANCE Act 393-13 this month and momentum for passage in the Senate, Congress deserves some credit this year for working to help speed up the deployment of next-generation reactors, fueling hope for an American future powered by clean energy.

This support is promising, but masks a concerning trend. While the U.S. leads the world in the development of innovative nuclear technologies, the U.S. has fallen behind China and Russia. As of May 2024, Russia and China collectively have 29 commercial reactors under construction. The U.S. has zero.

The prospect of reinvigorating production in the U.S. is exciting, but we have to think bigger to realize the promise of the next generation of nuclear energy — and now is the moment to capitalize. So, how do we get it done?

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Here’s The Biggest Development That Emerged From COP28 (The Daily Caller)

This op-ed was originally published by The Daily Caller on December 13, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

The strongest development coming from the annual United Nations climate conference this year was the ambitious call to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

The U.S., UK and Canada, along with more than 20 other countries, launched this initiative at the United Nations Climate Change Conference’s (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP28), an annual event that has often shunned or ignored nuclear energy as a climate solution.

To triple nuclear capacity from now until 2050, the world will have to build around 30 large reactors each year, even more, if replacing retiring capacity is necessary or if smaller reactors take off.

This goal is achievable if the U.S. gets its federal policy right. Despite the anti-nuclear crowd’s best efforts in recent decades, the U.S. is still, in fact, the global leader in nuclear technology and, with the right policies, could see a booming U.S. industry with global reach.

To capitalize on this opportunity, policymakers should focus on three things: fixing how we license new nuclear reactors, ensuring we get innovative designs to market and developing a robust domestic fuel supply chain.

Congress has been grappling with how best to modernize permitting and make the 1970s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) work for energy projects of the 2020s, streamlining litigation backlogs and providing pre-clearance for projects regulators know will have no environmental problems. These reforms are needed across the energy spectrum, including nuclear.

American entrepreneurs are also up to the challenge of meeting demand. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) anticipates at least 13 applications for advanced reactors by 2027. The projects in the pipeline today employ thousands of Americans, and these are just the tip of the spear.

Last year, Southern Nuclear loaded fuel in the first Westinghouse AP1000 reactor at the Vogtle site in Waynesboro, Georgia. When all units are operational, the entire Vogtle Plant will be the largest producer of clean energy in the U.S., powering more than one million homes and businesses and employing more than 800 highly paid professionals.

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America’s Global Energy and Climate Leadership Needs Carbon Capture (RealClearEnergy)

This op-ed was originally published by RealClearEnergy on December 3, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

The world is in the throes of a complex energy landscape as we recognize the unprecedented demand for affordable and reliable energy combined with our shared goal to decrease global carbon dioxide emissions. These twin realities create parallel challenges: producing more, while simultaneously deploying clean energy technologies that will reduce emissions.

The U.S. must lead in meeting both challenges. Domestic natural resources — oil, natural gas, coal and critical minerals – are prolific. Recent global instability has demonstrated just how crucial it is to decrease our dependence on hostile regimes like Russia, China and Iran. As the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, America’s seat at the table is clear.

Advancing U.S. leadership can’t stop with natural resources, we must also lead in low-carbon technologies. Financial incentives and policy support are accelerating the development of solutions like carbon capture and storage (CCS), which the International Energy Agency has said will be “necessary to meet national, regional and even corporate net-zero goals.”

The U.S. already has a competitive advantage with CCS. A recent report from the Global CCS Institute shows that the U.S. “dominates” the global CCS landscape with the U.S. facility count increasing by 73 in the past year alone. This is no surprise: the technology enjoys vast bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, environmentalists and industry alike, and is widely thought to be a crucial piece of the puzzle in decreasing emissions.

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Everyone’s talking climate. Let’s talk solutions (Washington Times)

This op-ed was originally published by The Washington Times on September 26, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

Farmers, ranchers, foresters and fishermen will all tell you the weather is different today from when they were younger, and their jobs have gotten harder.

Look, the climate is changing, and global industrial activity is contributing. We hear that from the oil and gas industry, power companies, and our friends in agriculture.

The challenge of global emissions is pretty well understood. But to complicate it, the U.S. will need to double our grid’s capacity by 2050. If the U.S. is going to do that, while ensuring the grid remains reliable and clean, and prices remain affordable, we’re talking about adding more than 20,000 clean energy projects to the grid over the next 27 years.

We cannot damage our economy in our efforts, especially during this time of high inflation and instability worldwide. We must pursue a market-driven agenda that makes clean energy more affordable rather than making existing energy sources more expensive or putting them off-limits. There are exciting solutions such as carbon capture technology, zero-emissions nuclear energy, and renewable sources like hydropower and geothermal that protect America’s workforce and, most importantly, make energy affordable, reliable, secure, and clean.

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Fixing a Broken Energy Permitting System (Washington Times)

This op-ed was originally published by The Washington Times on April 18, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

America’s energy demands are rapidly increasing. Some estimates say the U.S. will need to double the capacity of our grid by 2050 if there is any chance of meeting net-zero goals.

Financing and building enough clean energy infrastructure projects to keep up will not be easy. But under the current regulatory environment, it’s procedurally impossible. Delays that can last over a decade are making projects more expensive, impeding America’s ability to deploy billions of dollars of capital that would create American jobs, enhance U.S. energy security, and reduce emissions.

The current system benefits those who seek to delay as opposed to those who seek to build. That dynamic may have made sense four decades ago when policymakers enacted laws focused on stopping bad outcomes. Today, this system is outdated. The pace and scale necessary to build clean energy infrastructure projects to reliably meet our energy demand and lower emissions is not something the authors of the 1970s environmental laws could have imagined.

Fortunately, fixing this outdated, broken system is at the top of the agenda for Republicans and many Democratic policymakers this Congress. House Republicans have rightly put permitting reform front and center this year, passing with bipartisan support their signature energy package, the Lower Energy Costs Act, as H.R.1.

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Carbon Capture Permit Backlog Threatens Climate Progress (Real Clear Energy)

This op-ed was originally published by Real Clear Energy on March 21, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

America’s energy economy is at a reckoning point and we must not allow the vast domestic resources, nor the investments in new clean energy technologies, to be squandered.

The 2022 energy tax incentives, along with the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and increasing private sector investments in innovation have the potential to catapult U.S. clean energy projects and firmly establish American global leadership in clean energy deployment.

It’s truly an unprecedented moment and one that the United States can’t afford to let pass by. But all of this potential will be little more than talking points if projects cannot be permitted in a timely manner. Nowhere is this more apparent than in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), which the International Energy Agency has said will be “necessary to meet national, regional and even corporate net zero goals.”

On the surface, moving more CCS projects has the support of both parties in Congress and the White House. President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan told energy executives at the CERAWeek conference in Houston that “carbon capture and storage is a priority for this Administration.”

That was music to the ears of many climate advocates, like myself, as well as the many energy project developers who are awaiting approvals for their CCS projects.

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America—and the World—Needs More Nuclear Power (Power Magazine)

This op-ed was originally published by Power Magazine on March 1, 2023. Click here to read the entire piece.

Nuclear energy is making a comeback—at home in America and worldwide. The 118th Congress presents new opportunities to make sure America leads the world on this crucial clean energy technology. The drumbeat for urgent climate action on the global stage is as loud as ever, but we’re also in the midst of a global energy crisis. Both themes exemplify the importance and necessity of new nuclear power on the grid.

Adding Advanced Nuclear Technology to the U.S. Power System

In the U.S., nuclear utilities are calling for 90 GW of new nuclear power by 2050, nearly doubling our nuclear energy capacity in the next 30 years—and American entrepreneurs are up to the challenge. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) anticipates at least 13 applications for advanced reactors by 2027, which puts a dent in the big goal.

The projects in the pipeline today employ thousands of Americans, and they are just the tip of the spear. If Republicans and Democrats in the new Congress are ready to double down on the immense nuclear support in the big energy bills enacted in the past four years—the Energy Act of 2020, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, and the recent tax package—a new generation of American advanced reactors will make immense contributions to global security, U.S. economic growth, and climate action.

The momentum so far has been awe-inspiring. Last year, Southern Nuclear loaded fuel in the first Westinghouse AP1000 reactor at the Vogtle site in Waynesboro, Georgia. When all units are operational, the entire Vogtle Plant will be the largest producer of clean energy in the U.S., powering more than one million homes and businesses, and employing more than 800 highly paid professionals.

GE Hitachi (GEH), meanwhile, is preparing to build its BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in Clinch River, Tennessee, with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). GEH is hiring 400 employees in Wilmington, North Carolina, to support that project, a fuel facility in partnership with TerraPower, and the construction of its SMR at the Darlington site in Canada, which is on track to operate by 2028.

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