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As a party to the Paris Climate Agreement, the United States affirmed its continued commitment to significantly reducing carbon emissions by 2025. According to the Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency, achieving large CO2 reductions will require an “all of the above approach” with new and innovative energy technologies, such as carbon capture playing a primary role in any successful CO2 mitigation strategy. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) have been receiving bipartisan support from a number of policymakers. In February Representative Mike Conaway (R-TX 11th Dist.) introduced a bill, which would expand and create a permanent tax credit… [more]
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The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) is responsible for funding transformational energy technologies that are too early in their development to attract private-sector investment. Projects funded by ARPA-E are typically considered high-risk investments due to the long and arduous incubation period for energy technologies. However, in 2015, the 2% of total project applications that ARPA-E funded raised questions about the agency’s tolerance for risk. Because the program has been under pressure to achieve results quickly, some have suggested that it has been more inclined to invest in projects that have a higher chance of… [more]
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A recent “60 Minutes” segment essentially called the cleantech industry a failure, eliciting a flurry of criticisms defending the green technology sector. “Hoping to create innovation and jobs, [President Obama] committed north of $100 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks to cleantech. But instead of breakthroughs, the sector suffered a string of expensive tax-funded flops. Suddenly cleantech was a dirty word,” said “60 Minutes’” host, Lesley Stahl. One of the main criticisms against the CBS segment was that it conflated the cleantech venture capital sector of Silicon Valley with the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program. The critics have… [more]
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The new Secretary of Energy and MIT physicist, Ernest Moniz, has often cited nuclear power as an important means of developing a low-carbon future for America. Moniz has also advocated the use of natural gas for its economic, environmental and energy security benefits, as outlined in a report he authored while at MIT, “The Future of Natural Gas.” So what can we expect from the next Secretary of Energy? Throughout his confirmation process, which has taken place over the past six weeks, Secretary Moniz reiterated the need for an “all-of-the-above” strategy, while expressing his belief that the government is underinvesting… [more]
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Senior Vice President of Policy & Research
Alliance to Save Energy
Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) recently reintroduced the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (ESICA), S. 761. This bipartisan legislation will spur the use of energy efficiency technologies across residential, commercial and industrial sectors, while fostering job creation. Energy efficiency is the best way to address our energy needs, increase the competitiveness of our businesses and create sustainable jobs. ESICA is supported by over 200 entities, from industry to environmentalists, ranging from Dow Chemical to the Sierra Club. This broad support illustrates the value of identifying points of consensus and how energy efficiency is such an area… [more]
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