Welcome to your weekly Rundown, for the week ending June 19.
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Please stay safe and healthy, wherever you're reading this week.
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 Rich Powell Testified Before House E&C Committee on
COVID-19’s Impact on the Energy Sector
On Tuesday, June 16, Rich Powell, ClearPath Executive Director, was the Republican witness at The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hearing entitled, “Reviving our Economy: COVID-19's Impact on the Energy Sector.” See more about the hearing
Rich emphasized the impacts of the pandemic, their likely evolution, possible policy responses, and detailed a four step policy solution.
“First, we must innovate. Second, unnecessary regulatory hurdles needlessly slow down projects. Third, we must deploy technology to prove it at scale and bring down costs. And fourth, we must export the proven technology to new clean energy markets.”
View Rich’s opening statement
Read his written testimony
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 Oklo Makes History: Announces First U.S. Acceptance of Combined License Application
On Monday, California-based Oklo announced its combined license application, the first for an advanced fission technology, was accepted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The historic acceptance of Oklo’s application signifies a breakthrough in the commercialization of carbon-free advanced fission technologies. Read more
RICH'S TAKE
“This is a game changer for advanced nuclear energy. Oklo is paving a way for how small modular reactors and microreactors get built and begin producing clean energy. The next step will be to actually break ground at a federal site and turn the reactor on.”
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 Can Oil and Gas Play a Role in Developing Advanced Nuclear?
In the early stages of the nuclear power industry, some oil & gas majors (OGMs) entered the uranium industry, but their interest in nuclear power projects traditionally has been rare. Nuclear power has been categorized as essential in combating climate change, but notably, the underlying challenge for increasing nuclear power is securing investment. OGMs had more than $80 billion in earnings in 2018, which is twice the necessary amount required for new nuclear investments annually. As such, OGMs could be well-equipped to invest in the development of small modular reactor and advanced reactor (SM&AR) designs. Read more from World Nuclear News. View the Nuclear Economics Consulting
Group’s full report, “How oil & gas majors could turn the tide against global warming.”
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Fusion Industry Association Releases Regulatory White Paper
Last Friday, the Fusion Industry Association published its white paper, “Igniting the Fusion Revolution in America,” which outlines the promise of fusion energy, the background on regulation, and proposes a series of principles for regulation. The key recommendation is:
“U.S. policymakers should establish a broad legislative and regulatory framework that explicitly and permanently removes fusion energy from the regulatory approaches that the federal government has taken towards fission power plants.”
Read the white paper here
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DOE Invests Millions in Carbon Utilization Projects
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced they have selected 11 projects to receive around $17 million for cost-shared research and development projects for carbon utilization. These projects will develop and test technologies that can utilize CO2 from power systems or other industrial sources and recycle the fuel into value-added products. Read more
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IN THE HEARING ROOM
On June 16, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy held a hearing on, “Reviving our Economy: COVID-19’s Impact on the Energy Sector,” where ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell testified.
That same day, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to “Examine the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Energy Industry.”
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
ACC Campus Launches Ad to Drive Conservative Climate Action
This week, the American Conservative Coalition (ACC) Campus launched an ad on Fox News urging Congress and the Administration to include conservation and clean energy innovation as part of any potential COVID-19 recovery package. View the ad here
Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson Introduce Bill to
Support Nuclear Innovation
On Thursday, Idaho Republican Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson introduced the Integrated Energy Systems Act of 2020, which would increase research and leverage the resources and expertise at our National Laboratories (including Idaho National Laboratory), the Department of Energy, and our higher education institutions. This House bill is the companion to Senator Risch’s bill, the Integrated Energy Systems Act (S. 2702). Read more
 U.S. International Development Finance Corporation Lifts
Nuclear Energy Export Financing Ban
On Wednesday, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced it is lifting the prohibition on financing civilian nuclear energy exports and will commence a 30-day comment period on the rulemaking. In May 2019, ClearPath published a white paper on why DFC should allow nuclear energy export financing. Executive Director Rich Powell testified before the House Financial Services Committee that “we must ensure that previous bans on nuclear financing at OPIC do not carry over to
DFC.” In October 2019, a bipartisan group of Senators also urged the DFC to lift the ban. Read more
RICH'S TAKE
"The U.S. will have a whole suite of technologies in different sizes available in the next couple of years, and that really changes the game in terms of this modernization of policy," Powell said in a statement to The Washington Examiner. “We have a stronger commitment to nonproliferation than the Russians and the Chinese. The question is not if developing countries go nuclear or not. We want it to be us who gives it to them.” Read the full article
“[Washington] must ensure that our companies, our innovators, and our clean-energy technologies have the best possible chance to compete internationally,” Powell said in a statement picked up by The New York Times. Read the full article
Lithium and Critical Minerals Supply Chain 101
Are you aware of how many minutes you spend on your phone each week? On average, adults spend more than 3 hours a day on a smartphone, but have you ever paused to think about what your cell phone is made of? Sure there is a glass cover, some metal and plastic, but what about the battery?
Cell phones weigh ~7 ounces, and the battery is 1/5th of that. Most phones rely on a lithium-ion battery, which uses less than one gram (3/100ths of an ounce) of lithium as the “medium” for energy storage. As the lithium creates ions, they flow between anode and cathode to create a charge. Pretty cool, right?
But, for that tiny trace of lithium needed to be able to text Mom, the supply chain to get it is really complicated.
Read the latest ClearPath Energy 101: Supply Chain for Lithium and Critical Minerals Is … Critical by ClearPath Policy Fellow Cameron Tarry on the supply chain challenges for the clean energy industry.
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THE PATH AHEAD
Happening Now: The Atlantic Council Global Energy Center is hosting its next installment of EnergySource Innovation Stream. From 10:00am – 10:30am ET today, panelists will discuss the world’s first net-zero liquefied natural gas (LNG) export and industrial gas production complex. Register now
June 24: The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) is hosting a virtual event, “The State of the Nuclear Energy Industry 2020,” from 10:00am – 11:30am ET. More details and registration information here
June 24: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing at 9:30am ET on “The Impact of COVID-19 on Mineral Supply Chains.”
June 25: ClearPath Foundation and the Global America Business Institute (GABI) are hosting a virtual workshop from 10:00am – 11:00am ET on “Developing Fuels and Materials for Advanced Nuclear Reactors.” ClearPath’s Nuclear Program Director Niko McMurray will be moderating the panel. Register here
July 7: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Initiative is hosting a webinar as part of its energy innovation series from 10:00am – 11:30am ET on, “Scaling up low-carbon energy: Economics, geopolitical, and environmental impacts.” More details and register here
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