Welcome to your weekly Rundown, for the week ending July 3.
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 NELA Makes Its Way on Senate NDAA
Several bipartisan energy and environment bills have joined the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA) (S. 903), which would bolster advanced nuclear technologies. The Senate is scheduled to take up the NDAA as soon as July 13. Last week, a bipartisan group of 20 senators led by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee
Leadership, urging the inclusion of NELA in the FY2021 NDAA. ClearPath Action – along with 43 other organizations – sent a similar letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
RICH'S TAKE
“This amendment on nuclear energy would add several important national security-related provisions from NELA to the NDAA, including strengthening our foreign policy relationships and preventing an increase in nuclear weapons around the world. This is also another great example of the bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for forging ahead with the next generation of clean and reliable nuclear technologies that China and Russia are trying to corner the global market on.”
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 E&C Republicans Propose Several Energy Infrastructure Bills
On Tuesday, Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Energy Subcommittee Republican Leader Fred Upton (R-MI), and Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Republican Leader John Shimkus (R-IL) introduced several energy infrastructure bills aimed to ensure continued U.S. energy independence. To read the full list of bills and the Committee’s release, click here.
RICH'S TAKE
“These clean energy leaders on the Energy and Commerce Committee want to ensure that our federal response to economic recovery includes energy independence, immediate clean energy job opportunities and long-term benefits for all Americans.” Read ClearPath’s full statement here.
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Climate Committee Democrat Staff Report Misses
Bipartisan Opportunity
On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released a Democrat staff report. Read the full report.
RICH'S TAKE
“Unfortunately, the Democratic staff report is effectively a rewrite of the Green New Deal, leading us further away from real, practical solutions. There are a number of bipartisan solutions that help make the clean energy transition cheaper and faster while preserving economic growth and reflecting the global nature of the challenge. But, this report includes a host of contentious recommendations unrelated to climate change seemingly designed to push the parties further from a bipartisan solution.” Read Rich’s full statement.
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 McMorris Rodgers Introduces Hydropower Bill to Support Clean Energy
On Monday, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) introduced the Hydropower Clean Energy Future Act, which would expand clean, renewable, reliable, and affordable hydropower production in America and promote the innovation of the next generation of hydroelectric technology. Read more from Rep. McMorris here, or from the Ripon Advance here.
RICH'S TAKE
“This legislation would support the development of clean, low-emission hydropower while encouraging innovation for the next-generation in the hydropower industry...The bill increases regulatory certainty for private-sector investments into the U.S. fleet, one of our nation's largest renewable energy resources.” Read ClearPath’s full letter of support here.
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House Passes Important Clean Energy Infrastructure Legislation
On Wednesday, the House passed The Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), which among other things, includes critical clean energy legislation like the Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act and an amendment that authorizes funding for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology commercialization program and direct air capture technology prize program.
Read more
RICH'S TAKE
“As we improve our nation’s infrastructure, clean energy investments — like carbon capture and energy storage infrastructure — should be part of this important effort.” Read Rich’s full statement.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Roll Call: Nuclear energy allies back advanced reactors in NDAA
A bipartisan group of senators led by Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) argue that advanced nuclear reactors can provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to military bases and remote communities, and play an important role in national security. The senators are eyeing for the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA) to be included in the Senate’s annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Read the full article
RICH'S TAKE
“America has held a nuclear innovation tradition since the first defense nuclear reactors during World War II and the early Cold War buildup. The Murkowski-Booker bill would serve as the next big nuclear innovation catalyst.”
Energy Storage News: Fluence ‘reveals’ 500+MW contracted portfolio in unnamed Southeast Asia territory
Fluence, a global energy storage technology and services company headquartered in Arlington, VA, announced it has been contracted to deliver a large tranche of projects in Southeast Asia, but has agreed with its customer not to reveal yet which country they will be located in. The portfolio is expected to include more than 500MW of energy storage systems that will “rapidly come to life across an entire country’s electricity network.” Read more
E&E News: Landmark court ruling could spur FERC 'sea change'
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found Tuesday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) could not use tolling orders to delay challengers of natural gas pipelines and other projects from bringing their claims before a court — even as construction moved forward. Some speculate that this ruling could extend to electricity projects as the same tolling order tactic is commonly used for projects that fall under Federal Power Act jurisdiction. Read more
E&E News: Oil giant announces first-of-a-kind gas CCS project
Oil and energy giant Equinor ASA on Wednesday announced plans to build one of the world's first at-scale facilities to produce hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture and storage. The project — Hydrogen to Humber Saltend — is located in northeastern England with the goal of reducing emissions from the industrial region. Read more
VIDEO: A New Tool in the CO2 Reduction Toolkit: Direct Air Capture (DAC)
In his latest whiteboard video, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell outlines a technology ClearPath is following called direct air capture (“DAC”). DAC technology uses machines to literally pull carbon dioxide molecules back out of the air. To learn more about the potential of this technology, watch our video here.
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THE PATH AHEAD
July 7: The Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) invites you to attend “Virginia is Nuclear: Expanding the Nuclear Energy Industry in the Commonwealth” at 11:30am ET which will feature Dr. Rita Baranwal, Assistant Secretary for the Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Rich Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath, and others. More details and registration to come
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
July 8: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Energy Security and Climate Change Program is hosting an online event from 2:00pm – 3:00pm ET on, ““Nuclear Power, Recycling and Advanced Reactors.” More details and register here
July 22: The International Association for Energy Economics is hosting a webinar at 10:00am ET on, “Nuclear Power, Recycling and Advanced Reactors." More details and register here
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