Welcome to your weekly Rundown, for the week ending April 30.
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Crapo, Whitehouse, Reed, Panetta Release ESIC, Missing Market Signal to Clean Energy Puzzle
On Monday, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Senate Finance Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released a discussion draft of the Energy Sector Innovation Credit (ESIC) Act, a bipartisan energy tax proposal to encourage innovation in the clean energy sector. Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), who sponsored a bipartisan version of the bill last Congress, also released a discussion draft. Read more
Watch Senator Crapo highlight ESIC at the Senate Finance Committee hearing this week
Read more in our press release, Energy Storage Innovation Credit (ESIC) is a Game-Changer for Clean Energy Innovation
And watch our whiteboard video to learn more, The Missing Market Signal to the Clean Energy Puzzle
Rich's Take
“The bipartisan Energy Sector Innovation Credit creates incentives for breakthrough innovation for power generation and storage technologies across the clean energy spectrum. It’s a real game-changing market signal for private sector innovators. ESIC helps overcome the initial financing hurdles associated with developing “first-of-a-kind” and nascent power generation technologies. By making the credit proportional to how much a project earns from market sales, the credit eliminates the unintended ‘negative pricing’ distortions other credits have had on power markets.”
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House GOP Policy Retreat Features Clean Energy, Climate Policy
Following the impressive rollout of the House Republicans’ Energy Innovation Agenda, the conference hosted their member retreat earlier this week which featured a segment on climate and clean energy. ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell joined the conference to speak about why innovation for clean energy and industrial policy is the best solution for reducing global emissions. Rich highlighted successes in the Energy Act of 2020, some new policy ideas in the industrial sector for hydrogen, steel and concrete/cement, and other policies like the Energy Sector Innovation Credit and 45Q extensions. Read more in the Washington Examiner, Punchbowl News and E&E.
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Fossil Industry is Finding Its Climate Footing
2020 was a record year for carbon capture policy – and markets. After several years of dormancy – America’s largest utilities, industrial manufacturers, agriculture companies, financial institutions and even tech leaders are increasingly making carbon capture a fundamental pillar of their long-term business strategies. Energy companies have invested in and developed this technology for decades, and so far this year, we’ve seen a big wave of private sector investments. Read more in our latest blog, Fossil Industry is Finding Its Climate Footing by ClearPath Policy Analyst Jena Lococo.
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DOE Announces $75M in Carbon Capture Awards
This week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) announced new carbon capture award opportunities. Specifically, the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) includes approximately $18 million for industrial and natural gas power carbon capture front-end engineering design (FEED) studies and increases the target capture rates from 90 to 95%. Read more
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Indiana is Becoming America’s Hydrogen Innovation Hub
ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell wrote a column for The Republic of Columbus, Indiana about how the state is becoming a hydrogen innovation hub. Rich highlighted legislation from U.S. Reps. Greg Pence (R) and Andre Carson (D), the Clean Energy Hydrogen Innovation Act (H.R. 1788), which would advance innovation in hydrogen energy in Indiana and across the country. The bill would, among other things, give access to low-cost financing for projects related to hydrogen production, distribution, storage,
delivery, and end uses.
Likewise, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) introduced a bill last Congress, the Hydrogen Utilization and Sustainability Act (S.4970), which would expand the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit (PTC) to include electricity produced from clean hydrogen. The bipartisan bill would promote investment in hydrogen-based energy.
Read the column here
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Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon Testifies before ENR on Federal Oil and Gas Leasing
This week, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in a hearing to examine energy development on federal lands. In his written testimony, Gordon emphasized that Wyoming can reduce carbon emissions while also continuing to use fossil fuels, stating,
"It is my goal that Wyoming will be home to the next commercial CCUS facility. Advancements in technology will help bring down costs and make it more affordable both in other states and in other countries. There is an urgency to this quest that we cannot ignore. We cannot reach global goals for net-zero carbon emissions without CCUS."
Watch the archived hearing here
Watch Governor Gordon’s oral testimony here
Read Governor Gordon’s written testimony here
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CarbonCure, CarbonBuilt Win Carbon XPRIZE
Two cement technology teams have each won $7.5 million from the NRG Cosia Carbon XPRIZE for their technology to trap carbon dioxide from industrial emissions by mineralizing it inside concrete, the world’s most used building material. CarbonCure, a young Canadian company, won for demonstrating its ability to mix and reuse carbon dioxide with reclaimed water, a common byproduct in the cement industry. CarbonBuilt, a company spun out of UCLAant, prevailed by successfully manufacturing concrete blocks with a new, low-carbon recipe that used emissions from a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming. Read more
Learn more about cement and concrete in our 101 here.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Washington Examiner: How Republicans are constructing an America First climate policy
George David Banks, former chief strategist for the House Select Climate Committee Republicans, penned an op-ed in the Washington Examiner outlining how Republicans are developing an “America First” legislative agenda on climate. Just this week, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tapped Climate Select Ranking Member Garret Graves (R-LA) to lead a task force on climate change. Read the op-ed
WATCH: GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Video on the BWRX-300
Nuclear energy remains at the core of efforts to reach global decarbonization goals, and GE Hitachi continues to be a leader in next-generation nuclear reactor designs. Their BWRX-300 reactor has the potential to offer clean, reliable electricity not just in the U.S., but globally. Check out their new video about the BWRX-300 small modular reactor and meet some of the people working to deploy this innovative carbon-free technology. Watch the video
ICYMI: Watch ClearPath’s Virtual Event on TRi Energy Partnership Announcement
X-energy, Energy Northwest, and Grant County Public Utility District recently established a mutual partnership, called the TRi Energy Partnership, to support the development and commercial demonstration of X-energy’s advanced nuclear reactor, the Xe-100. Yesterday, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell moderated a panel with experts from X-energy, Energy Northwest, and Grant County Public Utility District to discuss the design and their role in the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) offered opening remarks.
Watch the recording here
How to Reform Metals Policy
Metals are the literal backbone of society used in buildings, bridges, cars and more. The U.S. processes and uses six main types of metals: iron and steel, aluminum, ferroalloy, lead, magnesium, and zinc. Global demand for metals is expected to increase significantly over the next several decades, driven by rapid urbanization in nonindustrialized countries and as various sectors all over the world begin to adopt clean technology. Despite promising technological advances, little low-emission metal manufacturing capacity is in commercial operation today.
Learn more about policy options for reforming emissions from metals.
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THE PATH AHEAD
May 6: The Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance (ANWA) is hosting an event, Microreactors Powering the U.S. Strategic Nuclear Deterrent, Modernizing our Defense Nuclear Infrastructure through Energy Resiliency, from 3:00-4:30pm ET.
May 31-June 6: 12th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM)
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