Welcome back to On the Grid, your weekly newsletter from Third Way’s Climate and Clean Energy Program.

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Hi John,



This week, Senate Democrats made the difficult decision to delay consideration of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) until January 2022. It is extremely frustrating for us, particularly given that clean energy and climate investments are critical to ensure that the United States can compete in the booming global clean energy market and retain our leadership in addressing climate change. Both in the short- and long-term, these investments would pay for themselves, directly addressing supply chain issues and struggles with energy prices that expose the US to market vulnerabilities. President Biden has taken the lead in trying to push Sen. Joe Manchin(D-WV) from non-committal to a “Yes” vote, so that BBBA can pass. There is no better person to accomplish this than the President, who has repeatedly shown strength in navigating tough negotiations. We'll know much more by the middle of January.

The Administration isn’t waiting to get to work. They’ve already taken significant action to begin planning the disbursement of clean infrastructure funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and President Biden signed an executive order that will utilize the federal government’s purchase power to incentivize investment in clean technologies. More on that below.

1. NEW WHITE HOUSE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO CATALYZE AMERICA’S CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY



On December 8, President Biden signed an Executive Order

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(EO) directing the federal government to leverage its purchasing and procurement power to reduce emissions across the federal government while investing in American manufacturing and clean energy industries. The EO established five tangible goals, including a target of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030, at least half of which will be locally supplied energy to meet 24/7 demand, as well as net-zero emissions from federal procurement by 2050.

As Josh Freed, Senior Vice President for Climate and Energy at Third Way, told the New York Times

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“It’s a similar strategy to what China is doing so successfully, leveraging the purchasing power of their government to create demand that markets can meet. The federal government in so many areas is one of, if not the largest, purchaser. Having the certainty that the government will purchase cleaner products, materials, and vehicles enables companies to move in that direction.”

We’re particularly thrilled to see an emphasis on establishing a Buy Clean

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policy, a program that will incentivize the purchase of cleaner construction materials and support domestic manufacturing companies. It’s a popular policy supported by labor, environmental, and industry groups alike

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, and it’s vital to curb emissions from hard-to-abate industrial sectors.

Read our full statement on the Executive Order here

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2. REMINDER: WE NEED CARBON CAPTURE, UTILIZATION, AND STORAGE TO MEET OUR CLIMATE GOALS



The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal substantially funds clean energy innovation through $27 billion for research, development, demonstration, and commercialization priorities. That includes demonstration programs for carbon capture and regional hubs for direct air capture and hydrogen production.

All in all, this makes a pretty significant down payment to help commercialize these technologies. These investments won’t just help us reduce our emissions, they’ll also create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs across the country and strengthen US competitiveness in emerging clean energy industries.

An enormous coalition of scientists and experts agree we need carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) to tackle climate change. Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency have released reports demonstrating that CCUS significantly reduces the cost of decarbonization. CCUS is also essential to cut emissions from hard-to-abate sectors like cement and steel. As important, back in their Fifth Assessment Report, the UN IPCC report found that the overall cost of reaching net-zero by 2050 could be as much as 138% more expensive without CCUS.

That’s why Josh Freed took to Twitter to explain why carbon capture is so vital to eliminating carbon pollution, and how government action is critical to help us deploy CCUS as a climate solution and jobs creator.



3. WHITE HOUSE UNVEILS ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING ACTION PLAN



On December 13, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its Electric Vehicle Charging Action Plan

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, a roadmap to establish a national EV charging network, strengthen the US supply chain for domestic batteries, and ensure federal funding for EV chargers reaches rural and underserved communities. This action plan will guide how the $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will be deployed to install thousands of EV chargers across the US. This funding will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for Americans in every state while supporting our efforts to reduce transportation emissions.

To get a better sense of how this will look across the country, we released an interactive map

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that reflects how much funding each state will receive for EV charging infrastructure. This includes how many chargers each state could fund based on a few different ratios of level-2 (L2) charger to DC fast chargers (DCFC).

4. RECAP: FASTEST PATH TO ZERO: REFLECTIONS FROM COP26



On December 14, we hosted the second installment of our 2021-22 Fastest Path to Zero Virtual Series, which focused on takeaways from the UN Climate Conference (COP26) and what new US and global commitments mean for the future of clean energy innovation.

The event kicked off with a fireside chat between Josh Freed and Representative Don Beyer (D-VA-8), Co-Chair of the Safe Climate Caucus, Chairman of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, and a member of the House Committees on Ways and Means and Science, Space, and Technology. Representative Beyer attended COP26 with the Congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Lindsey Walter, Deputy Director of the Climate and Energy Program, then moderated a conversation between Akshat Rathi, Reporter for Bloomberg News; Jason Bordoff, Co-Founding Dean, Columbia Climate School and Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University; Sarah Ladislaw, Managing Director of the US Program at RMI; and Evan Gonzalez, a Ph.D. student in the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences program at the University of Michigan.

The dynamic conversation touched on several themes, including the commercialization of advanced nuclear, global collaborations to promote industrial decarbonization, securing domestic supply chains for clean technologies, and the US’ role in supporting developing economies in their efforts to cut emissions and build out new clean energy industries. Throughout the discussion, one consensus emerged: innovation will drive the path forward on decarbonization, not only because innovation is required to commercialize emerging clean energy solutions, but also because innovation will help advance existing clean energy technologies forward. Moreover, we know that the US is well-positioned to lead the world on innovation and pioneer new clean energy industries.

You can read through top highlights

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or watch the full event on YouTube

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5. WHAT WE’RE READING



​​​​​​

In Foreign Policy, Adam Tooze

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writes about how our efforts to expand domestic clean energy capacity is triggering a transformational shift in the US political economy. As the fossil fuel lobby doubles down on its campaign to secure the oil and gas industry in the US, it threatens to leave the US economy stranded in the face of a growing market shift to low- and zero-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels.

A bipartisan bill introduced last week would waive Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing fees for new nuclear reactors, as Jeremy Dillon

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reports for E&E. This would help ease the cost burden on and clear the pathway for advanced reactor developers looking to build and commercialize advanced nuclear.

Nathan Bomey

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at Axios covers how Caterpillar, Chevron, and BNSF, three of the biggest industrial giants in the US, are working together to demo a hydrogen-powered locomotive. Commercializing hydrogen fuel as a low-carbon alternative to diesel is vital to decarbonize heavy-duty transportation like rail, as Alex Laska

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, our Transportation Policy Advisor, explained this year.

Let’s keep the conversation going,

Carly Berke

Climate and Energy Press Coordinator | Third Way

818.422.2759 :: @ThirdWayEnergy

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Jared DeWese

Senior Communications Advisor | Third Way

202.427.3709 :: @jareddewese

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Mary Sagatelova

Communications and Content Advisor | Third Way

216.394.7615 :: @MarySagatelova

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