Hi John,

The midterm elections and COP27 climate talks are just a few days away. We’ll have analysis on both, and what it means for clean energy and climate policy, in upcoming On the Grids. This week, however, we open with the energy issue in front of everyone’s (or at least every driver’s) eyes: gas prices. 

Americans remain very concerned about inflation and energy prices. On October 26, we released messaging guidance on how to talk about energy prices. This included important information on why there’s been such volatility, particularly in gas prices, and what the Biden Administration has done to bring prices down. Our own Josh Freed put together a brief tweet thread this week detailing the actions the Administration has taken and how it is focused on making energy affordable, secure, and reliable today and ensuring it becomes clean well before 2050.  

• As Politico detailed, permits for oil and gas exploration are up 74% over the past two years under President Biden compared to the Trump Administration.
• This is in keeping with the goal of the United States taking on petro-authoritarian states like Russia by ensuring access to all the energy Americans and our allies need today, and inventing and scaling the clean energy we must have. It’s the reason we’ve called for the US to become the Arsenal of Clean Energy.
• This has been a key part of Rep. Tim Ryan’s campaign for Senate in Ohio. It’s worth reading Grid News’ recent article on how Rep. Ryan talks about energy.

Last week, Poland announced an agreement with US company Westinghouse to build the country’s first nuclear power plant. This is part of a trend in Eastern and Central Europe, where countries trying to increase energy security and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels from Russia and other authoritarian states are looking to American nuclear power plants. It reinforces the findings of our recently updated global advanced nuclear map that identifies countries we anticipate will want to build nuclear power plants over the next 30 years.

• Westinghouse will build three AP1000 reactors in Poland, with construction set to begin in 2026, and is expected to reach 9GW capacity by 2040, cutting millions of tons of carbon emissions and supporting good-paying jobs in Poland.
• This announcement represents the start of a generations-long relationship and offers an opportunity to grow US-Polish cooperation on global energy security. To start, the US hopes to establish a regional energy training center in Poland to foster workforce training and help share American expertise and excellence in nuclear energy with our allies abroad.

Poland was not the only country seeking to work with the US on civilian nuclear power. The US and Japan will collaborate to deploy small modular reactors in Ghana, reaffirming commitments to building global energy security through firm, clean nuclear energy. The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded a $14 million grant to RoPower, Nuclearelectrica’s SMR Project Company, to develop small modular reactors in Romania.

A landmark study backed by Third Way and Breakthrough Energy, found that the US can build a durable competitive advantage in six emerging clean energy technologies, estimated to have a combined market value of $2 trillion per year by 2050. But how can the government put the right policies in place that ensure US industries and workers get in on this enormous market? Let’s start with one piece of the puzzle: electric vehicles (EVs).

Alex Laska, Senior Policy Advisor for Transportation, and Dr. Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, Senior Resident Fellow and economist on the Climate and Energy Team, outline a suite of policy recommendations to position American EV industries for competitive leadership. Here are a few:

1. Provide guidance to ensure tax credits are workable and build up supply chains to support EV manufacturing;
2. Expand federal RDD&D to expand EV battery technology and attract private investment;
3. Continue to support American EV and battery manufacturing through grants, tax credits, and loan assistance programs;
4. Streamline the permitting process to accelerate domestic raw material production while maintaining environmental protection;
5. Build diplomatic ties to close supply chain gaps and strengthen international cooperation on software and cybersecurity;
6. Develop a robust and diverse EV workforce.

With the right policies, we can make a sizable dent in offsetting carbon emissions, generate a $1 trillion global EV market by 2050, and produce millions of jobs. Over the next few months, Third Way will release policy recommendations for the other five technologies assessed in the competitiveness report to make sure America is playing to its strengths.