March 10, 2023
Happy Friday!
|
|
1. House GOP energy bill is good for climate
A robust American energy policy should make energy abundant, reliable, secure, affordable and clean. This House Republican energy package will deliver on all of those including:
- Unlocking American energy resources;
- putting innovation over regulation;
- modernizing permitting so that America can build; and
- prevailing over China and Russia.
What’s clear: Conservatives have real solutions to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions while strengthening American energy security.
Plug in: Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Committee leads including E&C Chair Rodgers (R-WA), Natural Resources Chair Westerman (R-AR) and others have been assembling a package that streamlines onerous regulations holding back all energy development, encourages clean energy innovation, bolsters domestic supply chains, and unleashes the power of American energy producers to compete on the world stage against the likes of China and Russia.
|
2. VIDEO: Thermal batteries revolutionizing industrial decarbonization
Antora Energy has developed a way to store thermal energy and use it to deliver on-demand, zero-carbon industrial heat and power. Learn more in our latest 3 minute video.
- Roughly one-third of global emissions come from the manufacturing sector—more than electricity, agriculture, or transportation.
- By 2030, industrial facilities are expected to be the top source of U.S. emissions, exceeding those from both power plants and vehicles.
What’s clear: If we want to meaningfully reduce carbon dioxide emissions around the world using American technology — the industrial sector is a great place to focus.
|
3. Vogtle Unit 3 reaches initial criticality!
Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle Unit 3 reached initial criticality earlier this week which is a major milestone in start-up testing and moves the plant closer to putting power on the grid. Vogtle Units 3 and 4 are expected to power more than 500,000 homes and businesses once operational.
What’s clear: Nuclear reactors are America’s clean energy workhorses. They make up about half of our zero-carbon power, and we are at a crossroads. Our nuclear energy muscles were beginning to atrophy, but the technology is making a roaring comeback.
- The existing fleet of reactors started to shrink from 104 reactors as of 2012 to 92 today.
- The huge reactors we are used to seeing, which were initially licensed for 40 years starting in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, are submitting license extensions to continue operation for up to 40 more years.
- Utilities and lawmakers have been forced to decide to renew licenses or let them retire.
- Vogtle is the first reactor built in America in 30 years.
Plug in: ClearPath’s chief strategy officer, Jeremy Harrell made the case in POWER Magazine about the nuclear energy comeback—at home in America and worldwide.
|
4. Industrial carbon capture jump-started in 2022
The combination of new policies and over $100 billion of private equity investments in 2022 has marked a new era in American innovations in industrial decarbonization. In the past year alone, at least 15 project announcements across industrial sub-sectors have been made.
The industrial sector is the fastest growing source of emissions in the U.S. Therefore, low-carbon innovative solutions that don’t compromise productivity are essential. Investments and incentives are jump-starting industrial decarbonization. Our analysis shows:
- Nearly half a gigaton of captured carbon projected by 2040 is unlocked by the suite of new or enhanced federal programs, investments, and incentives.
- New industrial sub-sectors – cement, refining, and iron/steel – could economically deploy carbon capture for the first time.
Plug in: We recently published one of ClearPath’s signature annual reports, “Clear Path to a Clean Energy Future 2022,” tracking America's power sector, clean technology, and policy trends.
|
5. Climate policies to keep energy reliable, affordable
ClearPath participated in the Aspen Ideas: Climate event in Miami Beach this week for several discussions including a keynote from our CEO Rich Powell along with Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), and Diane Leopold, executive vice president and COO of Dominion Energy. The three discussed:
- How to ensure access to reliable and affordable energy while lowering emissions; and
- What policies we need to address the challenge that can pass in a divided government.
Plug in: Watch the recap here.
|
6. Industrial demonstrations program funding announced
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $6 billion in funding to award as cost shares to roughly 65 demonstration projects. All of which will be innovative technologies designed to help lower emissions from the industrial sector such as iron and steel, aluminum, cement and concrete, and other energy-intensive industrial processes.
- ClearPath is tracking the implementation of the Energy Act of 2020 and the energy programs of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
- Our interactive dashboard uses data to visualize the progress the Administration has made implementing Congressional directives and deploying funds.
- In early 2022, ClearPath made implementation recommendations for this program.
|
7. Legislation to support hydrogen technologies for emissions reduction
Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chris Coons (D-DE) reintroduced their bipartisan Hydrogen Infrastructure Initiative, a package of four bills to both to support the adoption of hydrogen in energy-intensive applications, such as heavy industry, maritime ports, and heavy-duty trucking, and to create a pilot financing program for hydrogen delivery infrastructure.
What’s clear: “As many countries begin to include hydrogen in their decarbonization efforts, a global race to supply clean hydrogen has begun – and America has a tremendous opportunity. Hydrogen has huge potential to connect sectors of the economy to maximize resources in the overall clean energy system. Smart policies like this hydrogen innovation initiative will help deploy necessary infrastructure to accelerate deployment,” said Rich Powell, Chief Executive Officer, ClearPath Action.
|
8. ICYMI
- Baker Hughes and Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF) Global announced a partnership to use carbon dioxide from Baker Hughes’ direct air capture technology to synthesize carbon-neutral fuels in the Houston area.
- Multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) lack of support for financing new nuclear power projects has enabled Russia and China to become the world’s leading providers and funders of such projects. MDBs face a unique opportunity to embrace nuclear energy as a tool to reduce global emissions.
- Constellation’s Nine Mile Point Nuclear Plant in New York began producing hydrogen using nuclear power this week; the nation’s first 1-MW demonstration-scale facility to do so.
|
|
That’s all from us. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
|
|
|
|
