America's Path to Clean Energy

You spend a lot of time advising climate policymakers on energy innovation and emissions reduction. What have you learned about garnering support across both sides of the aisle? Do you have tips for having productive conversations around climate action?

The biggest thing, and this is going to sound obvious, is to listen. For too long, the climate discussions focused on false choices: renewable versus fossil energy, the economy versus the environment, or immediate action versus doing nothing at all. The truth is, to solve the climate challenge, we need an encompassing approach — we need all types of energy to secure the health of both the economy and the environment and build a sustainable future.

Building more clean energy of all types is great for the American economy, and building it here is better for the environment because our environmental standards are much stronger than in places like China or Russia. Building energy cleaner and faster can satisfy all parties. We have worked with those who are skeptical of addressing climate yet are some of the biggest champions for clean energy innovations, like supporting more American nuclear energy or working with major oil and gas companies who are investing heavily to reduce carbon emissions in their portfolio with technologies such as carbon capture or clean hydrogen. Plain and simple — you don’t have to debate climate science when you focus on real solutions. 

You’ve noted that the transition to a clean energy economy will require a massive transformation to our infrastructure, and that “to have a good chance of reaching net zero, we must change the way we regulate the construction of clean energy projects.” Walk us through that: What are the hurdles to deploying clean energy infrastructure at speed and scale, and how can we address them?

The United States will need to double our grid capacity in the next two decades to keep up with A.I. data centers, new manufacturing, electrifying more of our industrial growth, and much more. Our current grid took over 100 years to build. So if you’re targeting net zero by 2050, like I am, you may be scratching your head wondering how on earth we’ll build twice the capacity in a much shorter time frame, and all clean at that. We are talking about tens of thousands of new clean energy projects every decade. And every one of those projects starts with a permit. In some instances, it may take a decade before you can break ground — even for clean energy like a new wind farm, transmission line or nuclear reactor. 

We have helped develop a plan for Congress to expedite project development and improve the burdensome judicial review process. There is no doubt the permitting system is slowing down America’s path to building more clean energy, and there’s no single national, straightforward solution for our current permitting emergency, but it starts with all of us wanting to get to “yes.”

Reflecting on the private sector’s role in the energy transition, you’ve said, “free markets deploy clean capital faster than any other force on the planet, which makes calls for degrowth or ending capitalism deeply irresponsible to both environmental progress and human flourishing.” Help us unpack that — how can we harness the innovative power of capital while ensuring the benefits and burdens of new energy projects are distributed fairly?

Take a look around the globe, and look where you’re seeing rapid growth. Parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are seeing exponential population growth and with it massive demand for new buildings, new electricity, and new mobility. Today, those nations are often choosing the cheapest option to turn their lights on, which happens to be unmitigated coal technology from China. If newer, better, cleaner technologies were made reliable and equally affordable, you can imagine they would choose the cleaner option. The key here is cost and how you drive down the cost of a good — you drive innovation in cleaner technologies through smart public policy and introduce higher-performing, cleaner competition. 

Capital is becoming increasingly expensive, and fully depending on producers to kickstart new technologies and new projects is definitely a challenge, which is why we are fully supportive of partnerships with the private sector and federal government. A great example of this could be summed up with the recent Industrial Demonstrations Program, a $6 billion program authorized by the Energy Act of 2020 and partially funded by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to demonstrate commercial-scale industrial decarbonization. The $6 billion of federal funds is catalyzing $14 billion in private funding. Together, the project’s potential could avoid around 14 million tons of emissions annually — equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the road.

We would love to see all of these new technologies succeed, but in reality, those with the best business model will. And as those clean energy technologies scale up, they will become good options for export to those nations with rapid growth from lower starting GDPs. We’ll give them options to develop clean that we never had. 

Nuclear power is one of the most contested topics in conversations on the energy transition, and you’ve testified before Congress on its role in U.S. economic development and global climate leadership. What do you want people to know about nuclear energy and its part in addressing our climate challenge?

The simple answer is that nuclear energy is essential for a reliable, clean energy system. And the good news, more companies and lawmakers across the political spectrum agree. You have places like California reversing decades of nuclear opposition as they saw how devastating it would be to shutter an existing reactor called Diablo Canyon. California needs more, not less power, and with their aggressive zero carbon goals, they absolutely will need to keep nuclear in their mix — that’s why it was a no-brainer to keep Diablo Canyon open.

In Michigan, a nuclear reactor called Palisades is reopening with the help of a smart U.S. Federal loan program after shuttering a few years ago. Big technology companies like Microsoft and Google and heavy industries like Nucor, a clean steel manufacturer, are also announcing their intention to purchase nuclear power for their operations. As more influencers and energy buyers are seeing the incredible benefits of nuclear energy, it’s equally important to ensure that federal and state policies are keeping up with the momentum. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will need to modernize how they permit small, more modular nuclear reactors. We need to dramatically increase our domestic fuel supply to keep up with demand. And we must continue to stay ahead of the global R&D curve by funding the U.S. national labs and incentivizing more demonstration and deployment of new nuclear.

The views and opinions of the author are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.