Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
TRYING TO BOOST HYDROGEN AND SOLAR: The Trump Energy Department in its final months is promoting its work to reduce the costs and scale the use of hydrogen, a versatile but expensive energy source that has gotten more attention recently as a potential key tool to combat climate change.
The Energy Department today, as first reported here, is releasing an updated version of a “Hydrogen Program Plan” to align all of its offices toward driving down the cost of hydrogen to enable it to be used as a fuel for vehicles, power plants, and appliances, for manufacturing of steel, and more. The plan was last revised in 2011. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said he hopes the strategy “cements hydrogen’s place among our energy options.”
“DOE is very excited about the future of hydrogen,” said Daniel Simmons, DOE’s assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “There has been excitement in this department before, but it’s definitely higher than it’s been in a long time.”
DOE also announced today that Simmons’ office is offering $130 million in new funding for solar energy technologies, distributed to 67 projects across 30 states.
DOE legacy is more than fossil fuels: Simmons told Josh he hopes the combined actions demonstrate the commitment of DOE in the Trump administration to spurring progress in zero-carbon and renewable technologies, not just fossil fuels. He reminded that the budget of his office has increased 40% during the Trump administration (although that’s due to bipartisan congressional opposition to proposed cuts from the White House).
“If people think DOE in the Trump administration is only focused on fossil energy, they are not paying attention,” Simmons said. “We have worked hard to execute on the money we have been given, and money continues to be given to fund these lower carbon technologies.”
Big goals for hydrogen: The use of hydrogen as an energy source is still in early stages, after being hyped as a fuel for cars and trucks since the George W. Bush administration, when there were fears of high oil prices.
But it is now seen as a tool that can be used to complement the use of solar, wind, batteries, and natural gas with carbon capture as U.S. states and countries set goals for net-zero emissions. The Trump administration, of course, has not set such a target, but president-elect Joe Biden has promised to.
“If you are going to meet those targets, you will need to address the transportation sector, the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,” Steve Winberg, DOE’s assistant secretary for fossil energy, told Josh. “That’s what will drive the hydrogen piece and getting the cost down is key.”
Winberg noted it will be difficult to power trucks, trains, and ships with batteries, leaving an opportunity for those transportation sources to run on hydrogen.
DOE is hoping to help reduce the cost of producing and shipping hydrogen.
Cheap wind power could make hydrogen produced from renewable energy (known as green hydrogen) competitive with traditional hydrogen, which is currently mostly derived from fossil fuels.
The natural gas industry, meanwhile, is preparing its infrastructure to carry lower-carbon fuels like renewable natural gas and hydrogen.
Rita Baranwal, assistant secretary for DOE’s nuclear office, said the agency is also researching and developing ways for existing nuclear plants to produce hydrogen using heat and electricity, along with helping companies develop smaller advanced reactors that could make hydrogen. Baranwal told Josh these initiatives would help expand the role of the nuclear industry, which is struggling in the U.S.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
WHAT REPUBLICANS ARE THINKING ON CLIMATE POST-ELECTION: With President Trump losing, those hoping for congressional Republicans to suddenly embrace carbon pricing or clean energy standards will very likely have to keep waiting.
Republicans in Congress are poised to block some of Biden’s most aggressive climate policies, if Mitch McConnell keeps control of the Senate, but they are willing to support smaller measures that could garner bipartisan support, Josh reports in a story this morning.
“I don’t think you will see a big change in our position,” said Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, the top Republican on the House’s special climate change committee. “If you want to get something done, the way to do it is to take this in smaller chunks. If you want to carry some ‘Green New Deal’ mantle, it goes absolutely nowhere.”
Republicans who gained seats in the Democratic-controlled House and are expecting to keep the Senate see little incentive to support policies that could upset their fossil fuel-dependent states or districts.
GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, remains “strongly opposed to carbon taxes.” Barrasso is expected to chair the Senate Energy Committee in 2021, replacing Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
A clean energy standard looks dicey too: Biden has not explicitly backed a carbon tax, and would likely need to pass a clean electricity standard to meet his goal of carbon-free power by 2035.
Republicans in Congress are unlikely to go for it.
“You can have all the mandates and emissions standards in the world, but if you don’t have the technologies to achieve them, you have paper tigers,” said Rep. Tom Reed of New York, a centrist Republican. The Chamber of Commerce, an influential business group, is also skeptical of a clean standard. “It’s OK to have ambitions, goals, and targets, but our focus is on innovation and technology,” said Marty Durbin, head of the Global Energy Institute at the Chamber.
Small-ball hopes: Lawmakers, lobbyists, and analysts expect McConnell to work with Biden on at least some smaller climate measures, as Republicans face a less friendly Senate map in 2022, when dozens of GOP senators are up for reelection.
Potential areas of agreement include clean energy spending in a stimulus package, infrastructure investments, including transmission lines and EV chargers, extensions of solar and wind tax credits, additional subsidies for storage, and legislation phasing down HFCs.
VACCINE NOT A CURE FOR OIL MARKET WOES, IEA SAYS: A breakthrough on a coronavirus vaccine won’t assist the oil market’s recovery until late next year, the International Energy Agency projected in its monthly report today.
The agency now expects global demand for 2020 to fall by 8.8 million barrels per day this year, 400,000 b/pd more than its forecast last month.
Demand will rise 5.8 million b/pd in 2021, which is 300,000 b/pd higher than IEA projected in its last report.
“Vaccines are unlikely to significantly boost demand until well into next year,” IEA cautioned, citing a resurgence of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe.
Eyes on next move of OPEC+: The slow comeback of demand, along with new supply from places like Libya and Iraq, has raised questions of whether OPEC+ could look to renege on its plan to ease its supply restrictions in January as planned.
OPEC+ is scheduled to reduce its production cuts by 2 million barrels per day from 7.7 million b/pd currently.
Saudi-led OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, are considering delaying next year’s planned oil-output increase by three to six months, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
MORE BIDEN CLIMATE TALK WITH NATIONAL LEADERS: Climate change was on the mind of Biden and leaders of Pacific Rim countries in another batch of post-election phone calls yesterday.
Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a conservative coal industry supporter who has refused to make a net-zero emissions pledge, discussed “confronting” climate change.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea also committed to working with Biden on tackling climate change. Both of those Asian leaders recently made midcentury carbon-neutral pledges.
GREENS SEE CLIMATE OPPORTUNITY WITH BIDEN CHIEF OF STAFF: Climate activists are welcoming Biden’s choice of Ron Klain as his chief of staff, suggesting he will help implement the aggressive climate agenda they’re expecting from the Biden White House.
“Personnel is policy,” said Jamal Raad, campaign director of Evergreen Action, founded by a group of Gov. Jay Inslee alums. “This first appointment gives us confidence President-Elect Biden will continue to shape his government to fulfill the mission of his bold, ambitious climate plan.”
Raad pointed to Klain’s experience helping Biden implement clean energy funding from the 2009 American Recovery Act as the former vice president’s chief of staff then, making him well-suited to weave clean energy funding into a coronavirus recovery. Klain also wins points with climate activists for his work as former Vice President Al Gore’s chief of staff.
PARSING CORPORATE NET-ZERO GOALS: More and more companies, including utilities and oil and gas majors, are setting goals to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.
Even so, the landscape still “resembles the Wild West — with no regulation, target quality varies greatly,” BloombergNEF analysts say in a new report. Companies’ targets differ greatly in the scope of emissions they cover (including whether they account for indirect, or scope 3 emissions), whether carbon offsets or credits are allowed, and more, BNEF says.
BNEF tallies up the emissions cuts that would be required from major companies setting net-zero goals. For example, the six leading European oil and gas majors, including BP and Shell, would have to cut their annual emissions by 265.4 million tons by 2050, BNEF estimates.
In the power sector, BNEF expects the nine largest U.S. and European utilities with net-zero goals to slash their scope 1 and 2 emissions by 778.5 million tons collectively by 2050. German utility RWE and North Carolina-based Duke Energy are on the hook for the largest emissions cuts, according to BNEF.
Carbon neutral goals from the largest technology companies — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft — will prompt 86.8 million tons of emissions reductions each year, BNEF says.
CLEAN ENERGY JOBS RECOVERING VERY SLOWLY: The U.S. clean energy sector added back just 23,800 jobs last month, leaving 13% of the sector’s pre-COVID employment still out of work, according to new analysis out today from BW Research, Environmental Entrepreneurs, the American Council on Renewable Energy, and E4TheFuture.
None of the clean energy sectors — renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean fuels, and clean vehicles — added back more than 1% of their workforce, the analysis notes. Overall, since the pandemic began, the energy efficiency sector has seen the biggest job losses, followed by renewable energy.
If clean energy jobs continued to recover at this slow pace, the sector wouldn’t reach pre-COVID employment levels for another 18 months, the analysis says. Clean energy groups say they need Congress’ help, by providing direct pay for and extending renewable energy tax credits, especially as the sector enters winter, typically a slower season for the industry.
2020 COULD BLOW PAST RECORD FOR WIND INSTALLATIONS: The U.S. is likely to see more wind turbine capacity coming online this year than ever before, the Energy Information Administration said today.
The more than 23 gigawatts of wind expected to be brought online this year would eclipse the prior record of 13.2 GW added in 2012. Most of this year’s wind capacity (18.5 GW) will come online from September to December, as is typical for wind projects, the EIA says. Even so, the 5 GW of wind added during the first eight months of this year already surpasses any other year except 2009.
Overall, the EIA expects wind to be the largest source of renewable electricity this year, with an 8.8% share. That will continue rising, reaching 10.3% next year, the EIA says.
The Rundown
New York Times How one firm drove influence campaigns nationwide for Big Oil
Washington Post Senior Justice Dept. official stalled probe against former interior secretary Ryan Zinke, sources say
Politico Audubon Society hit by claims of ‘intimidation and threats’
Bloomberg How to think about India in a net-zero world
Calendar
THURSDAY | NOV. 12
2 p.m. The Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Clean Energy Business Network, and CRES Forum host a post-election webinar on the impacts for clean energy.
