Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette is warning other countries against a “top-down” clean energy recovery strategy, appearing to criticize efforts by the European Union and others to link aggressive climate policies to coronavirus recovery efforts.
“The top-down approach lets governments do the choosing, which can end up with more taxes, more regulation, perhaps imposing climate risk assessments on companies, so that the government can steer people away from certain energy sources and into the direction of others,” Brouillette said Thursday during remarks at a clean energy summit hosted by the International Energy Agency.
The summit, the largest international climate meeting this year since United Nations talks have been postponed, included energy ministers from the world’s leading economies, energy users, and emitters.
Brouillette said the United States promotes a “bottom-up, competition driven approach” that supports free markets, and he boasted that the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, as well as the largest producer of nuclear power and second-largest producer of wind and solar.
He suggested that heavy-handed government approaches to recovery, however, risk shutting out certain technologies and innovation, and he criticized those who want to ban specific fuels, including fossil fuels and nuclear power, entirely.
“I think there’s an obvious problem with this type of approach,” Brouillette said. “Renewables, by themselves, cannot ensure the reliable flow of electricity in any nation. Simply stated, every nation can benefit from a wider mix of fuels to keep its grid running.”
The U.S. has done little so far to explicitly support clean energy, and especially renewable energy, as part of its coronavirus recovery efforts. The Trump administration has aided the oil industry, however, suffering from extremely low prices and depleted demand amid the pandemic and an oil price war.
The European Union, by contrast, has proposed massive investments in renewable energy and low-carbon technology, including zero-carbon vehicles, carbon removal, and hydrogen, as part of its virus recovery plan.
The IEA, too, has called on countries to focus their recovery efforts on clean energy investments, proposing strategies that, if adopted, would lead to a global emissions peak in 2019. Fatih Birol, IEA’s executive director, has cautioned if countries don’t craft recovery plans with an eye to climate change, it could make it near impossible for the world to meet the goal of the Paris climate agreement to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.
