President Obama’s former energy secretary Ernest Moniz was back in Washington on Wednesday to announce the launch of a nonprofit group that will help states meet their commitments under the Paris climate change deal.
But Moniz stressed that his group, Energy Futures Intiative, was not formed in response to “recent events,” such as President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement.
“Clearly the president’s announcement about setting in motion a withdrawal from the Paris Agreement [is] obviously not something I am very supportive of,” Moniz said at the National Press Club. But “another feature of that … is the response from mayors and governors, business leaders, et cetera, all stepping forward with a consistent message, ‘we’re not going back. This is the way the world is going. This is where the United States is going toward a low-carbon future.'”
Moniz’s group is still in the formative stages, but its mission will be to provide analytical support, not advocacy, to inform the states and local governments that are looking to meet the goals spelled out under the Paris deal, he said.
The group was something he and his staff at the Energy Department were considering in January, as they were leaving the agency, he explained. Its work will reflect what Moniz and his policy staff were doing at the department before they left. “We will be doing analytical work to underpin good … investments in innovation and the like,” he said.
The intent of the group is to inform regional governments around the country on the best clean energy choices for their region based on geography and other factors. It won’t be focused on a specific, pre-disposed goal of achieving 100 percent renewable energy by a certain date, for example, but will look to inform “regional development” that is consistent with a “drive to a very low-carbon future,” he said.
Moniz’s group will release its first product in the fall, a study that examines the electrical grid. The Moniz grid report will be issued after Energy Secretary Rick Perry issues his report on grid reliability at the end of the month.
“We expect to have a major focus on electricity overall,” Moniz said. He expects there to be “some overlap” with the Perry study, but does not know what the Energy Department report will include.
Moniz said he supports some of the statements that Secretary Perry has made on the direction of the agency, while pointing out the “disconnect” between those statements and the cuts being proposed under Trump’s budget request.
“The budget as proposed is a non-starter,” Moniz said.
