Reclaiming the Mantle: America’s Energy Strategy 2.0

With the recent administration change and economic downturn, the US priorities in energy, environment, science, and the economy have been altered or strengthened. The current baseline goal is to reduce GHG emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Within ten years, the US plans to increase its energy security by cutting oil consumption to reduce dramatically oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela. In this process, the new administration expects to strengthen America’s role as the world leader in science and technology innovation.

In the very near term, implementation of the economic recovery package aims to create new “green jobs” and jump start the processes needed to meet the stated goals. As stated by the new Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, there are multiple over-arching elements to the strategy the US will implement to reach energy efficiency and security goals. These elements include developing science and engineering talent through increased efforts to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers; focusing on transformational research; building research networks integrating national laboratories, universities and industries, both domestic and international; and hastening demonstration and deployment through loan guarantees, block grants, and other funding for demonstrating next-generation technologies.

Noting that a mixed technology portfolio will lower the long-term costs of addressing climate change, the areas of research in the US are quite broad, and the technology strategy includes a number of different elements.

The key technology elements focus on reducing emissions from power generation, reducing emissions from transportation through new fuels and more efficient vehicles, and increasing energy efficiency in all sectors. Several policy measures and increased funding are utilized to drive RD&D activities in these areas.

• The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of the DOE received $18.7 billion to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy through increased support of the development and deployment of clean energy technologies such as solar, biomass, geothermal, wind, and low-carbon emission coal power.
• The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability received $4.6 billion for investment in a nationwide plan to modernize the electric grid, enhance security of U.S. energy infrastructure and ensure reliable electricity delivery to meet growing demand.

Climate Change Technology Innovation

• The Office of Fossil Energy received $4.3 billion for initiatives that will focus on RD&D 4 of technologies to use coal more cleanly and efficiently.
• The Office of Nuclear Energy received $1.4 billion for nuclear R&D that will help encourage the emergence and adoption of new and improved designs and help address barriers believed to be impeding its broader application domestically and worldwide.
• The Office of Science received $6.4 billion for basic research and world-leading scientific user facilities to support transformational discoveries and accelerate solutions to the most pressing problems, including the development of clean energy.

In sum, the US has energetic new leadership on the energy and environmental front. This leadership has shown significant commitment to action and appears willing to utilize every tool at their disposal, including new legislation, regulation, and financial incentives.