To Achieve Energy and Economic Security, We Must Accelerate the Transition to a Clean Energy Future

By Anne Kelly, Vice President, Government Relations

“A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity to choose well or to choose badly.” — Desmond Tutu

The crisis in Ukraine has led to bipartisan calls for U.S. energy independence. But we face a stark choice about whether to move forward or backward on U.S. energy production. President Biden said it best when he announced the U.S. ban on Russian imports of oil and gas. “In the long run the way to avoid high gas prices is to speed up — not slow down our transition to a clean energy future.”

How to hasten this vital transition and seize the opportunity to “choose well”? At home, we need Congress to swiftly pass a budget reconciliation bill with investments in clean energy manufacturing and deployment to address the threat that climate crisis poses for our economy, national security, and society at large. So that the world can continue ramping up the economic penalties on Russia, we also need to help our European allies cut their fossil fuel dependence.

The clean energy investments in the current reconciliation bill will help the U.S. increase production and export of clean technology to Europe. One idea floated by experts is to assume a wartime footing to swiftly get U.S. manufacturers to scale up production of electric heat pumps and other clean, efficient technologies in large quantities so we can ship them to Europe and get them installed to dramatically reduce Putin’s power.

Our choice could not be more consequential given the developments of the past two weeks. Hard on the heels of Russia’s shocking invasion of Ukraine, scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued their starkest-ever warning about the pace and scale of increasingly damaging climate change impacts. And then U.S. Supreme Court justices heard arguments from fossil fuel interests questioning the sound authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the pollution that is causing the climate crisis.

The lawsuit, the IPCC report, and the reminder that fossil fuel dependence doesn’t just create climate risk, it equals geopolitical risk, make it clear there is no time to waste. The U.S. has countless clean technologies, including renewable energy like wind and solar, electric vehicles, and heat pumps, to reverse climate change while growing the economy, improving energy security, and stabilizing energy costs for American consumers and companies. As President Biden pointed out in his State of the Union address, we’re already seeing the economic promise of climate strategies that embrace clean energy, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency. It’s time to turn Appalachia and the Rust Belt into the industrial heartland of clean technology manufacturing for America and the world.

“Ford is investing $11 billion in electric vehicles, creating 11,000 jobs across the country. GM is making the largest investment in its history, $7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan,” the President said, adding that “you’ll never have to pay at the gas pump again” by purchasing an electric vehicle.

Like 2020, 2021 was another record-breaking year for sales of electric vehicles and hybrids, as well as for the deployment of wind, solar, and other types of renewable energy. Clean energy job growth is also exploding as states across the country set ambitious renewable energy and net zero emission goals. Stepping backward by producing more fossil fuels in the short run only to compromise energy and economic security, stability, and climate risk over the long term would make no sense.

The bipartisan $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Congress passed last fall included significant federal investments in upgrading the nation’s power grid, improving public transit and installing a nationwide electric vehicle charging network. The administration is also retooling massive government procurement programs to encourage U.S. manufacturing and sourcing of low-carbon steel, concrete, and other industrial materials that are responsible for about one-third of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Supporting the transition to clean manufacturing will also drive U.S. industrial competitiveness and savings across the entire economy.

But these steps alone are not enough. Congress must make and take a deal on a federal reconciliation budget bill with significant climate, clean energy, and environmental justice investments as its foundation.

The historic $550 billion investment in play is essential to changing the course of climate change and growing the clean energy economy. It includes incentives and tax credits for residential energy efficiency and renewable energy which will help families, especially in underserved communities, reduce their energy bills by hundreds of dollars every year. Expanded tax credits for solar, wind, and battery storage technologies will help businesses access clean energy at stable, affordable rates. These investments will reduce our dependence on fossil fuel energy sources and volatile global energy markets, which lead to spiking natural gas and oil prices and threats to our national security.

Major U.S. businesses are keenly aware of the urgent need for action. In December, more than 400 investors and companies of all sizes and industries sent a letter to members of Congress calling for “swift enactment” of the historic climate investments that are currently in the reconciliation bill. “Other countries are shifting their policies and economies in this direction, and the U.S. cannot afford to miss this chance to unlock its private sector innovation to command the markets of today and tomorrow,” the letter states.

Dozens of them, including General Motors, Salesforce, and Siemens USA, visited with Congressional lawmakers in February urging immediate climate action.

Companies remain committed to pushing Congress to get the job done. On March 16, Ceres and Punchbowl news will host a virtual conversation with Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton on the latest updates with a climate and clean energy reconciliation bill. And in May, Ceres will bring together a record number of companies and investors for LEAD on Climate 2022 to once again make the economic case for ambitious federal climate action.

We can do this. Whatever fatigue or frustration we feel over stalled climate legislation pales in comparison to the unspeakable suffering of our Ukrainian allies. If they can pick up guns to defend their freedom, we can surely pick up the conversation necessary to get a climate deal done.