TODAY’S STUDY: LOST - A NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY; IF FOUND - SEND TO WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

From the blessings-in-disguise file: Many are predicting the shift in political power subsequent to the November election will provoke a lot of sound and fury and almost nothing else from Congress in the foreseeable future. This will, however, offer an opportunity for lots of grandiose policy plans serving up interesting ideas.

Already, the energy plans below have emerged from the President's Science and Technology advisors (the text) and the Secretary of Energy (the illustrations). There has also been an important advance of ocean energy policies by the Department of the Interior.

There is talk of a Clean Energy Standard (CES) to replace the all-but-lost-cause (for now) Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). A CES would include not only support for New Energy and Energy Efficiency but also support for the Big Ticket Old Energies ("clean" coal, advanced nuclear).

Some insiders believe allowing the opposition to win foolish investments in advanced nuclear and "clean" coal will be necessary to get bipartisan backing for action on energy and the price for sustaining New Energy and Energy Efficiency. Such bipartisan action would likely come as deals on piecemeal legislation.

Less likely would be a grand compromise on support for the New and Old Energies that would lead to a bundled energy bill - but that would be dangerously close to the kind of far-sighted national energy policy that is driving New Energy and Energy Efficiency growth in Asia and Europe and leading to the birth of new industries and the explosion of new jobs.

The U.S. has, however, bumbled along with a 19th century energy policy until now so why would the fossil fools blocking progress, now bolstered by newly elected nay-sayers, want to change? Just because the electorate voted them in to get something done is no reason to look for common ground and compromise, is it?


Report to the President on Accelerating the Pace of Change in Energy Technologies through an Integrated Federal Energy Policy
November 2010, (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology)

Executive Summary

A clean, secure, safe and affordable energy future is among the preeminent challenges facing the United States, and a major acceleration is needed in the pace of energy technology innovation – invention, translation, adoption, and diffusion. The U.S. must be at the forefront of energy technology innovation over the next decade for reasons of:

•• economic competitiveness: renewal of our own energy infrastructure and access to rapidly growing global markets for clean energy technology;

•• environment: rapid progress towards lower-carbon energy in this decade as a prudent response to global warming risks; and

•• security: scaling-up of technologies that reduce oil dependence and thereby improve both our balance of payments and our security posture.

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Meeting this challenge will require extraordinary actions at the Federal level, in concert with the private sector that owns and operates the vast majority of the energy supply, distribution, and use enterprise.

In the fall of 2009, the Secretary of Energy asked the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to review the energy technology innovation system to identify and recommend ways to accelerate the large-scale transformation of energy production, delivery, and use to a low-carbon energy system. In response, PCAST formed a working group of PCAST members and energy experts from the public and private sectors that met twice in the first half of 2010 to address the charge and formulate recommendations. Informed by the working group’s deliberations, PCAST has developed this report to provide advice to the Administration about Federal actions that can promote energy technology innovation.

Our most important recommendation is that the Administration establish a new process that can forge a more coordinated and robust Federal energy policy, a major piece of which is advancing energy innovation. Many Executive Branch agencies and departments must be engaged, with leadership from the Executive Office of the President. This is needed because “energy policy” is an amalgam, and often derivative, of policies for environment, competitiveness, security, finance, land use, and more. The President should establish a Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) process that will provide a multiyear roadmap that lays out an integrated view of short-, intermediate-, and long-term energy objectives; outlines legislative proposals to Congress; puts forward anticipated Executive actions coordinated across multiple agencies; and identifies resource requirements for the development and implementation of energy technologies. The Secretary of Energy should provide the Executive Secretariat for the QER. While the QER will be a product of the Administration, substantial input from the Congress, the energy industry, academia, NGOs, and the public at large will be essential to the process.

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A staged process should be implemented now so as to provide some elements of a QER during each of the next four years.

We recommend that the Secretary of Energy prepare and implement a DOE-Quadrennial Energy Review, focused on energy technology innovation, as a component of the full interagency QER on a shorter timescale. The DOE-QER should include roadmaps for key energy technologies, an integrated plan for the involvement of the national laboratories in energy programs, portfolio assessments that lay out the optimal deployment of resources, identification, and projections of demonstration projects, and identification of funding needs for each technology. This QER will also be prepared with strong input from many sources inside and outside of the Administration including industry, business, state and local governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers.

A complete and integrated QER will take longer to mature. While a good start should be made in 2011, the full government-wide QER should be targeted for delivery in early 2015. PCAST encourages Congress to use the QER as a basis for a 4-year authorization process that guides annual appropriations.

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The Federal investment in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) is incommensurate with the objective of leadership in energy technology innovation. We recommend a substantial increase – to $16 billion per year – in Federal support for energy RDD&D. Given the difficulty of increasing appropriated funds to this level and the importance of “front-loading” the required investment to jump start innovation, we recommend an alternative approach. The President should engage the private sector and Congress so as to generate about $10 billion per year of additional RDD&D funding through new revenue streams. This increase will provide the U.S. with the potential to leapfrog to development and deployment of the advanced energy technologies that will define a robust 21st century energy system.

In addition, the Federal Government should catalog the existing energy subsidies and incentives as a first step to realignment with QER priorities, enhance its opportunity to advance energy innovation through its purchasing power, and leverage international collaboration to advance energy technology innovation.

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DOE needs to implement existing authorities over its organization, administration, and processes by extending to all DOE energy programs the review, contracting, funding, and organizational reforms implemented successfully1 by Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E); managing demonstration projects so as to adhere to private sector practices to the maximum degree possible; working with the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department to eliminate barriers to DOE’s expeditious implementation of its responsibilities in such areas as loan guarantees and cost sharing; and creating separate Offices of International Affairs and of Energy Policy.

For workforce development, DOE should establish a new traineeship program to address critical skill areas for its energy science and technology mission. Finally, DOE should initiate, along with NSF, a multidisciplinary social science research program that will provide critical information and support for policy development that advances diffusion of innovative energy technologies.