National Academies: America's Energy Future Demands Sustained National Commitment to Clean Energy
Policymakers should employ a portfolio of policies that "supports a broad range of initiatives from basic research through demonstration" of clean energy technologies, the National Academies' Committee on America's Energy Future recommends.
By Yael Borofsky, Breakthrough Fellow
The United States needs a new "sustained national commitment" to improving energy efficiency and accelerating both the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, according to a major new report from the National Academies Press (NAP).
Authored by the National Academies' Committee on America's Energy Future, the recently released paper is the first part in a longer report, titled America's Energy Future: Technology and Transformation. The result of a major study initiated in 2007, the report is designed to inform policymakers about the state of development, costs, implementation barriers, and impacts of current energy technology and potential options for the future and presents eight key findings (summarized below).
Policymakers should employ a portfolio of policies that "supports a broad range of initiatives from basic research through demonstration," the Committee recommends, adding the typical cautionary note, that policymakers should strive to avoid "select[ing] technology winners and losers,"
America's Energy Future explains that the scope and scale of the U.S. energy challenge requires that the U.S. take advantage of available energy efficiency improvements, deploy emerging clean energy technologies, and fund long-term investments in research and development of new technologies. No single component of that strategy is sufficient. According to the report:
"'Business as usual' approaches for obtaining and using energy will be inadequate for achieving the needed transformation. The efforts required will involve not only substantial new investments by the public and private sector in research, development, demonstration, and deployment--in virtually all aspects of the energy infrastructure--but also new public policies and regulations on energy production, distribution, and use."
The authors also acknowledge that the "the U.S. energy system has developed in response to an array of uncoordinated market forces and shifting public policies," the result of the fact that the United States has never before advanced a comprehensive set of national energy policies. The report calls for a concerted, coordinated and sustained suite of federal policies and investments to advance clean energy technologies and transform the U.S. energy sector, such as the Breakthrough Institute's proposal to make clean energy cheap and abundant.
The assessment concludes that in order to mitigate climate change, national action must be taken to deploy both available and emerging technologies immediately because of time lags inherent in switching to new energy supplies or distributing more efficient technologies. They also argue that in pursuing clean energy technology transformation, the U.S. must be tolerant to failure. As with all investments in innovation (and as all good venture capitalists know), certain technology paths may fail while others ultimately succeed, so a failure-tolerant set of investments in a portfolio of technologies is needed. The authors suggest:
"[T]he effective transformation of the energy system will require long-term investment in new energy technologies, policies that encourage such investment, and acceptance of the inevitable disappointments that will punctuate our long-term success."
The release of the full 650-page report is forthcoming and will contain further evaluation of the results of the National Academies America's Energy Future (AEF) project, including detailed analysis of energy technology options.
The AEF Committee's 8 Key Findings:
1) Through a "sustained national commitment," the United States can improve energy efficiency, employ new sources of energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by quickly deploying existing and emerging energy-supply and end-use technologies.
2) Deploying existing energy-efficient technologies is the fastest, cheapest way to manage the country's growing energy demand and could lead to enough energy savings to offset the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) projected rise in energy consumption through 2030.
3) There are many promising new electricity supply and supply mix options that the U.S. could harness over the next thirty years, however deployment of these new technologies could lead to high electricity prices for consumers.
4) It is necessary to expand the power grid in order to improve reliability and security, mediate changes in load growth and electricity demand, and allow deployment of energy efficiency and supply technologies.
5) The U.S. must maintain current rates of domestic petroleum production until it is feasible to reduce or replace it.
6) It is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emission from the electricity and transportation sectors by employing a portfolio of energy efficiency technologies.
7) The public and private sectors must be involved in extensive RD&D to accelerate deployment of new clean energy technologies by 2020 and to ensure continued innovation.
8) There are numerous barriers that may delay or prevent deployment of both energy-supply and end-use technologies but these barriers can be overcome through policy and regulatory action.
