Leave it to a fast-track, rhetoric-amplified national election to add confusion to an already complicated U.S. energy agenda. While the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden and presidential contender Kamala Harris initially promised an all-out commitment to clean energy to combat climate change, and Republicans under Donald Trump vowed never to replace fossil fuels, as Election Day nears, it’s hard now to tell where pragmatism leaves off and political posturing has taken over. You need look no further than recent reporting in ENR.
Trump has called climate change a hoax and encouraged more oil and gas drilling. Republicans profess an “all of the above” energy approach, but a second Trump administration is set to rescind tax breaks and subsidies to build solar, wind and most other renewable energy sources and boost fossil fuel funding.
Vice President Harris, who cast the deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act and its hundreds of billions in climate-related measures, now says she supports fracking and touts the administration’s record in increasing oil and gas production. Is her apparent change of tune a newly discovered pragmatism or just politics in an extremely tight presidential race? It is very likely that Harris, if she wins, will resume the consistent support she and the administration have championed for climate-friendly policies.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is not up for election but is mindful of her party’s need for Congressional majorities. So she rightfully extols state progress in its climate change mitigation strategy to meet aggressive goals set by her predecessor, citing records in offshore wind and solar energy deployment. Despite financial and supply chain bumps in that state and elsewhere, U.S. clean energy development, helped by government subsidies and tax breaks, is proving to be a solid growth industry. Half of America’s 250,000 new energy sector jobs created in the last year are tied to climate, clean energy and clean manufacturing.
The climate strategy includes nuclear power. New York’s Energy Research and Development Authority, only a few years after closing the Indian Point nuclear facility, has a “draft blueprint” for advanced nuclear power in the state. To her credit, Hochul has expressed support for nuclear power, which is finding new reacceptance to meet soaring power needs.
An ambitious plan is underway to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 near Harrisburg, Pa. It operated successfully from 1971 to its 2019 shutdown—despite its proximity but not connection to Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after a near meltdown and is being decommissioned. Utility Constellation Energy would supply power to data centers built by Microsoft, which sees huge demand driven by artificial intelligence. Among numerous issues to be resolved is how government financial support will work.
Like it or not, exactly where political leaders stand on fracking and nuclear power and other aspects of energy policy has been muddled. We think it’s time for elected officials to stop debating and return to legislating what is needed in a next-generation energy economy as the climate crisis unfolds.
