Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
1/9/2015
Before the United States can adequately address energy and environment needs through policy, the technology to do so must be developed and proven, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said during an event hosted this week by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “We have obviously very robust technology programs at the Department. What I want to emphasize is I believe they are central to having the policy developments that we are looking for because when the costs come down of those technologies, [Congress] can have a much easier job in terms of addressing the policy issues, be they on the climate or on the energy security side,” Moniz said.
Moniz pointed to the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, which he said has a record of success thus far. “This will be a big year for our loan program. … There’s $30 billion in play in the loan program. The overall default rate is at 2 percent,” he said, going on to note some successful projects that have benefited from the program, such as utility scale photovoltaics “What I want to emphasize now is that we have just recently completed our full suite of Call for Proposals for an additional $40 billion of loan guarantees. That’s $4 billion, roughly in renewables and efficiency – these are set by statute – $8 billion for fossil technologies that lower emissions, roughly $12 [billion] advanced nuclear technologies and roughly $16 [billion] for new vehicle technologies. … We already have proposals in for many of those, renewables and fossil,” he said.
The importance of technology, particularly in the coal industry, was also highlighted during a panel discussion at this week’s event. Speaking on the interconnectivity of energy and climate change, David Goldwyn, former special envoy and international energy coordinator to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said that in addressing both climate and energy concerns, a key factor is the use of carbon-heavy coal. “We can’t wish coal away. We have to find a way to deal with emissions, that might be high efficiency boilers, it might be carbon sequestration, but we’ve got to deal with coal and so that R&D agenda, which is Department of Energy’s agenda primarily, needs to be sustained,” Goldwyn said.
