Karen Frantz
GHG Monitor
2/21/2014
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz emphasized the Obama Administration’s commitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy this week—including support for the continued use of fossil fuels—and said the Department of Energy is trying to increase its collaboration with China on carbon capture and storage technologies in order to allow the use coal in a carbon-constrained world. “[China has] a very strong motivation to address emissions across the board from coal,” Moniz said. “But I also want to emphasize that … in all the discussions we’ve had, their commitment to addressing carbon emissions as well is real. Clearly they are balancing that against their economic growth. One of the things that we are doing is trying to increase our collaboration, for example, on the carbon dioxide capture, utilization and sequestration technologies that are key for us and for them ultimately to be using coal in a low carbon world.” He also said he is going to India in two weeks to continue a dialogue there on the use of coal.
Moniz made the remarks at a luncheon held at the National Press Club in Washington, where he also outlined numerous ways he said the Department of Energy and the Obama Administration as a whole are working to support the development of clean energy technologies in order to address climate change. Such initiatives include allocating billions of dollars in loan guarantees to clean energy projects in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—including $3.38 billion allocated for CCS—and a recently announced $8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “We will keep pushing the envelope across the entire spectrum of research, development, demonstration and deployment,” he said. “The role of the government in research and development is generally quite accepted, [but] once one goes to the deployment-end of the spectrum there is more divergence of views as to the role of the federal government. I want to say that I think the need to accelerate the pace of chance in response to our climate challenges, to me, makes it essential that we continue to do investments … in the loan program that get the first movers out there in the commercial market, pushing the technology envelope so that the marketplace will eventually have the set of choices it needs for the various low-carbon solutions that will be needed in different parts of our country and in different countries in the world.”
He also said that Ceres, a non-profit investment organization, estimated that a global investment of $36 trillion dollars over the next four decades is required to address climate change. “That’s a pretty serious investment,” Moniz said. “Many of us think that, however, doing nothing to address these risks of climate change will prove to be far more expensive. And when those technologies are deployed, we can’t afford to be in the back of the train. We need to be driving the train, leading the world in these industries. So investing in clean energy isn’t a decision that limits our economic potential, it’s an opportunity to lead the global clean technology markets that are forming right now.”
