Blog

11Aug

Capture the Moment

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill marks a massive leap forward for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). It’s a leap forward that should be celebrated for advancing U.S. technological leadership and for advancing U.S. climate leadership. As Brad Crabtree, director of the Carbon Capture Coalition, described, it is “the most ambitious portfolio of carbon management policies […]
04Aug

Infrastructure Reinvestment: American Met for American Steel

Infrastructure week was a dream so fragile you could only whisper it for fear saying the words would mark its undoing. But long odds aside, it has arrived and none too soon. The nation’s roads, bridges, dams, water systems and electricity grid – just some examples of the breadth of our critically important and diverse […]
28Jul

Just How Unreliable Can the Grid Become?

As the inclusion of a potential clean electricity standard continues to be linked to infrastructure talks, context is important. The United States is already living on the grid reliability edge and, without thoughtful planning, could be poised to lunge towards the chasm. With the energy transition accelerating, and proposed timelines becoming shorter, just how much […]
21Jul

Charting a Course Towards Globally Replicable Emissions Reduction

As much attention as domestic climate and energy policy are given, few policymakers seem willing to grapple with global energy trends and reality. Senator Joe Manchin is not one of them. As the senator has repeatedly pointed out, the energy transition and the move away from fossil fuels simply isn’t happening in much of the […]
14Jul

In a Transitioning Grid, Fuel Diversity Matters More than Ever

Grid reliability challenges this summer – from California and the Pacific Northwest to New York – are a clear signal we must better value the insurance provided by a balanced generation mix. But scorching heat aside, February’s catastrophe in Texas, that left 70% of the state without power, continues to sound some of the loudest […]
07Jul

A Global Coal Boom

The global energy transition is feeling far more like global energy addition. Fossil fuels are having quite the moment. The Biden administration is lobbying OPEC to pump more oil and provide relief at the gas pump. Global natural gas prices are soaring, and coal prices and coal demand have jumped to record levels. Energy and […]
30Jun

The World Needs U.S. Leadership on Coal CCUS

For years, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) was seen as just a coal technology, dismissed by environmentalists as little more than a talking point, an unnecessary or false solution to addressing emissions. Today, energy and climate experts – from Dr. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, to John Kerry, the […]
23Jun

The Reliability Crisis is a Market Failure

How is that both California and Texas – the two wealthiest states in the wealthiest nation on earth – can’t seem to keep the power on? Or, how is that electricity reliability in the United States, in the 21st century, seems to suddenly be getting worse when it should be getting better? According to two members […]
16Jun

The Texas Grid is Failing Again

Summer hasn’t even officially started but the Texas grid is already facing another electricity reliability crisis. Warning of potentially inadequate generating capacity, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is once again begging Texans to reduce electricity use. Texans have every right to worry that the grid may not hold up this summer. This week’s […]
09Jun

 Innovation, Not Elimination

When Senator Manchin talks, or tweets, Washington listens. And last week when he took Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to see West Virginia’s energy industry up close, he made clear his vision for coal in the energy transition. He tweeted, “Maintaining good-paying traditional energy jobs as we reduce emissions is possible through innovation, not elimination. […]