For a full recap of our past year of work, read the 2024 Annual Report.
As 2024 ended, the United States experienced a historic political upheaval with the reelection of Donald Trump to the White House. The transition to a second Trump term will likely lead to major policy changes in the domestic energy landscape. However, bipartisan support for clean energy innovation, continuing private sector commitment, and actions by many states and cities sustained momentum toward a clean energy future. These elements will persist, and the global challenge of climate change remains—as does the need for practical, actionable, and scientific solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy security, and secure social equity across all communities, both domestic and international.
I am pleased to note that the EFI Foundation (EFIF) continues to play a catalytic role in policy debates and government program designs. From our inception in 2017, we have advocated for pragmatic approaches and broad coalitions, convening diverse sets of stakeholders who may not have the same political views, but who share a passion for actionable solutions.
In the past 12 months, we have focused our analytic work and public dialogues, for example, on advancing the establishment of a clean hydrogen market, examining ways to have deeper local engagement in next-generation energy projects through binding community agreements, highlighting trends in the creation of energy jobs, and focusing on how to catalyze private investment in low-, zero- and negative-carbon technologies.
The year began with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) naming EFIF as the lead organization in a new partnership to design and implement demand-side support mechanisms to enhance the market potential of seven hydrogen hubs selected by the department. The DOE award was inspired by the landmark 2023 EFIF report The U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan, which outlined pathways to rapidly accelerate hydrogen use across regions and sectors through new policies and industrial strategies, while transforming the regional hydrogen hubs into economic growth engines. The program structure also drew from recommendations put forward in significant EFIF energy innovation reports in 2019 and 2023.
Alex Kizer, EFIF Executive Vice President, leads the consortium behind the project as Executive Director. He is working with a distinguished group that includes the U.S. Energy Association (a nonprofit that aims to foster technological and policy innovations across all energy sectors); commodity markets information firm S&P Global; financial exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange; a modeling and analysis group from the MIT Energy Initiative; Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, with experts in energy regulatory issues; Level Ten Energy, which operates the world’s largest clean energy trading platform; and RMI, the global nonprofit focused on the clean energy transition.
The partners are exploring opportunities to expand market demand for other clean energy commodities. The consortium has plans to release its first support mechanism through an open bid process for regional hubs in 2025, although the presidential transition creates uncertainty in the pace and scale of operations.
In March, at CERAWeek in Houston and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels, I led EFIF teams participating in panels on the financing and risk-sharing mechanisms to support at-scale new nuclear energy deployment. This builds on the collaboration we are engaged in with the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). This partnership had a major presence at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Dubai in 2023 (COP28) and is well aligned with that meeting’s impetus for dramatically expanding nuclear energy worldwide.
In May, we convened a dialogue on the role of natural gas for both energy security and supply chain decarbonization. We were honored to welcome Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Joe Manchin (I-WV) as keynote speakers, along with Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission and leader of the EU Green New Deal. Šefčovič thanked the United States for supplying Europe with liquefied natural gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and noted that this “strategic energy partnership’’ will remain a vital component of the bloc’s energy security for years to come.
At Climate Week NYC and the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in September, we examined the vital role of ethanol and hydrogen in the evolving low-carbon global energy economy. Our analysis showed that ethanol could play a significant role in the United States by providing a very low-carbon liquid fuel with available, relatively low-cost pathways.
EFIF was a prominent presence at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November. At this “finance COP,” EFIF Senior Vice President Stephen Comello led multiple efforts, including representing the Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI) at executive-level gatherings on innovative financing and risk-sharing strategies to drive nuclear deployment at scale. Separately, he joined global finance leaders to explore pathways for mobilizing capital toward a climate-resilient economy, underscoring the critical role of financial innovation in achieving decarbonization goals. Comello starts 2025 as Executive Director of NSI, the integrated nuclear energy effort forged by CATF, NTI, and EFIF. Also at COP29, EFIF Project Manager Sarah Frances Smith led a delegation of young professionals from the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) and participated in panels highlighting the need for greater adoption of nuclear energy and clean hydrogen to accelerate the clean energy transition.
This year also featured a particularly significant personnel change at EFIF. In May, our longtime colleague and friend Melanie Kenderdine was named New Mexico’s Secretary-designate of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources. Kenderdine (formerly founding Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at DOE) and Joe Hezir (formerly DOE Chief Financial Officer) joined me as founding principals of the Energy Futures Initiative in 2017. Kenderdine’s return to public service will serve her state and the nation well, and we wish her the very best.
We also welcomed Karen Wayland to our board as an Independent Director. Wayland is Chief Executive Officer of the GridWise Alliance, a coalition of U.S. electricity industry stakeholders. At the turn of the year, April Salas joined EFIF as Chief Operating Officer as we expand the management structure of our eight-year-old nonprofit. Salas was most recently Global Director of Public Policy of Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability Team, overseeing Microsoft’s global sustainability commitments of responsible sourcing, zero waste, and becoming water positive and carbon negative by 2030. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College.
Senior Vice President David Ellis, who has guided EFIF’s strategic communications efforts since its inception, is leading an effort to create a new climate science outreach program. The program will leverage EFIF’s reputation for unbiased energy solutions to expand our capacity to reach more stakeholders. Target audiences include not only federal and state policymakers and their staffs, but also young adults and members of vulnerable communities—groups with the most at stake in how clean energy develops going forward.
These sectors of civil society have increasingly lost trust in climate science data and are anxious about the future, in part because information is conveyed in technical language that obfuscates—rather than enlightens. This too often leaves people vulnerable to misinformation. The energy transition to achieve low- to zero-carbon emissions can proceed at the fastest possible pace only if nonscientific audiences understand, embrace, and trust the people developing the technologies driving this evolution.
At EFIF, we believe federal action should always be aimed at boosting private investment in technologies to reduce emissions and catalyzing other private investments in clean energy. There is no doubt that the United States has made remarkable progress in the past half decade to accelerate energy innovation and cut emissions, while concurrently becoming the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. The scope of these changes has been little understood by the wider public—and often vehemently opposed by entrenched interests across the political spectrum.
Measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the CHIPS & Science Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure agreement have injected hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. energy sector. In 2023, the U.S. energy sector employed 8.35 million workers, a year-over-year increase of 250,000. Roughly half of those jobs were in clean energy—and, by some estimates, two-thirds of new investments have gone to states politically dominated by the Republican Party.
EFIF also continued to convene experts on future domestic energy needs and found that most expect a hockey stick-shaped increase in electricity demand in the next five years. That has led to a recognition of the need for greater investment in zero-carbon nuclear energy, with the commissioning of new generators, extensions of operational licenses for existing plants, and the planned restoration of shuttered reactors such as Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1. While legacy nuclear reactors were recently considered uneconomic projects, that is no longer the case. The growth in demand propelled by electricity-intensive data centers, digital currencies, and artificial intelligence activities consumed 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023. A study by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory projects that figure will double or perhaps even triple by 2028. This is just one part of projected major year-on-year increases in electricity demand over the next decade, and the challenge will be to meet this demand while continuing to decrease power-sector emissions.
Energy infrastructure is built to last for decades but often takes decades to build because of permitting hurdles and legal challenges. One recent bipartisan measure, crafted by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and retiring Sen. Manchin, fell victim to partisan political headwinds as the Biden administration gave way to the Trump administration. Manchin gave a spirited case to our Global Advisory Committee on the need to reach a sensible compromise proposal.
In the current political environment, the temptation to retreat to neutral corners and refuse to engage with political opponents may be stronger than the desire to get things done. The Manchin-Barrasso bill was the product of over a year of hearings and bipartisan negotiations aimed at a more rapid buildout of high-voltage, interregional transmission projects. The bill included provisions to benefit both fossil fuel and clean energy projects. And yet, this good faith compromise effort failed to win enough support to pass in a lame-duck congressional period.
Power comes from forging alliances, and building coalitions, and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke but also for the waking. … It’s important to argue strongly for the issues we care about and draw lines that we’re not willing to cross. But purity tests are not a recipe for long-term success
— Former President Barack Obama
I was heartened to read the wise words of my old boss, former President Barack Obama, making the case that principled compromise and a realistic assessment of the politically possible are still the best ways to make policy progress: “Power comes from forging alliances, and building coalitions, and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke but also for the waking. … It’s important to argue strongly for the issues we care about and draw lines that we’re not willing to cross. But purity tests are not a recipe for long-term success,” Obama said. I couldn’t agree more. The theoretical perfect cannot be the enemy of the achievable good. Those who opposed the Manchin-Barrasso bill may well consider how it will stack up against a future permitting bill crafted by a Republican Party that controls the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.
It is worth noting that, in contrast to much current commentary, this is the fourth administration in a row to enter office with control of those three federal institutions. In each previous case, the administration with the political trifecta had a limited amount of time (i.e., two years) to wield budget power over its opposition.
As ever, our core message is this: Climate action, energy security, national security, the financeability of clean energy projects, and energy equity are all inextricably linked. We must regard these issues as one conversation—not as a group of competing, siloed priorities. Attempting to address each of these issues individually overlooks the complex realities that make climate change the key scientific and political challenge of our time. We cannot let political divisions slow our progress—or, even worse, move us backward. That tends to be the outcome when reasoned discourse and compromise are not employed as instruments of progress.
At the EFI Foundation, we will continue to convene diverse stakeholders, promote respectful dialogue, and use pragmatism and coalition building as our touchstones as energy policy debates unfold over the coming years. The goal remains acceleration of the clean energy transition to the maximum degree possible
Ernest J. Moniz
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, EFI Foundation
13th U.S. Secretary of Energy (2013–2017)
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