An E&E News article titled, “Can innovation save Biden’s push for 100% clean grid?” (December 21, 2021), quoted EFI CEO Ernest Moniz and EFI’s clean energy innovation report. In the article, journalist Peter Behr reports on the roles of the federal government and the private sector in light of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” policy agenda and opposition from Senate Republicans.
Moniz emphasized the importance of deploying clean energy technologies to address climate change: “Every year, it becomes more and more clear that we just don’t have time,” he said. “We need to get these technologies deployed.”
The article references a 2019 study led by EFI and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin. The study gives a comprehensive review of the United States’ clean energy ecosystem and assesses that “energy is a highly capitalized commodity business” built on intricate supply chains and fixed customer bases. The study further states that these factors lead to complex politics and regulations and ultimately to an industry that is shaped to resist radical change.
Moniz was highlighted in the news article as saying that operating such a complex system with high volumes of wind and solar power creates risks to U.S. electric grid stability that are unacceptable without other clean energy sources available around the clock. The reporter wrote, “Moniz and other grid analysts have pressed for some combination of new nuclear reactors, geothermal energy, hydrogen fuels, advanced batteries, and carbon capture and storage of fossil fuel emissions.”
— Karla Salazar
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