In his testimony at his confirmation hearing this week, presumptive Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that the “pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lift up people’s quality of life is through energy innovation.” At Clean Tomorrow, we are committed to reducing emissions through energy innovation, the deployment of clean energy and clean technologies here in the United States, and building the infrastructure necessary to power our economy.  Throughout the hearing, it became clear that there remains a bipartisan consensus around the importance of the United States leading in clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and that this leadership is critical on the global stage.  

In addition to Wright’s hearing, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources also held a confirmation hearing for former Governor Doug Burgum for Secretary of Interior,  and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a confirmation hearing for former Congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Each underscored the necessity to continue American leadership and innovation on clean energy and the need to continue to build clean energy infrastructure. A few key points stuck out:  

We Need to Build More Clean Energy Infrastructure 

During his testimony, Wright consistently highlighted the need to build new transmission and improve the capacity of existing transmission lines “to meet this growing demand of energy,” despite the fact that “the most pressing problem we have is our electricity grid. And this problem [is] only going to get worse.” Electricity demand growth is expected to nearly double in the coming years to power new industrial, manufacturing, and data demand.  Today, there are 2,600 gigawatts (GW) of total generation and storage capacity seeking connection to the grid, 95% of which is for zero-carbon resources like solar, wind, and battery storage. Modern energy technologies stand ready to power our modern economy, so long as we can build the necessary grid infrastructure.  

America Can Lead the World on Energy Innovation  

On the role of government in innovation, Wright said he believes that “we must lead the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs,” and that the government must continue to play a key role in both “basic research and helping launch new technologies” to “secure America’s competitive advantage.” Likewise, Zeldin noted the need to “do everything in our power to harness the greatness of American innovation,” while Burgum highlighted the scale of innovation in today’s energy sector: “It’s as exciting as anything in tech that’s going on.” The Energy Act of 2020, signed by then-President Trump, and the energy and innovation laws signed over the last four years have positioned the United States to lead the world in the research, development, demonstration, and commercialization of clean energy and clean industrial technologies like advanced nuclear energy, enhanced geothermal, carbon capture, and new and novel clean production methods for steel, cement, chemicals, and fuels. And we can double down on this approach in the coming years. 

The United States has historically led the world in developing the innovative technologies and realizing the associated emissions reductions. But we’ve often lost the supply chains or manufacturing capacities for these technologies. We have the opportunity today, building on legislation signed over the past five years, to lead the world in the  RDD&D of the technologies that will power the future  and will allow us to build and manufacture the world of tomorrow. We have the opportunity to do this here in America. Fortunately, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle recognize that it is critical for us to take on this leadership role.   

As both Niels Bohr and Chris Wright have said, it’s always risky to make predictions — especially about the future. Our hope at Clean Tomorrow is that this week’s hearings will presage the United States’ continued leadership in developing and deploying clean energy and clean industrial technologies. We look forward to working with those in Congress and in the incoming Trump Administration to make sure this is the case.