1. An Energy, Climate & Conservation plan that will work

 

The House Republican Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force launched the sixth and final pillar of their policy strategy: Build Resilient Communities.

• The pillar includes plans to build coastal, wildfire, and Western water resilience to ensure preparation for natural disasters.

The Task Force’s plan includes these six pillars:

• Unlock American Resources
• American Innovation
• Let America Build
• Beat China and Russia
• Conservation with a Purpose
• Build Resilient Communities

What’s clear: House Republicans have a clear plan for effective energy and climate policy, from innovating and building at home to deploying American technologies around the world.
 

2. Why beating China is important

  

Speaking of the Task Force’s pillar to Beat China; this column in the Wall Street Journal on how China steals U.S. technology is a must-read.

Former undersecretary for Science at DOE and ClearPath advisory board member Paul Dabbar has a stark warning and four solutions to prevent this in the future:

• Risk mapping for technology collaborated with China, Russia, Iran and N. Korea;
• Prevent DOE research grants to members of China’s Thousand Talents Program;
• Compliance and disclosures of conflicts of interest at DOE and national labs; and
• Much better oversight.

What’s clear “People working at the Energy Department’s National Laboratories had significant engagements with China. Some were paid by one of the many Chinese Communist Party Thousand Talents Plans while concurrently working at sensitive U.S. government labs. These agreements often required technology transfer as well as support for recruiting more members to the TTPs.”
 

3. ClearPath tours clean energy facilities with Congressional staff

 

This week, ClearPath traveled to Chicago with a delegation of Republican Congressional staff for our Clean Energy Innovation Academy (CEIA).

• We toured a nuclear power plant at the Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station; and
• Learned about clean energy research and development at Argonne National Lab.

Ten Congressional staff joined us for CEIA to expand their knowledge of the innovative American clean energy industry and how it will make developing and deploying clean energy technologies cheaper and faster.

What’s clear: Nuclear facilities like Braidwood are an integral part of U.S. emissions reduction efforts. However, the majority of reactors being produced today are in Russia and China – highlighting the need to develop and deploy more American nuclear power.

Photo Credit: Mark Lopez, Argonne National Laboratory
 

4. Public-private partnerships for advanced nuclear

  

Advanced nuclear energy startup TerraPower raised over $750 million from public and private investors for technology development.

• These funds include $250 million from South Korean investment firm SK Innovation.

TerraPower is currently working on a demonstration facility utilizing a shuttered coal plant in Wyoming and another experimental small nuclear reactor in Idaho, thanks to this funding as well as legislation like the bipartisan Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

• “Nuclear energy is obviously clean and super reliable, and if we keep improving the commercial outlook with massive investments like this, we will be in good shape for building and deploying the next generation of reactors,” said Niko McMurray, our Managing Director of Policy.

Plug in: We often hear about public-private partnerships in the clean energy space and for good reason. Hydraulic fracturing, one of the biggest American energy success stories, took off because of combined entrepreneurship and government support.
 

6. ICYMI

• Our CEO Rich Powell participated in a Twitter Spaces panel discussion on clean energy regulations and permitting alongside Xan Fishman of the Bipartisan Policy Center and Greg Gershuny of the Aspen Institute.
• Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) explains how South Carolina is leading with an all-of-the-above energy approach in an op-ed in the Washington Times.
• A thorium-powered molten-salt nuclear reactor has been approved for operation in China – highlighting the need to deploy more American nuclear at home and worldwide.
• Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his bipartisan Hydrogen Infrastructure Initiative at a roundtable event in Corpus Christi, TX.