Promising root\u002Dand\u002Dbranch overhaul of the American energy system that will put climate change at its heart
“Biden did gain key climate and clean energy provisions in the 2009 stimulus [during the financial crisis],” says Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser. “But he also recognizes that climate has emerged over the past decade as a premier issue of global security and foreign policy, and is now suddenly a crucial element in America’s green recovery from the COVID crisis, as well.”
If elected, Biden is promising net-zero emissions by 2050 and to electrify the U.S.’s transportation sector, installing a vast network of new car charging points, upgrading the grid and deploying utility-scale battery storage across the U.S. “It’s hard to overstate how far Joe Biden’s Democratic party has shifted on fossil fuels, especially natural gas, in just four years,” says Bob McNally, a former adviser in the George W. Bush White House and now head of Rapidan Energy Group. “A Biden victory would unleash a Tet offensive against the U.S. oil and gas sector.”Article content continuedThe most significant pledge is to “decarbonize” the U.S. electricity sector by 2035. Power generation accounted for about a third of U.S.
“Technically, financially, it is all do-able,” says Stokes, referring to Biden’s plan. If the full decarbonization is not quite reached by 2035, the extra 10 per cent could come later, she says. “In 15 years there will be additional solutions to these problems.” It’s an area that industry appears to be engaging with. Dan Gabaldon, a partner at Roland Berger, a consultancy, says “relatively conservative independent power producers”, such as Vistra and Calpine, had become “much more bullish on CCS” than before. “Folks who were fighting it, or were very sceptical of it, are now beginning to embrace it.”Article content continuedCarbon capture could be politically useful for Biden, because it would preserve natural gas’s place in a decarbonized power sector.
It was a head in the hands moment for a campaign that has worked hard to shore up Biden’s support in shale areas. The candidate has tried to be clearer since, saying recently that fracking was “not on the chopping block,” even though he would ban any new drilling on federal lands.The ambiguity may be deliberate, as Biden seeks to keep anti-fossil fuel campaigners on the left of his party onside while seeking to blunt their movement’s capacity to frighten swing voters.
“If you’re an oil and gas guy and Biden wins you’ve got an awful lot to be worried about,” says Dan Eberhart, head of Canary, an oilfield services company, and Trump supporter. “It seems like his plan is to abandon Pennsylvania, Texas and oil and gas workers in favour of trying to make the environmentalists happy. There will be a semi-permanent cloud over the industry and that will crowd out investment.
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