Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz believes President Donald Trump’s planned cuts to energy research and science programs at the Department of Energy make the administration’s budget proposal a “nonstarter” and one that Congress will not pass.
The proposed DOE budget “doesn’t do the job” required to allow the United States to conduct research and develop technologies needed to address climate change, Moniz said Wednesday at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Moniz isn’t convinced his successor at DOE, Secretary Rick Perry, is fully on board with Trump’s budget proposal. “Secretary Perry has made some very strong and positive statements that I fully endorse in terms of the importance of R&D, the importance of innovation. And yet, there’s a disconnect to the budget,” he said. “There’s no credible way to say how the budget supports the kinds of activities that … Secretary Perry has shown every indication of wanting to pursue.”
In its FY18 budget, the administration requested cuts to DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability by almost half, specifically targeting smart grid, cybersecurity, and energy storage programs. “I just don’t see how these things work where you undercut a major programmatic area, but then say, ‘Oh, this is one area where we’re going to do something bigger,’” Moniz said.
At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Perry emphasized that electric grid reliability will be a priority of DOE under his leadership, even though the Trump administration plans to slash funding for these programs. “It’s one of the reasons that… I will ask at the appropriate time on the funding side to make sure that that part of our responsibility is appropriately funded,” Perry told the committee members.
The American Energy Innovation Council, in a report released Tuesday, argued for a strong federal role in energy research and development funding that could spur the development of innovative energy technologies. The council is composed of 10 executives in the energy, technology, and aerospace industries.
The council’s report demonstrates that many corporate executives support increases in federal support for energy research and development, Moniz said. “Frankly, that’s what investors need as well to get that innovation pipeline open for the kinds of opportunities they need,” he said.
Similar to the industry executives, Moniz wishes the Trump administration would take a “fact-based approach” to funding research and development. “There’s a lot of naive repetition of shopworn ideas about where the federal government should invest,” he said. “Look at the program — don’t look at the ideology — and see whether it’s working or not.”
Moniz served as President Barack Obama’s energy secretary from 2013 to 2017. Prior to joining Obama’s cabinet, he was a professor of physics and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was founding director of the MIT Energy Initiative.
At the press conference, Moniz highlighted one of his post-DOE career plans: overseeing the Energy Futures Initiative, a nonprofit group he co-founded earlier this year to “provide evidence-based analysis on decarbonizing energy systems.” Joseph Hezir, one of the group’s co-founders and former chief financial officer at the DOE, amplified Moniz’s comments, stating the federal government should invest in research on a program-by-program basis and and not simply take an “across-the-board ideological perspective” on funding.
Investments in projects where the payoff may occur in the long-term remain perfect for the federal government because the private sector often views these opportunities as too risky, Hezier said at the press conference. Companies that have quarterly financial targets often prefer to spend money on projects that will produce favorable shareholder results in the short-term. The federal government may wish to avoid investing in a research project with “a very quick payoff in terms of return,” he suggested.
One of the group’s first projects will be putting out a report on the nation’s electricity grid. The report is expected to be published in the fall and could have some overlap with an upcoming DOE grid study, Moniz said. The DOE study was originally scheduled to be completed next week but reportedly has been pushed back to July.
The Energy Futures Initiative also could provide assistance to states and cities that have pledged to take action to reduce carbon emissions in the wake of Trump’s announcement that he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
Moniz applauded the governors, mayors, and business leaders that have stepped up. These officials “want to fill some of the leadership void in advancing our climate actions, both domestically and internationally,” he said.
Meeting “deep decarbonization goals” by mid-century will require “some pretty extraordinary innovation breakthroughs,” he emphasized. One example, according to Moniz, is ongoing efforts to convert carbon dioxide and water directly into useable liquid hydrocarbon fuels.
In the near term, withdrawal from the Paris agreement could “dampen our trajectory” on carbon reduction and could lead to other nations taking a less aggressive approach on climate change, Moniz said. With less focus on climate change mitigation, the United States and other nations will need to focus more on climate adaptation. “And adaptation in and of itself is very expensive,” he said.
In Florida, electric utilities have spent billions of dollars hardening their systems to withstand severe weather linked to climate change. Florida Power & Light, the largest electric utility in the state, spent $2 billion to harden its system and plans to spend an additional $1.75 billion to counter “what is effectively impacts from higher sea level and warmer seas,” said Moniz, who met with the utility’s leaders in early 2016.
After Hurricane Matthew struck the state last fall, Florida Power & Light was able to restore power to almost all its customers within a couple days instead of three weeks, “which they feel would have been the benchmark before” the utility invested billions of dollars in hardening its system, Moniz said.