U.S. faces challenge of pursuing energy independence amid clean energy transition
As the United States strives to become more energy independent and grapples with the global availability of critical minerals, it can’t lose sight of pursuing the long-term goal of a net-zero economy, energy experts said this week.
As Europe struggles with its dependence on Russian oil and gas, panelists at EEI 2022, the annual meeting being held through Wednesday by the Edison Electric Institute in Orlando, discussed how Europe got where it is and how America can avoid a similar predicament.
Meghan O’Sullivan, an international affairs professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Jason Bordoff, an international and public affairs professor at Columbia University, told DTE Energy Executive Chairman Gerry Anderson that the United States becoming energy independent could lead to switching out that dependency for reliance on other countries for critical minerals.
“I think energy independence, I’ve always called it America’s unrequited love,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re always pursuing it and never quite got to it until recently. But I still think, if we think about energy independence as self-sufficiency, that is going to pull us in directions that are not optimal for all kinds of reasons, both security and economic reasons.”
As the world moves away from fossil fuels, it also becomes more dependent on critical minerals that are essential components in clean energy technologies needed for electric vehicles and wind plants. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world would need six times the critical minerals it uses now to get to net-zero carbon emissions, and in the case of certain minerals like lithium, that need would be much larger.
Currently, that puts China, a leading supplier of critical minerals, in a position of power, O’Sullivan said.
The relationship between the United States and China will need careful consideration, DTE Energy’s Anderson added.
“It strikes me what the dominance that China has on, for example, the critical mineral supply that a long-term, persistent approach by our country is going to be needed to not put ourselves in a vulnerable position,” Anderson said.
Preventing America from becoming like Europe requires a new way of thinking, said Bordoff, who is also Co-Founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School and Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy.
“How we got here was a multi-decade process of belief that energy security, as well as economic efficiency, comes from more, not less, interconnectedness of the global energy market,” he said. “What we’re learning is that there’s a limit to that principal… It’s going to force us to think a little more differently going forward to where energy security comes from. I hope it doesn’t lead to isolation and disconnectedness.”
Despite the current energy crisis and challenges facing the industry, Bordoff said it was important to continue transitioning toward a clean energy economy.
“We need to move much faster to decarbonize the economy,” he said. “If energy security and affordability start to come into tension with climate ambition, climate ambition is going to lose. That doesn’t mean we must not learn the message of this moment and figure out how to make energy as affordable for people as possible … but have this be a wake-up call that the things that give you energy security in the long-term, can also give you climate security.”
Moving too quickly or too slowly can jeopardize the transition to a net-zero economy, he said. But getting to net-zero by 2050 is still unbelievably fast when it comes to moving to a new energy system, he said.
The energy transition presents a challenge on how to build the grid infrastructure for what the United States needs in the near and medium-term but recognize that over the longer term that some of that infrastructure may not last as long as needed to pay back investors.
Still, O’Sullivan said, the industry will need to electrify as many sectors as it can to lower carbon emissions.
“We should electrify everything that we can,” she said. “There has to be an electrification of transportation. There has to be an electrification of buildings, to the extent that it is possible. There are going to be sectors that will be really hard to electrify … but that’s why we’ve all woken up in the last few years that the energy transition isn’t just about moving to renewable sources of energy.”
Tom Kuhn, EEI president, said electric companies stand ready to make that transition.
“Our member companies and the people in this room are dedicated to delivering a resilient, clean energy future – reliably, affordably and as fast as we can,” Kuhn said.
