Power sector eager to partner with Biden administration on new clean energy directives

Several major power sector organizations expressed support for clean energy and climate change directives advanced by President Joe Biden through his executive orders on Wednesday.

Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), welcomed the president’s actions to “address climate change and clean energy infrastructure across the federal government.” In particular, EEI supports the initiative to electrify federal vehicles.

In similar tone, Heather Zichal, CEO of the American Clean Power Association (ACP), referred to the executive orders as “the whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis that is needed.” Zichal said the demands set within Biden’s orders “will help deliver on his twin pledges to simultaneously rebuild the U.S. economy and address the threat of climate change.”

Major ideas within the executive orders include:
• Establishing the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy – led by the first-ever National Climate Advisor and Deputy National Climate Advisor.
• Establishing a 21-agency National Climate Task Force.
• Directing federal agencies to procure carbon free electricity and zero-emission vehicles.
• Placing a hold on new oil and gas leases on public lands.
• Establishing an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization to assist coal, oil and natural gas, and power plant communities.

Regarding transportation electrification, EEI’s Kuhn noted that EEI member companies are on track to electrify more than one-third of their fleet vehicles by 2030 and gaining necessary experience to help customers implement their own fleet electrification plans. “We look forward,” Kuhn said, “to partnering with the Administration and helping to build and optimize needed infrastructure.”

The solar industry viewed the climate actions taken by Biden during his first week in office as a promising start. “President Biden’s order addresses several solar industry priorities, including a boost to federal procurement of clean energy, and investments in manufacturing, transmission, and siting and permitting,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Meanwhile, Biden’s comprehensive approach to reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions was praised by ACP, a new group that launched this month that will represent more than 800 member companies from across the renewable energy sector in its first year. “President Biden’s actions today – creating a climate task force to set in motion a governmentwide action plan for reducing emissions, directing all federal agencies to consider climate in their decision making, driving federal procurement to renewable energy, targeting federal lands and water for clean energy development, and accelerating the permitting of clean energy and transmission projects – will help deliver on his twin pledges to simultaneously rebuild the U.S. economy and address the threat of climate change,” Zichal said.

Kuhn noted that the nation’s investor-owned electric companies “are committed to getting the energy we provide as clean as we can as fast as we can, without compromising on the reliability and the affordability that our customers value.” Electric utilities are focused on building the electric transmission and grid infrastructure needed to deliver that clean energy.

Additionally, EEI supports the administration’s commitment to double offshore wind generation by 2030.