Federal energy policy at the beginning of the Biden administration

Multiple national news outlets have called the 2020 presidential election for former Vice President Joe Biden. And while the Trump campaign continues to file suits around the country to challenge the results, clean energy advocates and developers are looking ahead to a Biden administration and what its policies will mean for the industry and the climate. 

Climate was “front and center” in many races on Election Day, said Nidhi Thakar, the co-chair at Clean Energy for Biden and director of strategy at Portland General Electric, in a webinar panel Thursday, hosted by the Clean Energy Business Network and titled “Election Results and Impacts for the Clean Energy Economy.”

“I think new leadership in the White House hopefully means that this is going to provide a better runway for opportunity to think from a business perspective about how we can further support innovation, rapid decarbonization through renewables and other technologies, well-designed clean energy tax credits … and transportation electrification and infrastructure,” Thakar said.  

Beyond simpler changes like rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, other changes to federal energy policy and expenditure will be more complicated. With that in mind, bipartisanship was a common refrain during the panel.  

As nearly every industry looks for a lifeline or steady footing amid the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, the federal government will have to ramp up investments, given states don’t have the ability to borrow or deficit spend, said panelist Karen Wayland, principal at KW Energy Strategies. That includes investments in clean energy programs and projects, she said.

“I think under a Biden administration we’re going to see this move to increase investments in the clean energy space, both to create jobs and to scale up deployment to address … carbon emissions,” Wayland said. “But I think we’re really going to see the Biden administration … looking for common ground. That’s what Joe Biden has done over his career working in the Senate, and I think he’s well-liked, even by some of the very conservative Senators that he’s going to have to work with to get to 51 votes on anything.”

Wayland predicted a “180 degree” change in the Executive Branch’s approach to the State Energy Program, which provides funds and technical assistance to state energy programs. Trump, she said, repeatedly tried to kill the program. She predicted the same change in approach for all clean energy programs, grants, and resources available at the federal level. 

Before the Biden administration can take office, however, more than two months remain in President Trump’s lame duck period. 

Wayland and panelist Charles Hernick, the vice president of policy and advocacy at the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum, both stressed the American Energy Innovation Act as something that could be acted upon in the coming months. 

“That’s the primary thing and the lowest hanging fruit between Republicans and Democrats, in any talking point, is innovation. Right now, the Senate, thanks to the multi-year stewardship and bipartisanship (of) Senator Murkowski, has been able to put together a bill that is a fantastic down payment on climate change. It’s squarely focused on innovation. It provides a tremendous update to where we need to be for updating things from nuclear policy to carbon capture and many others,” Hernick said. “There is a narrow window but one where there are active negotiations on Capitol Hill right now.”

There are 72 Senators who have spoken in favor of the bill, Wayland said. 

“I think some House members are interested in seeing that bill passed because it kind of clears the deck and allows them to turn to potentially a clean energy standard and other pieces of clean energy policy in 2021,” Wayland said. 

She added the need for another stimulus bill to be passed with funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. If that does not come to pass, she said, the industry will be in a “big world of hurt” in 2021.

“It’s going to be very difficult over the coming years for utilities. There’s going to be a lot of suffering. People are going to be holding billions of dollars, collectively, in debt, in unpaid electricity bills,” Wayland said. “But the utilities and the public utility commissions that approve their plans to move towards clean energy … are really going to be hamstrung if there are what is projected to be tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue from low load and … unpaid bills.”

John Hart, the Co-founder and Vice President, C3 Solutions, said he has learned not to hope for too much from Congress, but, as a conservative, sees major overlap in interests on energy policy from both sides, including an emphasis on research and development, and infrastructure. 

“Unfortunately, having worked in the Senate for ten years, I learned the hard way to have low expectations of movement and then to have those expectations exceeded,” Hart said. “And I’m concerned that in the short term … whenever there’s an unstable power dynamic in the Senate, that makes it very difficult for any major packages to move.”