President’s Post: The Connection Between Federal Energy Policy & Clean Energy
By John Di Stasio, President of LPPC
Each year, the great minds leading the way for clean energy innovation come together at National Clean Energy Week (NCEW) to collaborate and share perspectives about America’s energy future. Motivated by the belief that a clean energy future is within our reach, these business leaders, advocates, policymakers, and trade associations share their perspectives about advancing the technologies and systems that produce little or no carbon emissions. I’m honored to have had the opportunity to sit side-by-side with these bi-partisan leaders to discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead for the energy industry.
LPPC members are deeply engaged in the energy transition, retiring old resources and building new ones. Public power utilities do this while keeping customers at the forefront because the speed at which they transition low- or zero-carbon-emitting resources has significant implications for affordability and reliability. Add the expanding forecast for new load growth, and the clean energy transition dynamics become even more complex, as we are seeing an emerging gap between not just replacing the older generation with new, but with the ability to meet significantly more load.
As I shared with the NCEW audience, permitting and support from the federal government sit at the center of this historic transition. Fellow panelist Dan Brouillette, President & CEO of the Edison Electric Institute, echoed this sentiment. He shared his experience leading an effort to secure financing for a large LNG expert facility to San Diego, whereby the “only question I really got was do you have a permit, or can you get a permit? That's really the hinge and the fulcrum upon which all of these decisions [are made].”
As not-for-profit entities that can’t typically access the energy policy incentives delivered through the tax code, public power has an additional layer of complexity. I shared that “We need to do it through a counterparty, and that can be pretty complex. So, we were thrilled that elective pay was included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) because it gave public power a sense of comparability. But public power continues to wait for the federal government to provide guidance for using elective pay, which introduces significant risk. Unclear domestic content rules add uncertainty, and without safe harbors, public power can't make confident investments on behalf of its communities.”
