3 ways to spend

Biden’s clean-energy windfall faster

By Gernot Wagner & Julio Friedmann

[1] Nationalize clean energy projects

The most direct and disruptive option is the least likely: Nationalize clean energy and infrastructure projects. Think: the Works Progress Administration (WPA) part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

TRUE GREENS CHOOSE DUCT TAPE OVER RED TAPE

In this (farfetched) scenario, the federal government would, by fiat, build ports and pipelines, seize land for transmission lines and renewable projects, and place charging stations for electric vehicles in every neighborhood. It would create carbon dioxide storage utilities to pump the captured CO2 and create a strategic hydrogen reserve akin to the petroleum one.

Those who want a wartime footing to address climate concerns would get just that,

[2] Reform the permitting process

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would need to become significantly more activist in siting new power lines across state borders. U.S. agencies could fast-track liquefied natural gas export terminals if they met key conditions. For example, if they were compatible with green ammonia and hydrogen export. Or if they came with a watertight contract to displace coal plants overseas, negotiated with help from the State Department and money from the Export-Import Bank.

[3] Help local governments use federal money

… the EPA and the Energy Department, including its National Laboratories, could deploy experts en masse into communities to tackle local concerns. These wonks would not come empty-handed. They would offer solutions, ranging from tightening local pollution limits to building additional clean infrastructure or efficiency measures, with negotiated agreements not to sue. Heading off legal challenges must be part of any way forward.

Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School. Julio Friedmann is chief scientist at Carbon Direct.

Published in The Washington Post on March 13th, 2023.