ICYMI - Last Friday, a group of 73 stakeholder groups and companies - including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Environmental Defense Fund, National Association of Manufacturers, and The Nature Conservancy - sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging passage of the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) before the year is over.
AEIA represents more than a year’s worth of bipartisan work by Chairman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Ranking Member Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and many additional Senators. The process-driven, consensus-based legislation , which would modernize the nation’s energy laws for the first time in more than 12 years, includes subtitles focused on efficiency, renewables, carbon capture and removal, energy storage, advanced nuclear, clean vehicles, industrial energy, mineral security, grid and cyber security, and workforce development. It incorporates the priorities of more than 70 Senators and, during initial floor debate in late February, drew support from more than 200 organizations.
The letter of support is pasted below, along with a list of all of the groups and companies who signed onto it. We thank them and certainly agree - AEIA deserves to become law in 2020.
Full Text of the Letter in Support of the American Energy Innovation Act
Sept. 11, 2020
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer:
We write to ask that you and your fellow Senators pass the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) this Congress. We believe that the AEIA represents one of the most consequential legislative initiatives for modernizing our nation’s energy policies since the enactment of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) more than a decade ago.
The very foundation of our country and our economy is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, and this crisis has created the greatest shock to the global energy system since World War II. The International Energy Agency estimates that “global energy demand will fall 6 percent in 2020 - the equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India, the world’s third largest energy consumer." Thousands of jobs have been lost as energy projects have stalled and office buildings and other businesses are shuttered. We cannot sustain and revitalize our economy without energy, and we now have both the challenge and opportunity to rebuild and retool our energy sector better and cleaner than before this global pandemic.
The AEIA can help boost economic growth while also sending a strong bipartisan signal of confidence that America will continue to be a leader in energy and industrial technology innovation. We need to invest now to have the right technologies for tomorrow. The bill would enable transformational investments in energy innovation that include renewable energy; hydropower and marine energy; geothermal energy; energy storage; energy efficiency; carbon capture, utilization, removal and storage; advanced nuclear; supply chain management and other technologies.
The AEIA is the cumulative result of 72 Senators sponsoring or cosponsoring more than 50 bills. The package includes a number of clean energy innovation bills that together will reduce carbon emissions in the United States and globally. The expansion of these programs will help drive down the costs and improve the performance of next generation clean energy and industrial systems, thus providing more options in both the U.S. and globally to meet midcentury emissions reduction goals.
The AEIA represents the sort of collaborative policymaking and problem-solving for which Americans now yearn in a time of crisis. It is vitally important that we enact the AEIA this Congress to boost economic growth, preserve and create jobs and make the U.S. more secure, prosperous and capable of meeting our global climate challenges.
Thank you for your consideration of our request.
Sincerely,
Accelergy Corporation
Algae Biomass Organization
American Conservation Coalition
American Council of Engineering Companies
American Elements
American Exploration & Mining Association
American Gas Association
American Petroleum Institute
ArcelorMittal
Arizona Technology Council
Baker Hughes
Bipartisan Policy Center Action
Business Council for Sustainable Energy
Capital Power
Carbon America
Carbon Capture Coalition
Carbon Engineering
Carbon Utilization Research Council
Carbon180
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum
Clean Air Task Force
Clean Energy Business Network
ClearPath Action
Copper Development Association
Core Energy, LLC
DTE Energy
Edison Electric Institute
Environmental Defense Fund
Fervo Energy
Form Energy
Gas Turbine Association
Geothermal Resources Council
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
Jupiter Oxygen Corporation
Kanin Energy
LanzaTech, Inc.
Linde, Inc.
Malta, Inc.
Microsoft
Ming Energy Partners
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc.
National Association of Manufacturers
National Hydropower Association
National Mining Association
National Ocean Industries Association
NET Power, LLC
New Energy Risk
New Steel International, Inc.
North American Building Trades Union
Nuclear Energy Institute
Occidental
Ormat Technology
Pacific Ethanol
Pine Gate Renewables
Portland Cement Association
Prairie State Generating Company
Quidnet Energy
Republic Services
Reshoring Initiative
Rye Development
Shell
SMART Transport Division (of the Sheet, Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers)
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, Exploration
Svante
Systems International - The ZEROS Project
The Nature Conservancy
Third Way
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
U.S. Energy Storage Association
U.S. Nuclear Industry Council
X-Energy
