Publications: Ed Rightor

Trying to force adoption of clean energy with subsidies, regulations, and exhortations will fail. The only realistic way to spur the green transition is to develop clean technologies that can reach effective price and performance parity with dirty ones. Then markets will adopt them at scale.

The pace of GHG reductions needs to greatly accelerate. Recent investments are a great start but are not sufficient. We need to amplify the current investments to achieve clean energy as the norm and improve competitiveness.

Transitioning heavy-duty trucks to net-zero emissions is an important yet formidable challenge. Expanded RD&D support is needed to meet emission goals at price-performance parity.

LDES is a linchpin for achieving a low-carbon energy future. DOE and its partners need to expand the range of demonstration types and extend them to end-users to accelerate learning, adoption, and impact.

It is vital that the hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) program prioritizes the delivery of commercially-viable low-carbon hydrogen and develops the market ready to buy it, which can be achieved through proper management of the program.

ITIF, Third Way, the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and the National Resources Defense Council expressed concern to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about the transparency practices that the Energy Department will adopt in implementing its H2Hubs program.

An example in the chemical industry shows why DOE should prioritize transformative technologies over incremental ones to achieve far greater carbon-reduction impact and trigger a cascade of industrial technology adoption.

As the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations seeks to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon technologies, it’s vital that process technology innovation be a significant portion of the portfolio.