Everyone’s talking climate. Let’s talk solutions

OPINION:

Farmers, ranchers, foresters and fishermen will all tell you the weather is different today from when they were younger, and their jobs have gotten harder.

Look, the climate is changing, and global industrial activity is contributing. We hear that from the oil and gas industry, power companies, and our friends in agriculture.

The challenge of global emissions is pretty well understood. But to complicate it, the U.S. will need to double our grid’s capacity by 2050. If the U.S. is going to do that, while ensuring the grid remains reliable and clean, and prices remain affordable, we’re talking about adding more than 20,000 clean energy projects to the grid over the next 27 years.

We cannot damage our economy in our efforts, especially during this time of high inflation and instability worldwide. We must pursue a market-driven agenda that makes clean energy more affordable rather than making existing energy sources more expensive or putting them off-limits. There are exciting solutions such as carbon capture technology, zero-emissions nuclear energy, and renewable sources like hydropower and geothermal that protect America’s workforce and, most importantly, make energy affordable, reliable, secure, and clean.

Our country has an abundance of natural resources, from fossil fuels to critical rare earth minerals. More importantly, we’re equipped with the American spirit and a passion to innovate. The clean energy development boom from 2005 to 2020 led to a decrease in U.S. emissions by more than 20% and made the U.S. a global leader in energy production.

We know how to do this, but must allow American energy producers to do what they do best.

Fortunately, there is a clear path to success. Conservative clean energy policy leverages American innovation, unleashes American resources, brings American manufacturing back home, and modernizes permitting.

From nuclear energy, to the shale gas revolution, to renewables — most of the energy we’re using today comes from American innovation.

If our policymakers embrace America’s resources, the U.S. can win the global race to a new energy economy. We shouldn’t depend on other countries for critical materials or natural gas when we have abundant resources here at home.

Let’s bring manufacturing and energy production back to the U.S. because our environmental standards are better than in China.

And to do all this, to double our grid by 2050, American energy producers must be allowed to build. Our energy permitting and regulatory system is extremely outdated, and by modernizing the permitting process, those 20,000 clean energy projects become a lot more feasible.

America’s economy is the strongest on the planet and if we allow our free-market advantage to work, we can lower emissions, reduce costs and America will win.

• Rich Powell is CEO of ClearPath, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that develops and advances policies that accelerate innovations to reduce and remove global energy emissions.