User:The Energy Futures Initiative

Energy Futures Initiative

The Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) is a United States based energy policy think tank established in 2017 by Ernest J. Moniz, the 13th U.S. Secretary of Energy.

Mission
The Washington, DC-based EFI conducts objective, fact-based and rigorous technical, economic, financial and policy analyses on the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. The organization’s work includes detailed reports, policy white papers, briefings and workshops as well as partnerships with NGOs in the energy and innovation space. In addition, Moniz is a high-demand speaker and lecturer on the energy transition who delivers keynote appearances at conferences and speaks about energy and in-proliferation issues on many media outlets. He also serves as co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. In its first two years, EFI focused its work on the energy transition and ensuring that the United States and the rest of the international community are working towards a decarbonized, net-zero economy by 2050. In 2019, Moniz debuted the concept of a ‘’Green Real Deal,’’ as a unifying Mission concept for EFI. Moniz noted, in introducing the framework for the Green Real Deal, that he ``does not believe that there is a solution for our 2050 goals and aspirations that does not involve major breakthroughs in new technologies.”

The Green Real Deal
In July 2019, EFI released the framework for a “Green Real Deal,” which provides a foundation for the organization's work and the necessary elements needed in order to facilitate the energy transition to net-zero emissions by midcentury. The Green Real Deal stresses the need for broad coalition building amongst policy makers, academics and climate experts, business leaders, and NGOs in order to work together to address climate change. The concept shares the Green New Deal’s principles of social equity and a low-carbon energy transition and offers ways to turn those aspirations into action. The EFI Green Real Deal is non-partisan, not affiliated with any political movement and dedicated to introducing a transition to low carbon energy sources on an accelerated timeline that keeps community disruptions to a minimum.

The Green Real Deal also highlights the need for policies that are science-based, analytically sound, and relevant to all sectors of the economy. In addition, policies and pathways for decarbonization need to provide maximum optionality and flexibility, have regional focuses, and advance social equity and workforce skills development.

Analytical Work
Since its founding, the group has published a variety of reports, white papers, and fact sheets that have taken into account the framework of the “Green Real Deal” and are used to inform world leaders, policy makers, business and the public about the energy transition. White papers and fact sheets include in-depth analyses of topics ranging from blockchains, the 45Q tax credit, nuclear energy, and the DOE’s Loan Program.

In 2019, EFI released four major reports. In September, EFI released “Clearing the Air,” a study on various carbon dioxide removal technologies. The report outlines a 10-year RD&D initiative to bring to commercial readiness innovative carbon dioxide removal technologies at gigaton scale, at technology-specific cost targets, with minimal ecological impacts. These technologies include major pathways such as direct air capture (DAC); terrestrial and biological; carbon mineralization; coastal and oceans. They also include two CO2 disposition pathways (geologic sequestration, CO2 utilization) and two cross-cutting programs (systems analysis, large-scale demonstration projects).

In April 2019, EFI released “Optionality, Flexibility, and Innovation: Pathways for Deep Decarbonization in California,” highlighting the various pathways that the state of California could take to reach its 40 percent carbon reduction goal by 2030 and 80 percent reduction by mid-century. The study suggested various low-carbon technologies that the state can use as well as proposed a new innovative agenda which will allow the state to maintain its global leadership position for low-carbon energy.

In February 2019, EFI released “Advancing the Landscape of Clean Energy Innovation,” a report commissioned by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy that assesses the United States' clean energy ecosystem and the various technologies with the highest market potential. Those pathways include electric grid modernization, carbon capture, and biological sequestration. The study suggests that for the U.S. to maintain leadership in clean energy, a variety of steps that need to be taken, such as increasing targeted public investments from across all stages of innovation and the strengthening of state and city roles in the innovation process. In addition, the report also notes that public-private partnerships are critical in advancing the research agenda and investments for new technologies as well as calls for the greater need of coordination between all stakeholders in energy innovation.

The U.S. Energy and Employment Report
EFI, in partnership with the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) has since 2018 released the annual “U.S. Energy and Employment Report” (USEER).

The USEER report is based on thousands of interviews with employers across the U.S., and thus provides detailed information on energy employment not found in Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The report is published on a separate website and includes information on job trends across five energy sectors: Fuels; Electric Power Generation; Transmission, Distribution and Storage; Energy Efficiency; and Motor Vehicles and Component Parts.

The report is accompanied by a job trend supplement tracking detailed employment in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and, since 2019 includes information on wages in across the energy sector.

A new edition of the USEER will be published in Spring of 2020.

2019 USEER The USEER database provides the following information: • Direct employment job counts in 53 different energy technologies • Hiring difficulty experienced by energy employers during the last year • Hiring projections of energy employers for the next twelve months • Identification of high demand occupations • Wage data by energy sector • Employer hiring expectations for the next 12 months • Breakdowns of energy employment by industrial classification • First-ever job counts and industrial classifications of energy efficiency jobs • Motor vehicle jobs by fuel type and parts’ contribution to fuel efficiency • Demographics of each technology by age, race, gender, and veterans status

The 2019 USEER found that the Traditional Energy and Energy Efficiency sectors in 2018 employed approximately 6.7 million Americans out of a workforce of approximately 147 million. Employment in these sectors increased in 2018 by 2.3% from the previous year, adding 151,700 net new jobs, nearly 7% of all new jobs nationwide.

Overall, firms covered by the survey anticipate roughly 4.6 percent employment growth for 2019. More than two-thirds of all employers (76.9 percent) reported difficulty hiring qualified workers over the last 12 months.

Solar energy firms employed 242,000 employees who spent the majority of their time on solar. That category declined by 3.2 percent, or more than 8,000 jobs in 2018. There were an additional 111,000 workers employed at wind energy firms across the nation in 2018, an increase of 3.5 percent or 3,700 jobs.

Transmission, Distribution, and Storage employed more than 2.3 million Americans, with just over 1 million working in retail trade (gasoline stations and fuel dealers). Excluding retail trade, this represents an increase of 33,000 new jobs or 2.6 percent.

USSER History The first two installments of the report were published and funded by the DOE under President Barack Obama. When Donald Trump’s administration did not commission a follow-up report in 2017, EFI joined with NASEO to raise private funds for the data collection form a variety of foundations and state energy offices.

EFI Content
Major Reports: • Clearing the Air, September 2019 • Optionality, Flexibility, and Innovation: Pathways for Deep Decarbonization in California, April 2019 • Advancing the Landscape of Clean Energy Innovation, February 2019 • Investing in Natural Gas for Africans: Doing Good and Doing Well, 2018 • The U.S. Energy & Employment Report (USEER) and 50-state supplement: 2018, 2019, 2020

White Papers: • Carbon Removal: Comparing Historical Federal Research Investments with the National Academies’ Recommended Future Funding Levels, April 2019 • Promising Blockchain Applications for Energy: Separating the Signal from the Noise, July 2018 • Advancing Large Scale Carbon Management: Expansion of the 45Q Tax Credit, May 2018 • Leveraging the DOE Loan Program: Using $39 Billion in Existing Authority to Help Modernize the Nation’s Energy Infrastructure, March 2018 • The U.S. Nuclear Energy Enterprise: A Key National Security Enabler, August 2017

EFI Leadership
The EFI team is comprised of a small group of analysts and policy experts who research energy technologies and provide policy recommendations to government and business leaders. It is led by Principals Melanie Kenderdine and Joseph Hezir, both of whom have worked under Secretary Moniz at the Department of Energy (DOE).

Melanie Kenderdine served at the DOE from 2013-2017 as the Energy Counselor to the Secretary as well as the Director of DOE’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. Kenderdine’s work included analysis and policy development in energy innovation, climate change, energy security, and energy systems and their infrastructure. Joe Hezir served under Secretary Moniz from 2013-2017 as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Advisor. Hezir managed the DOE Budget, which included strategic planning, programming, budget formulation, and execution.

Additional team members include:

David Ellis, Director of Strategic Communications and Policy Jeanette M. Pablo, General Counsel Alex Kizer, Director of Strategic Research Alex Breckel, Associate Director of Strategic Research Tim Bushman, Senior Analyst Sam Savitz, Analyst Anne Canavati, Analyst Natalie Volk, Communications and Business Development Associate Max Drickey, Special Assistant to the Principals