Overall, the jury on the viability of renewable energy technologies is no longer sequestered. If anything, the grueling COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has drastically shifted energy consumption trends and demonstrated for the first time the supremacy of intermittent, renewable energy technologies, such as solar power, wind power and hydroelectric power over fossil fueled, combustible energy generation technologies such as coal and natural gas.
According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2020, net renewable energy generation and consumption surpassed that of coal for the first time in 130 years. Moreover, with the continuous development of superior battery storage technologies, the advent of a 100.0% green electric power grid has never been closer. However, even with such encouraging trends, the Biden administration’s goal of achieving economy-wide, net-zero emissions by 2050 still remains a colossal undertaking.
Spend not want not
Currently, it appears that President Biden will likely be using a similar playbook as to when he was last in the White House. Overall, the approach involves subsidizing renewable power development projects in the Construction sector in the United States, such as solar farm developers and solar panel installation. However, oil drilling and natural gas extraction will experience operational difficulties, with President Biden already repealing much of the deregulation in arctic drilling passed by his predecessor. Furthermore, President Biden plans use $40.0 billion in unused Department of Energy loan authority awards that were a part of the 2009 stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will likely be used to begin the financing of renewable energy development projects nationwide.
A light at the end of the tunnel?
With this transition, there is significant concern over the effect it will have on labor markets, with the main question being, “will a renewable energy transition create more jobs than it displaces?”
To ensure that more jobs are created, it is absolutely critical that the United States reshore the manufacturing capacity and necessary infrastructure for such a radical energy transformation. Should green energy technologies displace fossil fuels, it is not just petroleum refiners that will likely be out of a job. This signifies future trouble for gasoline and petroleum wholesalers, mining, oil and gas machinery manufacturers and for oil and refined petroleum pipeline operators as well as oil and gas field service technicians and oil and gas pipeline constructors, among many others.
Similar to a dead branch on a tree, the entire associated fossil fuel supply chain will likely wither, which is why the Biden administration should prioritize the bolstering of the renewable energy technologies supply chain, via the reshoring solar panel and wind turbine and battery manufacturing jobs and creating downstream job growth in the Transportation and Warehousing and Wholesale Trade sectors to compensate for job losses in fossil fuel-related industries. This transition will take time, much money and will not likely be simple; growing pains are to be expected.
Then again, in the greater scope of global climate change and despite significant potential losses to economic growth, a better question surrounding an energy transformation is, perhaps, “can we afford to wait?”
