Advanced Energy Perspectives

A few weeks ago, the Biden administration unveiled a $2 trillion plan to overhaul U.S. infrastructure. The American Jobs Plan included $174 billion for vehicle electrification to expedite the transportation industry’s shift away from fossil fuels. This funding targets the production of not only vehicles, but battery technologies, component parts, and raw materials used across the entire electric vehicle supply chain. That’s because electric vehicles (EVs) are different – and therein lies an opportunity for businesses, workers, and entire states to join the U.S. auto industry as transportation goes electric. One of those states is Illinois, where see the beginning of an electric transportation (ET) industry already in place, and poised to grow.

As we learned from the Advanced Energy Now 2021 Market Report, the U.S. market for advanced energy products and services proved remarkably resilient in 2020, despite the disruptions of COVID-19. Excluding Ethanol – a large but volatile slice of the domestic market that flipped from record 2019 revenue to 2020 crash – U.S. advanced energy revenue grew roughly 8% per year in both 2019 and 2020. But the COVID impact on employment was more severe, at one point accounting for the loss of more than 600,000 jobs. Still, at 3.2 million jobs nationwide at the end of 2020, advanced energy employs more U.S. workers than Food & Beverage Stores and twice as many as Commercial Banks. What’s more: advanced energy jobs are on the rebound, and ready to scale up for a national push for clean energy and jobs.

As President Biden hit his 50-day mark in office, his administration remains committed to keeping campaign promises to stimulate economic growth through development of clean energy sources that address the challenge of climate change. With new leadership appointed by Biden, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is taking a fresh look at the relationship between states and regional wholesale markets. And the Democratic majority in Congress is gearing up for a recovery and infrastructure package that could stimulate investment in advanced energy resources on a large scale. All this adds up to a new day in Washington, D.C., for the advanced energy industry. What that new day looks like was the subject of a recent webinar featuring AEE policy experts and speakers representing advanced energy developers and buyers.

Since taking office on January 20, President Biden has begun to lay out his plan for addressing four intertwined crises facing the country: the public health crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic crisis, climate change, and a legacy of racial injustice traced back to our country’s earliest roots. He has signed a series of executive orders aimed at addressing these crises, including rejoining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and outlining a whole-of-government response to climate change with a focus on clean procurement, environmental justice, and support for communities dependent on fossil fuel industries. And he has outlined plans to push two legislative packages: the American Rescue Plan, focused on immediate COVID-19 response, and the Build Back Better Plan, focused on economic recovery. While details of the Build Back Better Plan are still forthcoming, at its core is a massive investment in infrastructure, prioritizing clean energy, domestic manufacturing, and union jobs. At AEE, we have some ideas about how to get the most economic bang out of federal bucks by investing in advanced energy.