How the U.S. Energy Department Reorganized to Champion Clean Energy

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Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is one of the most enthusiastic champions of the Biden Administration’s climate agenda. Since the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) just over two years ago, she has hopped around the country and around the world touting U.S. clean technology investments catalyzed by the law and other infrastructure dollars. I’ve seen her speak everywhere from Houston to Paris, drawing big crowds and delivering a characteristically upbeat, almost cheerful view of the work being done to decarbonize and revitalize American industry.

And yet, in an interview in New York last month, she told me she still worries that the public may not fully appreciate the magnitude of the change underway. “People don't fully understand the moment in history we're in with the incredible explosion of clean energy that is coming onto the grid,” she says. “Once the history is written, people will say, ‘wow, this was the moment where we really got serious.’”

In our conversation, Granholm touts familiar data points: 800 new or expanded clean technology manufacturing facilities in the U.S. during the Biden Administration; 60 GW of clean energy capacity this year alone (equivalent to 30 Hoover Dams). She touts the diverse geographic distribution of these investments. “How fantastic is it that every pocket of America is benefiting from this clean energy transformation?” she asks enthusiastically.

But when I ask what she’s most proud of, the first thing that comes to mind is the agency’s reorganization that has allowed the agency to achieve what it has. In the past, the Department of Energy (DOE) has focused in large part on nuclear energy and basic research. Under Granholm’s watch, the agency has continued that remit while turning its attention to helping deploy clean energy. Indeed, since she took office in 2021, the DOE has reorganized from the ground up, hiring nearly 1,000 people and creating new leadership positions. Those changes, she says, have helped the agency implement 60 new programs and fund thousands of projects.

“We are exercising a muscle we have not exercised before,” she says. 

That deployment focus has homed in on activating the private sector—a choice clear from the personnel hired to execute the vision. David Crane, who was appointed the under secretary for infrastructure, previously served as the CEO of the energy company NRG. Jigar Shah, a well-known climate tech investor, took over the Loans Program Office, which is responsible for lending money. Vanessa Chan, a former partner at McKinsey & Company, became chief commercialization officer. Corporate executives sometimes complain about various challenges working with DOE (things like the quantity of paperwork), but there’s no question that the reorganization has allowed the agency to reach the private sector in a way it hasn’t before.

Whether the reorganization sticks will depend in large part on who wins the presidential election—a question that hangs heavy over the climate world. Former President Donald Trump’s allies have signaled a desire to return the agency to its older, more circumscribed remit. And while Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t offered too much detail on her climate plans, it’s fair to guess that she would provide continuity to the implementation of the IRA.   

Granholm insists that the momentum will continue either way thanks to the simple economics of clean energy. “This momentum is inexorable,” she says, adding that with “the incentives we’ve made it irresistible.”

And then there are other changing market dynamics. For the past two years, the energy transition—and the DOE by extension—has faced various headwinds. High interest rates have made deploying clean energy more costly. And supply chain hiccups have slowed down the transition. Slowly but surely, though, these challenges are being resolved. Interest rates have begun to come down; supply chains have adjusted to a post-COVID reality. Granholm calls those speed bumps “underbrush” and she says it's “being cleared away.” 

Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, touts specific examples of new manufacturing spurred by the IRA: iron-air batteries installed in Maine and battery manufacturers that have popped up in Washington state and West Virginia, to name a few. The investments have changed the situation on the ground, she says. 

“In Michigan, we had the highest unemployment rate in the nation because of all the loss of these manufacturing jobs and the meltdown in the auto industry. And we used to say, ‘where are we going to find jobs for all of these people?’” she says. “Now we're saying, ‘Where are we going to find people for all of these jobs?’”

When the chaos of the presidential campaign gives way to calm, the American public will have the opportunity to grapple with the policy choices that have led to a surge in clean technology in communities across the country. Building that popular understanding and support may be the best way to ensure that those measures are here to stay.

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