>>Vanessa Chan: So really fortunate to have so many great speakers and guests from the
federal government today but I have a real soft spot for our next speaker, the Secretary
of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
The passion and zeal that she brings is absolutely infectious
and I’m sure that after hearing her speak, like all of us here at DOE, you’re going
to be inspired and energized to do even more to
fight for our climate future.
Secretary Granholm was sworn in as the 16th Secretary
of Energy becoming just the second woman to lead our department.
And under her leadership we are helping the U.S. achieve
President Biden’s goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 by advancing cutting edge
clean energy technologies, creating millions of good paying union clean energy jobs and
building an equitable clean energy future.
Or to sum it up succinctly in her words: "deploy, deploy, deploy."
So it is such a great honor to have DOE’s own very fearless leader join us
in this incredibly important InnovationXLabs series focused on the Arctic.
Secretary Granholm the virtual floor is yours.
>>Jennifer Granholm: Okay, thank you so much, Vanessa.
Hello everybody.
What a treat to be on with you.
I mean I know that today you’ve been talking about why Alaska and
the Arctic are our living laboratories of clean energy innovation and how hopefully
the Biden administration’s ready to help kick
this work into higher gear through a Whole-Of-Government approach.
That phrase, "North to the Future," it embodies the same spirit that
Alaskans, especially Alaska Natives, have a lot to teach the Lower 48 on affordable
and reliable clean energy solutions.
And I just heard the tail end of the panel before and
Raina was talking about if you can do it in Alaska you can do it anywhere.
Man, I saw how firsthand this state is both ground zero
for climate change and a pioneer for the nation’s clean energy future.
Came in August, which is probably kind of weenie of me I
know but I did.
But nonetheless, it was very clear that Alaska understands the urgency of the climate
crisis better than anyone ‘cause it’s warming there faster than any other state.
In Fairbanks, I saw the trees toppling over.
I saw roads buckling from the thawing permafrost.
I learned how wildfires are getting worse every year in Alaska, that local
industries like salmon fisheries and logging are experiencing these unprecedented
challenges.
And, of course, all those changes are disrupting livelihoods and they’re really
hurting people, hurting pocketbooks.
The estimates are, you may have mentioned this, by
2030 those climate impacts are going to cost Alaskans $6.1 billion in infrastructure
upgrades alone.
But, in the far north, challenge has always come with opportunity and the
harsh Arctic climate as Raina was saying has really done this amazing thing of sparking
innovation by necessity for thousands of years.
And these recent changes are making it even more important to find new and affordable
and reliable sources of energy for all Alaskans and really important for the Lower
48 to learn from what Alaska is doing.
I know that one-fifth of Alaska’s electricity
already comes from hydropower which is fantastic.
More clean energy sources, I know, are entering the mix at a utility scale effort from
geothermal, which I love, and the Chena Hot Springs that I was visiting near Fairbanks
to the Fire Island wind development that I saw
near Anchorage.
Expanding renewables also at the micro scale is going to help address
the very unique energy challenges facing Alaska.
For Alaska’s diesel dependent remote communities, especially native villages,
expanding clean energy isn’t just about innovation and it’s not just about attacking
climate change.
It’s really about life.
It’s about meeting basic needs.
And I know that too many rural Alaskans are struggling to power
and heat their homes, sometimes spending up to half their income on just keeping warm.
It’s insane.
We know that Alaskan communities need Alaskan solutions and that’s
why DOE is tapping on the ground expertise to support Alaskan towns of all
sizes.
That’s why I know George Roe is here.
We have this Alaskan Energy Office which is critically important.
So the partnerships that we have forged over the years with native
communities and climate researchers have been really essential to developing the kind
of place-based solutions that are exemplified in Alaska and that Alaskans need.
If you look at, for example, Igiugig.
I don’t know if you’ve been talking about that today
but I love this example as one of 250 remote communities that was relying on a diesel
powered microgrid and it’s sitting on a river that’s part of the world’s largest
red salmon run and DOE worked with the community and
the company to develop and deploy two river current energy devices that function
in the icy cold of winter and don’t disrupt the
salmon run and they allow Igiugig to hit their diesel off goal four years ahead of
schedule.
I actually visited that company when I went to Maine because they want to
learn from what they’ve done in Alaska and bring it as a solution for river currents
and hydrokinetic power to other places as well
as a sort of small solution for remote communities that are outside of Alaska.
Super exiting.
I saw another great example of what Alaska is doing in Fairbanks at the Cold Climate
Housing Research Center where I met Robby Strunk.
He is making homes more affordable and more climate resilient in his native Quinhagak
which is a Yupik village in southwest Alaska.
He gave us some great salmon from the village as well.
So to Vanessa’s point if we want to deploy, deploy, deploy all these
solutions at scale, we have to speed commercialization.
And that of course is where ArcticX comes in.
We hope to combine the world class expertise of our national
labs, of our 17 national labs, with the know how
that Arctic communities have developed over centuries of innovation in the far north.
So together, we can get new technologies out
of the lab and into the field and onto the market
and support communities in taking control of their own clean energy future.
And throughout the process we’re going to be focused on just how much Washington,
D.C. – let me be clear, how much Washington, D.C. has to learn from the Arctic.
This Biden administration is going to continue
to turbo charge our investments in Arctic energy solutions starting with the historic
infrastructure deal that you have been discussing that President Biden just signed
into law two days ago.
It is going to help the Arctic make giant leaps toward a sustainable
and affordable energy future.
It’s why Senator Murkowski was so instrumental in forging
solutions.
It makes this historic investment in transmission to expand and to
upgrade Alaska’s energy infrastructure, to
make electricity more resilient, more reliable, more affordable.
It includes $700 million for hydropower, which is great.
It includes investments to modernize Alaska’s port
infrastructure and to provide funding for clean ferries and for clean buses.
Billions are going to go toward home weatherization efforts,
hugely important helping Alaskans save money while better preparing them for weather
extremes.
$216 million is going to for tribes for climate resilience projects.
It’s going to fund $21 billion in demonstration projects across the
country for emerging energy technologies like the ones you’ve been describing, like
hydrogen and advanced nuclear and carbon capture and energy storage, including that
billion dollars for these projects to happen in
rural communities that Vanessa was describing.
It’s also going to invest $7 billion in critical minerals and supply chains for batteries
so we can source and manufacture those batteries and cells right here in America.
And all of that is going to create jobs, jobs, jobs
and more jobs with wages that you can raise a family on.
And once we add in the remainder of the President’s Build Back
Better agenda, it’s going to catapult the Arctic
into this resilient future with growing local economies that are powered by clean and
affordable and reliable energy.
Because that second piece has got very aggressive tax credits to incentivize the location
of the generation of clean energy solutions and the building of the products that will
get us to those solutions.
And we want to build local economies on that.
So we in the Biden administration, we know that if the Arctic
can get this right the Lower 48 can too and we’re committed to investing in Arctic innovation
so that together we can unlock the nation’s clean energy future.
So today’s event was only the beginning.
We look forward to seeing you at the next ArcticX webinar
on tech transfer and justice in January.
And where we’ll know more about what has been
unlocked in Washington, D.C. in terms of resources.
And we hope to see you at our next in-person conference in Alaska in May.
So check out our Office of Technology Transitions
website if you want more information on that.
So, Vanessa and everybody, thank you so much for having me.
And as the saying goes, "north to the future!"
>>Vanessa Chan: Thank you so much Secretary Granholm.
Every single time I hear you speak I get more and more inspired and we
are all energized now to get behind the Arctic and do what we can to support this region.
You really help to bring home so many of the questions and important message we have of
the series.
As you put it, this is all about life and basic needs and through your vision we
are prioritizing Arctic since it is a perfect test
bed for harsh climates and to support place-based innovations that can help drive impact
in the icy cold.
And I love the example you gave of the salmon run and how that
innovation is now bringing solutions to other communities.
And so we’re really going to roll our sleeves up and get things out of
our labs and into the community.
And most importantly we’re here to listen to see
how we can learn from the Arctic.