Well, thanks, Nancy, and -- for the kind introduction but also for adjusting the microphones -- (laughter)
-- since that was
also appropriate and --although the reference to decades of
experience
was a bit cruel. (Laughter.) But it's
all right.
I
think we turn to the current challenges and the president's -- as already stated, the
president's very, very strong commitment to clean energy, a low-carbon economy and addressing
the risks of climate change, and frankly, this is the reason why it came back to town.
I mean, there's lots of challenges at DOE, but this is an overarching one for our society.
And the opportunity to help the president in this was just one that could not be -- could
not be passed up.
So the president, you know -- I think, you know, if you kind of talk about a string of
relevant -- relevant-to-this-discussion objectives, of course, you know, the economy and jobs
is critical; climate, critical; clean tech is critical; reduced oil dependence is critical.
And I think we're going to talk a little bit about the agenda, as to how all these things
come together in ways that reinforce our approach to the climate -- to the climate challenge.
I will note that in his second inaugural address, when, quote, the president said, "We, the
people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves but
to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure
to do so would betray our children and future generations" -- in that context, I'd like
to say that I'm not here to debate what's not debatable. The threat from climate change
is real and urgent. The science fully demands a prudent response. Just this month, as you
know, I mean, it's kind of symbolically hitting essentially 400 ppm of CO2. Of course that's
not including the non-CO2 greenhouse gases, which really pump you up to about 450, in
effect. So we really need to -- we need to get after this. It's an important imperative.
And now the question is, what are the solutions? And this is where there is, in fact, now what
I would call legitimate debate. Let's debate the solutions as opposed to the -- to the
-- to the driver.
So again, economy and jobs, climate, clean tech, reduced oil dependence.
Let me say a little bit some of the areas that we intend to emphasize at the department
over the next 3 ½ years, roughly.
And we're going to start with energy efficiency, a classic win-win-win situation, an area that
we certainly intend to try to amplify the efforts of the department and the administration
with a strong full-court press, and I think we look to do this kind of, you know, across
the board -- it's in appliance standards, it's in buildings, it's in industrial processes,
it's in vehicles -- and maybe just say a few words -- a few words about those.
On the appliance standards, the standards put in place in the last four years are projected
to save almost $2 trillion over 20 years. It's important. But there's a lot more sitting
there in the queue. We all know that we need to kind of accelerate the pace of getting
these out, and that's something that we're certainly going to work very hard at.
In terms of buildings, just yesterday we were able to put out the scorecard on the Better
Buildings Challenge, working with our partners in the commercial -- in the kind of commercial
and industrial arenas, to go after the president's goal of a -- of a 20 percent reduction beyond
baseline by 2020. And the partners are reporting in we're on track. I mean, it's -- we've got
to keep at it. (Chuckles.) We can't -- we can't relax. But we're kind on track.
You go to the industrial arena. The president has put forward a manufacturing initiative.
The Department of Energy is one player in that, and you know, this sounds potentially
like I'm reverting to MIT scientist mode and talking about high band gap semiconductors
for power electronics, but when you think that through, with success in that area, big
efficiency implications in our -- in our energy system.
Then you go to vehicles, and of course the president already has the very strong fuel
economy standards for 2025, which will have major implications, but I'm just going to
use that now to pivot away from efficiency to the -- to the vehicle sector and reducing
oil dependence, which of course has three major components: efficiency, which we've
discussed; secondly, alternative fuels -- could be using our natural gas resources that we
have, advanced biofuels, et cetera -- and third, electrification. And that's the one
that I'll mention, because yesterday, again, I think a very important announcement when
Tesla fully repaid its loan -- you know, it's a lot of money, talking about, you know, approaching
half a billion dollars -- way ahead of schedule, a great success story, 3,000 jobs at Tesla,
export markets developing, Consumer Reports -- best car they ever reviewed -- not best
electric vehicle, best car they ever reviewed -- Motor Trend Car of the Year.
And we know this program has been maligned in some -- in some ways, and there has been,
of course, as you would expect in a -- in a high-risk portfolio, some companies that
didn't make it. But the fact is that the legislated loan loss reserve is probably going to be
used up at about the 10 percent level. So that's pretty good, I think, on indication.
So we've got to keep at it, and we will. But again, I think this is an example of a great
success story in terms of getting the -- getting a real lift with a company like this. And
it fits into a theme, frankly, with what the president has done in general with the auto
industry. You know, people forget in 2009 the word "toast" was often used in the context
of the auto industry. Today we have a healthy industry, Ford also with one of the -- a very
large loan that's led to retooling in many states for new technologies, all the way to
Tesla, with obviously groundbreaking technologies, a really different picture in three or four
years. So that's just one kind of example there, and we're going to -- we're going to
keep working at this kind of -- this kind of innovation.
The -- now the Tesla story is a great one for the economy and jobs part, for the clean
tech part, for the reduced oil dependence part, but what about the climate part? Well,
that just tells us now we got to go back to the issue of decarbonizing the electricity
sector. And we've seen in these four years a doubling of renewables in deployment. The
president's committed to doubling that again and then in these next years, up to 2020.
And you know, we've had this tremendous boon, part of the president's all-of-the-above strategy,
if you like, this -- the -- to embrace the way the natural gas revolution has really
changed the face of the energy scene here. We know it's been a -- it's been a significant
contributor to the -- to the decreased CO2 emissions over the -- over these last -- over
these last years, a very, very important bridge in this context to a low-carbon future.
But the key is we have to use the time that we have during this bridge period to really
push on the development of the technologies, so that they are ready for getting out there
at very, very large scale. That's what we're doing, and the president's budget for 2014
certainly aligns very, very well with that -- with that strong push of clean energy.
Secretary Chu, I think, did a terrific job, in some sense literally changing the face
of technology innovation at DOE, ARPA-E being the most -- the most known example. But in
addition, we tend to forget, back in 2009, using quite a bit of recovery money, the energy
frontier research centers were established. These are -- these are terrific. Innovation
hubs are going out there.
So I think, you know, the department is really going also after new models -- new models
of innovation, and they're going to build on that and do more. I won't go into detail
here, but for example, those of you -- the aficionados who read PCAST reports religiously
-- (laughter) -- can go back to December 2010 and look at a report that recommended a quadrennial
energy review. And that's a process to really lead to a new way of integrating all these
threads of policy, and we will be pursuing that.
So that's just a little bit of what we're going to do. Let me just end by saying a few
words about a specific activity that we were involved with from our external approach last
year and now internally, what's called the C3E initiative, Clean Energy, Education and
Empowerment initiative, aimed at attracting women to clean energy careers and leadership
positions.
The core of this program is a cohort of approximately 30 C3E ambassadors, leaders from across the
energy enterprise, committed to solving energy challenges, clean energy, and going out and
helping to hopefully inspire more women to enter into these fields.
There are several here today, I think, on the agenda. I think Kateri Callahan is back
there, Alliance to Save Energy. Frances Beinecke is there -- (chuckles) -- NRDC and also, I
might say, a C-AD (sp) member over at the Department of Energy. Dorothy Robyn is somewhere
here, maybe. Maybe not. Oh! Way in the back. OK. (Laughter.) And you heard about Dorothy's
work at GSA, but I want to go back to her checkered past of really worrying about the
energy efficiency, particularly in military installations, and Nancy Pfund, of DHL (sic;
DBL) Investors, sitting over here.
I mean, there's many accomplishments of this group of ambassadors, a couple -- Alla Weinstein,
who started an offshore wind company, Principle Power; Kim Saylors-Laster, Wal-Mart vice president
of energy. And they've -- she worked very hard in expanding solar generation, on-site
solar generation, among other things. And also today I'm very pleased to announce another
ambassador, Melanie Kenderdine, who will stand up, briefly. (Laughter.) So you will get to
know who you should be contacting. Melanie is not a veteran of the DOE like I am -- I
mean, right now I've been there three days. (Laughter.) She's been there two hours. (Laughter.)
And -- but she was in many ways the driving force of the C3E initiative, and I'll explain
how that comes together, briefly. This was really -- the whole thing was an initiative
of the Clean Energy Ministerial. Melanie participated in a -- in a panel in Abu Dhabi in the ministerial
and, I think it's fair to say, came back and talked with DOE and kind of said, well, let's
do it. Let's get something done.
Melanie was -- I should say she was previously head of policy at DOE in the Clinton administration.
The last six years or so she's been -- served as the executive director of the MIT Energy
Initiative, which I was -- I was leading until three days ago. And so the confluence of that
was that we ended up hosting at MIT last September, in partnership with the Department of Energy,
the first C3E meeting. It was so successful, incredible energy in the room -- not a pun
-- and it's going to happen again this year. Ironically, it'll be back at MIT, but I will
kind of revert -- (chuckles) -- I guess reverse, reverse roles. But it was just a tremendous
initiative and I encourage you to talk to the ambassadors and maybe, as the ambassador
ranks expand, many of you should be -- hopefully step forward to do that.
So I'm going to conclude and just say that again what you all do is really important.
And we want to work with you, certainly, in that. We are, I think, empowered by the president's
commitment to pursue climate and the solutions to climate -- and we're going to work hard
the next 3 ½ years, and we'd welcome your support and rolling up your sleeves and getting
into it with us.
Thank you very much.