Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The urgency of the COVID-19 crisis and the climate crisis require us to advance job-creating innovation policies that reduce pollution as immediately as possible, and one important step that we can take now is to increase our Federal investments in clean energy innovation. Equally important, the far-reaching movement for racial justice requires us to root out racism on all fronts, and one important way to do that is reduce toxic pollution that disproportionately impacts communities of color while building a more equitable energy system.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C released on October 8, 2018, established a need for unprecedented global action to address climate-warming pollution in the next decade. Fostering innovation in the development of zero-emission energy and industrial processes through increased funding for public research, development, and demonstration is one essential piece of a broader suite of policies we must implement in order to meet global decarbonization goals.
The United States committed to doubling its public clean energy investments by fiscal year 2021 when it helped launch Mission Innovation, a global initiative working to accelerate clean energy innovation, with the European Union and 22 other countries in conjunction with the 2015 Paris Agreement. While appropriations for clean energy research and development have grown since 2015, current Federal investments in clean energy are significantly behind the scale needed to spur decarbonization across the United States economy.
The American Energy Innovation Council and the International Energy Agency have called for a tripling in clean energy funding to help ensure a more environmentally sustainable, secure, and affordable energy system. Increases in funding for the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy, Office of Electricity, Office of Indian Energy Policy, and Office of Science clean energy programs, which include basic energy sciences, biological and environmental research, fusion research and advanced science computing research, are an important step in meeting United States commitments to the Mission Innovation goals and addressing the climate crisis.
In addition to helping address the climate crisis, these investments will also spur job growth, new business opportunities and economic recovery; help reduce air and water pollution improve energy security, help secure United States leadership in clean technology innovation, deployment, and manufacturing; and advance United States economic competitiveness internationally as we develop and sell technologies globally. Increases in funding for these research and development programs are vital to addressing pollution from difficult-to-decarbonize sectors, such as industry, aviation, shipping, and heavy-duty transportation.
Successful demonstration at commercial scale will be necessary to establish cost, reliability, and performance characteristics, especially in technology related to industrial emissions, energy storage, and smart grid deployment. According to the International Energy Agency, demonstration is an important part of the development of new technologies that includes design, construction, and operation of a prototype of a technology at or near commercial scale with the purpose of providing technical, economic, and environmental information to industrialists, financiers, regulators, and policymakers.
Department of Energy research, development, and demonstration have already resulted in innovation and cost reduction across clean energy technologies and, with increased funding, has the potential to accelerate these to benefit all sectors and communities.