24 Varia
24.1 US Legislation
Clips from ‘Volts’:
Congress in december 2020 passed an enormous $900 billion coronavirus relief bill attached to an enormous $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill, adding up to a super-enormous $2.3 trillion megabill — at 5,593 pages, the longest bill Congress has ever passed. Buried in that megabill is the most substantial energy legislation passed in the US in over a decade.
The legislation will include a bill that would sign the US on to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which would reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 85% over 15 years. HFCs (used in air-conditioning, refrigerants, aerosols, etc.) are potent greenhouse gases, so full international implementation of the amendment is projected to avoid 0.5°C worth of warming all on its own.
Nuclear power and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) get the bulk of the funds.
There’s a ton of stuff on innovation, not only funding specific RDD&CA programs, but making more structural changes like establishing an Office of Technology Transitions in DOE and authorizing DOE to support regional clean-energy labs and incubators. There’s also a focus on funding demonstration and commercialization programs and technology transfer programs to accelerate innovation.
It authorizes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) “to compensate persons with scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical skills at a higher level than the rate allowed under the civil service.” This is nifty because FERC cases are incredibly important to the future of the electricity system, and big utilities can afford to hire high-priced experts to testify; this gives FERC more ability to hire its own experts.