U.S. Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s $2 trillion clean energy plan could end natural gas consumption in power generation within 15 years, Kallanish Energy reports.
To achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2035, Biden is supporting the development and expansion of green energy “to build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic.
While a ban on fracking has been a contradictory campaign topic, Biden is careful in not making the industry an enemy, particularly in Pennsylvania, home to the Marcellus shale play.
Yet, to deliver on its “100% clean energy target,” Biden is betting on renewables and investment in innovation, instead of the gas industry. It plans to produce green hydrogen “at a lower cost than hydrogen produced from shale gas” through innovation in technologies like next generation electrolyzers.
It plans to decarbonize industrial heat with renewables and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology; as well as plug abandoned oil and gas wells and reclaim coal and uranium mines for agriculture and conservation purposes.
“If we move ambitiously to generate clean, American-made electricity, while building the infrastructure to electrify major sectors of our economy, we will meet the existential threat of climate change, create millions of good union jobs; make economic growth more accessible in every state and across Indian Country, and lead the world in inventing, manufacturing, and exporting clean energy technologies,” states the Biden campaign.
And to that end, a major focus of Biden’s commitment is to increase federal procurement by $400 billion in his first term to purchase key clean energy inputs like batteries and electric vehicles “that will help position the U.S. as the world’s clean energy leader.”
Similar to coal a decade ago, gas is facing both political and economic headwinds, with recent research by BNEF showing that wind and solar energies are already cheaper in most places, compared to other power generation fuels. (See related story)
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