ICYMI - Last Friday, a group of 73 stakeholder groups and companies - including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Environmental Defense Fund, National Association of Manufacturers, and The Nature Conservancy – sent a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urging passage of the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) before the year is over. 

AEIA represents more than a year’s worth of bipartisan work by Chairman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Ranking Member Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and many additional Senators. The process-driven, consensus-based legislation, which would modernize the nation’s energy laws for the first time in more than 12 years, includes subtitles focused on efficiency, renewables, carbon capture and removal, energy storage, advanced nuclear, clean vehicles, industrial energy, mineral security, grid and cyber security, and workforce development. It incorporates the priorities of more than 70 Senators and, during initial floor debate in late February, drew support from more than 200 organizations. 

The letter of support is pasted below, along with a list of all of the groups and companies who signed onto it. We thank them and certainly agree – AEIA deserves to become law in 2020.

Full Text of the Letter in Support of the American Energy Innovation Act

September 11, 2020

Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Schumer: 

We write to ask that you and your fellow Senators pass the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) this Congress. We believe that the AEIA represents one of the most consequential legislative initiatives for modernizing our nation’s energy policies since the enactment of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) more than a decade ago. 

The very foundation of our country and our economy is reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, and this crisis has created the greatest shock to the global energy system since World War II. The International Energy Agency estimates that “global energy demand will fall 6 percent in 2020 – the equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India, the world’s third largest energy consumer.” Thousands of jobs have been lost as energy projects have stalled and office buildings and other businesses are shuttered. We cannot sustain and revitalize our economy without energy, and we now have both the challenge and opportunity to rebuild and retool our energy sector better and cleaner than before this global pandemic. 

The AEIA can help boost economic growth while also sending a strong bipartisan signal of confidence that America will continue to be a leader in energy and industrial technology innovation. We need to invest now to have the right technologies for tomorrow. The bill would enable transformational investments in energy innovation that include renewable energy; hydropower and marine energy; geothermal energy; energy storage; energy efficiency; carbon capture, utilization, removal and storage; advanced nuclear; supply chain management and other technologies. 

The AEIA is the cumulative result of 72 Senators sponsoring or cosponsoring more than 50 bills. The package includes a number of clean energy innovation bills that together will reduce carbon emissions in the United States and globally. The expansion of these programs will help drive down the costs and improve the performance of next generation clean energy and industrial systems, thus providing more options in both the U.S. and globally to meet midcentury emissions reduction goals. 

The AEIA represents the sort of collaborative policymaking and problem-solving for which Americans now yearn in a time of crisis. It is vitally important that we enact the AEIA this Congress to boost economic growth, preserve and create jobs and make the U.S. more secure, prosperous and capable of meeting our global climate challenges. 

Thank you for your consideration of our request. 

Sincerely, 

Accelergy Corporation 

Algae Biomass Organization 

American Conservation Coalition 

American Council of Engineering Companies 

American Elements 

American Exploration & Mining Association 

American Gas Association 

American Petroleum Institute 

ArcelorMittal 

Arizona Technology Council 

Baker Hughes 

Bipartisan Policy Center Action 

Business Council for Sustainable Energy

Capital Power 

Carbon America 

Carbon Capture Coalition 

Carbon Engineering 

Carbon Utilization Research Council 

Carbon180 

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions 

Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum 

Clean Air Task Force 

Clean Energy Business Network 

ClearPath Action 

Copper Development Association 

Core Energy, LLC 

DTE Energy 

Edison Electric Institute 

Environmental Defense Fund 

Fervo Energy 

Form Energy 

Gas Turbine Association 

Geothermal Resources Council 

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation 

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers 

Jupiter Oxygen Corporation 

Kanin Energy 

LanzaTech, Inc. 

Linde, Inc. 

Malta, Inc. 

Microsoft 

Ming Energy Partners 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. 

National Association of Manufacturers 

National Hydropower Association 

National Mining Association 

National Ocean Industries Association 

NET Power, LLC 

New Energy Risk 

New Steel International, Inc. 

North American Building Trades Union 

Nuclear Energy Institute 

Occidental 

Ormat Technology 

Pacific Ethanol 

Pine Gate Renewables 

Portland Cement Association 

Prairie State Generating Company 

Quidnet Energy 

Republic Services 

Reshoring Initiative 

Rye Development 

Shell 

SMART Transport Division (of the Sheet, Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) 

Society for Mining, Metallurgy, Exploration 

Svante 

Systems International - The ZEROS Project 

The Nature Conservancy 

Third Way 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce 

U.S. Energy Storage Association 

U.S. Nuclear Industry Council 

X-Energy