Obama's Energy Legacy

The other month I was thinking about how I’ve become “radicalized” for my own federal government. Is this nationalism? No, I think I just like Obama a lot. It’s more than a simple matter of supporting his policies. At this point in my life, he has become so crucial and important to me that I consider him to be a large part of my identity. I’m 30, the exact age of a person who would have been irrationally inspired by his 2008 campaign, but is too old to be “re-inspired” by any of the current 2016 Democratic candidates (of course, it doesn’t help that Obama is still a better choice than any of them). I owe my career to Obama. When I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley in December 2008, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month. I was hired by the federal government in April 2009. It was never explicitly stated to me, but I have a suspicion that I got my job due to the stimulus. I was hired as a civilian engineer in the Department of the Navy. For almost 5 years, I worked on renewable and energy efficiency projects at different Navy bases. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was a constant topic in the office, because that’s where most of our project funding came from during my first few years. Eventually, I saw the sequestration in 2013 first hand. Generally, the staff was happier during the stimulus years than the sequestration years. I’m not with the federal government anymore, now I work at a private energy efficiency consulting company where I see California’s energy policy on display every day. The United States as a whole will adopt California’s energy policy over the next few decades (not exactly, but in spirit). Obama wants to speed up that process, but others in government are resistant. Obama has been this background presence ever since I left school, always advocating for policies that help my career and industry.

And obviously, I love this. It’s satisfying to see the United States make significant progress on decarbonization. Obama has played a huge role. I recently read “The New New Deal” by Michael Grunwald, a book that delves into the specifics of the stimulus and what exactly it funded. Within a month of taking office, Obama passed the largest clean energy boost ($90 billion) by an order of magnitude over previous presidents. While lawmaking for renewable energy stalled after that, Obama got a mind boggling amount of stuff done on the administrative side. To start, he raised Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for vehicle efficiency, gradually increasing every year until they double 2009 levels in 2025. This includes the first ever efficiency mandate The Department of Energy released a steady stream of very effective efficiency rulemakings on mechanical equipment and appliances. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued numerous emissions rules aimed at reducing coal power competitiveness, culminating in the 2015 Clean Power Plan. Obama convinced China to agree to reduce emissions, and the Department of State led the 2015 Paris Climate Talks. In 2016, the Department of the Interior placed a 3 year moratorium on new coal leases on Federal lands. Many other smaller government agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) created rules (such as order 745) that contribute to the development of the smart grid. And all throughout that time, the Department of Defense spent lots of money on high visibility projects like large scale PV and wind plants on their bases and fighter jets powered by biodiesel fuel. It all adds up to a staggering climate legacy.

Obama should rightfully be credited as the architect of the American clean energy future. Al Gore certainly deserves a lot of credit, and guys like Elon Musk in private industry are also articulating the future. Jerry Brown is a visionary but still can only impact 1% of worldwide emissions in California. Obama currently has so much power that it’s almost an unfair advantage to compare him to anyone else.

He didn’t need to care this much about climate change – a very small minority of the American people rate it as their top concern. But he was able to see the connection between improving the economy and pushing clean energy. And he saw the diplomatic advantages for the United States if we lead the world in energy instead of being surpassed by Europe and China. He saw the community benefits of pushing transit options over the car culture. For example, California will be transformed by its high speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, partially funded by ARRA.

I have been following the 2016 presidential election closely. I believe that it is crucial for the clean tech industry that a Democrat sits in the White House on January 20^th, 2017. I’d like to write about Obama’s energy achievements over the next few months and hopefully make the case that progressives should celebrate the last 8 years, and eagerly support the Democratic nominee in the upcoming election. There is so much at stake this year, especially in clean tech. I plan to highlight these specific Obama energy achievements:

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“the stimulus”, 2009)
• $90 billion in clean energy funding.
• Department of Transportation (DOT) mass transit funding (high speed rail, other rail upgrades).
• Department of Energy (DOE) ARPA-E program.
• DOE green building energy code requirements.
• DOT CAFE fuel standards – forcing the automakers to double their efficiency standards (2011).
• EPA rulemakings on mercury, soot, others, that enabled the shutdown of 1/3 of the US Coal power plant fleet (2009-2016).
• DOE EERE energy efficiency rulemakings on appliances & equipment (2009-16).
• Advanced RTU Campaign (2013).
• Efficiency rulemakings that will save over 2 billion metric tons of CO₂ emissions by 2030.
• US-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change (2014).
• EPA Clean Power Plan (2015).
• Rejection of Keystone XL pipeline (2015).
• Paris Agreement (2015).
• Wind and Solar tax credit extension to 2021 (2015).
• Department of Interior Moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands (2016).
• FERC Order 745 (2011, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2016).

Cap-and-trade is conspicuously missing, but at least California is doing it. And of course this isn't enough. Climate change is a generation-defining worldwide problem and we won't solve it for a very long time. But the last 8 years have been groundbreaking in many ways. The momentum now points to a future where this problem might be solved. 

In the process of writing these posts, I may uncover more goodies and write about those as well. And don’t count out some more “legacy worthy” achievements that Obama might pull off as 2016 unfolds. The point is – the record needs to be set straight. Obama is a visionary on US climate policy and his legacy must be strengthened in 2017 and beyond – not abandoned. 2016 will be the most critical presidential election ever for climate change (until the next one). We better not blow this!