Business Roundtable Releases Suite of U.S. Energy Policy Recommendations in Response to Rising Energy Costs, War in Ukraine

Washington – Today, Business Roundtable released “A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy,” a suite of policy recommendations in response to rising energy costs. Already tight energy markets – due to lower production during the pandemic and more recently rising demand – have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and its global implications. The recommendations include measures to increase U.S. production and export of oil, natural gas and renewables; accelerate the clean energy transition; and reduce overall energy demand. Read the full Roadmap here.

Business Roundtable welcomes the Administration’s recent actions to increase liquified natural gas exports, open more federal lands for leasing and improve transmission, which will help expand American energy production and capacity. However, more actions are needed to address the elevated risk of a global energy crisis and its cascading economic impacts, including for U.S. households and families.

“The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the energy, economic, national security and climate risks our nation and global allies face,” said George R. Oliver, Chairman and CEO, Johnson Controls and Chair, Business Roundtable Energy and Environment Committee. “A comprehensive short- and long-term energy strategy must be the top priority for Congress and the White House in light of rising energy costs and the recent ban on Russian energy, which was a much-needed step, as well as the ever-present and growing threat of climate change.”

“A clear commitment to increasing domestic energy production is necessary to preserve our strong economy, on which our transition to a greener future depends,” said Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten. “The Administration should make clear that America will double down on both efforts to advance clean energy technologies and on increasing U.S. production and export of oil and natural gas during the transition.”

As the Roadmap states, “the United States should orient its energy policies to simultaneously increase global energy security, improve national security for the United States and its allies, and address environmental threats, including climate change.” This will require a strong multilateral energy partnership among North American, European and similarly situated democracies to address the gap in supply, provide affordable energy and reduce global emissions.

Business Roundtable urges policymakers on both sides of the aisle to depoliticize energy policy and work with the business community to take swift action on the following suite of policies:

1. Enable expanded use of a diverse energy portfolio and clean technologies (i.e., oil and natural gas with increased investment in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS); renewables; electric vehicles; batteries and energy storage; advanced nuclear; biofuels; biomass; hydrogen; etc.), while accelerating progress toward climate goals.
2. Enact clean energy incentives. Items for consideration should include the production tax credit for wind; investment tax credit for solar; standalone energy storage tax credit; hydrogen tax credit; CCUS tax credit; combined heating and power tax credit; electric vehicle purchasing incentives; biodiesel and renewable green diesel tax credit; advanced energy manufacturing credit; sustainable aviation fuels incentives; and the zero-emissions nuclear power production tax credit.
3. Continue to expand liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to meet growing demand, particularly in Europe, by accelerating the building of LNG export infrastructure and associated pipelines, including but not limited to measures that would enable project financing.
4. Support development of conventional and renewable energy assets on on-shore and off-shore federal lands by accelerating relevant leasing programs and ensuring timely permitting of infrastructure needed to deliver energy resources to market.
5. Accelerate the permitting of energy infrastructure that can be used to deliver fuels and power, particularly flexible infrastructure that can be used now or repurposed later to deliver low- and zero-carbon alternatives, including renewable natural gas, low-carbon liquid fuels, sequestered CO2 and hydrogen.
6. Establish a price on carbon* that provides a clear long-term signal and incentivizes the development and deployment of technologies to lower emissions, and lead on international efforts to align potential cross-border carbon measures.
7. Encourage the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to accelerate supportive regulatory policies for cost-effective transmission investment to support the energy transition.
8. Jumpstart efforts to reduce energy demand, such as accelerating the review of energy efficiency standards for appliances and other products, exercising federal leadership by adopting energy efficiency and decarbonization strategies for federal facilities and fleets to accelerate nationwide adoption, and seek additional opportunities to deploy heat pumps and other energy efficient technologies.
9. Improve interconnection processes for transmission and distribution connected resources to speed up the energy transition.
10.  Expand federal research lab infrastructure and facilities and improve collaboration among federal research labs, universities and the private sector to accelerate the development and deployment—both domestically and abroad—of advanced nuclear power and breakthrough clean energy technologies and fuels.

*Business Roundtable supports a market-based emissions reduction strategy that includes a price on carbon where it is environmentally and economically effective and administratively feasible, but it does not endorse any specific market-based mechanism.