The US Department of Energy has opened a new office to assure that new technologies that its national laboratories development are commercialized, Deputy Sec. Dan S. Brouillette told the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
“We need to take it off the shelf, put it on the market, and let the private sector run with it,” he said during the committee’s Nov. 14 hearing on his nomination to US Energy Secretary. “It needs to spread around the world because some of these fossil fuels will continue being used well into the 21st Century. If that’s the case, I think we have an obligation, particularly if we care about climate change, to do exactly that.”
Brouillette suggested that one way for DOE to accomplish this would be to work with federal and state regulators to find the most efficient ways to place infrastructure. “We also need additional US pipeline capacity,” he said. “We work already with our partners at the Departments of Interior and Transportation to let them know we recognize the critical need to replace infrastructure.”
Sharing the work the National Energy Technologies Laboratories undertakes potentially could ease approval of the necessary permits for important projects, he indicated.
Our researchers are tackling the world’s greatest energy and scientific questions, and constructing the next generation of world-class science facilities that are the incubators for cutting edge research and development,” Brouillette said. “To better deliver this technology to market, we established the first ever Chief Commercialization Officer at DOE, tasked with ensuring the taxpayer-funded discoveries at our labs make their way to commercialization.”
Improving carbon capture technology will be critical as the US tries to continue leading the world in reducing emissions from energy operations, he maintained. “It has been the policy of both this and the previous administration to pursue an all-of-the-above energy strategy. In our view, diversity equals security,” Brouillette said.
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