It’s no secret that the Trump Administration has presided over the collapse of the US coal industry, but do they have to rub it in? The answer appears to be yes. On Wednesday, newly minted Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced an all-hands-on-deck initiative to push the energy storage envelope farther into coal-killing territory. For good measure, the new $153 million “Energy Storage Grand Challenge” will probably bump off natural gas, too. And all this under a President* who pledged to save coal jobs!
The Jig Is Up: Trump Hates Coal, Loves Energy Storage
Considering all the promises Trump made to coal miners, their families, and their communities, one would think that a major coal-killing announcement would get buried in a Friday evening news dump. After all, energy storage is the key that accelerates the renewable energy revolution.
Nope. Secretary Brouillette made the announcement in the brilliant light of day exactly in the middle of the week, on Wednesday afternoon at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The annual event, which is owned and produced by the US Consumer Technology Association, bills itself as “the world’s gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies.”
“It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years — the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace,” CES continues.
You couldn’t ask for a more high profile venue than that — oh wait, you can.
CES has been especially like honey to media flies this year, because a very high profile White House official — Trump advisor Ivanka Trump — was scheduled to deliver a rare main stage keynote address at the event. That’s rare as in, female main stage keynoters are like unicorns at CES, so between the Trump name and the female angle, all eyes have been on CES for weeks leading up to the event.
A Moonshot For Next Generation Energy Storage
Where were we? Oh right, the new energy storage announcement. Here it is:
“Today, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage.”
At $153 million, funding for the new energy storage program is relatively small. However, it adds to a $158 million pot that was carved into the fiscal year 2020 federal budget.
That’s still peanuts compared to other Energy Department efforts (FutureGen, anyone?), but there’s an interesting twist to this one.
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