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Well, thank you, Anthony. That's very kind, and I should acknowledge first your more than,
I think, quarter-century service here, but add that I was much more pleased to see people
who have only been here five years, six years, young people who really are, I saw this morning
-- are really adding tremendously to the research capacity here and will be an important part
of our future.
I really want to also acknowledge Congressman McKinley, who has -- after a notable exchange
that we had during the hearing, has come to join us here this morning and we're going
to be following up with more conversations, and our president of West Virginia University,
at least one of the five universities here with the lab.
So it's really a -- it is a pleasure to be here. As Anthony said, it's perhaps worth
repeating a bit that in 1999 Secretary -- then-Secretary Richardson asked me to come here to FETC post-PETC
and METC, and to really look at the issue of a transition to a national laboratory.
And the rationale was pretty clear. We had lead laboratories for renewables, NREL. We
had a lead laboratory -- at that time it was kind of split, two, but detail -- for nuclear
energy, but the fossil energy office did not have kind of a comparable national laboratory.
And so we came and something -- somehow Anthony didn't screw it up too badly, I guess -- (laughter)
-- because a month later -- a month later, in fact, N-E-T-L, NETL, was announced.
For me, it's been really fun this morning, for one thing, seeing iron rather than -- I
won't make any comments about Congress -- seeing -- you know, seeing real stuff, real research
laboratories. It's a great chance for us to get out of Washington and see what's happening
out there, which is -- which is so important.
Also, when I came in '99, I mean, I must say it wasn't -- it probably wasn't exactly the
same, but we talked at that time -- Rita Bajura was the director at that time, and we talked
about if there was this transition to a laboratory, kind of -- ultimately how -- what would its
signature be? What would be the big -- the big thrust areas? And this morning, as we
heard these -- the four thrust areas around large-scale computation as a -- as a discovery
tool, geological/environmental sciences, material sciences, material science and engineering,
energy systems dynamics, that's pretty close to what we talked about at that time. And
now to come back and see it realized is really quite interesting and then having the opportunity
to at least quasi-dedicate the supercomputer facility is really great. I mean, this is
a -- like a factor of 500, I think, above the -- beyond the capacities that were available
at that time. It's clearly opened up new research that could not have been done without this
facility.
It's notable for its energy efficiency, and I'll just note that now in the department,
you know, a factor of 500 over 14 years -- now of course in the department we're looking
forward to the exoscales, so-called, so another factor of 2,000 in the next -- in the next
decade or so. And I think this is the kind of thing that at the Department of Energy
we've always been a pioneer in pushing the envelope on large-scale computation, its application,
across our mission space -- obviously, nuclear weapons, basic science, but also energy technology
-- seeing here today, going over multiple scales, going from very fundamental science
at the molecular level to, you know, engineered-scale devices -- this is the kind of cutting-edge
work we need to do across the department, and it was a great pleasure to see it here
today, coming back after those 14 years.
So that was the introduction. (Chuckles.) The -- now I'll go to my speech. The -- no,
the -- and of course here I should say the -- as well we all know that NETL, among our
17 laboratories, is unique in being a so-called GOGO in the sense of government-operated.
That is reflected then in a very -- in a much broader set of activities, in a certain sense,
than we have at other laboratories, being very much engaged not only in the laboratory
research but in the way we manage our fossil energy programs but also with major engagement
in our electricity programs and our energy efficiency and renewable programs. And of
course this laboratory had kind of shared the responsibility for also moving forward
the very, very challenging job of getting the recovery act funds out there and applied
to important projects. So that's a reflection of being the government-operated laboratory,
again, so having a bit of a different profile compared to our other laboratories. So that's
great.
Now Anthony mentioned and I've mentioned, of course, that this is my second go-round
at the department, and it has been stated by many that it reminds them of the Johnson
quote on second marriage, "the triumph of hope over experience." (Laughter, groans.)
But fundamentally, my retort is that including -- like in my visit here in '99, in a subsequent
visit in 2000, actually my experience was great the first time around, and I expect
it to be great this time around, as we have enormous number of challenges.
In fact, the president, President Obama made, you know, two major policy addresses in June.
Some of you, if you saw the last town hall meeting, heard me already say this, that of
course he gave his talk at Georgetown on how we are going to address the risks of climate
change over these next few years.
But I just want to point out that six days earlier he gave another important policy address
-- and this was in Berlin -- it was the follow-up to his Prague speech very early in his first
term, and that was on nuclear security issues, the future of the nuclear stockpile, nuclear
materials control, nuclear terrorism defense.
And so I wanted to remind you that while today of course we'll go back and talk more about
the first of those, that dealing with clean energy and the clean energy future, but as
a reminder, the department has got major challenges not only in this area but in a whole bunch
of very high-level administration priorities. So I think the -- as far as we're concerned,
this is going to be the place to be over the next -- over the next few years, with lots
of challenges.
So -- as I said, the president, you know, laid out this broad plan to reduce the effects
of climate change, cutting carbon emissions, increasing the production of clean energy
and doubling down on energy efficiency. And he certainly put this in the context of what
we need to do in the near term for competitiveness reasons, for clean energy reasons but also
in the long term in terms of -- in terms of how we prepare our country and in fact the
world for the next generations.
I mean, the challenges are serious. And you know, while we know that it's statistical
in terms of individual events, but it's pretty hard to argue that we are not already seeing
the effects of global warming. Certainly the patterns are exactly what was anticipated
years ago: increasing droughts, floods, wildfires, rising temperatures associated with greater
storm intensity, damage to our infrastructure, huge costs of responding to what appears to
be certainly an increase in natural events.
But our view is that, you know, we have faced challenges like this before in the United
States, and we've always found a way to innovate our way to a more prosperous future. We will
do the same in this case. And for our part, the Department of Energy has got a critical
role to play in providing a lot of the science and the innovation that will be essential
to reaching this vision.
I want to emphasize -- and I've said it -- I mean, Anthony in effect alluded to it when
he referred, in my previous life at MIT, to the future of coal and future of natural gas
reports -- I should say the one that was ongoing when I left we had to -- I had to at least
drop out of is the future of solar energy. We -- before that we did the future of nuclear
power. I say all that to say that very much, as the president insists, we are all of the
-- we have an all-of-the-above strategy. So -- and it's real.
And there have been many discussions about what this means for coal, et cetera, et cetera.
What we say is, we're about preparing that future, so that all of our fuels, including
our nega-fuel, efficiency, all have important roles. That's what we -- that's what we expect.
And so what we're about is the future in this all-of-the-above context.
Now NETL, clearly, is going to have a very important role in general with the fossil
fuels. After all, that's what -- that's what the laboratory is fundamentally about. And
I would just say that the -- you know, if there's any, you know, question about the
-- this commitment, I do point out that, I mean, this administration has committed $6
billion to carbon capture and utilization and sequestration. I think we are finally
on the verge -- and NETL, of course, plays a critical role in managing these very large
projects. I mean, there's eight big projects out there, and I think now we're going to
start -- we're beginning to see and we're going to see a lot more of real, serious capture
and storage, getting the science established, getting the cost down, and see here some of
that work going on in terms of capture.
Couple into the utilization, especially in these days through enhanced oil recovery,
and there -- I don't know -- it may or may not be known to everyone here -- this is -- this
is a more knowledgeable audience, certainly, in this area, the most, but you know, we're
already doing 300,000 barrels a day, roughly, on with CO2 enhanced oil recovery, and the
projections are, we could -- we could up that by a factor of 10, potentially, where actually
one of the biggest roadblocks is not having enough CO2. So that's a big motivation for
capture.
And then on the sequestration side -- and again, here lots of work going on, as well
as elsewhere -- in terms of not just studying it, monitoring it, verifying it, but literally
providing the basis for a private sector -- ultimately a private sector licensable approach to large-scale
sequestration.
So these are -- these are kind of decadal challenges, but to answer them on that kind
of a time scale means we have no time to waste. And again, what you are doing here at NETL
is really central to that.
I'll just go back and mention of course, historically, the role of DOE and NETL when it was called
something else in terms of what is of course the biggest story we've had over the last
few years in our energy sector, which is the shale gas boom. As many of you know, the -- going
back to the late '70s already, the -- there was the role of, again, NETL's predecessors
in starting the research, characterization research, et cetera, for unconventional gas
-- coal bed methane, shale gas, et cetera. It takes time to see the results, but boy,
we're seeing them in spades today, with enormous impact for our -- for our economy, the -- not
only lower natural gas prices but then the spill-on effects in terms of new manufacturing
and all kinds of -- all kinds of job creation, et cetera.
I'll just mention that I think that that story, starting with the work of the Department of
Energy of course has other pieces to it. And I say these because I think they are very,
very important. There was the public-private partnership that really helped -- run by the
so-called Gas Research Institute -- with industry, which led to a lot of demonstrations.
There was, very importantly, from Congress -- there was a time-limited tax incentive
to get that science and technology applied with the -- the tax incentive went away in
1992 in terms of new wells, and then would sponsor -- would give the -- you'd sign up
for 10 more years for those wells. So it was this combination of federal work, public/private
partnership. And a well-aligned, time-limited tax incentive really came together to lay
the groundwork for this great story.
We need to do more of this. I mean, these are -- especially in times of, you know, tight
budgets, this is the kind of, I think, multipronged approach, which includes moving private capital
into the -- into the field that we need to do -- to do more of.
Once again, NETL is deeply involved in an updated version of this, if you like, through
the so-called Section 999 royalty trust fund, where, again, similar to GRI in a certain
sense, a 501(c)(3) with its program plan submitted and reviewed here at NETL, has been really
carrying out a lot of work on -- again, on these unconventional resources, and particularly
in minimizing the environmental footprint associated with these unconventional oil and
gas resources.
So the president proposed for FY '14 you get another of this kind of trust fund approach,
the energy trust fund, which in this case would take royalties -- a small amount of
our royalty income of the federal government and apply it, in fact, to advanced transportation
alternatives. So I think we have to -- we have to be creative in this time period, but
again, this laboratory has been central to these -- to this kind of public/private approach
over these last eight years or so.
So moving on to research here, this morning I was -- well, we saw things on large-scale
-- large-scale computation that's very impressive. Again, I would say when I came here in '99,
I was one of the -- if anything, that was probably the area that I most emphasized as,
I thought, an area of tremendous growth opportunity, and one that could very profitably engage
the universities with whom you are partnered. And in fact I think we also emphasized the
need to up the game in terms of collaboration with universities at that time. And that looks
like it's going great. West Virginia is nodding at least here.
And the -- so I think this morning, to see both of those realized was really -- really
just -- it just was terrific for me. But I also then got to see -- just one example because
I kind of like it -- the chemical looping facility, for example. That's exactly the
kind of thing that, you know, a place like this and DOE should be doing. I mean, really
building a nontrivial, you know, experimental laboratory kind of pilot-scale facility, linking
it into modeling and simulation.
And, you know, as we were discussing there, commercial power plant and chemical looping,
probably 15 years away, if we know if it's going to meet the economic tests. But this
is exactly what we need to do. We need to provide options to the marketplace of the
future, in this case with chemical looping being a really -- a really interesting approach
with the prospect of making carbon capture very inexpensive. And that of course then
opens up again this future of coal, as we head to a lower carbon -- a lower carbon economy.
We also saw the geosciences lab, and again the work there going on with shale gas and
with methane hydrates.
So I think I'm going to try to -- well, no, let me say a little bit more about sequestration,
again because it's so critical. And here I think NETL really led the establishment of
the regional carbon sequestration partnerships. Those have now been going on for -- gee, I'm
not quite sure -- 10 years or so, about 10 years maybe. And I think those were really
important in that they recognized the tremendous regional variation.
And I might say -- some of you may have heard in my various presentations -- my confirmation
hearing and subsequently -- that at the department more generally I think we are going to put
much more emphasis on working with states and regions because it's not one size fits
all for national energy policy. Frankly, it needs to be more built up from the very different
resources and needs in different regions. The sequestration partnerships are one reflection
of that in terms of establishing programs in different regions, different geologies,
different carbon sources, et cetera.
And I think that went -- that of course went from its early stage of pretty small-scale
tests, to now this phase of really building up and I think coupling in with -- in with
some of the big projects that, again, NETL will be -- will be overseeing.
I do want to also mention one other thing. And I think this is important in thinking
about, you know, NETL as a National Laboratory. I mean, I have to say, you know, bluntly,
when I came here 14 years ago I would say there was relatively little collaboration
with FTSE (ph) and the other National Laboratories. Partly it may have been the different organizational
structure of GOCO and GOGO, for those of you who know those acronyms, but fundamentally
there just wasn't that much collaboration. And another great thing to see is the -- is
the great increase in that.
I would say -- so even if we just focus on coal and carbon capture and sequestration,
the -- we should emphasize that while fossil energy and NETL are the principal locus for
this work, it's very important -- there's a lot of other work in the department as well
that connects on this. ARPA-E has had a whole bunch of programs and has spent, in fact,
more than $50 million in early-stage carbon capture R&D.
The Office of Science has three energy frontier research centers that are doing work directly
relevant to this, and there it's really great to see NETL collaborating with these EFRCs,
collaborating with Berkeley in terms of the spectrum from basic research to applied research
and testing, all of which have to come together to get this done.
I mentioned earlier the -- that the -- in this administration there's been almost $6
billion spent on CCUS, but I'm going to maybe end by coming back to more recently going
to the Climate Action Plan and reinforcing the president's and the administration's firm
commitment to the all-of-the-above approach. In that plan you may have seen that there's
a draft solicitation that was put out about a week later -- a week after the president's
speech of $8 billion for emissions-reducing fossil fuel technologies across the board.
And we just -- we're getting the ideas in now for the final solicitation, but this could
be, you know, dry fracking, it can be new capture approaches, it can be chemical looping,
it can be novel combining power applications for efficiency.
So again, the spirit is that if we are -- when we get to this future with low carbon, drawing
upon all of our resources, it will be because we have both innovated around today's energy
sources and have developed the transformational technologies that we will also need in the
future to come together. That's very much the way that this administration, and certainly
the way we in the Department of Energy will be pursuing this over the next -- over the
next few years.
So I think with that I'm going to end. I just want to just say that, again, we appreciate
very much what you are doing. This innovation around fossil fuel use is absolutely critical.
We'll look to you to do this -- we'll look for you to do this with your university partners,
and we'll certainly be a good partner with you in moving forward.