NETL Director Brian Anderson highlighted new job opportunities as the U.S. transitions to a clean energy power sector and economy during the National Association of State Energy Officials’ (NASEO) 2022 Mid-Atlantic regional meeting in Charleston, West Virginia June 29.

Anderson, who also serves as executive director of the Biden Administration’s Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, stressed the importance of ensuring a prosperous future for the country’s legacy energy communities as the country transitions to a decarbonized power sector and economy.

“While transitioning to a clean energy economy is vital for the planet, we can’t forget the displaced workers and impacted communities,” Anderson said. “These resources will ensure such communities can flourish as we build a new energy future. Addressing the NASEO was a valuable opportunity to get the word out to representatives all over the country of what the IWG and NETL can offer.”

Anderson also noted that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) seeks to address these issues by allocating $100 billion in funding relevant to energy communities that suffered the most from the closing of mines and coal-fired power plants.

Carbon management and hydrogen are important components of a decarbonized future, but they need to be integrated with renewable and nuclear energy sources as well as industrial processes to enable a reliable, robust, cost-effective decarbonized energy future. This will require holistic, multiscale analysis and optimization to understand the complex interactions of new technology at the plant, regional, and national levels. Tools and experimental test facilities are needed to accelerate development and reduce technical risk.

NETL’s Integrated Energy and Industrial Systems (IEIS) initiative aims to achieve these decarbonization objectives while revitalizing U.S. industry and manufacturing. IESI is integrating advancements in NETL’s other initiatives to provide broad opportunities to support a reliable, carbon neutral, equitable energy system of the future that benefits all Americans

“This once-in-a-generation investments in America's infrastructure will help people across the nation build better lives and communities,” Anderson said. “Our IEIS initiative, along with economic development projects to repurpose old production sites in Virginia and Pennsylvania, demonstrate that now is the time to leverage historic energy communities and bring clean energy investments to places like Central Appalachia, a region where 70% of all U.S. mine closures occurred from 2011 to 2021. With funding from BIL, we can take these endeavors to new heights.”

Established by President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, the White House Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization is working to catalyze economic revitalization, create good-paying union jobs and support working in energy communities, especially hard-hit coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities, across the country.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.