How to Forge a Grand Bargain on Energy

The wars over climate science aren’t really about whether humanity is dangerously changing the climate. It is. They are proxy wars—lobbying wars—over 21st-century energy sources: fossil fuels vs. renewables vs. nuclear energy. In fact, we will need all energy sources that meet three conditions: homegrown (for national security), low-cost (for competitiveness) and environmentally safe. With improved technologies, there is a place for fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear in the mix. 

Fossil fuels can continue to be used safely to the extent that their carbon-dioxide emissions are captured and stored underground. The new Boundary Dam coal-fired power plant in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan suggests that the costs of carbon capture and storage can be reasonably low and that they will decline along a future learning curve. 

Nuclear energy can continue to be used safely with improvements in nuclear technology. One promising possibility is the integral fast reactor technology that uses its own nuclear wastes as energy inputs in a closed fuel cycle. Such reactors also have passive safety features that would be safer in case of a shutdown. 

Renewables, including solar and wind, are falling in cost and expanding in application. Renewables may not only power the future grid and electric-vehicle fleet with zero-emission power but also be used to produce synthetic fuels. If Elon Musk can bring a re-entry rocket back to Earth in a perfect upright landing, as he’s just done, he can also dramatically improve batteries for his Tesla dream machines and the grid. 

The U.S. tech giants—Google, Apple, Microsoft, GE, Tesla and others—are already on the case. Business associations for advanced energy systems are reaching out across parties. I predict a political tipping point soon in which leaders of both U.S. political parties will move beyond the sterile defense of one energy source vs. the others, and instead embrace homegrown, low-cost and low-emission energy from fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear power. 

Prof. Sachs is the director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the author of “The Age of Sustainable Development.”

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