5 Wins for Clean Energy Innovation in Biden’s Budget
Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog.
The Biden administration’s 2022 budget released on Friday includes major funding increases for important Department of Energy (DOE) programs to drive clean energy innovation, address the climate crisis, and build a strong and equitable economy. These funding increases complement the investments proposed in the President’s American Jobs Plan (AJP). Now it’s up to Congress to pass AJP and write a government funding bill that reflects the President’s proposals.
Below are five components of the budget that would accelerate clean energy innovation and redirect DOE programs toward our greatest challenges and opportunities.
1. Historic Funding Increases for Clean Energy
The budget includes $4.7 billion in regular-year funding for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), a $2 billion (or 65%) increase from 2021. EERE houses the agency’s efforts focused on heavy industry, building decarbonization, clean transportation technologies, and renewable power. These programs are underfunded relative to the need for investment and the opportunity to build out domestic clean energy industries. The administration’s budget would give these programs a much-needed funding boost.
The budget also ramps up funding for other clean energy programs at DOE and establishes a new Advanced Research Projects Agency — Climate with initial funding of $500 million, of which $200 million is at DOE.
2. Demonstrations & Deployment to Round Out the Innovation Portfolio
The budget emphasizes funding for demonstration projects and deployment of climate solutions, a welcome pivot from the Trump DOE’s narrow focus on early-stage research and development. The new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, funded at $400 million, fills a critical gap in DOE’s efforts to commercialize newer, better clean energy technologies, reduce costs, and address barriers to widespread deployment. The $300 million for Build Back Better Challenge grants will help bring the benefits of clean energy to more communities. And the focus throughout the budget on research, development, demonstrations, and deployment will better equip DOE to accelerate clean energy innovation at the scale necessary.
3. Bringing Clean Energy to More Communities
DOE should play a critical role ensuring that more communities see the benefits of technologies like renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles. Strong community engagement practices and funding for clean energy projects to benefit low-income, pollution-burdened, and energy transition communities and communities of color can help DOE meet these goals.
The budget includes several new programs to bring clean energy to more communities. For example, it proposes to prioritize the new Build Back Better Challenge grants for marginalized, overburdened, and energy transition communities. It also appears to expand the Weatherization Assistance Program — one of the only existing efforts focused on low-income communities — to enable more households to access funding for cost- and energy-saving retrofits, though the details on the expanded program are not yet clear.
The budget also indicates that EERE’s goal is to accelerate a just, equitable clean energy transition. This explicit focus, while just a start, is an important shift. Historically, EERE and most other offices at DOE have not been designed to support equity and environmental and energy justice.
4. Procurement and Funding to Decarbonize Heavy Industry
Technologies to clean up industrial facilities like steel mills and cement plants are critical to addressing the climate crisis. But these sectors have long been a major gap in DOE innovation efforts. The budget acknowledges that decarbonizing heavy industry should be a focus for both EERE and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. This focus is a great first step toward building out a strong federal industrial sector program. As Congress turns the President’s proposals into a detailed appropriations bill, we hope to see large funding increases for the Advanced Manufacturing Office, funding for large-scale demonstrations at industrial facilities, and support for DOE to expand its heavy industry efforts to include electrification, hydrogen, circular economy measures, novel processes, and carbon capture and storage.
The budget also includes more details on the industrial-sector decarbonization efforts proposed in the American Jobs Plan, including, notably, funding to procure low-carbon materials. The federal government is a top purchaser of industrial products like steel and cement for the construction of roads, bridges, buildings and other projects. Government procurement is thus a critical lever in creating early markets and sustained demand for cleaner materials, alongside direct investments to help ensure U.S. industry is making the cleanest products on the market.
To better leverage procurement to drive innovation, the federal government should support efforts to create a reporting system that helps manufacturers account for all the carbon associated with producing a range of industrial products, and require that all construction projects receiving federal funds take climate pollution and labor protection into account when awarding contracts. We urge Congress to include funding in the FY22 budget for the federal government to support these priorities. Doing so will ensure we capture the significant emissions reduction opportunities associated with switching to lower-carbon materials in projects funded by the American Jobs Plan.
5. Support for State, Local, and Tribal Governments
Action from states and municipal governments is critical to meeting our climate goals; increasing clean energy; and driving adoption of innovative technologies, policies, and business models. Federal funding is necessary to support states and cities in these endeavors, but current programs lack the budget to meaningfully support them.
The budget proposes several new programs to support states and cities, including Build Back Better Challenge grants for states and a new Local Government Energy Program. The success of these programs will depend on the details, but it is promising to see new efforts to support states and cities in the budget. Moreover, these programs build on the block grant funding proposed in the American Jobs Plan to provide an influx of support for states to advance clean energy, building electrification, and efficiency.
The budget also includes funding increases to support tribal nations to advance clean energy. Households on tribal lands lack access to electricity at extremely high rates and often face high costs to connect to the electricity grid. The budget proposes a six-fold increase in funding for the Office of Indian Energy (a $100 million increase) to support American Indian and Alaskan Native nations, including to help address energy access and energy poverty.
Federal clean energy programs have already helped foster a revolution in technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicle batteries. Now, we have an opportunity to accelerate clean energy innovation to improve, demonstrate, and deploy the technologies and strategies we need to combat the climate crisis. With the right funding and policies, we can do so in a way that creates strong economic growth rooted in the industries of the future, addresses inequalities in our energy and economic systems, and cuts pollution in places that have borne the brunt of it in the past. President Biden’s energy budget is a major step toward realizing these goals, and Congress should pass a government funding bill that incorporates these proposals and brings the benefits of clean energy to communities across the country.
Tesla had to roll back its ‘Full Self-Driving’ free trial in China after a policy change brought more scrutiny to software updates for advanced driver assist systems.
Last month, Tesla launched a first version of its “Full Self-Driving” FSD package in China for owners with the latest “Hardware 4.0”, or “HW4”, vehicles.
The automaker made the system available through a free trial this month to try to encourage people to buy the system through an over-the-air software update.
However, Tesla halted the program this week.
Grace Tao, Tesla’s Vice-President in charge of the Chinese market, announced on Weibo:
“Dear car owners, the application of Tesla’s intelligent assisted driving function in China has received widespread attention. Thank you for your support and feedback.
According to the requirements of the latest ‘Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Access, Recall and Online Software Upgrade of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Products’, the team is completing the approval of the 3.0 and 4.0 hardware corresponding to the intelligent assisted driving software.
All parties are actively promoting the relevant process, and once it is ready, it will be pushed to everyone as soon as possible.
We are looking forward to it, so please be patient and thank you again for your understanding and trust.”
She is referencing the newly introduced ‘Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Access, Recall and Online Software Upgrade of Intelligent Connected Vehicle Products’, a new set of rules to more closely regulate software updates in connected vehicles, especially regarding advanced driver assist (ADAS) features, like Tesla’s FSD.
The new set of rules includes a requirement that automakers “submit detailed technical information” before deploying a software update to their fleet over the air.
Based on the Tesla executive’s comment, it sounds like Tesla is going through this requirement now.
The new rules also strengthen recalls related to software updates and ADAS features and require automakers to report crashes involving those features.
Grace Tao mentioned Tesla is working on both HW3 and HW4 approval. In China, Tesla had only launched the new ADAS features based on its Full Self-Driving package on HW4 vehicles, which are equipped with a more powerful computer and better camera.
In North America, Tesla FSD is also available on HW3 vehicles, albeit with different, less-performing software.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently admitted that HW3 vehicles will not be able to achieve the promised unsupervised self-driving and will need to be retrofitted with more powerful computers.
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Global energy demand spiked in 2024, driven largely by surging electricity use, according to a new report released today by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Electricity consumption jumped by nearly 1,100 terawatt-hours – a hefty 4.3% increase – nearly twice the annual average growth of the past decade.
This dramatic rise was largely fueled by the electrification of transportation, record-breaking global temperatures that ramped up cooling needs, coupled with increased industrial activity, and growing energy demand from data centers and AI applications.
Renewables were the real stars in meeting this rising energy need, according to the IEA’s latest edition of the Global Energy Review. The world installed roughly 700 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable power capacity last year, marking the 22nd consecutive record-setting year. Renewables, together with nuclear power – which saw its fifth-highest growth in three decades – accounted for a massive 80% of the global electricity supply increase. Together, renewables and nuclear reached a milestone, covering 40% of total global electricity generation for the first time.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol highlighted the key takeaway: “What is certain is that electricity use is growing rapidly, pulling overall energy demand along with it to such an extent that it is enough to reverse years of declining energy consumption in advanced economies.” He also emphasized the positive shift: “The strong expansion of solar, wind, nuclear power, and EVs is increasingly loosening the links between economic growth and emissions.”
Among fossil fuels, natural gas saw the largest increase, up by 115 billion cubic meters (bcm), or 2.7%, driven primarily by rising electricity demand, compared with an average of around 75 bcm annually over the past decade.
EV sales surged by over 25% in 2024, now making up 1 in every 5 cars sold globally, and this had a notable impact on oil demand, which grew modestly, at just 0.8%. Oil notably fell below 30% of total energy demand for the first time ever, 50 years after it peaked at 46%.
Coal, despite increasing by 1%, slowed its growth significantly compared to previous years, with intense heatwaves in China and India accounting for over 90% of this rise.
Meanwhile, emissions data painted an encouraging picture: CO2 emissions in advanced economies fell by 1.1% to to 10.9 billion tonnes in 2024 – a level not seen in 50 years, even as their economies have tripled in size. Record temperatures contributed significantly to the annual 0.8% rise in global CO2 emissions to 37.8 billion tonnes. But the rapid adoption of clean energy technologies since 2019 is now preventing 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 annually – the equivalent of 7% of global emissions.
Dr. Birol summed it up: “From slowing global oil demand growth and rising deployment of electric cars to the rapidly expanding role of electricity and the increasing decoupling of emissions from economic growth, many of the key trends the IEA has identified ahead of the curve are showing up clearly in the data for 2024.”
Read more: Tripling renewables globally by 2030 is doable, says new IEA report
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We already know that BMW closed off 2024 with a banner year for its electrified “i” models – but it took a while for the larger picture to become clear. Not only is BMW succeeding with EVs, the Bavarians are outselling their two closest competitors combined. (!)
First things first – we need to look at the numbers: BMW sold delivered 368,523 units to customers globally, representing a nearly 12% growth in EV deliveries for the brand year-over-year (YoY). Perhaps more EVs made up fully 16.7% of the brand’s 2,200,217 unit total for 2024.
Arch-rival Mercedes-Benz, despite their highly publicized EQ branding and bespoke electric vehicle platforms, could only move 185,059 of its lozenge-shaped EQ models in 2024 (down a staggering 23% from 2023, which could be attributed to the cancellation of several German EV incentive programs if it weren’t for its competitor’s growth).
Over at Audi it’s more of the same, with the four rings brand moving 164,480 EVs in 2024 (7.8% less than the 178,429 units they managed to move in 2023).
Neither of the Bavarians’ German rivals’ EVs cracked 10% of their companies’ overall sales, either – which begs the question: what gives? Are BMW’s electric vehicles really that much better than Audi’s and Mercedes’, or is something else driving the Ultimate Driving Machines’ successful growth in the electric vehicle segment?
BMW is setting, exceeding expectations
The 2025 US Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study from J.D. Power tells us that more people are more satisfied with their EV experience than last year – and (in the US, at least) the EV owners who are the most satisfied with their rides can be found behind the wheel of the BMW iX, followed closely by the BMW i4.
The reason BMW is consistently pulling ahead comes down to education. “First-time EV buyers are receiving minimal education or training,” explains Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power. “Dealer and manufacturer representatives play the crucial role of front-line educators, but when it comes to EVs, the specific education needed to shorten the learning curve just isn’t happening often enough. The shortfall in buyer education is something we’re seeing with all brands.”
When an average car buyer is told, “this car can add 200 miles of range in 20 minutes” by an enthusiastic salesperson, they’ll expect that to be the case whenever they connect to a public charging station. And why wouldn’t they? If their entire fueling experience has been with gasoline, it’s highly unlikely that they’ve every thought about kW or kWh or amps or volts or what any of those things have to do with one another.
BMW dealers fully explain these things as part of their standard delivery practice through the company’s Genius program. Cunningly cribbed from Apple’s Genius Bar playbook, BMW (and, by extension, Mini) offers the best EV customer training in the car business. “With that in mind,” I wrote, when BMW’s second consecutive J.D. Power win came to light, “it’s hard to imagine this going down any other way.”
This advice applies everywhere
I stand by that, but what do you think? Is this a question of customer service, are BMW’s new EVs really the best in the business, or is Audi’s “expensive Volkswagen” business model simply not viable in 2025? Scroll down to the comments and let us know what you think makes the electrified BMW’s the Ultimate Selling Machines.
On your way there, check out a few of these great deals on new BMW EVs:
Original content from Electrek; source links throughout.
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