Remarks as Delivered by Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm at the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation (P-TECC) Business Forum

Thank you so much, Mr. Prime Minister [Ciolacu], Mr. Minister [Burduja], Madam Ambassador [Kavalec], and all of the tremendous leaders who are here both in the public sector and the private sector.

Thanks for the warm welcome to Bucharest.

I’m proud to be here representing a great President, Joe Biden, and a great Vice President, Kamala Harris.

We’re going to be spending a lot of time talking about the future over the next few days, and rightfully so. But let me just take a pause for a second to reflect on the incredible progress that we’ve already made together.

Last year when we met, we marked one year since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Today, nearly 900 days since the invasion, I [am]—and I’m sure you are—just as humbled by the bravery, and the perseverance, and the determination of the Ukrainian people. And equally grateful for those who have provided safe harbor for families who have been fleeing the war, like those who are here in Romania and Poland and others.

This conflict, I think, has tested our allies’ resolve and our resilience. And time and time again, we have risen to the challenge. We’ve emerged stronger, I think, and more united than ever—but ever so on guard.

The U.S. and our partners have delivered billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people.

We’ve all reduced our reliance on Russian oil and gas—including by connecting our [Moldovan] partners to the European grid.

And we have invested in diversifying into renewables like wind and solar—limitless resources that no dictator can hold hostage.

So today, P-TECC nations are at the forefront of this new energy economy—one that protects our climate and our health, [and] does save our people money, and creates future-facing jobs in every region where it takes root.

This actually is a $23 trillion global opportunity—this clean energy sector. And each of us—each country, this is not a competition!—we all can stake our claim in this clean energy economy.

Of course, so many of you are already getting in on the action.

Poland is partnering with Westinghouse, for example, to build Poland’s first-ever nuclear reactor, creating thousands of good-paying jobs in both the United States and Poland.

Croatia is leaning in on geothermal.

Bulgaria and Czechia are supporting and supercharging their solar capacity.

Lithuania is expanding its pump storage hydro.

Slovakia, Slovenia, and Romania all have great plans, as you’ve heard, to expand their nuclear capacity.

And plans for new offshore wind are cropping up along the Baltic Coast, the Black Sea, the Adriatic, the Mediterranean [Sea].

The opportunities are enormous.

For those of you who are not yet investing—now is the time. This is your moment.

And the United States and our global partners have put forward massive incentives to sweeten the deal.

So just in the U.S., for example, the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on an industrial strategy, which has not really been what the United States has been known for. We’ve been sort of hands-off. But now we are in the game. And we have developed an industrial strategy that is unprecedented.

First of all, we’re investing in research and development to reduce the cost and expand the capacity of emerging technologies. Advanced nuclear, for example, carbon capture and sequestration, just like we did—solar, for example, batteries for electric vehicles—like we did back in the 2010s to reduce costs. Solar costs have come down 75 to 80%. Batteries for electric vehicles, as you know.

So we’ve done all of that. But we are also de-risking the investments in proven technologies. Proven solutions like wind, and solar, and geothermal. And we’re doing that through tax incentives for manufacturing the products themselves—solar panels, et cetera—but also the production of the energy. Tax incentives.

So the strategy, it’s working.

Between these two bills that President Biden signed, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—just the Department of Energy, we have announced grants and loans of more than $70 billion in clean energy technologies and companies.

And then the private sector has responded. They have announced more than $213 billion. So almost $300 billion in clean energy technologies as a result of policy.

Who knew? Policy actually works.

In total, in the United States, companies have announced plans for over 700—almost 800—new or expanded factories. Putting people to work in every pocket of America.

In a country that watched so many manufacturing jobs leave, to see jobs come back in manufacturing is so, so gratifying.

But it’s not just American companies, let me be clear about this, that are benefitting.

Of all of the clean energy manufacturing announcements and investments in the U.S. between 2021 and 2023, more than half were either foreign companies or joint ventures.

And since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, countries from around the world have been doing the same. Canada, France, Germany, all adopting incentives. Which is great. Let’s grow the pie. It is a big enough market for all of us to be able to participate.

It’s a global race to the top—and one that stands to benefit folks from every corner of the world…whether you’re a machinist in Michigan or a pipefitter in Prague.

So in the spirit of that transatlantic cooperation, I just want to say congratulations, and I’m excited about the announcements that you made this morning.

You know, Fluor and Sargent & Lundy reaching an agreement with Romania’s SNN to refurbish and develop Cernavoda. This project was the result of an innovative Intergovernmental Agreement between the United States and Romania on energy cooperation. What this agreement does is it sets up a continuous process for dialogue, and for support, and for partnership in exchange for consideration of U.S. goods and services. We forged similar agreements for example, with Poland and with Bulgaria and we’re looking to make other Intergovernmental Agreements as well.

Out of the same agreement, the announcement about this furtherance of the small modular reactors comes as well. We will be announcing a site-specific engineering study that the United States will be funding to make sure that this is a success.

We’re excited about that. We’re excited about the fact that it is replacing a retiring coal plant. That’s the energy transition that we’re talking about. Putting people to work who have powered our nations for the past 100 years or more—who will be able to power our nations for the next 100 years or more.

The announcement about Sage and the geothermal partnership, the MOU today, and ELCEN—so exciting! This is a geothermal hotspot, this region of the world. We’re excited to be joined by the minister from Iceland as well, which is another geothermal hotspot. In the United States, we could learn from you all to be able to do more development of enhanced geothermal. We’re super excited about that and about the technology associated with it.

[This] example of district heating here—14,000 homes will be powered, which is exciting! 70 megawatts of clean power. We’re excited to be able to learn from and support this effort.

So after decades of reliance on unpredictable and volatile and often manipulated fossil fuel markets, we’re finally building a clean energy economy on our own terms.

Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell. Because you’re in the middle of it.

But let me assure you: we are witnessing energy history right now—with opportunities for investors in this region reaching a level unseen since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Now is the time. For you in the private sector, this is your moment too. Do not let it pass you by.

Thank you so much.

24.07.2024 / Editor, Andreea Dragan

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