Some green tech has Trump DOE support, but mass layoffs could hinder wide adoption, expert says

Republicans in Washington seem to be softening a bit on some facets of green tech: Last month, House Republicans expressed excitement about geothermal energy production in a hearing, and the Trump administration stated its intentions to “usher in a nuclear renaissance” via four executive orders.

But widespread adoption of both geothermal and nuclear will face obstacles due to personnel shortages and a lack of industrial strategy, former Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk told Tech Brew. In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, thousands of DOE employees and scientists were fired or resigned as part of a “deferred resignation” program designed to reduce the federal workforce.

“There are some technologies that I think will get attention [and] should have strong bipartisan support. And then it’s a matter of execution,” Turk said. “You can’t execute on anything, whether it’s a loan program or grant or anything, unless you have really talented people.”

And Turk told Tech Brew that many (though “not all”) of the DOE’s talented workers are no longer with the department, resulting in “about a third less staff.”

Changes in US industrial strategy—including the potential repeal of green tech tax credits—will also affect the adoption of geothermal and nuclear energy, as well as battery innovation, which he’s hopeful also has bipartisan support, Turk said. The tax credits encourage the domestic manufacture and purchase of green tech.

“Unless you have an industrial strategy, even if you develop things here in the US, it’s going to go elsewhere,” Turk said. “We’re really losing that kind of piece to it, to actually get the jobs and the economic benefit from it.”

All that said, though, Turk told Tech Brew that the energy demand crisis will necessitate innovation in energy sources that can come online quickly and cheaply, like renewables.

“There are certain types of technology and certain types of approaches that may work better in a very uncertain world,” Turk said. “Now that we have electricity demand increasing, that is going to really stimulate a lot of innovation that just wasn’t there.”

His biggest hope is that “the Trump fever breaks” and congressional Republicans look into durable energy policy—not just what’s in line with the Trump administration’s wishes.

“Moving from this pendulum swinging back and forth to a time of durability,” Turk told Tech Brew. “Even though that’s not yet here, there’s at least the prospect of that happening again.”