Former National Economic Council Director Brian Deese is calling for a “Clean Energy Marshall Plan” and a comprehensive approach to trade and diplomacy to help countries “most vulnerable” to the effects of climate change.
Deese, who reportedly is advising Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid, wrote in a Foreign Affairs essay Tuesday that the U.S. should create a “Clean Energy Finance Authority” managed by the Treasury Department that would subsidize foreign demand for clean energy technologies and “put American innovation and industry at the front of the line.”
The first step in a climate-minded Marshall Plan was accomplished two years ago with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act by “accelerating the clean energy transition at home,” wrote Deese, who currently is a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. The next step is to accelerate a transition away from fossil fuels abroad while promoting U.S. interests, he said.
One model for a new clean energy finance authority could be the Department of Energy’s loan office, according to Deese. He also called for the creation of a “Clean Energy Resilience Authority” to ensure clean energy supply chains are resilient but aligned with “expanded, stronger, and smarter” trade that promotes manufacturing with multiple trade partners. The U.S. also should build a strategic reserve for critical minerals, similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he said.
