US President Joe Biden's Council of Economic Advisers prepared an annual report in which he touched on the transition to clean energy sources.

In the document, the authors recalled that the policy of the current US administration is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, but this approach faces a number of difficulties, including those associated with domestic production.

According to analysts, effective strategies of other countries in this area may become an obstacle to the development of the clean energy industry in the United States.

Washington risks being unable to compete in the market if the authorities do not support national companies.

“If the US government does not provide sufficient support to its domestic companies, or if other governments overcompensate for the costs of producing their own companies, then US companies may not be competitive in global markets, regardless of their potential competitive advantages,” the report says. which RT got acquainted with.

The attention of White House specialists in this matter was attracted by Russia and China.

Thus, the authors of the report noted that the Chinese government has made successful efforts to create a domestic industry capable of providing the whole world with clean energy.

About 60% of wind turbines, 80% of solar modules and the same percentage of the elements used to power electric vehicles are made in China.

Both China and Russia are betting heavily on nuclear power, another source of clean energy with the potential to grow rapidly in a global energy transition, the report notes.

According to the IAEA study cited by the authors, by 2030 the global nuclear power capacity could increase by 17–94%.

Meanwhile, the development of this segment in the United States has stalled due to concerns about costs, safety and waste, consultants to the president emphasized.

“To give up leadership in the nuclear industry to China and Russia, whose companies now supply reactor technology to other parts of the world, would mean not only giving up economic opportunities for US companies, but also the ability of the US government to influence what concerns efforts to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in other countries with nuclear power facilities,” the analysts concluded.

Nuclear stagnation 

The United States is one of the leading countries in terms of output at nuclear power plants and the number of power units, Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of Russia and a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, said in an interview with RT.

However, at the moment, the expansion of this segment is in question.

“In the agenda with which Biden began his presidential term, the United States followed the path of developing renewable energy and nuclear energy, but now there is a turn towards oil and gas.

The United States is calling for more drilling, more production at oil and gas facilities on its territory, and they are trying to stimulate the development of production in other countries with which they have more or less normal political relations.

Such a fever does not encourage investors to invest in the development of nuclear energy.

Therefore, for now, everyone is taking a pause, which exacerbates the situation with an energy shortage, ”commented Yushkov.

Director of the Energy Development Fund Sergei Pikin, in turn, added that the slow development of the nuclear sector in the United States is due to the lack of new contracts.

“The United States is fixed on the same level, and there is no progress on this topic.

The nuclear industry has become out of fashion.

Now it is popular to invest in renewable energy sources - the sun, wind.

For these areas, there is immediately a crowd of willing investors, and traditional energy, including nuclear power plants, does not find such a response, although this is also necessary.

China, for example, on the contrary, is actively developing the nuclear sector, because Beijing needs sources of basic generation that do not depend on the weather, ”the expert said.

Pikin stressed that Russia, unlike the United States, has a number of contracts for the construction of new nuclear facilities and continues to build nuclear units both within the country and abroad.

As a result, this stimulates the active development of the industry.

“We have external construction contracts.

We have many more of them than the States.

And if you sell something to someone, you are in any case obliged to sell the best in order to buy it.

The ability to supply these technologies leads to the fact that we are constantly developing in this direction.

If you stay only in the domestic market, then the fuse disappears over time, only the external market can give such an impetus to rapid development,” he believes.

  • Turbine room of the fourth power unit of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant named after I. V. Kurchatov in the Sverdlovsk region

  • RIA News

  • © Pavel Lisitsyn

Earlier, the head of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said that the state corporation continues to work on creating the nuclear energy of the future.

On the ground and in a pilot industrial format, a fourth-generation power unit, a closed fuel cycle, fuel fabrication and refabrication enterprises, new materials and small stations are being developed.

“We do not change our strategic goals and do not adjust the agenda.

We see new windows of opportunity that will help Russia achieve technological independence faster,” Likhachev said.

According to him, the main tasks of Rosatom are to build nuclear power plants abroad and expand generation in Russia.

Until 2035, the state corporation plans to build 16 power units in the country. 

It should be noted that Russia is a world leader in the development of fast neutron reactor technologies.

As Rosatom explained, Russian scientists are working on creating a platform based on a closed nuclear fuel cycle with this type of reactor.

The principle of the platform includes five elements: natural security, an unlimited resource base, solving the problem of nuclear waste, strengthening the non-proliferation regime and competitiveness.

Unsuccessful transition

Biden's energy strategy, which is based on the transition to "clean" sources, is ineffective, Igor Yushkov believes.

The US remains dependent on oil and gas, and the prices of these energy carriers continue to rise.

“As long as the “green policy” is not enough, fossil sources have not been replaced, everything in the energy sector is still in its classical form.

Moreover, oil has risen in price, and as a result, fuel.

Therefore, the States are now fighting to increase oil production in order to reduce gasoline prices.

Due to the high cost of fuel, inflation accelerates and the standard of living of the population decreases,” he explained.

Criticism of the "green course" of the American administration has been repeatedly voiced in the United States itself.

In early April, Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined that "energy inflation" in the US was the deliberate outcome of Washington's policy to "make fossil fuels unusable by driving their prices to unsustainable levels."

“And then replace those types of fuel that you could afford with new, green energy, which you will simply have to use for lack of another choice,” the journalist said on the TV channel.

Carlson is convinced that some "donors of the Biden administration" benefit from the crisis in the country.

For example, as The Washington Free Beacon found out, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm owns stakes in clean energy companies.

Granholm previously said that the Russian sting operation in Ukraine and disruptions in global energy markets showed "the urgent need to accelerate the transition to clean energy."

“This will make our country more independent in terms of energy and less vulnerable to the whims of dictators,” the head of the ministry emphasized.  

Recall that after Washington imposed sanctions against Russia, gasoline prices in the United States rose 1.5 times compared to last year.

  • Joe Biden stickers appear at US gas stations as gas prices rise

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

The White House is trying to put the blame for this on Moscow's actions, but the causes of the crisis were formed long before the start of the special operation in Ukraine. 

In July 2021, according to the American Automobile Association, the cost of gasoline in the country rose by 40% compared to the beginning of the same year.

Against this background, Congressman Carol Miller and more than 140 of her Republican party members accused Biden of pursuing an anti-American energy policy.

Among other things, they drew attention to the decision to cancel the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States and the imposition of a moratorium on the lease of federal land for the development of oil and gas fields.

The CEO of the American oil company Canary, Dan Eberhart, also linked the price increase to Washington's policy.

“Everyone knows that fuel prices have been rising since the beginning of the Biden administration.

His policies are having a negative impact,” he said in an interview with Fox News.

Earlier this month, CNBC, along with Momentive, conducted a survey among Americans that showed that 81% of respondents predicted a recession in the US economy this year.

According to data as of April 19, provided by Reuters and the Ipsos sociological service, 51% of citizens surveyed do not approve of Biden's work as president.

At the same time, the economic situation of the country remains a key issue that worries Americans.