US Treasury, energy secretaries meet with CEOs for clean energy economy

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met with chief executive officers (CEOs) of leading American companies in the clean energy economy, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.

During the working dinner with CEOs held Monday, Yellen and Granholm discussed the impact of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, it said in a statement.

The act, which was signed into law by Biden in August 2022 and aims to invest in domestic energy production and promote clean energy, "is fueling private sector investments in American clean energy and creating new, good-paying jobs in communities across the nation," it said.

The CEOs shared ideas on ways the private and public sectors can work together to accelerate investments in America’s clean energy economy, it added.

Secretaries Yellen and Granholm also highlighted the Biden administration’s recent work to support the private sector in the clean energy transition, including the Treasury Department's principles for net-zero financing and investment that were released last year to provide guidance to financial institutions pursuing net-zero commitments.

The secretaries, in addition, stressed the Biden administration’s principles for responsible participation in voluntary carbon markets, according to the statement.

The US Department of Energy said Tuesday in a separate statement that the Biden administration is investing an additional $10 million to build domestic supply chains for critical minerals and materials.

The investment includes two projects that will help lower the costs and reduce the environmental impact of producing rare earth elements and other critical minerals and materials from coal, coal wastes and coal byproducts, it said.

The two projects selected for negotiation by the California Institute of Technology and University of Utah are designed to conduct advanced laboratory and bench-scale testing to improve the economic viability of rare earth element and critical minerals and materials separation and refining technologies, it added.

"President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign supply chains by reimagining the use of coal waste and by-products as a domestic source of the critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies," Granholm said in the statement. "The investments announced today will not only increase our national security and ensure a cleaner environment but will also help deliver high-quality jobs throughout the country."

The US currently imports more than 80% of its rare earth elements, but they naturally occur in domestic coal, coal wastes and coal byproducts, which comprise more than 250 billion tons of coal reserves, over 4 billion tons of waste coal, and about 2 billion tons of coal ash, according to the Energy Department.