Debt Ceiling Law Doesn't Change Administration Priorities on Semiconductors, Advanced Energy and Broadband : Broadband Breakfast

With government action, America can reindustrialize itself, bolster national security, revive left-behind places and reduce carbon emissions.

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WASHINGTON, June 2, 2023 — Perhaps the greatest surprise of the debt ceiling deal passed Thursday night by the Senate (and on Wednesday by the House) is that it leaves unscathed the Biden administration's three top domestic priorities: the Inflation Reduction Act (August 2022), semiconductor promotion in the CHIPS and Science Act (July 2022), and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (November 2021).

Together, these measures will invest more than $2 trillion of federal funds into American manufacturing, infrastructure (including broadband) and advanced energy.

As Broadband Breakfast's Made in America Summit takes shape, we encourage you to register now to attend this important event on Tuesday, June 27, in Washington. The summit's four sessions will explore the intersection of these vital big-picture topics:

The Inflation Reduction Act invests billions of dollars in clean energy projects that work to limit carbon emissions and other pollutants, including solar, wind, nuclear, clean hydrogen and more. But will its investments in clean energy founder on the lack of infrastructure deployment, or by delays in federal, state and local permitting? This session will also consider the intersection of "smart grid" infrastructure, long-haul and local, and the synchronicities between the broadband and energy economies.

• Lori Bird, U.S. Energy Program Director and Polsky Chair for Renewable Energy, World Resources Institute• Xan Fishman, Director of Energy Policy and Carbon Management, Bipartisan Policy Center• Quindi Franco, Assistant Director, Government Accountability Office• Robert Glicksman, Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University Law School• Other panelists have been invited

The CHIPS and Science Act provides $280 billion in funding to spur semiconductor research and manufacturing in the United States. Semiconductors are key components of consumer electronics, military systems and countless other applications, making a domestic supply chain critically important — particularly amid an increasingly hostile technological race with China. How successful will efforts be to bring semiconductor manufacturing to America?

• Gene Irisari, Head of Semiconductor Policy, Samsung• Shawn Muma, Director of Supply Chain Innovation & Emerging Technologies, Digital Supply Chain Institute• Maryam Rofougaran, CEO and Co-Founder, Movandi Corporation• Rishi Iyengar (moderator), Global Technology Reporter, Foreign Policy• Other panelists have been invited

The Build America Buy America Act, part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, established a domestic content procurement preference for all federally subsidized infrastructure projects. Although waivers of Buy America requirements have been proposed for certain projects — such as Middle Mile Grant Program recipients — it appears unlikely that these will be extended to initiatives such as the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, despite requests and warnings from industry leaders. Although fiber-optic cable production is on the rise, significant issues remain in America's semiconductor and electronic equipment supply. How will these issues be addressed in broadband and other infrastructure projects?

• Panelists to be announced

The Inflation Reduction Act establishes requirements for the use of American-made equipment in clean energy production. How will those requirements impact green energy development? How will the resulting projects interact with other ongoing infrastructure initiatives? What will it take for America to establish itself as a clean energy superpower?

• Panelists to be announced

Early-bird registration of $199 until Friday, June 9 + government and Broadband Breakfast Club rate.

Check back frequently to see updates on the Made in America Summit event page.

AI is a Key Component in Effectively Managing the Energy Grid

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing campaign for broadband data. As Editor and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media company advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.

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The U.S. accounts for just 10 percent of electric vehicle production and 7 percent of battery production.

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WASHINGTON, May 23, 2023 — As historic federal investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and clean energy begin to take effect, House lawmakers on Tuesday clashed over the best response to shared concerns about competition with China and the instability of domestic electricity sector supply chains.

Tuesday's hearing, convened by the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, came just one day after the Department of Energy announced that it would no longer be awarding a $200 million grant to Texas-based battery company Microvast, following intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers over the company's ties to China.

Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith, R-Va., praised the decision but expressed continued skepticism about the department's vetting processes — emphasizing the absence of Office of Manufacturing Director David Howell, who declined an invitation to testify.

By failing to appear at the hearing, "the Department of Energy not only refused to provide transparency to this committee, but they’re refusing to be transparent to the American people, who deserve every assurance that their tax dollars are not being funneled to China," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

But Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., argued that the award reversal was proof that the department "is taking its stewardship of taxpayer money very seriously."

Pallone also blamed the Republican majority for Howell's absence, claiming that the hearing had originally been planned for June and that department officials were working to coordinate the schedule "when all of sudden the date changed earlier this month to today."

The proposed Microvast award would have been part of a $2.8 billion investment in battery manufacturing funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, intended to accelerate and strengthen a domestic supply chain. The United States currently accounts for just 10 percent of global electric vehicle production and 7 percent of battery production capacity.

By contrast, China produces three-quarters of all lithium-ion batteries and is home to the majority of production and processing capacity for several key battery components. China was responsible for half of the growth of the electric vehicle market in 2021, according to a recent International Energy Agency report.

While the Biden administration has taken steps to bolster U.S. manufacturing through the IIJA and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Republicans have broadly criticized this approach — particularly the IRA's focus on clean energy.

Because of the current manufacturing imbalance, the administration's emphasis on electric vehicles will largely benefit China rather than the U.S., argued Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Energy, Climate and Environment.

"Heavily subsidizing renewable energy and shoveling money in the form of financial awards out the door is not the solution," McMorris Rodgers said. "These policies undermine our energy security and financially burden Americans already struggling with high cost of living — and would leave us even more reliant on China."

However, a study commissioned by Third Way and Breakthrough Energy indicated that these pieces of legislation, alongside the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, are "fostering investments in and a reshoring of the clean energy supply chain and the associated manufacturing base," said Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, senior resident fellow for the climate and energy program at Third Way.

Hughes-Cromwick urged lawmakers to allow time for supply chain restructuring, saying that policy stability over multiple years is crucial to allow companies to make sustainable adjustments.

In order to achieve domestic clean energy goals, Congress should first modernize permitting, said Jeremy Harrell, chief strategy officer at ClearPath.

"The single largest mover of private sector investment is regulatory certainty," Harrell claimed. "Never has the phrase ‘time is money’ been more appropriate — developers can only build new energy infrastructure as fast as federal, state and local governments can permit them, and right now that's not fast enough."

Learn more about clean energy infrastructure and the U.S.-China tech race at Broadband Breakfast's Made in America Summit on June 27.

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February 3, 2021 – The problem with electric vehicles has always been that they don't have enough battery to achieve a decent driving range at a reasonable cost, a group of experts said on a panel discussion on January 26 led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

That's why electric cars have been eyed as a solution for improving deliveries by drivers, yet guaranteeing battery efficiency is still in the future.

Additional alternative energy vehicle options such as fuel cell-powered may serve as a complement to electric vehicles, said Amy Adams, vice president over fuel cell and hydrogen technologies at Cummins Inc. Fuel cell-powered cars may be better equipped for larger vehicles that need to travel longer distances, especially in rural areas, she said.

Despite the potential electric or fuel cell-powered cars bring, they do have drawbacks. For example, a delivery driver who drives an average of 65 miles per day makes up to 200 stops or more per day. That's equal to 1,000 foot motions on the brakes, and that can deteriorate knee health and decrease efficiency.

Electric vehicles for delivery drivers should incorporate regenerative braking systems to capture all that lost energy for each stop made, said John Lindsey, head of electric vehicle sales for Schneider Electric North America.

But electric and fuel cell-powered cars haven't been readily integrated into the U.S. economy compared to other countries like in Europe. That's why delivery companies need to balance neighborhood safety with delivery driver safety, said Duane Hughes, CEO of Workhouse Group. Hughes called for the integration of lane departure and lane collision warning systems for delivery drivers to protect both themselves and others around them.

To combat additional costs from incorporating these ideas, the experts supported a standardized, universal-like nozzle fill-up system for electric and fuel cell-powered cars to reduce customization costs. Reducing the overall core weight of vehicles would also improve battery efficiency.

And incentives and grant programs are needed from the federal government to jumpstart more research and development to achieve this, said Thomas Jensen, a senior government relations executive at UPS.

WASHINGTON, September 16, 2015 – A movement to make cities "smart" by using the power of broadband and information technology processing power is reaching critical mass, with the White House on Monday announcing a comprehensive initiative to support municipal efforts.

Coinciding with the Smart Cities Week conference here this week, the White House released a 4,000-word summary of more than $160 million in federal research investments, leveraging more than 25 technology collaborations with local communities.

The goal of these efforts? Tackling such key challenges, in the words of the White House, as "reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services."

"Advances in science and technology have the potential to accelerate these efforts," read the White House statement. "An emerging community of civic leaders, data scientists, technologists, and companies are joining forces to build ‘Smart Cities’ – communities that are building an infrastructure to continuously improve the collection, aggregation, and use of data to improve the life of their residents – by harnessing the growing data revolution, low-cost sensors, and research collaborations, and doing so securely to protect safety and privacy."

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WASHINGTON, September 16, 2015 – A movement to make cities "smart" by using the power of broadband and information technology processing power is reaching critical mass, with the White House on Monday announcing a comprehensive initiative to support municipal efforts.

Coinciding with the Smart Cities Week conference here this week, the White House released a 4,000-word summary of more than $160 million in federal research investments, leveraging more than 25 technology collaborations with local communities.

The goal of these efforts? Tackling such key challenges, in the words of the White House, as "reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of a changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services."

"Advances in science and technology have the potential to accelerate these efforts," read the White House statement. "An emerging community of civic leaders, data scientists, technologists, and companies are joining forces to build ‘Smart Cities’ – communities that are building an infrastructure to continuously improve the collection, aggregation, and use of data to improve the life of their residents – by harnessing the growing data revolution, low-cost sensors, and research collaborations, and doing so securely to protect safety and privacy."

The launch of White House Smart Cities Initiative

None of these Smart City innovations would be possible without the connectivity enabled by fiber-optic networks. These new opportunities for city services may prove to be the most effective driver of Gigabit Networks. As I wrote in an article last December on "The Year of Community and Municipal Gigabit Broadband," this is "a world in which cities and municipalities are playing the leadership role."

The White House Weighs In

Among the most significant facets of the administration's announcement include:

In a separate statement on the White House web site, Dan Correa, administration senior adviser for innovation policy, wrote:

By coordinating adjacent traffic signals to optimize local traffic throughput, a pilot project in Pittsburgh has reduced commuting travel times by more than 25 percent, on average. In Louisville, the city is using data gathered from sensor-equipped asthma inhalers to understand the connection between asthma "hotspots" and air quality levels and other environmental factors in order to inform policymaking and community-level interventions.

One new aspect of the Obama Administration's Smart Cities Initiative will be a focus on creating new technological test beds for "Internet of Things" applications.

Another will be collaboration with the civic tech movement, the "growing community of individuals, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits interested in harnessing [information technology] to tackle local problems and work directly with city governments."

In a manner similar to the way open source technology allows new innovators to build upon others’ software, this "open data" movement allows entities outside of government to make use of government data streams in real time.

Additionally, the White House said, the government plans to use other federal agency research — from sensor networks to broadband infrastructure — in its Smart City efforts, and to pursue international collaboration, particularly research aimed at climate and resource demand.

The agency also announced the release of a new framework for coordinating actions by a range of federal agencies, and a science and technologies priorities memo that will impact the administration's pending 2017 budget proposal.

Actions by Cities and the Private Sector

In addition to White House and federal agency developments, more than 20 city-university collaborations are taking part in what is being called the MetroLab Network.

These collaborations include:

• Atlanta, with Georgia State University and Georgia Tech

• Boston, with Boston Area Research Initiative

• Chicago, with the University of Chicago

• Cuyahoga County, with Case Western University

• Dallas, with Texas Research Alliance

• Detroit, with Wayne State University

• Houston, with Rice University

• Madison, with University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Memphis, with University of Memphis

• Minneapolis & St. Paul, with University of Minnesota

• Montgomery County, with University of Maryland and Universities at Shady Grove

• New York City, with New York University

• Philadelphia, with Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania

• Pittsburgh, with Carnegie Mellon University

• Portland, with Portland State University

• Providence, with Brown University, College Unbound, and Rhode Island School of Design

• San Diego, with University of California San Diego

• San Jose, with San Jose State University

• Seattle, with University of Washington

• South Bend, with University of Notre Dame

• Washington, DC, with Howard University, Georgetown University, and George Washington University

And among the more than 60 Smart City pilots taking place over the next year include:

Drew Clark is the Chairman of the Broadband Breakfast Club. He tracks the development of Gigabit Networks, broadband usage, the universal service fund and wireless policy @BroadbandCensus. He is also Of Counsel with the firm of Best Best & Krieger LLP, with offices in California and Washington, DC. He works with cities, special districts and private companies on planning, financing and coordinating efforts of the many partners necessary to construct broadband infrastructure and deploy "Smart City" applications. You can find him on LinkedIN, Google+ and Twitter. The articles and posts on BroadbandBreakfast.com and affiliated social media are not legal advice or legal services, do not constitute the creation of an attorney-client privilege, and represent the views of their respective authors.

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