Energy Communities IWG Executive Director Participates in DOE Carbon Negative Shot Summit Innovation Panel

Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Energy Communities IWG) Executive Director Dr. Brian Anderson participated in a distinguished panel of experts at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carbon Negative Shot Summit on Wednesday, July 20.

The Summit is part of DOE’s Carbon Negative Shot: an all-hands-on-deck call for innovations that will capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and durably store it. This effort is being deployed to achieve a net-zero carbon economy and eventually remove legacy carbon pollution to help address the climate crisis.

The Carbon Negative Shot Summit convened industry innovators, environmental and climate justice organizations, labor unions, academia, government leaders, and many more to increase collaboration to advance deployment of commercially viable, just, and sustainable carbon dioxide removal in the United States. 

Dr. Anderson took part in the Summit’s Innovation Panel, which discussed recent innovations related to national decarbonization efforts. The panel was moderated by Geri Richmond, Ph.D., DOE’s under secretary of Science and Innovation. Other panel members included:

• Andrew Chang, New York managing director, Activate 
• Scott Doney, Ph.D., the Joe D. and Helen J. Kington professor in environmental change at the University of Virginia  
• Dawn Lippert, founder and chief executive officer at the Elemental Excelerator 
• Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Ph.D., senior staff scientist and group leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory  
• Jigar Shah, director, DOE’s Loans Program Office 

“I’m pleased to be here at the Carbon Negative Shot Summit talking with other industry experts about new strategies and solutions to achieve a net-zero carbon economy. New innovations in carbon dioxide removal will help accelerate the United States’ goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and in the process, will create good-paying jobs that build on the skillsets of the fossil fuel workforce and grow the economy,” said Dr. Anderson.

Established by an Executive Order during President Biden’s first week in office, the IWG is pursuing a whole-of-government approach to create good-paying union jobs, spur economic revitalization, remediate environmental degradation and support energy workers in coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities across the country as the U.S. prepares to undergo a historic energy evolution to a carbon emission-free electricity sector by 2035 and economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.