Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Vision Study To Identify Transformative Pathways for a Globally Leading U.S. Industrial Sector

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a new vision study, Transformative Pathways for U.S. Industry: Unlocking American Innovation. This study identifies and models strategic pathways that can transform the industrial sector to create jobs, jumpstart American innovation, and create healthier American communities across the nation.

“America has always been a nation of thought leaders and innovators, including in industry,” said Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy David Turk. “We are at a pivotal moment for the next stage of industrial innovation, and this study provides industry with the tools to march down the path of large-scale transformation, building a stronger, cleaner, and more affordable and resilient future.”

DOE’s new Transformative Pathways study provides a blueprint for the U.S. to grow the industrial sector and sharpen the nation’s competitive edge and national security globally, while reducing the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions contributions.  The study explores how the U.S. can fundamentally reimagine a sector that has been optimized over hundreds of years, carefully considering its impact across American communities and the globe.  

There is no single direct path to achieve transformation, but a series of potential pathways all culminating to the same pivot point. Many transformative pathways can be pursued in parallel across each individual subsector to bring about an industrial transformation. Transformative Pathways leverages DOE analysis expertise to model how they can be pursued together to chart a course to an industrial transformation by identifying and exploring pathways in the most critical industries, including:

• Cement and Concrete
• Chemicals
• Food and Beverage
• Iron and Steel
• Petroleum Refining
• Pulp and Paper.

This new vision study builds upon DOE's Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap and Pathways for Commercial Liftoff reports to provide industry, academia, and the government at all levels the frameworks needed to make decisions about the future of the U.S. industrial sector. To learn more about the report, visit the Transformative Pathways for U.S. Industry: Unlocking American Innovation webpage. 

Download the PDF of the report in its entirety.