Consumer Energy Alliance

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created to help expand the dialogue between the energy and consuming sectors to improve understanding of energy security, more effectively develop and use both renewable and oil & gas energy resources in an environmentally conscious manner, create sound energy policy and maintain stable energy prices for consumers.

Beyond Staycations

Last summer, oil prices skyrocketed, and American consumers sat up and took notice. As the news media reported relentlessly about pain at the pump and staycations became all the rage among people who could not afford road trips, the topic of volatile oil prices made it to the forefront of the U.S. Presidential debates.

The furor, unfortunately, did not last.

Overall economic conditions have fallen so precipitously since then that today, people are more likely to be worried about having a job, than having the gas in their cars to get to work. Americans are now facing so many financial challenges that oil prices, which have for the time being come back down to earth, would seem by comparison to be almost inconsequential.

But energy continues to matter a lot, more than is often recognized in this time of bank bailouts and car company bankruptcies, lost jobs and postponed retirements. Energy is at the core of virtually every aspect of the economy, and of modern life itself.

Today, as we struggle to find ways to stabilize our fragile economy, we need to give at least as much attention to our domestic energy industry as give to Wall Street and Detroit. As U.S. workers bemoan the trend of outsourcing that has replaced so many of them with cheaper labor overseas, we need to consider the serious costs of importing more than half of all the oil we consume. And, as we cheer the long overdue focus on alternative sources of energy, we need to make a realistic assessment of what we have available today and how long it will take to transition to a new paradigm.

It’s understandable that consumers take interest in energy policy when prices rise, and then become more complacent when they drop. But it is the dramatic swing in prices in a short time frame that really captures how insecure our energy supply has become. Prices are bound to fluctuate, but when they become so volatile that manufacturers or truckers can not project costs from one month to the next, it becomes challenging to maintain a steady pace of business. By most estimates, millions of jobs were lost as a result of recent price volatility.

When the U.S. recognizes the wealth of energy resources contained within its borders, and works to develop them responsibly, it will be a more economically and politically secure country. A vital U.S. energy industry will not just provide steady employment for those who work in the sector, but will provide a secure supply of energy to support a multitude of other energy-dependent industries, from trucking to manufacturing, which ultimately supports the consumer.

The best ways to develop those resources is, and should be, the subject of debate. Yet, we need to reconsider some longstanding assumptions: Are sweeping moratoriums on offshore oil drilling, for instance, really in our national best interest?

If there was one good thing that came out of all the chaos of last year’s oil price, it was the renewed consumer interest in our country’s energy policy. Now we need to make sure that energy remains a key piece of our collective national agenda.