Facebook Instagram Linkedin RSS Twitter Youtube

New Consumer Report: Georgians Saved More Than $16 Billion Over 10 Years Thanks to Lower-Priced Natural Gas

Woman Teleworking

ATLANTA — Thanks to increased energy production and safer, state-of-the-art technologies – which together have decreased the price of natural gas – Georgian families, businesses and farmers collectively saved more than $16 billion between 2006 and 2016, according to a state report by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), with calculations developed by Orion Strategies.

Households saved over almost $6 billion while commercial and industrial users saved more than $9.9 billion, combined, the report, titled, “Georgia Residents Benefit from Affordable Natural Gas,” revealed. CEA presented its findings today at the Georgia Chamber to their Government Affairs Committee, in Atlanta.

The analysis details how the national and local energy revolution has helped Georgia energy consumers increase disposable income, adding to job growth and economic investment while helping to revitalize communities. It also details how Georgia’s lack of availability to local and state resources creates a reliance on energy infrastructure to ensure that affordable energy can be delivered to the state. As a result, it’s critical families, and businesses work with local and state governments to guarantee that current, and future, Georgians can count on domestic energy and a robust pipeline network to deliver energy to their homes and businesses.

Highlights from the report include:

  • On average, each resident spent $3,022 to meet their energy needs in 2016. For the nearly 15 percent of the state’s population living at or below the poverty line, this translates to almost one-quarter of their income going toward energy expenses.
  • Georgia consumers saved more than $16 billion in energy costs between 2006 and 2016. Residential users saved more than $6 billion; commercial and industrial users together saved more than $9.9 billion.
  • The oil and natural gas industry contributed 142,700 jobs and accounted for more than $7.5 billion in wages in Georgia.
  • In all, oil and gas provide more than $13.7 billion to Georgia’s state economy. That includes employee compensation, proprietors’ income, income to capital owners from the property and indirect business taxes.
  • The state does not currently have any crude oil or natural gas production. In recent years, developers have been investigating potential energy resources in the Conasauga Shale, in northwest Georgia.
  • Georgia is among the top 10 petroleum-consuming states, with its transportation sector accounting for 90 percent of consumption. Its industrial sector is Georgia’s second-largest user of petroleum products.
  • From 2000 to 2017, nationwide emissions of key pollutants have decreased, including nitrogen oxides (by 52 percent), sulfur dioxide (by 83 percent), volatile organic compounds (by 19 percent) and fine particulate matter (by 37 percent).

“Access to energy supports just about everything we do across Georgia. It fuels our cars and trucks and cools our homes during the hot, humid summer months,” Kevin Doyle, CEA’s Georgia Director, said. “That’s why it’s crucial that Georgians work with local and state governments to guarantee that families and businesses can continue to count on domestic energy and the pipeline networks that deliver it to our homes and businesses. We cannot take it for granted.”

Doyle added: “We should protect our access to reliable, affordable energy resources to preserve our state’s economic well-being. While Georgia’s agriculture industry directly impacts our state, so too does the energy industry, and it’s not only farmers and ranchers. Energy from clean, abundant and affordable natural gas has saved both families and businesses in Georgia almost $16 billion between 2006 and 2016.”

To view the report, click here.

###

About Consumer Energy Alliance
Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) brings together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s energy future. With more than 500,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy’s importance to the economy.

Contact:
Emily Haggstrom
P: 720-582-0242
ehaggstrom@consumerenergyalliance.org

Federal Appeals Court Vacates New York’s Northern Access Denial

New York park in winter

At Consumer Energy Alliance, we have chronicled the political games forcing New York families to pay ever increasing costs for natural gas.  This week, the Second Circuit recognized that politics, not sound policy, was the basis for denying one of the many energy infrastructure projects being stymied in New York.

“The Second Circuit also has now made it clear that New York’s denial of the permit application failed to provide factual justification for their decision…

…In spite of thousands of pages of technical analysis, months of collaboration and compromise and a proven track record of responsible development, New York attempted, without basis in fact, to raise the hurdle for pipeline construction to a level that is not clearly defined and is inconsistent with the standards applied to all other public infrastructure projects.”

Read more – NGI

Marcello Rollando talks Campaign for America’s Energy with CEA VP Brydon Ross

Family in the Snow

CEA’s Brydon Ross joined Marcello Rollando to talk about the importance of affordable energy for families and energy consumers across the country.

Listen here – The Reasonable Voices

CEA Issues Statement on Another Extremist Attack on Local Minnesota Pipeline

pipeline activists

COLUMBUS – Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), the leading national consumer advocate on energy issues, responded today to environmental extremists who tampered with a pipeline system valve in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, filming the illegal, and extremely dangerous, act on their Facebook page. Following the incident, CEA Midwest Executive Director Chris Ventura made the following statement:

“The escalating and irresponsible rhetoric of extreme environmental activists has led to an increasing number of dangerous acts, like pipeline tampering, which not only has the potential to injure or kill the protestors but innocent members of their communities,” said Ventura. “CEA continues to be gravely concerned at the risks these groups are taking, and increasingly disturbed at the destruction they can have on the very environment they claim to protect.”

“While individuals have the right to decide on the policy that affects their communities, we always encourage positive civil discourse that involves solutions, not destruction and danger. These pipelines serve as the most environmentally friendly way to transport energy families and businesses in this region, and across the country, need.”

“The tactics being taken by extreme activists, like the group today, should be taken into consideration by policymakers to ensure the safety of constituents in their communities to avoid reckless and dangerous acts like these in the future. We look to leaders in Minnesota to work together to not only ensure the safety of Minnesotans but to ensure affordable, reliable energy for the state.”

###

About Consumer Energy Alliance
Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is the leading consumer advocate for energy, bringing together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s energy future. With more than 500,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy’s importance to the economy.

Contact:
Emily Haggstrom
P: 720-582-0242
ehaggstrom@consumerenergyalliance.org

Support Safe Energy

Santa Fe New Mexico Street with Pedestrians

CEA’s Emily Haggstrom discusses how New Mexico’s budget surplus as a result of responsible energy development has been used to benefit lower-income families.

New Mexico ushered in 2019 in a historic new position: a budget surplus, a turnaround from a couple of years back when lawmakers tussled with how to combat an unsettling deficit. The winning formula, it turned out, was backing safe energy production. Per reports, about 80 percent of the growth in state income this current fiscal year came from the oil and gas sector. It’s a strategy that lawmakers should continue.

Read more – Santa Fe New Mexican

Consumer Group Applauds Appeals Court Decision of Bayou Bridge Pipeline

Airboat Swamp Tour

Houston, TX – Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) applauded the 4-1 decision by the Louisiana Appeals Court which ruled that the state’s Department of Natural Resources appropriately issued permits for the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Following the verdict, Kaitlin Schmidtke, CEA’s Louisiana State Director said the following:

“CEA applauds the Court’s decision on this critically important infrastructure project for Louisiana. It confirms that the state Department of Natural Resources did its due diligence and was thorough in its environmental permitting review. We can protect both our fragile wetlands and the environment while also ensuring that families, households and small businesses have the energy resources they need to fuel their daily lives.

“These regulators review a wide variety of issues across the state and are attuned to consider every scenario of these projects. We applaud the verdict, which supports the Department’s prior decision. By allowing this project to continue, the energy that will be transported through this pipeline will be able to reach its destination at local refineries safely, and eventually, meet the energy needs families and businesses in the region.”

###

About Consumer Energy Alliance

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) brings together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s energy future. With more than 500,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy’s importance to the economy. Learn more at ConsumerEnergyAlliance.org.

Contact:
Emily Haggstrom
P: 720-582-0242
ehaggstrom@consumerenergyalliance.org

New York’s Natural Gas Bottlenecks Drive up Heating Bills

Family Walking in the Winter Snow

Consumer Energy Alliance’s report, “Pipelines and their Benefits to New York,” about the importance of pipelines to ensuring affordable, reliable energy supplies to New Yorkers was recently discussed in Buffalo.

As the State Legislature heads back into session next month, I hope that our representatives will keep that in mind. New Yorkers need access to reliable, affordable energy to heat their homes – and it’s up to us to make that happen. An alarming report released this week by the Consumer Energy Alliance highlights the challenges facing vulnerable New Yorkers heading into the cold winter months. With the Northeast in the grip of a chilly winter, spikes in home heating prices are expected to be more severe than in the past due to the ongoing impacts of New York’s blockade on natural gas infrastructure.

Read more – The Buffalo News

Offshore Drilling Could Bring Prices Down

Mom cooking with children

CEA’s Kevin Doyle examines how harmful energy policies can lead to increasing the financial burden of working families and those living on fixed incomes.

A pair of Virginia lawmakers recently introduced the Defend Our Coast Act, which proposes banning offshore drilling in the Mid-Atlantic. Anti-development groups and well-funded, elite activists applauded the proposal, saying it was a sign that legislators were finally standing up for Virginians.

Which ones?

About 11 percent of Virginia’s population lives in poverty. That’s more than 896,000 Virginians. They, plus millions of others on fixed incomes or living paycheck to paycheck, see a double-digit percentage of their take-home pay go toward energy costs like electricity and gasoline, dangerously more than what those other income brackets pay.

Read more – Suffolk News-Herald

Oil Trains Make Comeback as Pipeline Bottlenecks Worsen

Rail transportation tanker car

As pipeline constraints continue to build, more crude oil is being delivered by rail, which in the past has harmed our country’s farmers ability to harvest crops and deliver them to consumers.

An average of 718,000 barrels of crude a day traversed America’s railways as of October, the latest data available, an 88% increase from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That compares with a peak average of about 1.1 million barrels in October 2014.

North Dakota’s Bakken Core to Get Additional Pipeline

Laborers working on pipeline

As the United States produces more oil and natural gas, an expanded energy delivery system will allow for the safe transportation of American produced energy while allowing for the capture of natural gas to further our environmental goals.

North Dakota has been posting record production numbers for natural gas, but unwelcome increases in flaring have come with that. In November, the state produced 2.523 MCF per day, and flared 527 million cubic feet of that per day, according to the latest production figures.

Additional takeaway capacity that projects like the WBI line provide are essential to solve flaring issues, according to Pipeline Authority Justin Kringstad.

Read more – Williston Herald

1...124125126...338Page 125 of 338

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

© Consumer Energy Alliance