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Two Proposed Pipelines to Bring 1.3 Million Barrels of Crude Oil to Houston

Two engineers in front of large refinery

As previously reported, constraints on our energy infrastructure across Texas and other parts of the country is preventing energy consumers from seeing lower-cost energy and stopping the creation of thousands of construction jobs.  Pipelines, like the two that have been proposed, are necessary to expand our energy delivery infrastructure and provide relief to families and small businesses across the state.

Spanning some 650 miles, the Wink-to-Webster Pipeline is a 36-inch-diameter pipeline, which analysts previously said carried a $2 billion price tag. Plains will lead the construction of the project and has already begun pre-construction activities. If approved by regulators, the pipeline could be in service by the first half of 2021.

Read more – The Houston Chronicle

Utilize Our Natural Resources

Worker at construction site with rebar

CEA Midwest Executive Director Chris Ventura discusses how areas across the state are witnessing higher levels of economic development and employment as a result of harnessing Ohio’s natural resources.

By developing its natural resources, Ohio is providing greater access to local jobs with family-sustaining wages and creating new opportunities in construction and power generation. More than 19 new clean-burning natural gas power plants are now operating or under construction statewide, providing jobs, diversifying the energy grid and decreasing utility costs.

Read more – Herald-Star

Natural Gas Boosters Push State to Get Pipelines Back on Track

Senior citizen keeping warm by the fire

As politics continues to prevent New York families and businesses from accessing affordable supplies of natural gas, a moratorium on connecting new customers will begin leaving New Yorkers with higher heating bills and less affordable housing.

With two proposed natural gas pipelines stuck in neutral after they failed to secure permits, business leaders are warning that the state faces calamitous economic consequences if energy infrastructure projects can’t clear hurdles erected by the Cuomo administration.

Read more – Press-Republican

America Needs More Oil And Natural Gas Pipelines

Father and daughter removing snow from car windows

Although the United States is producing record amounts of oil and natural gas, helping to insulate energy consumers from unstable price swings, pipeline constraints continue to hamper our ability to become energy independent and lower energy prices for our families and small businesses.

And pipeline constraints help explain why we still import a ton of oil and gas, with too many areas not having access to our own domestic production surge. For example, we still imported an overly high average of 7.9 million b/d of crude oil in 2018, despite recently reaching a mind-blowing record of 12 million b/d of crude production. This worsens our trade deficit, hampers our goal for energy self-sufficiency, disrupts local communities thriving on shale development, and dangerously benefits riskier international suppliers.

For oil in particular, more pipelines give us an expanding ability to lower prices not just here but around the world, a critical component to growing the global economy that we must help to realize.

Read more – Forbes

9 Energy Resolutions for 2019

Carpooling and Ride Sharing

9 Energy Resolutions for 2019

Are you one of those people that makes resolutions each year? While some people can fulfill these, others find it much harder to do so. However, there are easy ways to save and feel like you’re making a difference by setting goals. While it’s already mid-January, it’s not too late to start considering ways to save energy.

It’s no secret that our country continues to debate climate change policy and where we’ll go with it in the next year. Much of it centers on how humans balance energy consumption and protecting the environment. Many people are ready and looking for new ways to save and use energy more wisely. Not only does actively working to save energy help the environment, it also helps our wallets. That’s because using energy more efficiently, whether it be to power our homes, offices or vehicles, saves money by being mindful and using less.

You’d be surprised just how much these incremental savings can add up over time by modifying your daily energy use. As we head into 2019, here are a few ways you can conserve both energy and money in a resolution that you can maintain all year long.

1. Turn Off Your Lights and Close Your Vents

When a room is uninhabited or you don’t use it very often or at all, make sure the lights are out, appliances are unplugged and any air vents in the room are closed to save energy. Switching your lights off at night and whenever you leave your house can also save you quite a bit of money on your electric bill.

2. Carpool

Carpooling can save multiple people money while also helping preserve energy and take more cars off the road. While Uber and Lyft technically count as carpooling, you’re still just transferring your energy use from you to the driver. Instead, pick-up friends on the way through the UberPOOL or Lyft Line option. For work you can also invite your coworkers to carpool instead of using their individual cars to get to work every day. If you’re headed somewhere for the weekend, coordinate with your friends so you can all go together.

3. Alternative Transportation

Is carpooling not your thing? You can also save a lot of energy and money by utilizing alternative forms of transportation, instead of your car, how about riding a bike, a scooter, or taking your city’s public transportation, such as buses or trains, to work, school, and extracurricular activities. Some cities even offer scooter and bike-sharing programs, which have already established bike stops all over cities across the United States.

4. Use Your Thermostat

Leaving your home’s temperature on a set level throughout the seasons will increase your electric bills and use a lot of energy. If your house does not need to be heated, switch your thermostat off. If your home does not need to be cooled, turn down the A/C. Try opening curtains in the winter or closing blinds in the summer to keep your home comfortable instead. There is also new technologies like Nest and other local home systems that learn your routines, turning your thermostat down when you leave the house and back on again before you get home. It even adjusts for when you’re sleeping.

5. Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

Have you seen those spiraling lightbulbs at the supermarket? Those are energy efficient light bulbs. Not only do they conserve energy, but they also last longer than conventional bulbs ­­- saving you money and trips to the grocery store.

6. Conserve Water

Always turn your faucet off while brushing your teeth when you’re not using it to rinse. Moreover, try not to run excessive water in your shower or when you’re hand-washing dishes. This will cut down on both the amount of energy your water heater uses as well as the amount of money spent on your water bill.

7. Manage Devices

In order to save electricity and money, you should unplug all electronics that aren’t in use. In America, televisions, DVDs, cable boxes, Wi-Fi and video game consoles in our entertainment centers consumed 7% of the electricity used in this country. Making it a routine to unplug these devices, even your cell phone and laptop chargers that are usually left plugged in, can cut down on your electric bill while saving and using energy more efficiently in your home.

8. Ceiling Fans

While ceiling fans are undeniable life-savers during hot, summer months, you can also run them in the winter by reversing the direction of their blades in order to push warm air from the ceiling to the floor. Not only will your house feel more comfortable using less energy, you will also be spending less per month on electric bills.

9. Seal and Insulate

Depending on the season, whether it is cold or hot outside, you should make sure that your home is properly sealed and insulated to keep either hot or cold air inside. That way, you can use less electric heating or cooling to stay comfortable ­– making your home more energy efficient.

These are nine easy energy resolutions for 2019. Saving energy and money isn’t difficult if you know where to start. It’s not too late to begin the New Year with a newfound, financial and environmentally friendly efficiency plan!

 

Expanding Pipeline, Refinery Capacity Helps Alabama Farmers

Tractor fertilizes crops corn in spring

Kaitlin Schmidtke, CEA’s Alabama State Director talks about the importance of affordable, reliable energy to Alabama’s farmers and what we need to do to keep energy prices low.

Farmers also need to account for fluctuating energy costs like fuel and electricity, which can account for up to 30 percent or more of expenses. These prices, like the weather, impact farm operations and bottom lines.

Read more – Montgomery Advertiser

Trump Eyes Action to Limit States’ Powers to Block Pipelines

Child with Stuffed Animal

As some elected officials begin injecting politics into fact-based regulatory processes, families and farmers are seeing the results of politically constrained energy infrastructure in higher than necessary energy bills and lost economic opportunities.

“If a polar vortex comes into the Northeast part of the country, or a cyberattack, and people literally have to start making decisions on how to keep their family warm or keep the lights on, at that time, the leadership of that state will have a real reckoning. I wouldn’t want to be the governor of that state facing that situation,” Perry said last summer at the World Gas Conference in Washington. “We have to have a conversation as a country. Is that a national security issue that outweighs the political concerns in Albany, N.Y.?”

Read more – Bloomberg

Energy Headlines and Challenges to Watch for in 2019

Family Walking in the Winter Snow

CEA President David Holt previews the energy discussions and challenges that lie ahead in 2019, and what energy consumers – from families and small businesses to manufacturers – can expect.

In 2018, the American energy sector and the hundreds of millions of consumers it serves daily could easily be summarized by a series of headlines:

Record surges in energy production. Continuing decreases in energy costs, in various pockets of the country, plus increases in renewable energy generation.

Read more – Newsmax

Offshore Drilling Ban Bad Idea

Sitting on the beach during sunset

CEA Florida’s Executive Director, Kevin Doyle, discusses how Floridians are negatively impacted by proposals that will unnecessarily cause energy prices to increase.

Advocating for an energy plan that increases domestic supplies of all resources — oil, natural gas, wind and solar, onshore and off, and in the safest methods possible — is the only way to balance the supply-demand equation and reduce energy expenses for these households, especially as the state’s population increases and energy demand climbs.

Read more – Naples Daily News

Why Banning Oil Drilling Miles Offshore Is a Bad Idea

Maritime Workers

Kevin Doyle, CEA Florida’s Executive Director talks about the importance of offshore energy to the growth of Florida’s economy and energy consumers across the state.

It would also increase economic opportunities inland and across the shoreline, via upticks in jobs and tax revenue. This would help put more Floridians back to work and help more families make ends meet. It would also help fund critical municipal services including schools, road repairs and local emergency response personnel, plus aid beautification enhancements.

Read more – Sunshine State News

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