With industrial energy consumers accounting for almost half of Alabama’s energy usage, CEA’s Brent Greenfield discusses how Alabama can increase the supply of energy from renewables to offshore energy.
We can similarly clear a path for more renewable energy. About six percent of the state’s electricity generation comes from roughly two-dozen hydroelectric dams, per the EIA. This helps make the state the No. 2 hydroelectric power producer east of the Rockies.
Read more – Business Alabama
After years of permitting, the economic benefits of pipeline construction will finally be arriving as unions begin recruiting hundreds of West Virginians for jobs paying family-sustaining wages.
The Teamsters Labor Management Cooperation Trust is looking to hire hundreds of people to help build pipelines in West Virginia and the surrounding area.
A Teamster National Pipeline job fair is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday (February 2-3) from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Teamsters Local 175 Union Hall. The union hall is located at 267 Staunton Avenue in South Charleston.
Read more – WSAZ
Connelly Springs, NC — Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) President David Holt issued the following statement today after the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued a major permit needed to build the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP):
“CEA applauds North Carolina regulators for issuing the last major permit needed to approve the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. This project is vitally important for families, business and communities across the region since it will provide roughly $377 million a year in energy cost savings for cash-strapped families, seniors, and energy-intensive manufacturing.”
“America is experiencing an energy revolution that is changing lives, and North Carolina needs to be a part of it. Families and businesses across the region will benefit directly from the project and the 17,000 new jobs and $2.7 billion in economic activity it will create. We look forward to continuing to have a thoughtful discussion in the state on how we build safe, environmentally-friendly infrastructure to safely transport and produce our energy – especially in this tough winter season that has strained energy supplies and family budgets.”
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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 450,000 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
CONNELLY SPRINGS, N.C. — Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) today called on policymakers and regulators in the U.S. Southeast to better protect working families, seniors and those living in poverty from unnecessarily high electricity and heating costs by advocating for the development and production of more renewable and traditional energy resources – onshore and off – along with the expansion of local pipeline infrastructure.
This effort follows reports that some Atlantic seaboard residents have seen their wholesale electricity prices increase more than 420 percent following Winter Storm Grayson this month. This means that prices for home heating and electricity generators in North Carolina went from $3 for natural gas in December to $175 during the week of January 8 because of the inability to deliver the natural gas to markets during high demand times. This unprecedented price spike was 58 times higher than the average price of natural gas just one month before – entirely because groups keep blocking energy development and delivery.
“Anti-development opponents here keep saying that more energy development and pipeline buildout isn’t needed, much like the same opponents who have long said in New England and other parts of the nation,” CEA President David Holt said. “While these opponents cloak themselves as virtuous and forward-looking rhetoric, the reality is they only serve to harm at-risk populations without offering any other valuable solutions.”
In North Carolina – like other places in the Southeast – some electric generators paid a whopping $175 dollars per unit of natural gas, compared to the $3 dollars per unit of natural gas they paid in December. These costs increase what homeowners pay for their electricity and home heating. And in South Carolina, a utility there asked customers to reduce electric consumption to lighten the load on the grid. Despite the request, they broke a record for electric generation.
“These higher bills and shortages will continue as we move into spring without proper energy infrastructure. Policymakers and regulators who have stood in the way of approving modernized infrastructure and played politics with our pocketbooks – by relying on misguided claims from groups who know nothing about energy solutions that complement renewables – need to be held accountable by their constituents,” Holt said. “This especially includes lower-income families and those living in poverty, all of whom spend a larger percentage of their take-home income on electricity and home-heating costs than those in other income brackets. For them, energy bills like the ones they’ve gotten this winter mean they must decide between heating their homes and putting food on the table – a decision no one should have to make.”
Holt added: “Unfortunately, families throughout the Southeast region of the U.S. will continue to be crushed by the sky-rocketing costs of energy prices when winter temperatures drop unseasonably cold until obstructionist policymakers and regulators decide to take responsibility, do their job and make energy affordability a top priority. It’s imperative that state legislators, and the region’s public utility commissioners, learn from the recent string of record cold snaps, get serious about the burden facing energy consumers and balance their needs with those of the environment.”
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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 450,000 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
Consumer Energy Alliance Executive Director, Chris Ventura and Senior Director of Communications, Emily Haggstrom joined KDMT to discuss CEA’s “all of the above” energy strategy, and the Campaign for America’s Energy – highlighting the importance of affordable, reliable energy and the consequences of bad policy decisions.
Learn more – AM 1690 KDMT
Good news!
Washington and the new administration are continuing to address government overreach and looking to expand access to American offshore energy – And they need to hear from you!
We need your help to ensure American energy security, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars in economic activity for hard-working, middle-class Americans, low-income families and those in living in poverty so they can get lower energy costs, which are an essential lifeline to their economic opportunities.
From gasoline and electricity costs to everyday items like food, clothing, computers and smart phones, energy is everywhere and it makes our lives better.
Tell Washington that you support expanded access to America’s offshore energy resources! It matters to you and your neighbors.
RE: 2019-2024 Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf Oil & Gas Leasing Program and Notice of Intent to Prepare a PEIS
Dear Ms. Hammerle and Dr. Lewandowski:
I applaud the Administration’s decision to examine opportunities for American offshore energy and support keeping all the areas being considered.
Families and businesses across the United States, especially individuals on fixed and low income and small businesses, depend on affordable, reliable energy to make ends meet and support their families and employees. Furthermore, increasing opportunities to develop our own resources here at home will provide economic growth that will help our children and grandchildren. Offshore energy will also help support our nation’s aging infrastructure.
Studies have shown that expanded development in areas like the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska could support more than 560,000 jobs and over $314 billion in cumulative government revenue. At the same time, by developing energy here in America, under our stringent regulatory standards, we can help safeguard our environment. We can and we must develop our natural resources while protecting our environment. There is no reason that we cannot do both.
To meet America’s growing and long-term energy needs, it is vital to keep significant offshore opportunities in place. That is why I strongly encourage the U.S. Government to maintain all of its proposed leasing areas as the program is further developed.
Thank you again for proposing expanded opportunities to access American energy and for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Jefferson City, MO — Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) today released a report titled, “Missouri Families, Small Businesses and Households Need a Modern, Upgraded Grid,” to highlight the importance of improving and modernizing Missouri’s energy grid and to call on the Missouri legislature to pass Senate Bill 564 in 2018. CEA’s report found that Missouri’s families, households, seniors, small businesses, and manufacturers are seeing decreasing reliability with increasing costs of electricity, while missing out on the tremendous economic benefits of a smarter, more integrated grid that could optimize clean energy resources, guard against cyber threats, and restore power in the event of a storm or outage.
Highlights from the report include:
“This report demonstrates the need to update Missouri’s grid and highlights how new policy is long overdue. Legislators now have the choice before them to build smarter, more secure, and stable energy infrastructure that not only provides the upgrades that Missouri’s families and businesses deserve, but also protects their pocketbooks,” Chris Ventura, CEA’s Midwest Director, said. “Nothing is more important to us than ensuring energy consumers – especially those struggling to make ends meet – are treated fairly. We believe it is time Missouri joined the 46 other states that have moved forward with policies to allow improvements to our energy grid.”
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Construction has started on a new $750 million investment in Louisiana, bringing new jobs and revenue into local communities.
“We’ve had this amazing industrial renaissance that’s been going on in Louisiana, you know, for the past couple of years and construction projects going on all over the place, and as we grow our plants, we’re going to need access to more resources,” said Briggs, whose group represents independent drilling, pipeline and other associated service companies.
Read more – The Advocate
North Dakota officials are already sounding the alarm that demand to ship oil on pipelines, which provide the safest and most efficient way to transport oil, is far outstripping capacity.
North Dakota needs more pipelines to keep up with oil and gas production, Lynn Helms told county officials at the Elmer Jesme Conference of Counties in Minot Monday.
Helms, who is director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, Bismarck, said the state could run out of room in its existing crude oil and natural gas pipelines in four to seven years.
Read more – Minot Daily News
Missouri’s families, households, seniors, small businesses, and manufacturers are seeing decreasing reliability with increasing costs of electricity, while missing out on the tremendous economic benefits of a smarter, more integrated grid that could optimize clean energy resources, guard against cyber threats, and restore power in the event of a storm or outage.
Highlights from the report include:
Download the report Missouri Families, Small Businesses and Households Need a Modern, Upgraded Grid.
