CEA President David Holt discusses how the lack of quorum at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is harming energy consumers.
“We’ve never had a situation like this before, with such an acute backlog,” said David Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, a trade group representing energy consumers and producers. “There’s a level of dysfunction in the Senate and other parts of the government that are now impacting our ability to do our daily work.”
Read more – Houston Chronicle
Utah families and businesses are thriving because we make pro-business decisions that are innovative – and it’s time to do it again!
The Utah Public Service Commission is working with electric companies and solar providers on a new approach to install more solar and build a better grid. This proposal will keep our electricity costs low, our bills fair, and allow solar to power more homes and businesses.
Show your support for families and businesses – tell the Public Service Commission that you want an innovative solar policy that will increase solar usage for everyone in Utah.
Dear Commissioners:
Our state’s families, small businesses, community centers, libraries, and schools thrive due to the state’s innovative, pro-business policies and inexpensive energy. When problems come up, we innovate and find a solution that works for everyone – which is why I support PacifiCorp’s proposal.
Solar energy is an important part of our state’s electricity future, and we need to find the most innovative way to incorporate it into our grid so that both solar energy and the grid are set up for long-term success in the decades to come. If this occurs, Utah’s families and businesses win. This new proposal seems to be a balanced approach to integrating solar into our state’s energy plan while allowing everyone who lives here to see the clean, renewable benefits it brings.
Again, I encourage you to support PacifiCorp’s proposal because it promotes more solar power, keeps the electric grid strong, and gives families, small businesses, and communities’ access to the affordable electricity rates that they depend on.
Respectfully,
With growing oil and natural gas production in the Permian Basin, Texas has the opportunity to see additional private investment and growth in the petrochemical industry – ensuring more high-wage careers for Texans throughout the state.
Houston pipeline startup Permico Energia hopes to build a $2 billion natural gas liquids pipeline across Texas from the booming Permian Basin to refining and port access near Corpus Christi.
The pipeline project includes building a fractionator near Corpus Christi to separate the NGLs into individual products – ethane, propane and butane – as well as products pipelines to carry the ethane and more to Houston-area markets like Mont Belvieu. The products typically are exported or sold to the petrochemical sector and heating markets.
Read more – Houston Chronicle
CEA’s James Voyles discusses recent polling in Maine demonstrating support for renewable energy and lower energy costs.
About 68 percent of voters said that lowering the cost of energy – solar or not – was a top priority. When told that rooftop panels cost more than twice as much as large solar power facilities to produce electricity – remember, small solar power generators do not bear the same fixed costs to maintain and power the grid as non-solar power generators do – 58 percent said large solar power facilities would be the best way to increase solar.
Read more – Portland Press Herald
SALT LAKE CITY — As part of Consumer Energy Alliance’s (CEA) Solar Energy Future campaign, the organization today released data from an upcoming report that provides a comprehensive quantification of solar incentives available to families, businesses and other energy users in Utah.
The report, scheduled to be released this fall, analyzes the cost for a typical solar facility in Utah along with the federal, state, and local incentives available for rooftop solar.
It found that:
That means in Utah, like in several other states, government, and utility-offered incentives have reduced residential customers’ net costs of installing rooftop solar systems to record-low levels – so much so that total incentives are nearly equal to a solar system’s total costs.
Considering these steep cost reductions, local utilities and the state Public Service Commission are re-examining the scope and methods surrounding their incentive programs and are now considering programs that rely on a more competitive marketplace to provide the economically optimal levels of rooftop solar adoption.
“As technology continues to advance, solar energy is becoming an even more incredibly powerful and cost-competitive technology that has the potential to change the face of American energy, both today and in the future,” David Holt, President of CEA, said. “Solar brings with it tremendous benefits for families and businesses across the country – including those in Utah. Its deployment has been truly remarkable.”
Holt added: “As solar energy continues to progress as a larger slice of America’s all-of-the-above energy pie, we hope that CEA’s data will help yield pro-solar, pro-grid and pro-consumer policies in Utah and ensure the spread of solar technology, the continued efficiency of a robust electric grid and increased access to clean, renewable, affordable and reliable energy sources.”
These findings echo those revealed in an analysis done last year by CEA, called, “Incentivizing Solar Energy: An In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Solar Incentives.” That report studied the federal, state, and local incentives available for rooftop solar photovoltaic in more than a dozen states and found that nationwide, government and utility-offered incentives reduced residential customers’ net costs of installing rooftop solar systems to record-low levels.
To review the full results of that analysis and a copy of that report, please visit solarenergyfuture.org.
CEA President David Holt was interviewed on how rising gas and oil prices are impacting Texas’ economy.
Texas is the leader in energy production once again, which is where we were in the fifties, sixties and early 1970’s
Read more – KTRH-AM
Robert Chase, emeritus professor in Marietta College’s Department of Petroleum Engineering & Geology, examines why constructing new energy infrastructure in Ohio is vital to secure our state’s economic competitiveness and our nation’s energy future.
The reality is that almost nobody likes or appreciates natural gas pipelines. Let’s simply note that everyday life wouldn’t be the same without the gas that these pipelines carry for electricity generation, home heating and cooking, and industrial production. And there is little question that demand for natural gas is rising. Witness the retirement of aging coal and nuclear plants in favor of those that burn low-cost, clean natural gas.
Without improvements in the natural gas infrastructure, experts say that half of the nation’s economy from the Northeast to the Midwest will be under severe stress. Without adequate gas supplies, energy-intensive industries would be unable to remain open and the electrical-power-generating industry would suffer significantly. Thousands of working people could lose their jobs. Local economies, especially here in Appalachia, would suffer.
Read more – The Plain Dealer
CEA Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Mike Butler discusses the impact energy has on employment and economic development in Pennsylvania and the effect lower energy prices have on stretched family budgets.
Working alongside natural gas, coal remains one of the most cost-effective, stable and abundant sources of energy we have. It’s also a major jobs creator. In Pennsylvania, more than 36,000 jobs are tied to the coal industry, with wages roughly $30,000 higher than the average private sector job. In West Virginia, coal wages are twice the state average.
Read more – The Observer-Reporter
CEA’s David Holt discusses how improving our energy infrastructure can spur economic growth, promote environmental safety, and help put Americans back to work.
Instead of leaning on more reactive social services programs to help low-income families foot the bill, we need more proactive measures to make certain that future bills never get this high to begin with. That starts with green-lighting the build-out and maintenance of more pipelines, which are statistically the safest way to move energy. Studies continue to show that transporting resources via pipeline is 4.5 times safer than moving the same amount of energy across the same distance by other means, and over 99.999 percent of what’s moved through pipelines safely reaches its destination.
In addition to pipelines’ cost-cutting benefits and environmental advantages, they’re also economic treasure-troves for the communities they run through, regularly bringing in much-needed tax relief, great paying jobs, greater personal security, and increases in business spending.
Read more – Newsmax.com
Plain and simple – energy is a necessity. For the most part, over the last several years, that necessity has been pretty affordable in the Midwest. In most areas of the region the low-prices for gas and electricity have allowed many families and businesses to use those savings and spend money on things important to them.
While this affordable energy has been a benefit to most in the Midwest, that isn’t as true for communities across Michigan. As many of our members in the state may know, our most recent Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) whitepaper showed that the average Michigan household paid $265.75 more than the national average for their electricity. This is money we’d all like to be able to spend on other necessities – like food or clothing – or activities – like a night at the movies or a dinner out with friends.
Because we’re paying more, our elected leaders should be helping us take steps to stabilize and lower all energy costs to help make Michigan more competitive. Yet small groups of vocal anti-development activists across the state are trying to increase energy costs on our families and small businesses for propane, diesel, and gasoline by calling for the shutdown of Line 5, a longstanding piece of critical energy infrastructure.
Line 5 is a 645-mile-long pipeline that has safely fueled Michigan’s energy consumers with crude oil since 1953. This oil is refined into various forms of transportation fuels in Detroit. Every day, Line 5 delivers more than 540,000 barrels of crude oil, which is then refined to provide fuel for over 1 million passenger cars and trucks, 6,000 semis, and over 800 commercial aircraft. In addition to transportation fuels, Line 5 also supplies the state with 55 percent of the propane used by Michiganders every year.
To get an idea of what might happen if Line 5 was to be shutdown, the state of Michigan recently conducted an analysis that found the costs to consumers were staggering. In the event anti-development activists were to get their wish, Michigan families and businesses can expect to pay $121 million more per year just for transportation fuel. In addition, areas of the state most dependent on propane for home heating during frigid Michigan winters could face price increases between 10 cents and 35 cents per gallon should the line be decommissioned. This takes another $80 million per year out of family budgets.
That’s a lot of money. Is it really fair to take money from Michigan’s families and small businesses, pushing their budgets to the breaking point by increasing the price of gas and propane for home heating for no reason?
Is it fair to punish Michigan’s farmers who rely on propane to dry their crops and the rail system necessary to bring their crops to market by forcing higher energy and transportation costs?
Is it fair to put our environment at risk by shutting down pipelines – which are documented as the safest, most efficient, and most environmentally-sound way to transport liquids and natural gas – just because a vocal minority disproves of the type of energy families and businesses need? Have they truly considered the consequences, or are they only concerned with their own agenda?
For far too long, we have seen anti-development activists just like the ones here in Michigan present the same false choice – that you can either be for the environment or you can be for energy. But they offer no middle ground and continue to ignore both sound science and the effect their extreme policies will have on others within their communities. The simple fact is that we can simultaneously protect the environment and develop our energy resources by creating thoughtful policies that consider everyone and following the regulatory measures put in place to keep us safe.
We need to make decisions that serve all aspects of life here in Michigan.
Our families deserve lower energy costs so they don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. Our businesses deserve lower energy costs so they can expand and create a stronger, healthier economy. And our environment deserves to be protected by employing the safest and most efficient way to transport energy. Abandoning Line 5 won’t do that, it will do just the opposite. It’s time to support ideas that help our community and stop letting the vocal minority dictate our lives and our wallets.
