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Consumer Advocate Launches National Campaign Aimed at Educating Consumers on How U.S. Energy Infrastructure Can Ensure Stable Energy Prices

Pipelines for America Logo

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), a national consumer advocacy organization that represents consumers, manufacturers, agriculture, energy, renewables and other industries, today launched a national campaign, “Pipelines for America,” focused on educating consumers about the increasing importance of U.S. energy infrastructure – and how more is needed to keep consumer energy prices stable and better protect the environment.

“Pipelines for America” is being launched at a time when the consumer group, made up of more than 400,000 members, is increasingly concerned about the severe lack of sufficient U.S. energy infrastructure and what it could mean for millions of American families, small businesses and consumers who depend on reliable, affordable energy and have, to date, benefited from America’s record-setting energy revolution of recent years.

According to an IHS Global Insight study, in 2015, record increases in U.S. energy production contributed to making U.S. companies more competitive, adding nearly two million jobs economy-wide and providing an extra $1,300 to the average consumer’s wallet. However, CEA has great concern that despite America’s abundant natural resources, the nation lacks the pipelines and transmission lines required to transport energy safely to where it’s needed.

“We need to make sure that America’s abundant energy resources can be delivered to consumers safely and efficiently,” said John Eichberger, National Association of Convenience Stores representative and CEA Board Member. “As families across America looks to us for their fill-ups for business and summer vacations, convenience fuel retailers understand the critical importance of affordable supplies of transportation fuels, and CEA’s ‘Pipelines for America’ campaign will help ensure that American consumers directly benefit from the country’s natural resources. This is a critical element of an all-of-the-above energy strategy that is essential to creating a sustainable energy economy.”

“Given the nation’s critical energy infrastructure needs, CEA is increasingly concerned about the small but vocal minority who back the ‘Keep It in the Ground’ movement. This notion is unrealistic and threatens to harm American consumers, jobs and families, as well as the economic progress made possible by America’s energy revolution,” said CEA President David Holt. “That’s why this campaign seeks to alert the American public of the urgent need for pipelines and the continued importance of both safeguarding our environment and developing our energy resources responsibly.”

“Energy is a critical ingredient that powers every American industry – everything from agriculture and automotive to chemicals and steel,” said Jennifer Diggins, immediate past Chairwoman of CEA and Director of Public Affairs for Nucor Corporation, who added that an increase in energy costs is a direct hit on various sectors’ bottom lines. “As the largest steel producer in the U.S., we’re pleased that CEA is taking this important step to educate consumers on the important role energy plays in our everyday lives and the pillars that support lower energy costs and job and economic growth.”

CEA’s “Pipelines for America” campaign will work to engage consumers across the U.S. to better support affordable energy through greater infrastructure development. This will be done via advertising, events and grassroots activities across several states. Efforts will begin in the northeastern and southeastern portions of the U.S. along the Atlantic coast and throughout the Mid-Continent and Midwest.

As part of the launch, CEA has also unveiled a new website (https://consumerenergyalliance.org/pipelines-for-america/) to promote public awareness of energy infrastructure and the importance of pipeline development to regions throughout the United States. Throughout this campaign, CEA will work with and engage its regional affiliates and grassroots members to ensure that families, businesses, manufacturers, labor groups, and American consumers understand the importance of pipeline development to America’s energy future.

Please visit https://consumerenergyalliance.org/pipelines-for-america/ to view our latest advertising efforts and learn more about the importance of U.S. energy infrastructure and its connection to ensuring stable energy prices for American consumers.

Gibbs and Renacci Say Trump Would Be Good for Business

Building a Car Engine

Brydon Ross was interviewed by The Canton Repository at the Ohio Energy and Manufacturing Forum.  The event provided a unique opportunity for federal, state and local officials to discuss current energy issues and the importance of responsible energy development in the context of jobs, the economy and U.S. competitiveness.

Congressmen Bob Gibbs and Jim Renacci said the upcoming presidential election is a chance boost the economy by changing the federal tax code and relaxing business regulations. The two Republicans said those issues are important to their party’s candidate, Donald Trump, whom they support. Gibbs and Renacci spoke Tuesday at a forum organized by the Consumer Energy Alliance.

Read more – The Canton Repository

CEA Applauds Removal of Anti-Pipeline Provisions from Massachusetts Energy Bill

Consumer Energy Alliance commended a conference committee comprised of members from the Massachusetts legislature that recently approved a final version of the Energy Diversity Bill (H.4385/S.2372) which removed a harmful provision that would have prevented critically needed natural gas pipeline infrastructure from being built.

“Thanks to the conference committee, Bay Staters struggling with continually high electricity and home heating prices can breathe a little easier,” CEA President David Holt “For far too long, politicians have only been listening to the unrealistic demands of the professional activist class that only offer ‘no’ as an option – instead of contributing the real solutions needed to keep the lights on and prices affordable.”

Holt added: “Consumers in Massachusetts have said loud and clear that they have had enough with the roadblocks for infrastructure and energy security. On behalf of CEA and northeastern consumers, I want to thank the conference committee for stripping this punitive anti-pipeline provision. Let’s work together on advancing a more balanced energy policy in Massachusetts and creating a more secure future for consumers.”

According to federal data, Massachusetts has some of the highest power costs in the lower 48 States. Boston area consumers, for instance, paid 53 percent more than the national average for electricity last spring. Over the last few winters, consumers in New England have paid billions more – unnecessarily – in higher natural gas prices, which has eaten into savings and increased the region’s already high cost of living. Independent grid manager ISO New England has repeatedly warned policymakers and the public that the region simply doesn’t have enough natural gas to meet demand on very cold days and is a threat to reliability and continued price spikes.

Last week, CEA delivered about 4,500 constituent letters to all Massachusetts Senate offices and House conference committee members urging them to remove the Senate’s harmful amendment rider and support bipartisan legislative language that the House approved, which would have allowed for much-needed electricity infrastructure expansion and expanded renewable energy development.

The out-pouring of support for more pipelines and natural gas infrastructure by Bay State residents should be no surprise. In a recent poll conducted for CEA, a sample of registered voters overwhelmingly supported electricity generation from natural gas power plants (73 percent), clearly and convincingly showing that New England voters are concerned with clean, reliable, and cost efficient energy sources.

The final Energy Diversity Bill conference report has been passed by both bodies of the Massachusetts legislature and now awaits signature by Gov. Charlie Baker.

A ‘transformational’ Mandate: Greens Hail Massachusetts Offshore Wind, Renewables Bill

Brydon Ross was interviewed about recent legislation passed in Massachusetts that will impact families and small businesses.

Though included in some earlier versions, the final bill left out a provision that would have barred the state’s electric distribution utilities from signing long-term contracts for natural gas pipeline capacity. That, noted Brydon Ross, vice president for state affairs at the Consumer Energy Alliance, will reinforce utilities’ option to use natural gas to meet unplanned electricity demand spikes.

Read more – Utility Dive

Costs of New U.S. Arctic Regulations May Cool Offshore Oil Production Plans

Arctic offshore drilling rig

CEA’s David Holt was interviewed by Platts about the importance of energy exploration in the U.S. Arctic.

The Obama administration unveiled final regulations for drilling in U.S. Arctic waters, but questions remain about the future of oil production there. Will the Arctic be pulled out of the administration’s upcoming five-year leasing plan, and will environmental opposition and unfavorable economics hinder development offshore Alaska for a decade or more? And how will the outcome of the US presidential election effect the Arctic’s oil and gas future? Senior editor Brian Scheid interviews Mike Levine, Pacific senior counsel at Oceana, and David Holt, president of Consumer Energy Alliance, for answers to these questions and more.

Read more – Platts

As I See It: Expand the Natural Gas Pipeline

Monthly natural gas heating bill

Timothy Murray, President and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, writes about the high cost businesses and families in Massachusetts must pay for natural gas as a result of a lack of pipeline capacity.

However, despite an abundance of domestic natural gas here in the United States, Massachusetts access to this cleaner more affordable fuel is limited because of constrained natural gas pipeline capacity to the region. As a result, especially to meet seasonal winter demand, expanding access to this cleaner fuel is critical in allowing residents, particularly those on fixed incomes, to affordably heat their homes during the winter months. It is also critical for our employer community that provides needed jobs across the state.

Read more – telegram.com

ICYMI: As I See It, Expand the Natural Gas Pipeline

Pipeline and shutoff valves

Currently, the Massachusetts Legislature, in conjunction with the Baker/Polito Administration, is in deliberations concerning comprehensive energy legislation that will have financial impacts on businesses and residents alike for years to come. This is significant, in that the Unites States Energy Information Administration has outlined that New England households and businesses have the highest electric prices in the continental United States. Specifically, in the current year, electric costs in Massachusetts have been 60 percent higher for residents than the national average, 53 percent higher for commercial uses, and for high capacity electric users, like manufacturers, 102 percent higher.

Three factors have significantly contributed to these high costs:

• An increased demand for electricity,
• Inadequate infrastructure to meet this demand,
• And the decommissioning of electricity producing power plants fueled by coal and oil, which is compounding the infrastructure deficit.

To fill the gap, natural gas fired electrical generation has grown over the past 15 years, from serving 15 percent of New England’s annual electric needs to almost half. The positive is that natural gas is significantly cleaner than both coal and oil, thus reducing carbon emissions.

However, despite an abundance of domestic natural gas here in the United States, Massachusetts access to this cleaner more affordable fuel is limited because of constrained natural gas pipeline capacity to the region. As a result, especially to meet seasonal winter demand, expanding access to this cleaner fuel is critical in allowing residents, particularly those on fixed incomes, to affordably heat their homes during the winter months. It is also critical for our employer community that provides needed jobs across the state.

In particular, high-energy users, such as manufacturers that are so important to regional economies such as Central Massachusetts, are vulnerable to the ever-increasing energy costs that kill jobs and cause business closings, or result in plant expansions being done elsewhere where energy costs are lower instead of locally. Preserving and growing these jobs must be a priority — they are one of the few remaining sectors of the economy that provide good paying access to the middle class that do not necessarily require a college degree. Manufacturing jobs are a key pillar to the fragile economies of many of our regional Gateway Cities.

As Lieutenant Governor, I was immensely proud to be part of an administration that helped lead the nation in energy policies that embraced clean and renewable energy sources and introduced them to the market place. However, throughout this advocacy, it was understood that we must utilize natural gas as the bridge fuel to our clean energy future knowing that both jobs and our environment were in the balance.

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce encourages the legislature and the Baker/Polito administration to sign off on a balanced bill that utilizes renewables such as solar, wind and hydropower. These energy sources combined with natural gas expansion, such as the Algonquin pipeline expansion coming up through Connecticut and Rhode Island and traversing a small section of southeastern Worcester County toward Boston, as well as energy saving incentive tools will help stabilize costs while meeting the needs of our statewide economy and our obligation as stewards of our environment.

This article originally appeared on telegram.com. The author, Timothy P. Murray is the president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts and a former mayor of Worcester.

Gulf of Mexico Energy at Risk

[bq]”It’s truly a turning point for American energy production in the Gulf.”[/bq]

American energy production and the immense value it brings consumers is under assault again.

Following the recent decision to take Atlantic offshore development off the table – despite support from all four governors, numerous state legislators and other elected officials, the vast majority of voters and poll after poll, as well as continued obstacles to energy development in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Alaskan Arctic, the federal government is now proposing to make energy development in the Gulf of Mexico “more difficult or costly” by expanding the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

This is an area that contains millions of barrels of oil and natural gas reserves. What’s more, this significantly exceeds the recommendation of the Sanctuary Advisory Council, the experts who studied this issue and developed their recommendation informed by extensive public engagement.

What would this mean?  Higher energy costs for families, households and small businesses, and a return to US reliance on more imports for abroad.

We need your help to tell the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) not to adopt its proposed expansion.  If NOAA proceeds with its proposal, our ability to meet the country’s needs through access to Gulf of Mexico energy resources will be made more difficult.

Tell NOAA to make the right decision: Drop its proposed expansion or any alternative that would go even further.  Instead, adopt the No Action alternative, and if it insists on moving ahead, adopt Alternative 2 (Sanctuary Advisory Council recommendation).

Dear Mr. Schmahl:
I write to urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) not to adopt its proposed expansion of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary or any other alternative that would go even further.  Instead, NOAA should adopt the No Action alternative, and if it insists on moving ahead, adopt Alternative 2 (Sanctuary Advisory Council recommendation) and apply regulations that do not impose any restrictions that would preclude new leasing or development in the expanded area.
The proposed expansion area intersects over 100 lease blocks associated with millions of barrels of oil and natural gas reserves, and NOAA’s draft Environmental Impact Statement acknowledges that leasing and oil and natural gas production could be made “more difficult or costly” within expanded sanctuary boundaries.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently concluded that demand for oil and natural gas will continue to increase in the coming decades, with oil and natural gas comprising just as much if not more of the nation’s energy portfolio in 2040 than it did in 2015.  Generating nearly 20% of the nation’s crude oil production, in addition to over 650,000 jobs and over $64 billion in Gross Domestic Product in FY 2014, the Gulf of Mexico is a critical part of that portfolio.  As an energy consumer dependent on access to affordable, reliable energy, and in light of prohibitions on access to energy resources in the Atlantic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico — and significant regulatory uncertainty in the Alaskan Arctic – this is not the time to impose new burdens that would make it more difficult or costly to access and develop energy resources in areas currently open in the Gulf of Mexico.
In addition, as the federal government has acknowledged, new restrictions on access to our offshore energy resources will impose environmental and social costs by making the nation more reliant on energy from other sources.  As President Obama said last year, “I would rather us – with all the safeguards and standards that we have – be producing our oil and gas, rather than importing it, which is bad for our people, but is also potentially purchased from places that have much lower environmental standards than we do.”
In closing, please don’t adopt the proposed expansion (or alternatives that would go even further), which could harm our energy, economic, and environmental security by making it more difficult or costly to develop Gulf of Mexico energy.  Instead, adopt the No Action alternative, and if NOAA insists on moving ahead, adopt Alternative 2 (Sanctuary Advisory Council recommendation) and apply regulations that do not impose any restrictions that would preclude new leasing or development in the expanded area.
Thank you

A March to Higher Energy Bills

Family electric bill

David Holt discusses anti-energy protesters whose policies will lead to increased energy prices for families and small businesses with the Walpole Times.

Do you have four days off from your job to march 43 miles and protest logical commonsense infrastructure supported by a majority of Bay Staters? Anti-fossil fuel extremists who want to raise your energy bills do.

Read more – The Walpole Times

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Will Dry Up Without New Oil

Trans Alaska Pipeline

A Consumer Energy Alliance poll regarding Alaskan energy development was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

The good news is the Arctic possesses abundant onshore, nearshore and offshore oil resources, and Alaskans support finding and using those resources. A 2014 poll by the Consumer Energy Alliance found that 73% of Alaskans support developing the Arctic offshore for oil and gas.

Read more – The Wall Street Journal

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