Facebook Instagram Linkedin RSS Twitter Youtube

Roads are just as important as energy to the Texas economy

Writing in the Midland Reporter-Telegram, CEA friend, Jim Nelson of Warren CAT calls attention to the importance of roads and transportation funding to the Texas economy.

MyWestTexas.com

Texas is a blessed state. We are blessed with a remarkable history, natural wonders, great people, a privileged economy and abundant natural resources.

These resources have allowed us to lead the economic recovery and help buoy the national economy. Because of our energy industry and the prosperity it creates, Americans of all stripes have reaped the benefits of our state’s blessings.

Now Texans must embrace the work of keeping those resources flowing. Recent analysis by IHS shows that domestic energy production has helped put $1,200 per year into America’s pocketbooks through reduced energy costs. By 2020 that number is expected to be $2,700 per year. Other studies have shown that increased natural gas production in Texas and other gas fields have helped reduce household utility bills by as much as $32 billion in 2012. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for a key piece of oilfield equipment: ROADS.

Roads are the circulatory system of the Texas economy. Our oil and gas flows not just through pipes, but over our roads and highways, too. Our record-breaking energy production has had a significant impact on our road infrastructure. Couple heavy oil field traffic with years of reduced transportation funding and Texas roads are showing their wear. Due to increased oilfield traffic, many county and state roads are on a reduced maintenance schedule. Roads that would normally be repaved every three years are now only being patched due to demands on the system.

Many of the roads now being used in Texas oilfields were built in the ’50s, long before today’s heavy, long trucks, which make several trips a day to drilling sites. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) says that when as many as 1,100 truck trips are needed to begin production on a well, they need up to $4 billion per year to fix and maintain Texas roads.

The problem is so acute, TxDOT announced last month that they planned on converting up to 83 miles of paved roads to gravel due to lack of maintenance funding. We believe this is a step in the wrong direction. Serious questions about the plan’s lack of community input were raised by officials and residents in the affected areas and many transportation professionals believe the plan could create more maintenance costs than it proposes to cut.

At first glance, $4 billion for road maintenance is a big number. But not when it’s compared to the economic value created by the energy industry as a whole. The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute for Economic Development says that the fiscal benefits of the Eagle Ford boom created 116,000 jobs and $16 billion in economic impact last year. Those numbers are impressive in their own right, but when coupled with production in the Permian Basin, Barnett Shale and Granite Wash, they show Texas is swimming in energy dollars. In fact, earlier this year Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs announced that state receipts from oil and gas severance taxes exceeded projections for the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2013 by a whopping $900 million!

This gush of revenue is what has allowed the Texas Legislature to pass two key measures in support of road funding this session. One creates a mechanism that diverts up to $1.2 billion from the rainy day fund for highway construction and maintenance. The other creates the The State Water Implementation Revenue Fund of Texas (SWIRFT) that will contain $3.5 billion for road, port and rail infrastructure projects.

Both measures must go before the voters in November of next year and Consumer Energy Alliance believes all Texans should vote for them. The two proposals are a positive first step in tackling the problem of degraded and damaged oil field roads. Only by truly investing in our great state’s infrastructure will we keep the circulatory system of the Texas economy healthy enough to keep our lifeblood flowing well into the future.

Ice Thawing on KXL?

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy stopped by the newsroom of her hometown paper, The Boston Globe, to answer an array of questions including several on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Globe Reporter Dave Abel has the preview on his tweeter feed @davabel:

EPA’s McCarthy Not Sold on Environs KXL Claims

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy stopped by the newsroom of her hometown paper, The Boston Globe, to answer an array of questions including several on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Globe Reporter Dave Abel has the preview on his tweeter feed @davabel:

Shale Gas is Saving Consumers Money

Electric meter

Consumers are seeing savings because the United States is producing more natural gas from shale formations than any other country, ahead of China and Russia.  “We are on a trajectory by the end of this decade, North America will be energy self sufficient,” says Natalie Joubert, the Vice President for Policy at Consumer Energy Alliance. “For consumers this is excellent news.”

Answering questions from Energy consumers as part of CEA’s weekly web video series Afternoon Energy, Joubert notes that shale gas is saving consumers money.  Joubert says the benefits of energy self sufficiency are reaching both regular-joe consumers as well as manufacturing firms which rely on affordable energy to produce affordable projects.

A IHS-Report found consumers seeing nearly $1,000 a year in savings utilizing natural gas, which is a result of developing shale from places like the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania.   According to a separate report from the U.S. Department of Energy, Shale gas which is natural gas developed from shale formations, accounted for 39% of all the natural gas produced in the United States.

The same report found the more natural gas is developed from shale the more savings will be in passed to consumers.

 

CEA Fla. Advocates for KXL

In Florida, CEA is advocating to build the Keystone XL pipeline.  Exec. Director Kevin Doyle makes the case:

Sunshine State News:

Kevin Doyle, executive director of the Consumer Energy Alliance-Florida, the state affiliate of a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, didn’t pull any punches in stressing the urgency of the Obama administration’s approval of the pipeline.

“It is not a secret that countries such as China and India, whose fast-growing economies are in need of stable supplies of energy, would not hesitate if given the opportunity to access the energy resources of Canada,” Doyle said.

“There are many industry leaders who believe that if the Keystone XL Pipeline is not approved by the Obama administration, our allies in Canada may aggressively look at sending their crude oil west to Asia, thus forcing the United States to further depend on imports from less-than-stable areas of the world.”

But, what if Canadian crude isn’t refined in the most technologically advanced facilities in the world, which are right here in America, but rather in outdated facilities in China and India that have little or no oversight and little or no environmental protections?

What then?

“Not only would this potentially harm U.S.-Canada relations, it would also hinder the very emission goals that the president claims he wants to work toward,” Doyle said.

At Atlanta EPA Session, CEA Southeast Raises Questions About Affordability, Reliability

On Wednesday in Atlanta, the Environmental Protection Agency held one of their eleven planned public listening sessions meant to gather feedback from stakeholders and the general public as they work to draft carbon reduction regulations on existing power plants.

CEA Southeast Executive Director Adam Waldeck was on hand to raise questions about potential consumer impacts and grid reliability, and the full statement is below:

My name is Adam Waldeck, and I serve as the Executive Director of the Southeastern chapter of Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), covering Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. CEA is a nationwide trade association made up of both energy consumers and producers working to advance an all-of-the-above energy policy that will lower energy costs for every American.

Historically, the Southeast has had the most affordable and reliable power in the country, which has served as a magnet for jobs and economic development. This is of particular importance for middle and lower-income Americans, because every dollar spent on energy is a dollar not being put towards savings, groceries, or next year’s family vacation.

At a time when electricity consumption is projected to grow, it is important that all available energy resources remain available to help avoid supply disruptions or unnecessary price increases.  With America’s energy technology and diversity of resources, we are now in a time of energy abundance, meaning downward pressure on prices, new job creation in industries that rely on safe, affordable energy, and the hope of long-term economic growth.

These new rules are designed to require coal-fired power plants to significantly reduce their carbon emissions, raising concerns that directly impact those energy prices, new jobs and overall economic wellbeing. Under the best case scenario, the regulations could mean that facilities will face the difficult choice to either upgrade or shut down. If the regulations are set a level that is unachievable, upgrading will not be an option. Both options mean higher electricity prices for consumers in Georgia and the broader Southeast.

To understand the real-life ramifications of power facilities closing quickly or unexpectedly, one needs only to look to the West. When the San Onofre nuclear facility in southern California retired prematurely, electricity prices rose 59% and California regulators were left scrambling to bring online additional sources of electricity to avert rolling brownouts.

As EPA considers how to move forward with regulations governing GHG emissions from existing units, we urge the Agency to keep electricity consumers in mind and not set the standards in a manner that will force the premature shutdown of coal-fired units – which will drive up electricity costs and reduce grid reliability. We also believe that EPA ought to give the states maximum flexibility to develop and implement plans that fit their unique circumstances. Such flexibility is particularly critical to states including Georgia where coal-fired power accounts for a significant percentage of electricity generation.

If these regulations hamper our ability to utilize American coal, we must also consider how electric utilities will fill the gap and provide affordable, reliable power utilizing non-coal feedstocks, such as natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar – all of which face their own unique challenges.

This debate should not just be about “clean energy” versus “dirty energy,” but about affordable, reliable energy versus unreliable and expensive energy.  As a nation, we should strive to have more energy, not presenting false choices that pit one energy resource against another.   CEA hopes EPA considers deeply the potential economic impacts on consumers across Georgia and the broader region.

Green Power from Up North

Patrick Brown of the Canadian Electricity Association discusses cross border green power during the North American Energy Dialogue at the Embassy of Canada.

Is Dire Debate the New Normal for Energy?

Panelists at the North American Energy Security Dialogues discuss if the debate around Keystone XL is the high water mark for anti-development activists or is this the beginning of a new normal?

Gary Doer: Time to Cash in That Lottery Ticket

“We have won the lottery we just have to figure out a strategy to cash the ticket,” said Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, in remarks to the North American Energy Security Dialogues that took place at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

For the first time in the forty years since OPEC oil embargo Doer says energy self sufficiency for North America is “within our grasp.”  Doer outlined an energy plan that includes energy efficiency, such as improved automobile fuel efficiency standards adopted by both countries, as well as developing new sources of renewable energy, natural gas and oil.

Transmission Jammed

Similar to Keystone XL, there is increasing opposition to the citing of transmission lines that deliver renewable energy to market, “There is one lawyer per megawatt to get a transmission line approved,” Doer quipped.

Renewable energy means generating power through hydro-power, wind, solar and geothermal along side traditional energy sources, but none of the sources matter unless the infrastructure is in place Doer says.  “We need stop talking about it and do it.”

Power lines projects are currently trying to connect Montana to Alberta.

Oil

The ambassador made a tongue and cheek reference to the five year delay in the United States approving construction for the Keystone XL pipeline,

“I didn’t think we would have this much controversy going from seventy-five to seventy-six pipelines, but I digress.”

But, Doer did express confidence that the U.S. State Department, which is in its fifth year of reviewing the Keystone XL pipeline, understands its completion is in line with a North American energy plan.  Doer contents with approval of Keystone XL, the U.S. will displace crude oil imports from Venezuela and lower its dependence on the Middle East.

“A lot of Americans don’t know the pipeline includes oil from middle America as well as from Alberta.”  At the end of the day Keystone XL becomes a choice.  Middle America or the Middle East.

Whatley Introduces Amb. Doer at Energy Security Dialogues

MICHAEL WHATLEY: I would like to thank everyone for joining us this morning for the first in a series of North American Energy Security Dialogues that Consumer Energy Alliance and the Canadian Natural Resource Alliance will be hosting in an effort to broaden the discussion on the importance of North American energy development and trade to the economies of both the United States and Canada.

Consumer Energy Alliance was formed 8 years ago with two distinct missions.

  1. The first is to foster a constructive dialogue between energy consumers and energy producers to ensure that consumers understand the impacts that public policy decisions have on the prices that they pay at the pump, in their electricity bills and for all of the goods and services that they rely on every day.
  2. The second is to foster a second constructive dialogue – this one with the policy makers tasked with developing and implementing national and state energy policies in order to ensure that they do so with energy consumers in mind and that they focus on developing rational and balanced energy policies.

When we first looked at the idea of developing the North American Energy Security Dialogue series that we are kicking off today, we had both of these missions in mind – and we are very fortunate to have a great mix of both energy experts and policy makers from the United States in Canada.

Throughout the morning, you will hear from three panels of speakers who will discuss a series of critical issues that are the most pressing points in the political dialogue that is taking place in both countries when it comes to the exploration, development, transportation and economic benefits of North American energy resources.

I would like to take just a minute to thank Randy Kerr and the Canadian Natural Resource Alliance for joining CEA in hosting this series, as well as Capitol Power and TransCanada for their critical support in making these events happen.

I would also like to give special thanks to Ambassador Doer and the staff here at the Canadian Embassy for hosting us this morning here in this wonderful facility.

Gary has served as the Ambassador to the United States since October of 2009, representing a country that is not only a staunch ally and the United States’ largest customer – with two-way trade between the countries totaling $710 billion annually – it is America’s largest and most secure energy partner.

Canada is the single largest foreign supplier of petroleum products, natural gas and electric power to the United States – as well as the largest consumer of American energy exports. In fact, the value of the energy trade between the U.S and Canada tops $100 billion annually and supports both thousands of jobs directly in the energy sector and tens of thousands of jobs in related sectors on both sides of the border.

Prior to his service to the Crown, Ambassador Doer served as the Premier of Manitoba for 10 years where he worked extensively with U.S. Governors to enhance Canada-U.S. cooperation on trade, agriculture, water protection, climate change and the development of both traditional and renewable energy.

Ambassador Doer, we are very appreciative that you have made the time to join us this morning and thankful for your hospitality as we launch what we believe will be an important series of discussions on a critical set of issues to both the United States and Canada.

 

1...257258259...338Page 258 of 338

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

© Consumer Energy Alliance