Managing Editor
U.S. Chamber wants to spark policies
Calling it an energy reality tour, a key executive with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to ask area business leaders tomorrow for their help.
“It’s a gut check,” said Karen Alderman Harbert, president and CEO of the chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.
In an interview Monday with the Daily Record, Harbert said the energy decisions made over the next few years will determine the nation’s energy health for the next two decades.
Harbert is scheduled as the keynote speaker for the Cornerstone quarterly luncheon. Cornerstone is the economic development partnership of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. About 425 people are expected to attend.
JEA Managing Director Jim Dickenson, as CEO of the area’s basic energy provider, wants to hear the views Harbert will bring to the table.
“It is important for us to hear a national perspective and she, being with the energy institute of the U.S. Chamber, will give a business perspective,” said Dickenson.
According to JEA, its electric system serves more than 417,000 customers in Jacksonville and in parts of three other counties. It also serves more than 305,000 water customers and 230,000 sewer customers in Northeast Florida.
Harbert joined the chamber in March 2008 from the U.S. Department of Energy, where she was assistant secretary for policy and international affairs.
Dickenson said he wants to hear from Harbert about how an energy policy, or lack of an energy policy, will affect businesses, the economy and jobs.
“Sometimes we think we know that, but let’s hear from an energy expert,” said Dickenson. The JEA is one of several sponsors of the event, whose presenting sponsor is Rayonier.
Dickenson also expects to hear Harbert speak about the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The oil spill continues to be a key point in any energy conversation. According to Harbert, the problems leading to the spill must be fixed and the nation needs to continue to look at all of its energy resources.
The 21st Century Energy Institute is an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber, which has more than 3 million members.
The institute has proposed more than 90 recommendations to the President and Congress to “foster economic growth, strengthen national security and ensure a reliable clean energy future.”
The lunch event is scheduled 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Hyatt Downtown. For information, call Larissa Hicks at 366-6600, extension 7601.
Harbert is taking what the institute calls “The Energy Reality Tour: A National Discussion on America’s Energy Future” to about 30 states.
The institute also has released its first Index of U.S. Energy Security Risk, which it says “demonstrates that unless we take action, America’s energy security risks will rise to levels not seen in decades due to increased energy demand, higher prices and lack of energy infrastructure.”
The 2009 index is 83.7. The institute researched energy issues and created a scale finding the highest risk level of 100 in 1980, following the the Arab oil embargo, the Iranian revolution and U.S. hostage crisis of the 1970s.
The lowest risk level of 72.6 percent was in 1994.
In the Daily Record interview, Harbert shared some of her message to Cornerstone.
What is your message for the Jacksonville Cornerstone meeting?
I am coming to Jacksonville as part of a larger effort to travel to 30 states this year to talk to leaders in the business community and leaders in the community about America’s energy challenges, the reality of our growing energy demands and hopefully enlist their help.
Our energy demand is going to increase by 14 to 33 percent between now and 2035. We are going to need to develop new energy sources, alternative resources, and invest a tremendous amount of financial capital in new infrastructure, and that represents a tremendous opportunity for us to develop new resources across the country and also invest in those technologies and innovations we need to have a cleaner energy economy going forward.
Does the U.S. Chamber have a position or response to the BP oil spill?
Certainly, the state and local chambers are very, very active in helping their business communities address the impacts. From the U.S. Chamber’s response, this is a tragic accident that is having tremendous economic and environmental deleterious effects on the Gulf and will reverberate around the country.
We are very, very concerned and we want to see the recommendations of the commission that the President appointed. We are very concerned about the economic impacts that the six-month (drilling) moratorium is having on the region, which is hard hit by the spill. We are engaging in how this moratorium and spill will have an effect around the country. (A federal judge Tuesday overturned the ban and the administration plans to appeal the decision.)
In the gulf itself, you are seeing a tremendous amount of economic hardship, with the industry itself having to shut down its exploration, and the loss of tourism, reduced fishing (and other impacts).
Hopefully what we will see is a very direct understanding of what the root cause of the spill will be and we can have the industry get back to work and people get back to work.
Does the U.S. chamber advocate continued or increased drilling off U.S. coasts?
We have a reality that we are going to be dependent on hydrocarbons for decades to come. Our transportation sector is 94 percent dependent on oil and we can make a choice as a nation. We can use our resources, oil and natural gas, develop them here, or we can import more at a higher cost. And the idea that we would be able to eliminate oil from our economy overnight is not accurate and we certainly have seen industry develop technology very much advanced from where we were. We need to understand what happened, have the appropriate oversight and safety measures, but we are going to need those resources and we do support exploration and production off our shores.
Through congressional and presidential moratoria, 85 percent of American oil and natural gas resources have been off limits.
What is the institute’s preferred energy mix?
The situation in Florida is going to be different than the situation in Rhode Island and out west. Energy is a regional issue. We need a different set of resources. Also, we need some redundant capacity and if you are looking at the type of increase in demand that we will see - a 44 percent increase in electricity demand - we are going to need more nuclear. We also have less than 2 percent of our electricity provided by wind and solar combined, so there is obviously an opportunity for that resource to grow, but it wasn’t available every place. Use wind and solar. Use coal and clean coal.
How reliant will the U.S. continue to be on imported energy?
We are 60 percent dependent on imported oil today and that level will only increase if we don’t explore and produce here at home. If we turn that around, we will be doing it through increased exploration, increased efficiency and increased options in transportation fuels. It is not going to happen overnight.
What influence does the institute have on national and state energy decisions?
What really keeps us at the table is we represent such a broad set of industries. We are called on to testify frequently, but we can’t also forget that we represent 3 million businesses across the country and their voice matters. People listen with the business community talks.
At what energy risk level are we?
We are coming off of one of the worst recessions ever, so our risk is somewhat mitigated. But looking out, we will quickly in the coming years, five years, approach the levels of some of the worst years on record. Two - 1980 and 2008, 2008 mainly due to high prices and political issues. 1980, for different reasons. Absent some smart energy policy action, we’re facing the highest level of risk on record. We don’t have a sufficient supply or investment in it or infrastructure and we certainly have not invested the resources we need in research and development to produce new and alternative sources of energy.
What are the most common questions you are asked?
I normally get a ton. Our energy economy, our energy infrastructure, is so complex. Once people understand it’s complexity, there is no single easy answer or we would have done it. There is no silver bullet.
We have to be a lot more serious and grown-up on how we regulate.
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