Consumer Energy Alliance launches campaign to promote affordable and reliable energy policies
The Consumer Energy Alliance said it launched a new campaign on Monday designed to promote an all-of-the-above energy policy that also protects the environment in an effort to keep energy prices down for vulnerable families on low and fixed incomes.
CEA, a 12-year-old national advocacy group that represents the interests of energy consumers – including families, small businesses, manufacturers and energy suppliers – said it hopes its “Campaign for America’s Energy” will raise awareness about how anti-energy policies, such as rejecting or delaying energy production and delivery systems, leads to higher costs for consumers.
CEA sent a letter to members of Congress on Monday to highlight its campaign and drum up support for policies that promote affordable and reliable energy.
“Significantly, this campaign will recognize and promote what anti-energy groups have failed to acknowledge: American energy and a healthy environment do and must go hand-in-hand,” the letter from CEA President David Holt said. “The environment is indeed vital to our future, which is why it is critical that we continue to press industry to use the latest innovation and modern technology to protect it.”
Holt said it’s time to change partisan conversations around energy.
“One of the things we’ve seen lately is a proliferation of anti-energy groups protesting energy initiatives, like pipelines,” Holt told Daily Energy Insider. “And the people who have been forgotten is the energy consumer. One of the goals of our campaign is to step back and say: energy impacts everyone. And everyone wants to protect the environment, but we can’t ignore that we need energy solutions right now.”
Without those energy solutions, he said, costs for energy rises. And the people most impacted by those price hikes are those living on a fixed income, he said.
According to 2015 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, consumers spend more than $3,500 annually on energy-related costs. For low-income Americans living at the poverty line, energy costs could amount to nearly 30 percent of their income, CEA said.
When protesters, like the ones who recently shut down a public hearing in Minnesota over Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project, the process of getting the project approved is delayed. Delays can lead to cost overruns, which impact those at the bottom of the economic scale harder than those at the top, he said.
That issue, he said, was something voters should consider, regardless of their party affiliation.
“We want to make sure the voters understand that no matter what party you support, you’ve got to make sure that the candidate you’re voting for agrees with your energy priorities,” Holt said. “Whether it’s oil or natural gas, it is gathered in one spot and transmitted to another. If you’re protesting or blocking a pipeline, you’re raising energy prices for the people who rely on that energy.”
Holt said every energy project should be carefully weighed, and energy companies continued to be held to high safety standards, but that diversifying the nation’s energy resources and improving energy security are also important.
CEA plans to hold community forums to increase awareness of energy issues, the first of which will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Nov. 7; Biloxi, Mississippi, on Nov. 8; and Florence, South Carolina, on Dec. 13. Other forums are planned throughout the rest of this year and into 2018.
