I welcomed the invitation to participate in this Center Forward forum. It highlighted the best approach we can take to improve our nation’s energy policy: with members of both parties listening to each other’s ideas, seeking areas of bipartisan agreement, and with industry expertise appropriately taken into account.
As I said at the forum, I believe America’s energy policy must be re-imagined as we move toward the year 2020. Right now we have tremendous opportunities to produce more energy and innovate advanced technologies. If we take full advantage of them, we will create badly-needed jobs and generate new revenues for all levels of government.
Of course, we also continue to face significant challenges. Our energy infrastructure has aged, the price of oil remains high, and the need to ensure reliable energy has never been greater. Our nation is too often hamstrung by burdensome rules, delayed permits, and overzealous litigation. This can render projects uneconomic by attrition and prevent timely, efficient, and urgently needed investments.
We know we must act. But where do we start? To make real progress, I believe we must first change the way we think about energy. We must recognize that energy helps make modern life and our high standard of living possible. It is not a necessary evil, but instead fundamental to our good health and continued prosperity.
Next, we must encourage a truly inclusive energy policy reflective of those truths.
Earlier this year, I offered a comprehensive blueprint filled with more than 200 recommendations to do just that. That blueprint – Energy 20/20: A Vision for America’s Energy Future – is meant to spark a new conversation about where these policies should go over the next few years.
Energy 20/20 is based on a simple observation: that energy is good. After that, my report outlines how and why our energy should be increasingly abundant, affordable, clean, diverse, and secure. Recognizing there are many steps we can take to achieve those goals, I then sketch out policy improvements in seven key areas, ranging from energy production to regulatory reform.
Without question, the future is bright. Technological breakthroughs are lowering the cost of previously uneconomic resources and helping to reduce our damaging dependence on foreign oil. Clean energy – drawn from resources with less environmental impact than their most likely alternative – is increasingly competitive. And the efficiency of nearly everything, from the smallest appliances to our largest buildings, is improving.
I am confident that even at a time of gridlock in Congress, we can still move forward sensible energy legislation. Those of us on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have already reported more than 60 bills for consideration by the full Senate. A total of 11 of them have been signed into law, including two bills that promote clean, renewable hydropower.
The work of renewing our energy policy will require cooperation between all who serve in Congress, the President, and countless other stakeholders. But if we strive to complete this important work in a cordial, bipartisan manner, there is no limit to the good we can accomplish.
Some of us have been around long enough to remember when our country first figured out it was time we stop relying on other countries for our energy needs. It was in 1973. An Arab oil embargo sent shock waves through the U.S. economy with gas prices soaring from 39 cents to 56 cents a gallon. Then-President Nixon proposed “Project Independence” as the first step in kicking America’s oil import habit.
Forty years have passed and our political leaders continue to dispute what an American energy policy should look like, even after fighting several wars over oil that have cost us billions of dollars and thousands of American lives.
Ironically, the mountains of West Virginia have provided an answer for decades. We must use all of our energy resources to meet as much of our energy needs as possible. Across America, it only makes common sense that we use every source of domestic energy – coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, biomass, wind and solar – to keep our economy humming, create good-paying jobs on our soil and work toward energy independence.
However, the Obama Administration seems hell-bent on picking winners and losers in our energy sector, no matter what the cost is to our nation. President Obama said as much this summer when he unveiled his climate change agenda that stated plans to move away from coal and natural gas to other sources, even though the technology is not yet available on a commercial scale.
Even more recently, the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent announcement of the new source performance standards (NSPS) proves there is direct evidence that this Administration is trying to hold the coal industry to impossible standards. Never before has the federal government forced an industry to do something that has never been done. Forcing coal to meet the same emissions standards as gas when experts know that the required technology is not operational on a commercial scale makes absolutely no sense and will have devastating impacts to the coal industry and our economy.
If these regulations go into effect, American jobs will be lost, electricity prices will soar, and economic uncertainty will grow. We need the federal government to work as a partner, not an adversary, and to invest in America’s energy future.
The facts are plain and simple: Coal provides the greatest share of electricity we use, generating around 40 percent of our power. The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration even predicts that coal will continue to be a major source of electricity for at least the next 30 years. It’s just common sense to level the playing field and accept that coal is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a significant part of our energy mix while new energy innovations are still developing.
And as we’ve seen in the last 10 years, natural gas is just as important as coal and is giving us the opportunity to move away from a dependence on foreign oil, not to mention providing a renaissance for American manufacturing.
It’s important to use all of these sources and continue to produce cleaner energy as we’ve done over the last 40 years. During that time we’ve seen more than a 90 percent reduction in emissions from coal, which just goes to show what we can do if we work at it.
But such a solution has not been a vision of America’s energy future for the Obama Administration. And that needs to change.
The diversity of our energy mix is one of the reasons America currently enjoys affordable and reliable electricity. Competition not only keeps prices low; it also stimulates innovation, encourages economic growth and creates good-paying jobs across this great country.
I’m confident that if we work together, this country can develop a strong bipartisan energy plan that will chart a new and promising energy future for America.
In this period of great economic challenge, there are those who insist that we are seeing the emergence of a “new normal,” in which tough times have become the status quo. I think it’s imperative that we, as Americans, reject that notion and instead embrace a way forward that is centered on growth.
Finding the answers means moving beyond the discord of partisan politics and looking to a segment of our economy with enormous potential to lead long-term economic growth – energy. In fact, no economic force today has greater potential to positively influence America’s future than its energy providers. For people facing tough kitchen-table economic choices every day, like the 40 percent of families served by Southern Company who make less than $40,000 a year, our decisions about energy policy will be critical.
Energy touches practically every part of our lives. It makes our homes comfortable and lights our businesses, in big cities and small towns alike. It cooks our food and powers the devices that connect and entertain us. The promise of better ways to produce, deliver and use energy fires our imaginations.
How, then, do we establish a structure to ensure we have enough energy and can maximize its capacity to strengthen the economy and lift up our standards of living? At Southern Company, the premier energy company serving the Southeast, we believe a common sense national energy policy is needed, one that focuses on three core principles: a) making use of the full portfolio of energy resources; b) establishing energy innovation as a national priority; and c) restoring America’s financial integrity. A national energy policy centered around these three elements is vital to making our country more secure and economically stable.
Such a policy would support greater production of domestic energy, placing the United States in a position of abundance rather than scarcity. In fact, a secure domestic energy supply would have such a dynamic effect on our national economy that we could – and should – begin to think of energy as “growth capital.”
Developing the full portfolio is of critical importance. With respect to electricity, that means natural gas, renewables, energy efficiency and the “workhorses” of nuclear power and 21st century coal. No single source is adequate to meet our needs; each component plays an essential part, and each complements the others. This is the approach Southern Company is taking, committing more than $20 billion to the development of safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy for America’s future.
Similarly, we must harness the power of American ingenuity – the same spirit that gave us Google, Apple and thousands of other enterprises – to make energy innovation the national priority it needs to be. Better products and the value they create have moved economies forward by leaps and bounds. We must apply that same kind of thinking to the production of energy.
Finally, we must restore to America the financial integrity that will ensure predictable, secure economic markets and support the ability for industries like ours to make long-term capital commitments.
I see this as a wonderful opportunity for our company, our industry and our country. It’s a way to make American lives better – and I’m proud to be a part of it.