Energy makes just about everything that touches our lives on a daily basis. That includes the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the shampoo we use, the medication we consume and the carpet we walk on.
This is especially the case with the food we eat, said Cathy Novinger, executive director of the Palmetto Agribusiness Council, in South Carolina. “When you look at the basic components of producing food, they require energy, and quite frankly, a lot of it,” she said. “It has got to be affordable, and it has got to be available.”
Novinger’s comments were made at one of Consumer Energy Alliance’s recent Atlantic Energy Forums. The forum series gathered industry stakeholders from federal and state governments, plus local businesses and environmental advocates, to discuss how we can safely and responsibly develop resources dozens of miles off the coast of the U.S. — a hot topic that presidential hopefuls will soon need to tackle.
This is important because our country’s record-setting energy revolution — and the quantities of electricity, jobs, economic growth, government revenue, and lower consumer costs that it has spearheaded — depends on our ability to employ an all-of-the-above energy approach that utilizes every resource available to us, onshore and off.
For Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, that includes the estimated 3 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 25.5 trillion cubic feet of yet-to-be-tapped natural gas that rest dozens of miles off their shorelines, plus the hundreds of thousands of acres under consideration for wind energy development.
It is important that we fully and appropriately balance the need to protect the environment AND develop energy resources. Far too many Americans live paycheck to paycheck and having safe, reliable and affordable energy — all while continuing our incredible run of protecting the environment — is critical to meeting basic household needs.
Don’t take my word for it; take Abigail Ross Hopper’s. She’s the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency in charge of the environmental protection and economic development of our coastlines. In the coming months her agency will release a five-year offshore leasing plan that will go into effect next year.
“We are accustomed to a very specific standard of living in the United States. We have habits and demands that we require of our energy,” she said at an Atlanta event. “We require it to be there all the time, to be very reliable, and to be very affordable. As we think about how we are going to meet that need in the decades to come, all of these technologies — oil and gas, offshore wind, and whole host of others – will continue to be part of our energy mix.”
That is, if we can do it safely and responsibly, Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said at a Richmond, Va., forum.
“You can have it all,” he said. “You can have oil and gas and be environmentally friendly at the same time.”
Here’s why: Energy producers must comply with a throng of requirements that Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell deemed “the most aggressive and comprehensive offshore oil and gas regulatory reforms in the nation’s history.” Offshore producers have also taken significant, deep-pocketed voluntary measures in recent years to improve the safety of their operations.
Even the federal government has noted the various economic advantages of OCS development for coastal communities, including benefits to recreation and tourism — the industries anti-development naysayers claim would be adversely affected.
And voters are starting to take notice, as polls show a majority support responsible energy development.
The problem is we continue to lack the necessary “policy choices that increase, not decrease, energy production,” Andy Radford, senior policy adviser for the American Petroleum Institute, said at a Raleigh, N.C., event. “And it needs to come with increases in energy efficiency and encourage investments in long-term energy technologies and initiatives.”
Agreed.
With the federal government now asking for public input as it carefully considers leasing offshore fields in designated areas of U.S. eastern coastline, the time is now — not later — for the silent majority of local residents who support offshore development to stand up and make their voices heard. We can have both environmental protection AND responsible energy development.
Those who argue otherwise either have a misguided political agenda or simply don’t understand how most of us feed and clothe our children and warm our homes on cold winter nights.
Michael Zehr is Executive Vice President of Federal Affairs for Consumer Energy Alliance. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
