Report: Manufacturing Official Calls for Opening G
Chattanooga, TN, November 3, 2005—According to the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, American manufacturers need Congress to open up more gas and oil reserves and encourage more gasoline refining and nuclear power generation, the newspaper cited the president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
The newspaper quoted John Engler, a former three-term Michigan governor and head of the nation's biggest manufacturers' trade group as saying, "We're paying the highest natural gas prices in the world and they continue to double and even triple, despite increased efficiency, this is putting a tremendous strain on our economy."
During a speech to the 103rd annual meeting of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association, Mr. Engler said he has put energy "at the top of our agenda" because of its importance to both consumer spending and U.S. business competitiveness. Mr. Engler urged Congress to open up the Outer Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (AWNR) for oil and gas exploration and to clear the way for Yucca Mountain, Nevada to store nuclear wastes, according to the newspaper.
Mr. Engler applauded the Tennessee Valley Authority for pursuing a possible next generation nuclear power plant at its Bellefonte site in Alabama and criticized regulators and environmentalists who have discouraged American nuclear plant construction.
The absence of any new nuclear plants being started since TVA began work on its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 1974 has pushed more utilities to use natural gas for electricity production. As a result, Mr. Engler said, prices for natural gas in the United States have jumped nearly seven-fold in the past six years.
Natural gas is now twice as expensive in the United States as it is in the United Kingdom and is 20 times more expensive than in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Engler said.
Higher natural gas and petroleum prices are squeezing many plastic, carpet and chemical companies that use petroleum products both as a heating source and raw material, Chattanooga Manufacturers Association president Ray Childers said.
The U.S. chemical industry lost $50 billion to overseas competitors and more than 100,000 jobs since 2000, the group's figures show. Dow Chemical alone has shut down 23 American plants over the past five years.
"Lower energy prices overseas draw development and jobs," Mr. Engler said. "Of 120 large chemical plants being built in the world today, only one is in the United States."
The national group wants Congress to lift barriers that limit oil and gas exploration in about 85% of all federally controlled coastal waters. The Outer Continental Shelf has over 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat 100 million homes for 60 years, Mr. Engler said.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could yield up to 16 billion barrels of crude oil by drilling in only a 2,000-acre area of land, Mr. Engler said. That could help hold down fuel costs, he added.
Gasoline prices in Chattanooga have dropped 67.5 cents per gallon since their October 5 peak after hurricane Katrina limited gas deliveries, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge surveys. But AAA surveys indicate Chattanooga gas prices on Tuesday still averaged 46 cents a gallon more than a year ago.
Environmentalists say they worry that exploring coastal and Arctic lands could damage sensitive natural wildlife and fishing areas and provide only a short-term solution to America's long-term need for more sustainable energy. As a result, such exploration was excluded from the comprehensive energy bill adopted by Congress earlier this year.
"What happened was we had an energy bill passed in July # and these are the scraps left over by that energy bill," Jim Presswood, an energy lobbyist for the National Resources Defense Council, told the Associated Press.
