Why Is An All Of The Above Energy Policy Important?
The North American metals industry requires a reliable energy supply to thrive. As proud stewards of our natural resources, MSCI supports policies that protect our environment and provide a stable energy supply.
Today’s innovative technologies allow the United States to explore and produce energy from all sources, from natural gas to nuclear, in an increasingly environmentally friendly way. MSCI supports an “all of the above” energy strategy that protects our energy security by expanding domestic energy production to efficiently and affordably deliver power to our nation’s industrial metals industry.
What happens when government takes a different approach? Consumers, businesses, and the environment suffer.
As our partners at the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA) have explained, New England is famous for local gas hookup bans, denying new natural gas pipelines, and making up their cold-weather energy deficits by importing natural gas from Russia. Now the region also generates far more electricity from burning trash and garbage, wood, and fuel oil than from wind and solar.
The movement toward refuse burning has significant implications for the environment. EEIA estimates that if greater pipeline capacity existed to deliver cleaner-burning natural gas to replace the power generated from wood, refuse and fuel oil, the savings of greenhouse gas emissions would be “very substantial.” Additionally, New England’s reported average wholesale price of electricity would fall.
New York state has resolutely prevented development of natural gas pipelines from northeast Pennsylvania to supply its own power generators, as well as New England’s.
Federal courts also have made completing natural gas pipeline projects in the northeast more difficult. Recently, for example, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. vacated key permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is almost 95 percent complete. The line is seen as critically-needed takeaway capacity for Pennsylvania and West Virginia natural gas producers.