Battle for Affordable Energy

Date: October 15, 2014

RI small businesses and residents need access to clean and
affordable energy. To ensure access to low cost natural gas, the underground pipelines
to New England must be enhanced with access for local power companies.
Unfortunately, the improved pipelines will not be constructed without a
political battle; in the meantime, energy costs will increase and cause
considerable pain for residential consumers and make small businesses in RI
less competitive with competitors outside New England.

Energy companies plan years ahead, but New England states
already face some of the highest energy costs in the nation despite increasing
conservation and development of renewable energy. The demand for natural gas
has increased at power plants and at residences and businesses, resulting in a
shortage of supplies and driving up prices. Price increases in energy go through
the economy increasing costs for manufactured goods, health care, and delivered
products like food. There is an abundance of affordable natural gas at the
doorstep of New England and we must access it for Rhode Island to remain
economically competitive. New England will experience price spikes in the
2014-15 heating system and we need to act to ensure access to more affordable
energy by 2016.   

Natural gas is becoming an ever-more important part of
America’s energy picture. It is a domestic resource. U.S. carbon dioxide
emissions hit an 18-year low in 2012 thanks in large part because the share of
our electricity produced with gas grew from 20% to 30%, while the proportion
produced by coal fell from 50% to 37%.  In just over a decade, the share of
U.S. natural gas production from shale gas – the type that would move through an
expanded pipeline to New England – has jumped from 2% to more than 40%. 
Burgeoning shale gas production has brought natural gas prices to historic
lows. 

To ensure that RI remain competitive and to offer lower
cost, cleaner energy, RI needs to be looking ahead to how energy needs will be
addressed in the coming years. Diverse sources of supply – renewables, on shore
wind, hydro, and natural gas – ensure the lowest cost and the highest
reliability.    

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