The
Natural Gas Crisis: Impacts and Potential Solutions
3:30-5:00
p.m.,
Thursday, April 22, 2004
2105
Rayburn
House Office Building
The
Environmental and Energy Study Institute held a
Congressional briefing discussing the serious natural gas
situation confronting consumers across the board, whether one is
speaking about residential consumers, industrial users or electric
utilities.
Consumers
across the country have seen their natural gas bills jump over the
last two years. The enormous volatility of the natural gas
market amid uncertainty about reliability of supply has created
great concern among all classes of natural gas users and among
policy makers. Because natural gas is a critical fuel
and feedstock for the chemicals and plastics industries, a letter
from the heads of 11 major manufacturers was sent to the President
and the Senate and House leadership in January, 2004 raising
concerns about the overall economic impacts, including domestic
manufacturing and international competitiveness concerns, of
continued high natural gas prices coupled with price volatility in
gas markets. There are numerous plants that have shut down,
in large part, because of very high natural gas prices. The
picture has been made more complicated by the large increase in
natural gas use for the generation of electricity, with most new
power plants built over the last few years being fueled by natural
gas. All of this puts increased pressure on gas prices for
residential consumers for home heating needs as well.
So
what is the answer? What are some of the actions that can be
taken? The briefing panel will discuss their perspectives on
the impacts being felt across the economy as well as their
suggestions for policymakers about steps that can be taken to help
ameliorate the situation and provide some solutions in the near
term. The briefing panel includes the following experts:
- Michael
Parr, Government Affairs Programs Manager, DuPont (Presentation)
- Rick
Morgan, Commissioner, Public Service Commission of the District
of Columbia and National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissions Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment
(Presentation)
- Scott
Sklar, President, The Stella Group
For additional questions, please contact Josh Alban at EESI
(202/662-1885) jalban@eesi.org.
