Capitol Comments

Meeting the Energy Challenge for the Northeast

Oil prices have slid from their historic highs earlier this summer, but households in the Northeast are still going to pay record prices to heat their homes with heating oil or natural gas this winter, experts participating in a Monday afternoon energy panel during The Council of State Governments Eastern Regional Conference  annual meeting said.

The average household is expected to pay 30 percent to 35 percent more than last winter for heating oil – when prices also set record highs – and around 25 percent more for natural gas, said Doug MacIntyre, director of the Energy Markets and Contingency Information Division at the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Gov. Mike Rounds Speaks for MGA on NPR

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, chairman of the Midwest Governors Association, a CSG affiliate, was interviewed Tuesday on National Public Radio about the impact that the federal ethanol mandate is having on the price of corn. Rounds, who is also CSG vice president, discussed MGA’s specific view of the Renewable Fuels Standards which encourages investment and innovations to move to cellulosic.

Hear what Rounds had to say about the topic.

Bluegrass State Wants to Go Green

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear might just be tired of the state’s bad energy wrap. In May, a report released by the Brookings Institution named the Lexington metropolitan area as having the nation’s worst carbon footprint among the top 100 largest metro areas in the country.

The Kentucky governor instead wants the state to be “the energy capital of the world” and announced his plans to make that happen Wednesday.

Kentucky ranks sixth in the nation for per capita energy usage and seventh for per capita carbon dioxide emissions, according to Business First in Louisville.

“We are all tired of seeing our hard-earned dollars going overseas to countries that, for the most part, despise us, because we need their foreign oil to run our cars and trucks and heat our homes,” Beshear said in a news release. “If ever there was a time for this country to become energy independent, that time is now. Kentucky is sitting on top of all of the resources it will take to aggressively pursue that goal.”

Great Lakes Off-Limits for Drought-Stricken Areas?

The largest group of freshwater lakes in the world may no longer share its water-wealth beyond its watershed borders—if a special agreement among states is approved.

The eight Great Lakes states will send the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact to Congress for approval, according to National Public Radio. The compact is a special agreement governing the use of the water in the Great Lakes watershed and would keep water from being diverted, pumped or piped out of the Great Lakes watershed.

Pennsylvania's Senate approved the compact July 3, according to the Associated Press, and Gov. Ed Rendell said he plans to sign it, making Pennsylvania the final state to approve the agreement.

12 States Receive Energy Grants

Twelve states have gotten some help to advance clean energy projects.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices awarded grants of $50,000 to Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina and Utah. The awards were made under Gov. Tim Pawlenty's initiative, Securing a Clean Energy Future. Pawlenty is the NGA chair.

States were selected through a competitive process open to all states and U.S. territories.

Back to 55?

The continually rising price of gasoline has many people wondering what can be done to ween the nation off dependency on petroleum.

Some harken back to the energy crisis of the 1970s, when many states took action to cut energy usage. One columnist in Washington believes we should cut the speed limit on the nation's interstate to 55.

What do you think?

Energy Outlook for the States Not So Rosy

Amidst news that Lexington, Ky., has the largest carbon footprint among the top 100 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution, state officials learned some good news—and some bad news—about energy at Thursday’s “The Future of Energy” workshop.

The good news is that the U.S. is seeing some new domestic crude oil production in the lower 48 states, said Guy Caruso, administrator for the Energy Information Administration. Most of the new production is coming from offshore around Louisiana, Texas and Alabama, but there are also some significant increases coming from North Dakota, he said.

According to his office’s predictions, that will reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil to 50 percent in the next 20 to 30 years, he said. In 2007, the U.S. was approximately 60 percent dependent on foreign oil.

States Seek Options under CO2 Regulation

States are seemingly in the middle of a balancing act when it comes to the future of energy, particularly when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions regulations. States are grappling with how to reduce CO2 emissions and, at the same time, maintain affordable energy, particularly electricity rates.

Thursday’s Energy and Environmental Task Force workshop, “The Future of Energy,” will focus on just that. It will offer the outlook for energy in both the transportation and electricity sectors.

Guy Caruso, the administrator of the Energy Information Administration, a statistical organization within the U.S. Department of Energy, will offer his office’s energy projections at the workshop.

Resolving Water Woes

The federal government is poised to intervene in a water dispute among Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

The Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies will develop a water-sharing solution for the three states after the states failed to come up with one on their own.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors that the federal action “will necessarily be a solution being directed to the states instead of  … solution coming from the states.

Read more about the water dispute in the Southeast.

Water is a major issue for many states. Find out about what states are doing to deal with the problem in a Trends in America issue brief: Water Scarcity: Preventing Water Shortages.

Is your state facing a water crisis. Share your experiences and opinions.

Taking Action on Climate Change

Climate change is occurring at a rate faster than expected, according to experts at the eighth National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment, Climate Change: Science and Solutions, in Washington, D.C. last week. They believe action needs to be taken now to forestall the most severe projections from happening.

The conference hosted more than 1,200 leaders from the scientific, academic, industry and policymaking fields.  Among the plenary speakers were James Rogers, chairman, CEO and president of Duke Energy, the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Sherri Goodman a former deputy undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security. 

Rogers said electricity producers must take steps to reduce their carbon footprints, supported by sound regulatory and legislative solutions. He also highlighted several initiatives Duke Energy has undertaken, including the purchase of renewable energy and increased efficiency. Cizik said the faith community must be involved more in the fight against climate change.  If the community is brought to understand the scope of the problem, he said, they can bring a tremendous force to bear. And Goodman said climate change poses national security risks for the United States, including massive population migration in low lying regions of the world and wars over natural resources, particularly water.  These impacts will create tensions and instabilities in regions of the world that could undermine U.S. interests.