Voters Say Yes to Energy, No to ‘Keep It in the Ground’

realclearenergy-01Real Clear Energy | July 21, 2016 | David Holt

Job growth and the overall economy will be at the top of voters’ minds this coming Election Day, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll says.

Other polls – from CNN/ORC, CBS News/New York Times, ABC News/Washington Post, USA Today, Bloomberg, Quinnipiac University, and so on – echoed similar sentiments. That’s because trepidation about the economy are shared by all Americans – Republicans, Democrats, Independents, blue states, red states, even you and me.

We all have these worries.

That’s why Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) recently sent a letter to the chairs of both parties – Reince Priebus of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) – asking them to make sure their party maintains its current and reasonable all-of-the-above stance on energy, which mixes renewable resources like solar and wind with safe, reliable – and still very much needed – fossil fuel and nuclear production.

Thanks to America’s once-in-a-generation energy revolution – the byproduct of American resources and innovation, improvements in technologies and techniques, and record-sized increases in oil and natural gas production – national carbon emissions are down to 1993 levels and many of life’s necessities are markedly more affordable.

This was evidenced in a recent study by IHS Global Insight, which said that shale gas production and its accompanying lower natural gas prices contributed $156 billion to real disposable income in 2015 — meaning the average American family had an extra $1,337 in their pocket. Another analysis, from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), said that fracking improved the average cost of living for most Americans by nearly $750 per year since 2008.

With families, especially the most disadvantage among us, spending less to fill their gas tanks and pay their utility bills, they now have more disposable income to pay for life’s must-haves – and even some of its luxuries, like vacations and home-improvement projects, which help further our economic recovery.

The industry has also been an impressive catalyst for sustainable growth, helping power America’s economic recovery by producing jobs, lowering unemployment, and garnering much-needed revenue for all levels of government, which has helped stabilize taxes.

Read the full editorial here.

David Holt is President of the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA).

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