WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ahead of next week’s release of a new, practical energy plan, the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy today expressed alarm over the administration’s latest proposals that are both unrealistic and will increase energy costs for consumers.The Energy Institute will release its plan at a media roundtable on Tuesday, February 1 at 10:00 a.m at U.S. Chamber headquarters.“The fundamental problem with the administration’s approach on energy is that it picks winners and losers,” said Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the Energy Institute. “Raising taxes on the industry that fuels our lives shows a profound detachment from our energy and economic reality. This proposal, along with the effort to stall both current and future development of energy in the Gulf of Mexico & Alaska, will harm our economy and make us even more dependent on foreign oil.“Next Tuesday, we will present a better path forward on energy,” she said. “Our plan contains realistic and practical solutions to our energy challenge that have bipartisan support in Congress. Over the coming months, we look forward to building support for our plan as we begin the second phase of our Energy Reality Tour.“We strongly support the development of clean energy technologies and have called for increasing research and development,” Harbert said. “Unfortunately, the administration’s clean energy proposal is wholly unrealistic and is more about rhetoric than reality.“The president’s proposed ‘clean energy’ mandate would entail a more ambitious restructuring of the country’s power sector than even those in the his party have proposed,” she said. “This mandate could require us to increase our non-hydro renewable generation by more than 700% and more than double our nuclear power, while virtually eliminating from the country’s most available, proven, and economic domestic energy resource—coal.“If the administration intends to transform our electricity sector, it should start by focusing on removing the regulatory and legal barriers that have prevented the construction of hundreds of energy projects—including clean energy projects—across the country and the creation of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would go with them,” Harbert said."The mission of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy is to unify policymakers, regulators, business leaders, and the American public behind a common sense energy strategy to help keep America secure, prosperous, and clean. Through policy development, education, and advocacy, the Institute is building support for meaningful action at the local, state, national, and international levels.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry