Energy guru urges business leaders to get involved
By: News Tribune Staff
Business leaders around the country need to be involved in the national energy policy debate.
That’s the word from Karen Alderman Harbert, president of the national U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. Harbert was in Tacoma Monday to discuss energy issues such as using more natural gas, hydroelectric power and coal – all of which are major sources of energy in the state.
She also said it’s important not to “demonize” offshore drilling in the United States in the wake of BP’s massive oil spill that was triggered by an accident on April 20 that killed 11 people.
“We have made the energy discussion seem so simple,” Harbert said at the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber office. “If there was a magic bullet to solve it, we would have found it already.”
Oil and natural gas production supports about 107,000 jobs in Washington, according to statistics from Harbert’s office. The oil and natural gas industries add more than $10 billion annually to the state’s gross product.
Metro areas had about 17,000 jobs in renewable energy industries like solar, wind and geothermal power in 2006, the most recent period for which figures were available. Hydroelectric power accounts for three-fourth’s of the state’s electricity generation, the office says.
To find out more about the national chamber of commerce energy institute, go to: www.energyxxi.org.