New energy blueprint described as opportunity for economic expansion

BY MARY MUSIC

STAFF WRITER

Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Anne B. Pope, the state and federal co-chairs of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), called on the nation's need to toss its dependency on foreign oil resources when they unveiled the “energy blueprint” yesterday.

“Land has always been and will be the key to Appalachia's future, but this is a different day,” Pope said, explaining the need to use the land in a way that's “respectful to our future.”

Both she and Fletcher described the energy blueprint as an opportunity for the region to expand economically while contributing to the needs of the entire nation, where 12.8 million barrels of oil are imported daily. Appalachian states need to develop an “energy cluster,” Pope said.

The energy blueprint is a regional call for the 13 Appalachian states to collaboratively tap into their natural resources to create more energy-related jobs through energy production, efficiency and innovation.

It promotes energy efficiency, increased use of renewable energy resources, especially biomass, and the development of conventional energy resources like clean coal technologies to produce alternative transportation fuels, electricity and heat.

Although Appalachian residents take up the majority of employment in the nation's coal mining industry, the region is lagging behind in the number of people working in other energy-related fields.

Using data compiled in 2002, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that only 20,000 Appalachian residents were employed in the oil and gas extraction industry, which topped out with 330,000 employees nationwide.

Likewise, only 3,500 Appalachian residents, living in areas where natural gas output makes up 5 percent of what's recoverable nationwide, work with natural gas distribution, where 116,000 people worked in 2002, and 72,800 Appalachian residents carried petroleum refining jobs and careers related to the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power, where 559,000 people were employed nationally.

“The glass is more than half-full in terms of energy opportunities in this region,” said Gerry Yurkevicz, the managing director of Global Insight, Inc. who helped create the energy blueprint.

Yurkevicz, who consults with the U.S. departments of energy and commerce, said the Appalachian states will follow the forecasted “slow down” in the nation's economy next year, a reason those states should expand their energy markets, particularly since oil and natural gas prices are expected to continually increase.

Coal has the advantage, Yurkevicz said, in producing electricity because it is cheaper than using natural gas. Other suggested ways of tapping into Appalachia's natural resources include expansions in wind power, solar power, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric, and biofuel technologies.

The blueprint recommends that Appalachian states provide expertise and funds to support new energy initiatives and attract investments from the private sector, support research and analysis to create technological innovations and expand energy opportunities, promote increased education for the region's workforce, extend information to the public about current energy issues, and support additional government policies that encourage investments in alternative or innovative energy solutions.

The ARC set up a $400,000 challenge grant competition for developing energy projects and they will also seek more money from the federal and private sector.

Fletcher signed two executive orders yesterday requiring the Department of Education to work with school districts to bring in Energy Star certified schools and to promote research in biofuels and improve the fuel efficiency of the state's transportation fleet, which uses $5 million in gas annually.