Chemical Industry Leader Envisions Major Role for Nuclear Power in Overhaul of U.S. Energy Policy

CHICAGO, May 6, 2008—The leader of the American Chemistry Council said today that Congress has presided over a U.S. energy policy that “doesn’t make sense” and pointed to that policy as responsible for the loss of “millions of good American jobs.”

Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, told 400-plus industry executives gathered at the Nuclear Energy Institute’s annual meeting that the nation’s energy and climate change policies should be “interwoven” and based on principles of diversity, efficiency and supply.   

“How we produce and use energy has a big impact on levels of greenhouse gas emissions,” Gerard said. “That’s why energy and climate policy must be developed comprehensively. Unfortunately, Congress is developing energy and climate policy on separate tracks.”

Urging that nuclear power play a greater role in the nation’s energy future, Gerard cited the punishing economic impact associated with America’s heavy reliance on natural gas in the electricity sector over the past decade – as measured by a 54 percent increase in electricity from gas-fueled power plants between 1997 and 2006.

Since 2000, U.S. natural gas prices have risen more than 450 percent, he said. During this period, the U.S. chemical sector has lost more than 118,000 jobs, and U.S. manufacturing overall – “made up of lots of energy-intensive industries” – has lost more than three million jobs.

Additional impacts from an outdated energy policy include a near-doubling of home heating bills from natural gas in the past six years; an increase in the average retail price of electricity of 29 percent between 1995-2006; and, since 1999, a cumulative increase in the nation’s natural gas bill of more than $522 billion.

“That’s a stunning $4,568 per taxpayer,” Gerard said.

“We need an energy policy that corrects the unintended consequences of the past and puts us on a rational, effective course for the future… We simply can’t afford not to secure our nuclear future. You must be a big part of this solution,” Gerard said.