Energy Policy & Grid Reliability: Joe Trotter on The Conservative Energy Podcast
Joe Trotter, ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force Director, was featured on the Conservative Energy News podcast delving into the basics of ALEC as an organization and the intricate landscape of clean energy policy across the nation.
The direction taken by the ALEC reports are based off of model policy ideas. We decided to take a look at energy affordability and in the latest edition. We looked at electricity, gasoline diesel, as the main drivers of modern infrastructure. Within that we looked at prices themselves first and foremost. Then we also took a look at several different policy ideas that have percolated through the states, things like renewable portfolio standards, carbon taxes, etc. and said this is the price. These are the policies that are an enacted or not enacted and let the chips fall as they were.
I’m actually working on the fourth edition already which is going to take a big look at reliability, and what the energy generation mix is. I’m sure we’re going to get into that later to see how all of that impacts affordability as well. There is definitely an educational component with these reports.
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There are several debates that are going on in this space. One of the big ones is natural gas considered clean or not. ALEC takes no particular position either way, we don’t have model policy on it but how that plays out when it comes to agriculture, it’s very interesting. Most folks don’t realize that the vast majority of fertilizer is produced as a product of natural gas. It is one of the most significant inputs in there. The debate on energy with natural gas also relates to basically the agriculture side of things.