Consumer Energy Council Launches Fuels And Technologies Forum

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff July 21, 2005

The Consumer Energy Council of America ( CECA ), Washington, D.C., a public interest energy policy organization, this week launched a forum of the nation’s energy leaders to recommend policies for the management of the nation’s energy portfolio through 2025.

The CECA Fuels and Technologies Forum, “Fueling the Future: Better Ways to Use America’s Fuel Options,” will examine the fuel-use public policy to meet future energy needs in ways that benefit consumers. The blue-ribbon panel will focus on meeting stationary energy demands, such as heating and cooling, electricity generation and industrial processes at a time when volatile gas and oil prices, growing environmental and climate concerns, and increased international competition require a critical examination of future domestic fuel supply, say CECA officials.

The forum will use quantitative data to examine costs, externalities and characteristics of fuels. It will develop findings and recommendations to assist policymakers at the national and state level to optimize all fuels in environmentally responsible, secure and cost-effective ways.

J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA), former chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will chair the forum. Johnston was selected because of his experience as author of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

Other participants in the CECA forum include state utility consumer advocates, key energy industry executives and commissioners from state public utility commissions, and academia.

CECA has established six national consumer priorities to guide the Forum’s deliberations:

1.) Environmental Protection

2.) Sustainable Economic Development

3.) Affordable and Predictable Energy Services

4.) Reliable and High Quality Energy Services

5.) Public Safety

6.) System Security

“If we can provide thorough analysis of the costs and externalities of each available fuel, provide unbiased policy findings and recommendations from the consumer perspective and develop a vision for the nation’s fuel use through 2025,” explains Johnston, “the CECA Forum will have made a vital contribution to the dialogue on national fuels use and will give policymakers the tools they need to make sound fuels policy decisions.”