CAES News
Statement by W. Henson Moore, President & CEO, American Forest & Paper Association
"There is nothing 'natural' about today's natural gas prices upon which my members heavily depend. For decades government policies have been encouraging the use of natural gas—it is a clean, safe, and efficient fuel. While U.S. policies have been encouraging consumption, they have simultaneously restricted the supply by banning exploration for new domestic sources of natural gas.
Any commodity with high demand and an artificially restricted supply will of course rise in price, and the dramatic price increases we have seen over the last several years have eroded my industry's competitive edge, and increased our nation's dependence on foreign energy sources.
The U.S. forest products industry has the best workers, technology, and environmental protections in the world, but we are losing our position as world leaders in the industry because our international competitors have access to lower cost energy, and we are prisoners of our own competing policies. We, as a nation, must address this energy crisis—encouraging conservation, developing emerging alternative energies, but more importantly and immediately, expanding access to the vast untapped natural gas in American waters and beneath American soil. Congress and the Bush Administration must reconsider the existing and pending regulations that are driving manufacturers to natural gas, as well as policies that have limited access to our abundant domestic supply, specifically in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
Failure to do so will have disastrous long-term effects on our economy and our nation.
AF&PA is proud to participate in the Consumers Alliance for Energy Security because together we should be able to convince Congress and the Bush Administration that today's energy prices and policies are indefensible, unsustainable, and harmful to our economy."