Abundant, reasonably priced energy is a critically important component of a healthy business economy.  Lack of this resource significantly hampers the Commonwealth’s economic development efforts as well as efforts to retain existing employers.

Energy costs can be a significant portion of the costs of doing business to an enterprise in the Commonwealth.  Certain energy-intensive industries have energy costs that amount to more than 50 percent of their total operating costs.

The Pennsylvania Chamber supports efforts to secure a ready supply of reasonably priced energy.  This can be best accomplished by the following:

• Ensuring that energy policies are competitive with other states and no more restrictive than federal law.
• Encouraging greater use of US and Pennsylvania natural resources while using appropriate environmental controls.
• Promoting energy conservation efforts by all types of consumers.
• Avoiding the placing of price controls on any energy sources.
• Allowing the market to select the most appropriate energy technologies and avoiding governmental agencies selecting or forcing favored technologies.
• Reducing regulatory and other governmental hurdles to implementation of new alternative energy technologies while ensuring appropriate environmental protection.