IECA sent letters to twelve East Coast governors on natural gas scarcity due to the lack of interstate natural gas pipeline capacity.
Paul Cicio, President and CEO of IECA stated:
Today, there is either none or very limited firm natural gas pipeline capacity available for the manufacturing sector along the entire Eastern Seaboard. Action is needed by Governors to encourage President Biden to use the Defense Production Act to build critical natural gas pipeline infrastructure from Alabama to New York to support manufacturing investments, job creation, and the reliability of natural gas and electricity.
During winter and summer peak natural gas demand, manufacturers are the first to be curtailed. When this happens, manufacturers must reduce or stop operating their facilities with a significant economic impact which could cost millions of dollars per day. Last winter, for areas like Transco Zone 5, manufacturers paid over $20 per MMBtu for their natural gas. For perspective, the average 2021 Henry Hub natural gas price was $3.84 per MMBtu.
Until new pipeline capacity becomes available, it is essential for Governors to support temporarily delay of voluntary actions by electric utilities to shutdown coal-fired electric generation facilities to free up pipeline capacity for manufacturing.
The Industrial Energy Consumers of America is a nonpartisan association of leading manufacturing companies with $1.1 trillion in annual sales, over 12,000 facilities nationwide, and with more than 1.8 million employees worldwide. It is an organization created to promote the interests of manufacturing companies through advocacy and collaboration for which the availability, use and cost of energy, power or feedstock play a significant role in their ability to compete in domestic and world markets. IECA membership represents a diverse set of industries including: chemicals, plastics, steel, iron ore, aluminum, paper, food processing, fertilizer, insulation, glass, industrial gases, pharmaceutical, building products, automotive, brewing, independent oil refining, and cement.
