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.
• Encouraging greater use of Pennsylvania's natural resources.
• Promoting energy conservation efforts by all businesses and industries.
• Avoiding the placing of price controls on any energy sources.
• Supporting the exploration of domestic natural gas and oil supplies using appropriate environmental controls.
• Allowing the market to select the most appropriate energy technologies and avoiding governmental agencies selecting or forcing favored technologies.