By Matt Snyder
GREENVILLE — At a round-table meeting with Mercer County business leaders Wednesday at Thiel College meant to feel out their concerns, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. heard about their frustrations over the rising cost of energy.
Challenging Casey on the issue, Daniel Berent, president of Regenex Corp., a plastic recycling business that hauls in vinyl siding from other states, said Congress should tap oil reserves along the Alaskan continental shelf or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“I can’t understand why so many in Congress — and frankly most of them are Democrats — oppose cheaper energy,” Berent said.
Casey said the United States consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil supply every year and only sits on 3 percent of the oil.
Berent said that even if U.S. reserves contributed 1 percent to the oil supply, that the movement in the direction of increasing supply could ease costs. He also said when current oil capacities swing between 89 and 91 percent, there is a large impact on prices, so any move to drill more oil could also improve prices.
“We can’t drill our way to energy independence, we can’t drill our way out of the problem,” Casey said. He proposed investing in alternative energy that could reduce reliance on oil.
Casey said that on short term gas costs, he would deal with issues like price gouging by oil companies and gas prices being driven up by speculation on oil futures.
Investors trying to make a return on their buck in the oil market have contributed in part to the jump in the cost of a gallon of gasoline, Casey said, and he wants to write laws that would more carefully regulate those investments.
Casey suggested increasing the amount of collateral investors have to pay to invest in oil futures, beefing up oversight on trading in the oil market, and improving the transparency of the deals.
He also attacked oil companies for sitting on 44 million acres of federal land, which they’ve leased to extract oil. He said 31 million acres are not in production.
Berent said there might be a reason behind the oil companies’ inaction, particularly if the oil they’re sitting on is still too expensive to extract.
Casey, in turn, said oil companies aren’t building new refineries, and that refining is down 4 percent. With tax breaks and $600 billion in profits, he said they’re still demanding more. “And it’s our fault. It’s like a beast that can’t be satisfied,” he said.
Berent said Casey should push for fast-tracking permission to build new refineries. He said construction may be held up by the Environmental Protection Agency or other federal bureacracies.
He called for less partisanship, which Casey agreed with, noting that infighting has stalled a lot of ideas.
After the meeting, Casey said reforms to commodities trading on oil are Congress’s best bet for bipartisan reform to help bring down energy costs.
Joseph Simco, president of Hodge Foundry — which makes parts for wind turbines — also asked Casey to work to extend a tax credit that was given one more year of life by Congress in December 2007. That credit is set to expire in 2008.
He said many wind industries have relocated to the United States, and still others are waiting to see if that tax credit becomes a more stable fixture.
The wind industry employs 120,000 people nationwide, Simco said.
“Energy independence is about jobs,” Casey said. “And it’s got to be done through tax credits.”
Dale Deist, president of Buck’s Fabricating, also spoke of the need for changes in vocational training for young people. He said his company in Hadley struggles to find good welders who also know how to measure properly and work efficiently.
Other manufacturers also said that vocational training gets overlooked by high schools.
Casey received praise on his testimony before the U.S. International Trade Commission on steel dumping by China and was asked by one business owner to oppose the tolling of Interstate 80. Casey didn’t express any opinion on the tolls.
