The Problem:
Since 1990, utilities are relying increasingly on natural gas to generate electricity as the cleanest burning fossil fuel. Policies focusing on boosting natural gas production from Alaska and other domestic resources to meet this growing demand were not working largely because they pitted pro-industry forces against environmentalists. This stalemate continued until prices had tripled and jobs and resources were being forced overseas to compete in the global marketplace. The Alliance needed a different and original approach that communicated the full impact of this crisis on individual consumers and the national economy.
Strategic Recommendation:
Dutko Worldwide recommended a legislative and communications campaign to reshape the issue from an energy vs. environment debate to a consumers and jobs issue. The key to success was to ensure that all consumers’ voices are heard by bringing together and building a coalition of like-minded, yet nontraditional organizations and groups who have been adversely affected by the high and unstable cost of natural gas. The campaign needed to educate federal and state officials about the connection between gas prices, manufacturing jobs, consumer prices and national security. Dutko and the Alliance worked together to create a campaign that would coordinate existing and new research, implement and disseminate new messages, and target and change policy makers’ minds.
Program Elements:
- Build a broad-based alliance of consumer, environmental, labor, elderly and other third party advocates.
- Build awareness of the structural sea change that is pushing natural gas supplies and prices by drafting and distributing joint letters and organizational resolutions.
- Earn news coverage by keying off of price volatility, job loss, and adverse consumer impacts of high natural gas prices.
- Test Alliance messages in focus groups across the country and distill the research into talking points for the media and policymakers.
- Educate state policy makers on the need to communicate to their state’s U.S. Senators on how rising prices are passed through to constituents.
- Use compelling information and studies for media pitches, news releases, and grassroots/grasstops messaging.
- Raise the Alliance’s credibility with decision makers and stakeholders by making the Alliance a new and distinctive leading voice in the natural gas debate.
Results:
Dutko Worldwide successfully secured participation of a diverse group of stakeholders to establish the Alliance as a credible entity and began generating sustainable interest among policy influentials. The Alliance noticed a dramatic change in the dynamic of the natural gas debate from energy to an economic issue. Stories were placed in media outlets both inside and outside the Beltway, including, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, and The Hill. In response to our public awareness efforts, the Alliance expanded its membership to include highly respected national organizations such as the American Council for Energy Efficient Economy; Consumer Federation of America, U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Manufacturers, and 60Plus. At the grasstops level, we helped introduce and pass resolutions calling for new natural gas policies through such organizations as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, The Southern Legislative Council (SLC), The Nation Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), and the American Public Gas Association.
Finally, Dutko secured interest from a group of bi-partisan U.S. Senators to introduce legislation in April, 2005, which led to many of the Alliance’s key policy provisions being included in 2005’s comprehensive Energy Bill; such as:
- Extensive energy efficiency provisions for buildings and appliances to reduce natural gas demand
- Support and incentives for efficient cogeneration
- Incentives for coal and biomass gasification in both utility and industrial settings
- Incentives for a broad range of renewable technologies to reduce natural gas demand
- Streamlining of infrastructure permitting, including siting of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals
- Streamlining of the natural gas development permitting process for onshore development
- An inventory of OCS resources. and a coastal impact assistance provisions that establishes the precedent for royalty revenue sharing with coastal states
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