POINT CLEAR, Ala. — The need for increased energy production and what Alabama leaders can do to facilitate it was a topic across multiple panel discussions at the Business Council of Alabama’s annual Government Affairs Conference Saturday.
Gray Swoope, an economic development consultant and former Florida secretary of commerce, praised the state’s recent investments in roads and high-speed internet, but said the biggest issue in infrastructure is the expanding need for electricity.
Data centers are “knocking on doors” in many states looking for places that can power them.
“There’s a lot of innovation going on in how it is generated, how power is used in that world,” Swoope said. “And states that are figuring out how to do that are going to be energy rich.”
Projections show energy demand in 10 years will be 33% more than what’s produced today, he said.
“You don’t get there overnight … start doing the supply chain to get it built,” he said.
Swoope gave the state kudos for this year’s Senate Bill 304 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, authorizing the State Industrial Development Authority to issue up to $1 billion in bonds to provide loans and other financial assistance for eligible energy infrastructure projects through an “energy infrastructure bank.”
The legislation targets rural areas by mandating that 40% of the loans and financial assistance given out by the newly created Alabama Energy Infrastructure Bank are allocated toward projects in rural counties, defined as having populations of less than 150,000.
“You’re putting things in place to help your utilities figure out ways to solve our energy needs of the future,” Swoope said, noting Texas is the only other state where he’s seen something similar.
Later, during a panel discussion by the state’s federal delegation, several lawmakers mentioned energy.
“We’ve got to have more access to energy, and that reliability, making sure the grid is prepared to meet the needs of the growing economy that we have here in the state is important,” U.S. Sen. Katie Britt said.
She said she expects continued permitting reform and other federal action to expand production.
Senator and gubernatorial candidate Tommy Tuberville said the state can’t wait for the federal government to act.
“If we wait on the federal government to do something about energy, we’re going to have huge problems,” he said. “Again, they can’t get out of the damn way.”
He compared the states’ competition for energy to an SEC football schedule.
“We’re going to be fighting Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida, and they surround us, okay? And whoever gets the most energy, whoever plans for the future, is going to win that race of getting manufacturing back to the state. So we can’t wait.”