As a single mom budgeting for energy costs, my blood pressure just went up a little higher. The Farmer’s Almanac recently released its latest prediction: This winter will be colder, and the 2015 summer will be hotter. That means higher energy costs in my family budget.
I’m not the only one who worries about the cost of my electric and gas bill or the price at the pump. Access to affordable energy is a very real issue for all women because it directly or indirectly affects the price of every purchase we make on a daily basis. From cars to computers and dialysis machines to DVRs, natural gas and oil power modern-day conveniences and life-saving technologies. To stay connected, healthy, and productive, we need fuel.
Sadly, affordable energy is an invisible issue to many political candidates. Politicians like Sen. Mark Udall seem focused on social issues, even though research shows that women are interested in a variety of concerns, especially those that affect their ability to support themselves and those they love. A recent poll by the Colorado Women’s Alliance of independent women shows that a majority of these women do not believe a bureaucrat will take away their birth control. They see the issue for the political ploy that it is. Access to birth control, which is constitutionally protected and abundant, is a given. Access to affordable energy is not. Rather than conjure up fears about birth control, Udall should do something to keep our domestic energy production moving forward.
For starters, Udall should take a decisive stand to support hydraulic fracturing, often called fracking. This 60-year-old technology is helping unlock natural gas and petroleum secured in shale rock a mile beneath the surface of the earth. The process, which generally takes less than a week to complete, uses pressurized water, sand and small amounts of common chemicals to make minute cracks in the rock to release the fuel. Government studies have shown that the process is safe and does not impact ground water.
When I visited drill and frack sites, I came away inspired by the scientists who make this technology possible. Energy producers enable our way of life and they deserve our appreciation not vilification.
Economists say that fracking efforts in Colorado, North Dakota and other parts of the U.S. are the reason that prices at the pump have decreased, despite turmoil in the Middle East. Fracking has put us closer to energy independence from a part of the world that is growing more and more violent.
Scientists say that the natural gas produced from fracking has enabled us to lower carbon emissions because it burns cleaner than coal. Analysts say that fracking and other energy production brings $30 billion annually to our state’s economy. That means money for the more than 48,000 men and women who work in the industry, tax revenue for schools, roads, and parks, cash for the farmers and ranchers who own the mineral rights, and economic activity to the communities where these Coloradans live and work.
Taking a stand for affordable energy shows support not only for the women who work in this industry but for every woman who fills her tank with gas, flips on a light switch, turns up the thermostat and writes the checks to pay the costs. Affordable energy is important to women.
Please, Mr. Udall, walk a mile in our shoes and fight to keep energy affordable.
Debbie Brown is director of the Colorado Women’s Alliance.
