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S. HRG. 114–382 

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL 

BUSINESSES ENGAGED IN ENERGY DEVELOPMENT 

AND ENERGY INTENSIVE MANUFACTURING 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JULY 14, 2015 

Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

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COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire, Ranking Member 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

TIM SCOTT, South Carolina 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

CORY GARDNER, Colorado 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware 

MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

MEREDITH WEST, Republican Staff Director 

ROBERT DIZNOFF, Democratic Staff Director 

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C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS

Page 

Vitter, Hon. David, Chairman, and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana ................... 1 

Shaheen, Hon. Jeanne, a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire ............................ 6 

WITNESSES

Mr. Toby Mack, President & CEO, Energy Equipment and Infrastructure 

Alliance, Washington, DC .................................................................................... 9 

Dr. Neil Aspinwall, Chancellor, SOWELA Technical Community College, Lake 

Charles, LA ........................................................................................................... 16 

Ms. Kateri Callahan, President, Alliance to Save Energy, Washington, DC ..... 22 

Mr. Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen Energy Program, Washington, 

DC .......................................................................................................................... 29

ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

American Sustainable Business Council 

Letter dated July 13, 2015 ............................................................................... 84 

Aspinwall, Neil 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 16 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 19 

Responses to questions Submitted by Senator Enzi ...................................... 87 

Callahan, Kateri 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 22 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 24 

Mack, Toby 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 9 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 

Responses to questions Submitted by Senator Enzi ...................................... 88 

Shaheen, Hon. Jeanne 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 6 

FY14 Scorecard Summary by Prime Spend Subk and Plan Progress 

Scores 2015 .................................................................................................... 50 

Slocum, Tyson 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 29 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 31 

Vitter, Hon. David 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 1 

Letter Dated May 8, 2015, from the Small Business Administration Office 

of Advocacy .................................................................................................... 3 

Hearings on ‘‘Non-Jurisdictional’’ Issues under Democratic Leadership ..... 8 

Report titled ‘‘Macroeconomic Impacts of LNG Exports from the United 

States’’ ............................................................................................................ 55 

Report titled ‘‘Updated Macroeconomic Impacts of LNG Exports from 

the United States’’ ........................................................................................ 60 

Report titled ‘‘The 2015 Economic Report of the President’’ ......................... 61 

Article titled ‘‘Democrats Increasingly Backing Oil and Gas Industry’’ ...... 70 

Report titled ‘‘What They’re Saying: Labor Groups Support LNG Exports’’ .............................................................................................................. 75 

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CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 

FOR SMALL BUSINESSES ENGAGED 

IN ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND ENERGY 

INTENSIVE MANUFACTURING 

TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015 

UNITED STATES SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:35 p.m., in Room 

428A, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. David Vitter, Chairman 

of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senators Vitter, Fischer, Gardner, Ernst, Enzi, Shaheen, Markey, and Coons. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, CHAIRMAN, 

AND A U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA 

Chairman VITTER. Good afternoon, everybody. I will call the committee to order. 

We are here for an important hearing entitled, ‘‘Challenges and 

Opportunities for Small Businesses Engaged in Energy Development and Energy Intensive Manufacturing.’’ This hearing is particularly important and timely because of the significance of the energy industry to our economy and how many small businesses are 

involved. 

Before the drop in the price of oil relatively recently, energy jobs 

in America were the difference between our being in recovery and 

actually remaining in a recession. Were it not for those energy-related jobs, we would still be in a technical recession. Thankfully, 

that is not the case because of these significant jobs. 

And, as I said, it is also important and why we are talking about 

it in this Small Business Committee that many energy-related 

businesses are small entities. To quantify that, I will use my home 

state of Louisiana as an example. A majority of Louisiana businesses in four of the five energy-defined sectors had less than 20 

workers. Specifically, businesses with fewer than 20 employees 

made up about 77 percent of the oil and gas extraction businesses, 

71 percent of oil and gas operations businesses, over 68 percent of 

oil and gas wells businesses, and about 57 percent of oil and gas 

field machinery and equipment-related businesses. These illustrate 

just how important the industry and the sector is to small business. 

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The purpose of this hearing is to delve a little deeper into opportunities and challenges that these small businesses face in the energy sector. One of our witnesses, Toby Mack, is President of the 

Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance, which represents 

the shale supply chain, and he will speak to that phenomenon, including LNG exports. 

The opportunities from this new era of American energy abundance are tremendous, but there are also challenges. One long-term 

challenge is that the demand for skilled workers is outpacing their 

availability, and so the question becomes how do we help train our 

workers to step into these high-skill, high-demand jobs in the energy sector. 

Part of the answer lies with our community and technical colleges that are stepping up to provide tailored programs and services for that training. Our second witness, Dr. Neil Aspinwall, 

Chancellor of Southwest Louisiana Technical Community College, 

will discuss some of these challenges and opportunities in depth. 

And, of course, there are other challenges, as well. I have been 

very outspoken about the Obama Administration’s energy and environmental regulations, which are overly burdensome, in my opinion, and really hold down a lot of great potential industry sector 

job creation. This committee recently held a hearing to examine 

how the EPA violated the Regulatory Flexibility Act by certifying 

that its rule to redefine Waters of the United States will not have 

a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. And in particular, if you will remember, we heard testimony 

from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy and 

it was very clear on that point. 

Now, while EPA did not make as blatant of a mistake when it 

came to its proposed federal implementation plan for regulating 

carbon emissions, I think it clearly fell short there, as well. EPA’s 

efforts were so inadequate, in fact, that they earned a rare letter 

of rebuke from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, which I will insert 

into the record. If there is no objection, and hearing none, we will 

insert that into the record. 

[The letter follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. There are many other examples of the EPA’s 

refusal to responsibly consider small business impacts, and we 

have talked about those on other occasions, as well. 

For all of these reasons, and because of all aspects of this hearing, I am working with others on a small business energy bill and 

will be finalizing that in the coming days. But, certainly, today’s 

discussion will help shape that legislative solution to reduce federal 

burdens for small businesses specifically involved in the energy sector. I believe that is important to fully maximize the job creation 

potential of this important sector of our economy. 

And now, I want to welcome and turn to Senator Shaheen, the 

committee’s Ranking Member. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEANNE SHAHEEN, RANKING 

MEMBER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much, Chairman Vitter. 

Welcome, everyone. Welcome to our witnesses. I look forward to 

this opportunity to discuss the energy challenges that face small 

businesses. I do have some concern that we may get into some energy issues that are under the jurisdiction of the Senate Energy 

and Natural Resources Committee, but nonetheless, small businesses are facing critical cost issues because of energy challenges, 

and so we should have a good discussion. 

Having owned and operated a small business, like I am sure all 

of us know, every cost counts and every cost has to be managed as 

smartly as possible, and this is certainly true for energy consumption. We are seeing in New Hampshire, where I am from, that rising costs of energy are having a real impact on the business environment. 

Now, as I think about energy, I think about energy efficiency, because it is the cheapest, fastest way to address our nation’s energy 

needs. I have joined with Senator Rob Portman to advance major 

legislation to ramp up energy efficiency in manufacturing, in buildings, and in the federal government. I think this is a particularly 

important way to address energy because it is something that we 

can all agree on, regardless of what part of the country we are from 

or what particular area of energy we support, whether it is fossil 

fuels or solar and wind. Everybody benefits from energy efficiency. 

We had the opportunity to bring Shaheen-Portman to the floor 

last year, but despite overwhelming support, it was not able to advance because of disputes over an unrelated partisan amendment. 

However, the President did sign into law a mini-version of the bill 

earlier this year, which we think helps provide significant efficiency savings. 

Every small business, whether in manufacturing, in retail services, or even agriculture, can benefit from energy efficiency. But, of 

course, there is a problem, and that is that small businesses, especially in energy-intensive sectors, face unique challenges and barriers when it comes to addressing their energy needs and increasing their energy efficiency. I think the Small Business Administration can play an important role, particularly when it comes to the 

financing that they often need to be more energy efficient. 

Today, I have introduced legislation that will ensure that small 

businesses who want to undertake energy efficiency projects can 

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qualify for the 504 loan program. As members of this committee, 

we know that the 504 program helps small businesses purchase 

their own real estate or equipment. That makes it easier for them 

to invest in expanding their companies. By helping small businesses take full advantage of energy efficiency, we reap a wide 

range of benefits, everything from reducing costs, to enhancing 

competitiveness, to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

So, again, I want to welcome our witnesses, and I want to take 

this opportunity to give a special welcome to Kateri Callahan, who 

is President of the Alliance to Save Energy and who I have had the 

great opportunity to work with now for almost six years ago. For 

more than a decade as President of the Alliance, Kateri has provided extraordinary national leadership in the field of energy efficiency and I look forward to her testimony today and to her continued efforts to help businesses become more efficient. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman VITTER. Great. Thank you, to our Ranking Member. 

Regarding the jurisdiction issue, let me just note that this committee has always, on a bipartisan basis, had hearings on a number of topics that were not within our narrow technical jurisdiction, 

including certainly energy discussions and hearings. And, just for 

instance, under Senators Landrieu and Kerry, two previous Chairs, 

there were five energy discussions like that, and I will just submit 

that list for the record. 

[The information follows:] 

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But, I know we will have a productive discussion. 

Let me introduce our four witnesses and then they will testify, 

in turn. 

Toby Mack is President and CEO of the Energy Equipment and 

Infrastructure Alliance based in Washington, D.C. 

Dr. Neil Aspinwall is Chancellor of Southwest Louisiana Technical Community College in Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

Kateri Callahan is President of the Alliance to Save Energy in 

Washington, D.C. 

And Tyson Slocum is Director of the Energy Program at Public 

Citizen. 

Welcome to all of you, and we will be eager to hear from all of 

you in turn, starting with Mr. Mack. 

STATEMENT OF TOBY MACK, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ENERGY EQUIPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE 

ALLIANCE 

Mr. MACK. Thank you, Chairman Vitter and Ranking Member 

Shaheen, for the opportunity to comment on the impact of energy 

development on small business. 

EEIA is an organization of companies, trade associations, and 

labor unions that represent the businesses and workers of the 

shale oil and gas supply chain. Policies that support increased production will result in a great number of new, high-paying jobs and 

strong growth in the supply chain, especially for its small businesses. 

Equipment, products, and services provided in support of shale 

energy operations come from all 50 states. They are found in 60 

different industries in six major sectors. These are depicted on the 

diagram included in my written statement, which appears as this. 

They are, briefly, equipment and machinery, construction, logistics, 

materials and supplies, information technology, and professional 

services. 

To illustrate the supply chain, I offer the example of a piece of 

construction equipment used to prepare a production site or build 

energy facilities such as pipelines, storage, or an LNG processing 

plant. Consider what goes into making that machine. There is raw 

steel, fabricated steel plate, and forgings; the machine tools that 

cut, bend, machine, and weld components; buckets, teeth, and attachments; a high-horsepower engine and transmission; hydraulic 

cylinders and components; steel sprockets and tracks or huge rubber ties; electronic controls and components; plus hoses, valves, filters, gaskets, lubricants, and fuel. 

To obtain these components, the machine’s manufacturer has 

thousands of its own suppliers, and their suppliers have suppliers, 

and so on down the line until you get to raw material. The vast 

majority of these businesses are smaller local and regional firms. 

They are all essential to building the machine, and they are ultimately dependent on energy production to create the demand for 

it and the jobs that go with it. 

Now, let us turn to the supply chain’s economic and employment 

dimensions. EEIA estimates that there are at least 120,000 energy 

supply chain businesses, more than 100,000 of which are small. According to IHS, in 2015, the shale supply chain workforce consists 

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of 615,000 jobs, growing to 757,000 by 2025. Output in 2015 is 

$173 billion, growing to $206 billion by 2025. 

Energy supply chain workers earn, on average, $79,000 per year, 

vs. $68,000 for all American workers. For every direct job in energy 

production, three jobs are created in the supply chain, and, in fact, 

six more are created in the communities where workers live and 

shop. 

Consider the new supply chain jobs created when additional natural gas is produced for export. IHS reports that supply chain industries will have 515,000 jobs supporting shale gas production in 

2015, growing to 655,000 jobs by 2020. EEIA estimates that shale 

gas production at 44 billion cubic feet per day in 2015, to reach almost 60 billion cubic feet per day by 2020. This calculates to about 

11,000 supply chain jobs for each new BCF per day. 

Recent approvals of applications to export LNG anticipate that 

between now and 2020, capacity will reach about 10 BCF per day, 

requiring that much additional natural gas production from shale. 

Thus, we can look forward to over 100,000 new supply chain jobs 

to be generated by LNG exports alone over the next five years. 

That means $8 billion of additional annual income to American 

workers which will be spent locally as these workers consume, pay 

taxes in, and contribute to their local communities. 

Using the SBA estimate that half of American workers are employed by small business, we project that over the forecast job 

gains, small businesses will be responsible for creating at least half 

of them. 

Much of this job growth will be concentrated in skill areas that 

require technical training, but not four-year or higher degrees. Supply chain companies will be challenged to fill positions in highgrowth occupations, the need for which will as much as double between 2012 and 2025. High-growth occupations include truck drivers, construction laborers, equipment mechanics, engine technicians, equipment operators, machinists, welders, and many more. 

The energy supply chain is truly national and not confined to oil 

and natural gas producing areas. We see this effect by looking at 

the geographic distribution of job gains that occur when crude oil 

production grows. Of the top 15 states by job gains if crude oil production were increased for export, 10 are states in which little or 

no crude oil is produced. In fact, Illinois, because of the prominence 

of equipment manufacturing, ranks third behind Texas and California in supply chain jobs gained. 

In summary, exports of LNG, and, indeed, of all energy products, 

including crude oil, will support additional domestic energy production from our large and growing reserves for our innovative and increasingly productive energy sector, supported by the supply 

chain’s small businesses. American shale energy production renaissance has been the principal contributor to our emergence from the 

deep recent recession. It has the potential to spur substantially 

more job creation throughout the country, and particularly with 

small business, if Congress adopts policies that facilitate exports. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Mack follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Mr. Mack. 

And now, we will hear from Dr. Neil Aspinwall. Doctor, welcome. 

STATEMENT OF NEIL ASPINWALL, CHANCELLOR, SOWELA 

TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, LAKE CHARLES, LA 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. 

Southwest Louisiana has been blessed with an abundance of expansion activities related to the petrochemical, liquified natural 

gas, LNG, and gas to liquids, GTL, industry. In fact, there are currently 85-plus billion dollars in planned industrial expansions directly related to LNG/GTL energy sector, and approximately $30 

billion in construction is already underway. 

These massive and historical expansions in the petrochemical industry create the need for highly skilled workers for the oil and gas 

industry. Southwest Louisiana Technical Community College, or 

SOWELA, as it is known, is one of the 13 institutions that comprise the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, and 

we have been given the opportunity and responsibility to provide 

the training programs and services needed to produce the workforce necessary to help construct these massive industrial expansions and operate the new petrochemical plants once they begin 

production. 

According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the annual 

completers of workforce programs necessary to fill the occupations 

of highest need for the industry sector expansion in the region are: 

construction crafts field, 9,360 workers; industrial production, 

4,955 workers; welding, 4,810 workers. Since 2012, SOWELA has 

begun to design, create, implement, and/or expand training programs to help meet the demands of these oil and gas industrial expansions. 

Programs focusing on skilled crafts such as pipefitting, millwright, welding, insulators, scaffolding, concrete forming, machining, electrician, lab analysis, and non-destructive testing have been 

added to the instructional program options at the college. Enrollment and high-demand programs directly related to the oil and gas 

industry, such as process technology and industrial instrumentation, have literally doubled in the past couple of years. 

According to the Energy Sector Jobs to 2030, a global analysis 

published by the Institute for Sustainable Futures in 2009, the 

2020 global energy sector is expected to employ an estimated 10.5 

million workers. By 2030, global energy sector jobs are expected to 

grow by an additional 800,000 workers, totaling an estimated 11.3 

million employees. 

Therefore, SOWELA Technical Community College, whose mission is to provide the skills and training needed to prepare the 

workforce to help grow and sustain the regional, state, and national economy, must be prepared with the programs, services, and 

financial resources necessary to help produce this massive workforce. 

In order to get the students into the workforce quicker and satisfy the hiring demands of industry, many higher education institutions are beginning to offer programs in shorter condensed formats. 

In fact, SOWELA created a compressed process technology program 

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to provide the opportunity for students to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree in just 16 weeks. The first FastTrack P–Tech 

cohort contained 18 students, all of which already earned advanced 

degrees and were placed into the workforce within six months after 

completion. This substantiates the fact that these energy sector 

jobs are highly sought after positions that have and will continue 

to attract individuals to the region for better employment opportunities. 

As the workforce needs for the oil and gas industry become more 

acute, the petrochemical industry has requested and SOWELA has 

implemented various short-term training programs, many less than 

six months in length and ranging from 80 to 900 contact hours. 

These programs have been developed in the craft areas, such as 

machining, millwright, electrical, structural welding, pipe welding, 

scaffolding, cement forming, and HVAC, and as an example, an individual who enrolls in and successfully completes the structural 

welding program can immediately be hired at an hourly wage of at 

least $26. So, a time commitment of six months and a program cost 

of approximately $2,200 can provide the means for an individual to 

earn a middle class wage with great benefits which helps strengthen the local, state, and national economies. 

However, this method of placing students into the workforce 

quicker through condensed instructional delivery formats does have 

a downside. Although shorter programs provide skill training in 

predetermined critical competency areas and reduces the number of 

contact hours or seat time a student needs to spend in the classroom or lab. It is this reduction in contact hours that prevents the 

programs from being eligible for federal financial aid. According to 

the U.S. Department of Education guidelines, these types of shortterm condensed workforce development programs are not eligible 

for federal financial aid because they are not at least 600 clock 

hours and 15 weeks in length. 

But, despite the ease at which these training programs can be 

created and offered and the demand from industry, the program 

costs still present an obstacle that prevents many of our citizens 

from taking advantage of the training needed to prepare them for 

the opportunities available through the petrochemical industry expansions. Since 84 percent of community college students work, 

and 60 percent work more than 20 hours per week, our students 

cannot afford to quit their jobs and take advantage of skills training programs in which no financial aid is available. 

SOWELA, as well as other community colleges whose primary 

mission is workforce development, struggles to find options to help 

students cover the costs of enrolling in and completing these condensed industry-specific training programs and services. Fortunately, various private industries have stepped forward to provide 

scholarships for students seeking entry into these programs. Although greatly appreciated and highly sought after, these private 

business and industry scholarships are not the long-term solution 

to sustaining the training programs necessary for building the oil 

and gas industry workforce. 

A more permanent and guaranteed funding source needs to be 

created so that the oil and gas industry and the energy sector overall can continue to be competitive and help the national economy 

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grow and improve. Legislation on the federal level could help provide the funding solution needed, and I hope this committee will 

investigate all options for federal funding assistance. 

In closing, SOWELA and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System have a golden opportunity to shape the future 

of Louisiana and the nation as a whole by producing the workforce 

needed to ensure that America continues to produce the energy 

necessary to fuel an economy that will provide financial and economic stability, vitality, and prosperity for generations to come. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Aspinwall follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Doctor. 

And now, we welcome again Ms. Kateri Callahan. Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF KATERI CALLAHAN, PRESIDENT, ALLIANCE 

TO SAVE ENERGY 

Ms. CALLAHAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member 

and members of the committee. I truly appreciate the opportunity 

to testify to you today on the important role that energy efficiency 

can play in making small businesses more productive, more competitive, and greater jobs generators. 

My organization, the Alliance to Save Energy, is a nonprofit coalition of 140 different businesses across the entire economy and institutions that are dedicated to advancing energy efficiency. We 

were formed way back in 1997 by Senator Chuck Percy, a Republican from Illinois, and Hubert Humphrey, a Democrat from Minnesota, and we are honored to continue the Alliance’s history of bipartisan leadership. 

I am particularly proud that three members of this committee 

serve as honorary members of the Alliance. Jeanne Shaheen is our 

first ever elected female Honorary Chair of the Alliance. Senator 

Ed Markey is the longest-serving Congressional member on our 

Board of Directors. And Chris Coons is our newly elected First Vice 

Chair. But, I would also note that we are fortunate to have Energy 

Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski, Senator Portman, and Senator 

Collins providing leadership from the other side of the aisle. 

Energy efficiency is America’s greatest energy resource. Since the 

1970s and our founding, we have doubled energy productivity. That 

means we are getting twice as much GDP from each unit of energy 

that we consume, and this translates into real savings for America’s businesses, whether they are big or small. 

But, Americans can do better. We still waste over half of the energy that we consume. This means that the opportunity to double 

our energy productivity once again lies before us, and the rewards 

if we achieve that goal are enormous. We could reduce our national 

energy bill by a full $527 billion while creating 1.3 million jobs. 

And we could lower our energy imports to represent only seven percent of our total consumption. 

And, no sector of the economy has more to gain from energy efficiency than small business. As Senator Shaheen said, small businesses, and most especially small manufacturers, energy use is one 

of the top costs of doing business. Yet, small businesses remain a 

largely untapped market, as she mentioned, when it comes to energy efficiency, and there are two major reasons why. 

First is knowledge. Energy is not the core business of most small 

enterprises, notwithstanding those that Mr. Mack talked about, 

and laser-focused entrepreneurs often do not have the information 

about technologies, programs, and incentives that could help them 

to reduce their energy waste. 

The other big problem is capital. Small businesses rarely have 

investment dollars to spare, and the up-front costs for energy efficiency upgrades often inhibit investment. 

Fortunately, innovative companies, utilities, and government 

agencies are finding ways to tackle these barriers. The Small Business Direct Install programs are a great example of how governDeShaun on LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

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ment and businesses are cooperating to eliminate barriers and create real value. In New York, these SBDI programs have improved 

the facilities of over 100,000 small businesses, reducing their energy operating costs by more than a billion, and that is money that 

is getting poured back into the State of New York. 

The programs are themselves being carried out by innovative 

small businesses, like Lime Energy, EnerPath, SmartWatt, and 

welding companies you have probably not heard of, but these companies are job generators. Just in New York, these companies have 

hired nearly 200 new employees and also have helped to create 

thousands of indirect jobs. 

Across the nation, state energy offices, the industrial assessment 

centers, the Department of Energy, and small businesses are joining together to create these successes. One quick example is ECT 

Industries, which is a four-generation family-owned business that 

took advantage of Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy Program. ECT put 

in efficient lighting that reduced their energy intensity in lighting 

by 46 percent. The project paid for itself in only eight months and 

they are saving over $55,000 a year in avoided small business 

costs. 

There are lessons that come from these successful programs that 

can help in scaling up energy efficiency across the entire small 

business sector. First, we need greater outreach to small businesses 

to ensure that they know about the technology, resources, and most 

of all, about the bottom-line benefits to cutting energy waste. 

Second, building relationships with business owners and developing solutions that fit their specific needs is critical. 

And, finally, leveraging existing resources, from tax incentives to 

loan programs to technical assistance. The federal government, 

through the Small Business Administration, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and other agencies, has a significant role to play. For example, the Small Business Administration’s Section 504 program that Senator Shaheen mentioned can be 

used as a very effective tool for overcoming the first cost and financing issues surrounding efficiency upgrades, and we look forward to working with the Senator on that program. 

In addition, she has legislation pending, S. 1054, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Act, that would direct the Department of 

Energy to provide assistance to small and medium-sized manufacturers in implementing smart manufacturing programs that will 

make them more efficient, more energy productive. 

So, in closing, I want to thank the committee for allowing me 

this opportunity to discuss the important role of energy efficiency 

in increasing the competitiveness of our economy’s backbone, our 

small businesses and our entrepreneurs. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Callahan follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Ms. Callahan. 

And now, we will hear from Tyson Slocum. Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF TYSON SLOCUM, ENERGY PROGRAM 

DIRECTOR, PUBLIC CITIZEN 

Mr. SLOCUM. Thank you very much, Chairman Vitter, Ranking 

Member Shaheen, members of the committee. My name is Tyson 

Slocum. I direct the Energy Program at Public Citizen. We are one 

of America’s largest consumer advocacy groups and we receive most 

of our funding from individual contributions of over 400,000 members across the United States, many of whom either own their own 

small businesses or are employed at small businesses. 

So, we have been hearing a lot from certain representatives of 

the natural gas industry that they are in a type of crisis, that unless they are able to receive some form of legislative or regulatory 

relief, primarily in the form of being able to expedite natural gas 

exports, LNG exports, that unless they are able to get this relief, 

there are going to be problems ahead. 

But, when I look at the data, when I look at the numbers, the 

natural gas industry has never been doing better, right. This past 

winter, the natural gas industry broke all sorts of records in terms 

of production. We have never produced more natural gas every day 

than we did this winter, and kudos to the men and women of the 

natural gas industry and all the small businesses and large businesses associated. We are producing so much natural gas that we 

just passed last year Russia to become the largest natural gas producer on the planet. 

So, I can understand why the natural gas industry wants to be 

able to more easily sell natural gas abroad, because the last time 

I checked, natural gas sells for under $3 here in the United States, 

whereas it is double, triple, or even five times higher than that in 

parts of Europe and Asia and elsewhere. So, the natural gas industry and its associated small businesses that provide important 

services to them, I can understand why they would want to advocate for that. 

But, when I look at there are more small businesses out there 

that are very concerned about the prices they pay for natural gas, 

and there is no question that if we ramp up natural gas exports, 

we are going to see higher domestic prices for American consumers 

and American businesses, and that is not just Public Citizen saying 

that, that is the U.S. Energy Information Administration that has 

come to that very clear conclusion. 

So, rather than accelerate the ability of the industry to ramp up 

exports, I would like to see Congress and the executive branch 

work to prioritize the protection of consumers and small businesses 

that are sensitive to natural gas price increases, and there are several things that Congress and the executive branch can do in this 

regard. 

One is, in 1975, Congress passed a law called the Energy Policy 

and Conservation Act. That law did many things. One thing it did 

is that it directed the President to ban the export of crude oil and 

natural gas unless the President made a public interest determination that it was in the public interest to export that. We have got 

rules that the Department of Commerce put together in its short 

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supply regulations that significantly limit the ability of the United 

States to export domestically produced crude oil. The Department 

of Commerce never put together rules on natural gas, probably because in 1975, no one was talking about exporting natural gas. So, 

I think that is something that I think Congress ought to communicate, and I know that some members, like Senator Markey, have 

done just that. 

I think that Congress ought to ensure that the public interest determinations being made right now by the Department of Energy 

about whether or not to export gas are more concrete, meaning 

that we need to ensure that exports are not going to result in higher prices for consumers. Like I said, there is no question that allowing and expediting LNG exports is going to boost elements of 

the natural gas production industry and associated small businesses that assist them. But, there are a lot more small businesses 

out there that would be harmed by the increase in prices, and we 

need to make sure that a public interest definition clearly states 

that prices cannot go up on consumers as a result of exporting natural gas. 

A third thing that Congress can do is revisit efforts back in the 

2005 Energy Policy Act that I was working on, along with a bunch 

of others, where we called for governors of states where LNG facilities are located to be able to have equal say, along with FERC, 

about whether or not a permit for siting an LNG facility is granted. 

I believe that states have a great opportunity to hear from their 

constituents, just as FERC does, and they ought to have a prominent role. 

Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to any 

questions you may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Slocum follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Okay. Thank you very much. 

I am going to reserve my time for later and invite Senator Shaheen for questions. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

The U.S. industrial sector uses about 30 percent of all energy, 

and it is more energy than is used by any other sector of our economy. As we think about how do we address the costs of economy 

for small businesses, I wonder, Ms. Callahan, if you could talk 

about some of the market barriers that exist to deploying more energy efficiency in the manufacturing sector and why we should 

think about policies that can help fix these roadblocks. 

Ms. CALLAHAN. Thank you very much, Senator. One of the things 

that is interesting about small business and small manufacturing, 

the challenges are really twofold, and the first challenge is that 

while they are huge consumers—they use about 50 percent, the 

small businesses, of that energy that is consumed—but it is very 

diffuse and it is used in very, very different ways. So, it makes it 

kind of a tough market to tackle. So, that is a big challenge. 

And then the second that is correlated to that is that these businesses are focused largely on doing other things, and so if they 

have spare capital or they have access to capital, they are tempted 

to spend it in other ways, and so you need to talk to small businesses in terms of, well, if you can save $55,000 a year, how many 

cups of coffee would you have to manufacture, or how many dresses 

would you have to sew and sell in order to get that kind of bottom 

line profit. 

So, it means that you have to get really personal with the business owner, the man or the woman that is running the business, 

and understand. So, we are at a point in time where we are seeing 

that be able to happen through these programs like SBDI, because 

the data analytics are getting there. The people that are offering 

services are able to go in on an iPad and show folks what kind of 

savings are going to be realized. 

So, in order to get it more at scale, we have got to be able to take 

it out of the five or six states that are doing that kind of work and 

put it nationwide, and a key to it and the data analytics, also, is 

getting standard offerings for financial assistance. So, your program, the 504(b) program, the Department of Agriculture’s REAP 

loan program, those kind of things are going to be essential, because we have got—banks are lining up, but they are not willing 

to take the risk and they do not have the data necessary to do the 

deals and the deal flow. So, we have got to work on that. 

Senator SHAHEEN. So, you talked a little bit in your testimony 

about ways in which we can help small businesses get access to 

some of the efficiency programs. Do you have any—what has been 

the experience of the Alliance in what is the best way to get the 

attention of small businesses and provide that help? 

Ms. CALLAHAN. Again, I think that it is—unfortunately, it has to 

be done at the local level and through local partners and one-onone. But, the role that government can play can be in helping to 

make sure that information, tools, technical assistance is provided, 

and we can train the trainers, if you will. So, when you have the 

small business counselors in states, when you have these manufacturing extension partnerships, making sure that they understand 

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how to talk to folks about energy efficiency, what is available, what 

the resources are that are already there, whether there are state 

tax incentives or, hopefully again someday, federal tax incentives, 

that will allow people to get the job done. 

So, I do think there is a role for federal government, but you 

have got to meet these folks where they live. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you. 

Mr. Slocum, living in New England, we have some special challenges with respect to access to gas, natural gas in particular. 

Right now, we are experiencing real difficulties. We have gone from 

15 percent dependence on natural gas in New Hampshire to almost 

50 percent dependence, and getting the gas there is challenging. 

So, can you talk about what the projections are for the impact 

on us in New England if we start exporting LNG. Will that have 

an impact on the cost of gas, which is already very high? 

Mr. SLOCUM. Yes, absolutely. There are some exports to Canada. 

You know, we export about a trillion and a half cubic feet of gas, 

which is less than five percent of our total annual production, 

mainly to Canada and Mexico, and there is a significant amount 

of that coming out of the New England area as well as other areas. 

New England has a lot of special challenges. I do agree that 

there are some infrastructure constraints. But, there are also some 

power market regulatory problems in New England. For example, 

last year, I, along with the Connecticut Attorney General, helped 

to uncover a billion and a half dollar market manipulation by a 

Cayman Islands private equity firm called Energy Capital Partners 

that intentionally shut down a power plant in order to game the 

New England ISO’s capacity auction. 

So, that was a billion and a half dollars in increased cost, not because of problems of natural gas infrastructure constraints, but because of incredibly poorly written market rules. And, so, this is 

something we are currently involved in litigation with the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission to get them to actually do something about that issue. But, I think that some big challenges with 

New England in the power market lie with the ability to have a 

more transparent and accountable independent system operator 

there. 

Senator SHAHEEN. Well, I look forward to hearing some of your 

ideas about the regulatory challenges, because, certainly, I think 

we can benefit from that. 

And, Mr. Chairman, if you would give me just a few more seconds to point out that the SBA scorecard on how federal agencies 

are doing in reaching their small business contracting goals has 

just come out, and I note that one of the Departments that has 

been way below its contracting goals and actually received an F 

was the Department of Energy. And, so, I would hope that all of 

us can try and work on that as we think about how we encourage 

small businesses with their use of energy, because, certainly, making sure that they get access to those contracts is a very important 

piece of what we need to do. 

Thank you all very much. 

Chairman VITTER. Absolutely, and that will be made part of the 

record. 

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Chairman VITTER. Now, Senator Enzi. 

Senator ENZI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this timely hearing with a real discussion about how the nation’s small businesses are accomplishing things in the energy sector, how they are stymied by some of the regulations, and what can 

be done to make things more productive and more efficient in a 

timely way. 

I want to thank our distinguished panel, too, for taking the time 

to come and share your expertise. I hope that you will be open to 

written questions. I am the accountant on here and I try to reserve 

my number questions for written questions. That way, people do 

not go to sleep in the audience. 

[Laughter.] 

But, energy is one of the main drivers of our nation’s economy 

and it is a major driver of Wyoming’s economy. We produce 40 percent of the nation’s coal, and let me just take a moment to let that 

sink in. That is the sector that we are trying to discourage from 

producing any low-cost energy. 

In fact, in Colorado, there was just an attempt, and Senator 

Gardner was here earlier, a company that got permitted and has 

been producing coal successfully within their permit for eight years 

was just told that they have to redo their Environmental Impact 

Statement because they failed to take into consideration the impact 

where the coal is burned. At the time that you apply for a permit 

for a coal mine, you do not know where the coal is going to be 

burned. You are hoping for customers. You are planning on customers. You are counting on customers. But, you do not know 

where they are going to be. Now, the power plants themselves have 

to go through an Environmental Impact Statement, and that is 

where the local impacts of burning coal would be taken into consideration and have to be ameliorated. 

So, this looks like a major attempt to just shut down all energy, 

and they picked on a small business to begin with, which, of 

course, does not have the resources, probably, to fight it. I am hoping that some of the bigger companies will join into that. 

But, I am in favor of all of the energy and all of the energy efficiency and really believe that we are a country of innovators. We 

can do anything. We can do it better. We have to do it better. But, 

it cannot be better if it gets shut down. 

On the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, we 

had a problem with an underground, now two underground mines 

in West Virginia collapsing and taking some lives, and one of the 

things we had discovered during that was that for quite a while, 

the underground mining was going downhill, and when it went 

downhill, nobody invented anything for underground mining, let 

alone safety equipment. So, when the economy came back and that 

was necessary and they started producing it again, they did not 

have the latest equipment for being able to do it. 

In Wyoming, General Electric wanted to do a big project to have 

clean coal, and they postponed it because they said coal is going to 

be done in. There is not going to be any coal production. And, so, 

what use would it be if we found a better way to burn coal. Fortunately, the University of Wyoming did not buy into that. They have 

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a solar project that will separate hydrogen from water, burn it with 

coal, and make coal better. 

We believe in solar and wind. Denver is the Mile High City. You 

have got to go uphill to get to Wyoming. So, we are high plains and 

the wind really blows. In fact, the wind turbines there have to be 

designed so that when the winds get above 80 miles an hour, they 

turn into the wind and shut down. Otherwise, the whole tower 

blows apart. 

But, we are having trouble getting power lines to them. You 

know, the power has to get to a customer before it is of any use, 

and most of our state is federal land and they are not interested 

in getting right-of-ways for power lines or pipelines. Of course, that 

is probably part of the reason why there is a problem getting natural gas to New England, getting pipelines that would get it there. 

So, I am hoping that out of this we can come up with some solutions that will make all business improve and be better. 

I have a question on the export policy. If the price goes below the 

cost of producing natural gas, it will not be produced. In fact, we 

are kind of at that situation right now. There will not be more 

wells, and eventually, we will be back in a situation of needing 

more and we will not have the talent, so we will be relying on the 

community colleges to quickly train people to do that, but it is hard 

to get somebody to go into a sector where the jobs have decreased. 

And, I see that I am going to run out of time before I can ask 

the question, so I will submit the questions to you, and I have another one on workforce training, too. I watched the effect of OPEC, 

who can manipulate our prices without changing their production 

at all, just rumoring their production. And then after they have 

killed off all of the workers that have the technical capability to do 

what we need to do, they raise the price with the same rumors, no 

change in their production, and they make a lot of money off of us. 

I remember when we were saddled with the—we said some comments about Saudi Arabia and they cut us off for a while, and 

there are gas lines all over the United States and everybody said, 

we need to have energy independence. Well, we are on the verge 

of energy independence, but we are doing everything we can to stifle it. 

I yield. Thank you. 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Senator. 

Now, Senator Markey. 

Senator MARKEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. 

The Department of Energy has determined that if even less than 

half of all of the LNG that has been approved by the Department 

of Energy to be exported gets exported, it could lead to a 50 percent 

increase in the price of natural gas for people in America. It is just 

supply and demand 101. The less supply we have because we send 

it overseas, the higher the prices are going to go here. 

And, of course, if you are an oil company or a natural gas company, you want to sell it. Mr. Slocum mentioned this. In Europe, 

it is three or four times higher, the price you can get. In Asia, it 

might be five times higher, the price you can get. So, send it to 

China, they say. 

But, the truth is that the less there is here, is the higher the 

price is going to be for the utility industry, the higher the price is 

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going to be for consumers, the higher the price is going to be for 

manufacturers here in the United States. We have created 700,000 

new manufacturing jobs in the United States in the last four years, 

and there are more on the way, but not if you increase by 50 percent the price of natural gas. That is the feedstock. 

And, so, Mr. Slocum, can you talk about that and what the potential impact could be on the utility and manufacturing and consumer sector in America. 

Mr. SLOCUM. Absolutely, Senator Markey. There is no question 

that if you accelerate or ramp up the rate of exporting natural gas 

overseas, you are forcing U.S. consumers in the power sector and 

the industrial sector and in the household sector and in the commercial small business sector to compete with foreign markets 

where the price of natural gas is significantly higher than it is in 

the United States. And, so, if you are in the oil and gas industry, 

you are going to, understandably so, prioritize infrastructure investment to move your fracked natural gas to LNG terminals for 

export rather than, say, investing in additional pipeline capacity to 

serve power plants in New England or elsewhere. 

And, so, that is why the Energy Information Administration concludes that if you significantly increase the rate of natural gas exports, it is absolutely going to raise domestic prices for American 

consumers. 

Senator MARKEY. Now, the more that we use the natural gas 

here in our manufacturing sector, the more likely that the products 

that are created with it will be made here and will be exported 

rather than letting the natural gas get into the hands of the Europeans and the Chinese. Then they will sell the finished product 

back to the United States. So, what is that relationship, between 

low-priced natural gas as a feedstock into the manufacturing sector 

of America and the wealth, the jobs that are created here? 

Mr. SLOCUM. Yes. I am a big believer that the dynamic features 

of the U.S. economy are the value added and the role of technology 

in adding to that value. And, simply exporting raw materials—I 

understand that fracking has been an unbelievable revolution of 

technology and industriousness by American ingenuity, but at the 

end of the day, you are simply exporting a raw material that there 

is robust demand for domestically to use as a feedstock or to use 

as a more environmentally and climate-friendly fuel in the power 

sector—— 

Senator MARKEY. So, Mr. Slocum, so a lot of the advocates for exporting natural gas or exporting oil—even though we are not energy independent, we are talking about exporting oil and we are 

not energy independent. We are still importing five million barrels 

of oil a day. How crazy is that, to export the oil we have when we 

are still importing five million barrels a day. 

But, they keep saying, well, it is like any other product. It would 

be like exporting a widget or a computer chip, that oil and natural 

gas should be the same. But, we do not send young men and 

women over to the Middle East to protect the widget market or to 

protect the silicon chip market. We do it because we want oil to 

come in from the Middle East. 

Now, Mr. Slocum, if we just converted seven million big trucks 

and buses over to natural gas vehicles, it would be the equivalent 

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of all of the oil which we still import on a daily basis from the Persian Gulf. But, if we increase the price by 50 percent, you know for 

sure that is not going to happen. So, would that not be a high objective that we should have, given the headlines above the fold on 

Iran and Iraq and all the other Middle Eastern countries on a daily 

basis? 

Mr. SLOCUM. Absolutely. There is no question, even with the 

record amounts of domestic production that the United States has 

had in crude oil, we are still vulnerable to international factors, because oil, unlike natural gas, is priced due to global benchmarks 

and what is going on in the Middle East or China. And, so, as a 

result, it would be beneficial, I believe, for the U.S. economy, particularly in the transportation sector, to see an increased use of 

natural gas. It has got certain environmental benefits relative to 

petroleum products as a transportation fuel. And the bottom line 

is making sure that the transportation sector has access to affordable prices. 

Senator MARKEY. Massachusetts consumers right now are paying 

$2.76 a gallon for gasoline at the height of the summer driving, 

which is down 95 percent from last summer, 95 percent down. 

Now, what if we start exporting oil out of our country? What would 

that mean for consumers in Massachusetts in terms of an increase 

in the price of gasoline? 

Mr. SLOCUM. Well, I actually testified before the House Small 

Business Committee last month specifically around oil exports, and 

again, there, the data is very clear that undoing this 1975 virtual 

ban on exporting crude oil will result in higher prices for American 

consumers. 

Senator MARKEY. So, we finally get a surplus. We finally have oil 

and gas here domestically, and the first thought of the oil and gas 

industry is export it out of the country before our consumers, our 

manufacturers, our utilities get the benefit from it. It is just wrong. 

It is bad policy. It will help our economy dramatically if we keep 

it here at a low price. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman VITTER. To balance the record, let me just hit a few 

things. First of all, the Obama Administration’s Department of Energy has conducted two studies over the last few years looking at 

potential price impacts of exporting LNG and those studies have 

very different conclusions than what Senator Markey was describing. So, we will make those part of the record. 

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[The second study, titled ‘‘Updated Macroeconomic Impacts of 

LNG Exports from the United States’’ can be found at http:// 

www.nera.com/publications/archive/2014/updated-macroeconomicimpacts-of-lng-exports-from-the-united-sta.html.] 

And, also, I would just note and make part of the record significant bipartisan support for LNG exports. That includes an Obama 

Administration review and its conclusions regarding its benefits. 

That includes political support from Democrats like House Minority 

Whip Steny Hoyer. And that certainly includes labor union support 

from Laborers International Union, AFL–CIO, United Association 

of Plumbers, Fitters, and HVAC Techs, the Building Trades Council, and Insulators and Allied Workers Local Union 24. We will submit that for the record. 

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Okay. Senator Fischer. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I would like to thank all the panel members for being here today. 

I appreciate your input on this. 

Mr. Mack, as you probably know, Nebraska is very unique. We 

are a 100 percent public power state, and as we look at the clean 

power plan that is out there, we will be hit especially hard. Nebraska utilities are going to face reliability issues and small businesses are going to see price increases in their electricity bill. Can 

you explain what impact the increases in electricity rates would 

have on energy intensive small business operations like manufacturing and agriculture, which are both very, very important to my 

home state of Nebraska. 

Mr. MACK. Thank you, Senator. The increase in the cost of electricity that may be experienced because of a number of different 

factors, I think, have to be put in context with the dramatic decreases we have seen in electric power generation costs over the 

last several years because of the remarkable abundance of natural 

gas, particularly. If we look back five or six years, natural gas was 

about, I think, $8 or $9 per million BTU. Today, it is about $2.75. 

And, so, to the extent that power generation is converted to natural gas-fired appliance you are going to see a significant benefit 

to the ratepayers, not just in Nebraska, but to everywhere. So, I 

think the shale revolution and the abundance that it has created 

has had a tremendously beneficial impact to companies that depend, companies and people who depend on cheap electricity. 

Senator FISCHER. As you look at the clean power plan, however— 

are you familiar with that? 

Mr. MACK. Somewhat. Not in great detail, but—— 

Senator FISCHER. And as we look at those proposed regulations, 

the impact they have, and as I said, especially on a state like Nebraska, where we have 100 percent public power, we have twothirds of our electricity supplied by coal-fired electric plants, coal 

from our neighbors in Wyoming, and to retrofit those plants, it is 

going to be a cost, and it will be a cost to the owners of those 

plants who are the citizens of Nebraska. We are a public power 

state. We are going to see costs to businesses in the products that 

they produce and the services that they provide. That is going to 

be passed along to consumers, as well. And then when you go home 

and you turn on your light switch and you pay your electric bill in 

Nebraska, you are going to be hit again. 

What is the impact of that on families, when we have regulations 

like that? What is the impact, and what kind of decisions do you 

think we ought to be looking at when we make—when we consider 

changes in policy? 

Mr. MACK. Well, clearly, anything that raises costs of electricity 

to the consumer are not a good thing for either the consumer or 

business or the economy. So, I fully agree that if you are in the 

mode that you are dependent on coal, and we certainly think coal 

is an excellent and plentiful and affordable fuel, that that is going 

to—that is certainly going to have an impact on your state and 

your citizens. So, I certainly sympathize with that and I—you 

know, it is outside of our scope to advocate for some of those policies or against some of those policies, but we certainly think that 

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any policies that increase the availability of all forms of energy are 

going to ultimately have a favorable impact on all citizens, all 

countries—all states, rather, and all companies. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you, Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you. 

I have been reserving my time. I am going to go ahead and use 

it now, if that is okay with members, in part because Dr. Aspinwall 

is going to have to leave for the airport before too long and I wanted to get a chance to ask him a couple things. 

Doctor, you see this booming part of our economy back home and 

you see the enormous need it has created for skills training in certain areas. You highlighted in your testimony the fact that present 

federal law and federal policy, for instance, regarding Pell Grants 

actually cuts off access to tuition support to a lot of the most efficient and most productive training programs on the ground now because the programs are too short. I mean, essentially, they are too 

efficient. They give people really good skills that lead directly to a 

great job. They just do not take long enough for federal bureaucrats’ liking. 

Can you expand on that? And, I assume that means you would 

encourage us to re-look at those Pell Grant and other related requirements. 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Yes. Thank you, Senator. I go back to some of 

my written testimony. Many of the programs that we develop, industry have, I would say, requested, that they have demanded 

these. We are having such a strong expansion in such a short period of time that we are having trouble supplying the workforce, 

and the reason we are having trouble supplying the workforce is 

we are trying to put them through our standard diploma or degree 

programs that are set up for at least one year to two years. 

So, what they have requested us to do is condense those programs and only use the competencies that they know they need 

when they get on the job. But, when we do this, by being so efficient and effective, then the federal guidelines from the Department of Education do not allow for the use of federal aid because 

they are not the correct number of seat hours or contact hours and 

they do not meet a certain length as far as weeks and guidelines. 

So that—many of our students, as I said before, they work, so if 

they are working—and 84 percent of community college students 

work—they cannot quit their jobs and come out and take advantage of those. So, we still rely on private businesses and private industries to provide scholarships, but that is not the long-term solution, because after a while, the private industries and private business, we are all going to them asking for money and those scholarships run out. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. 

Dr. ASPINWALL. So—and again, as I said, some of these programs, for instance, the welders, they can go through a 450-hour 

program and start out at basically the lowest $26 per hour. And 

before this energy expansion, our welders were making $10, $11, 

$12 an hour. So, the more the need, the acute the need gets, the 

higher the workforce rate gets and the higher wages that these 

companies pay. 

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Chairman VITTER. Right. And, just to be clear, the jobs that are 

associated with these accelerated focus programs, they are not at 

the lower end of the spectrum. I mean, they are very good paying 

and good benefit jobs, correct? 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Absolutely. 

Chairman VITTER. Can you give us some flavor for what we are 

talking about? 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Absolutely. Two of the highest demand jobs are 

process technology and industrial instrumentation, and as I said 

briefly in my written statements, we had to create a program that 

puts students through an Associate of Applied Science in just 16 

weeks. That is how much we condensed that, a two-year program 

down to 16 weeks. That is an eight-hour-a-day program, but those 

individuals who go through that, they leave that program at a minimum salary of around $85,000 a year. That is a pretty good return 

on your investment for around $6,000 for training. 

Chairman VITTER. Sure. Absolutely. Okay. 

Mr. Slocum, a lot of your testimony is about the price of energy 

related to, say, LNG exports and other export opportunities. As I 

said a minute ago, I disagree with claims that we are talking about 

huge, 50 percent, etc., or even double-digit increases, and there are 

a lot of studies that go to that point. But more broadly, would Public Citizen support the same sort of rule you enunciated for other 

American produced goods or stock? In other words, if banning exports decreases the price to the American consumer, should we ban 

those exports, because surely you can make an argument that that 

would be the case in a wide variety of things, starting with, say, 

food. 

Mr. SLOCUM. Right. Very good question, Mr. Chairman. I think 

that the unique history and role of energy commodities—the 1975 

Energy Policy and Conservation Act was passed in direct response 

to acute physical shortages of energy commodities, particularly petroleum products, that resulted in punishing price increases that 

threw this country into very bad economic times. And, so, I think 

that there is merit for the unique nature of certain energy commodities. The inherent volatility of—— 

Chairman VITTER. Can I ask you—I do not want to cut you 

off—— 

Mr. SLOCUM. Yes, sir. 

Chairman VITTER [continuing]. But my time is running out. 

Surely, you would agree that our understanding of American energy resources has been turned upside down since 1975. 

Mr. SLOCUM. It has been, and it has been turned upside down 

from just a few years ago. 

Chairman VITTER. Right. 

Mr. SLOCUM. I mentioned in my written testimony—— 

Chairman VITTER. So—— 

Mr. SLOCUM. Yes, sir. 

Chairman VITTER [continuing]. What I am suggesting is, surely, 

the premise that Congress used in 1975, I mean, that has completely changed, right? That is out the window. 

Mr. SLOCUM. For now, but there are a number of variables that 

could happen that we cannot predict, disruptions in supply and demand across the globe, disruptions here in the United States. That 

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is the thing about commodities, and particularly with energy commodities. There is no economist that will be able to credibly safely 

predict what the price of a given commodity is going to be in the 

future because of all of these unknown variables that go into affecting the price. 

Chairman VITTER. Sort of like corn, maybe? 

Mr. SLOCUM. I am an energy policy guy. I do not know as much 

about agricultural markets—— 

Chairman VITTER. Should we ban those exports? 

Mr. SLOCUM. If there is a Congressional or data-driven determination that there are acute agricultural shortages that threaten 

the American consumer and the American farmer, then I do think 

we should contemplate that, but it is not my understanding that 

that is the scenario today. 

Chairman VITTER. Okay, well, it is not my understanding that is 

the scenario with energy, thanks to abundant American energy, either, but I understand. 

Senator Coons. 

Senator COONS. Thank you, Chairman Vitter. Thank you for convening this hearing. 

And thank you to the witnesses for your testimony today. It is 

great to see you, and I appreciate your highlighting the important 

role that energy costs, and in particular energy efficiency, play in 

reducing the bottom line cost that small businesses face. 

In your testimony, several of you said that for most small businesses, energy usage is their single largest business expense. The 

problem is that many small businesses do not have the expertise 

in-house to really analyze, understand, and reduce their energy 

usage, nor do they have the resources or capability to hire an outside energy resource expert. And, these would be the types of challenges I think we could address through the passage of the bipartisan Shaheen-Portman bill and through other legislative means. 

As some of you may know, in Delaware, we have a terrific resource that helps small- and medium-sized manufacturers reduce 

their energy costs. It is one of the sites of the DOE-sponsored Industrial Assessment Centers. It is run by the University of Delaware and is a terrific resource. I have had the pleasure of touring 

some of the Delaware-based manufacturers that they have helped 

and that have received one of the more than 100 energy efficiency 

assessments that the IAC has conducted since 2006. These make 

a big difference in a manufacturing company’s bottom line, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well, and helping to train the 

next generation of engineers and scientists in the field. 

Just one quick example. Hirsh Industries, which manufactures 

storage products—I think that is also called filing cabinets—for the 

office and home, they do a great job at it, but they saved $217,000 

a year in energy costs through the IAC review. 

I would also just like to briefly mention, as Co-Chair of the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative, I am pleased to see support 

among a number of Senators who have introduced bills related to 

energy efficiency and green tech and the future of our manufacturing sector. I, in particular, would like to call out Senator 

Shaheen’s leadership on the bipartisan Smart Manufacturing Leadership Act, and to highlight Senator Hirono’s Clean Technology 

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Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act, and Senator Merkley’s 

Job Creation Through Energy Efficient Manufacturing Act. I think 

it is great a number of Senators have recognized the value of being 

proactive in energy efficiency. 

To Kateri Callahan, if I might, great to see you again. Just tell 

me for a minute, if you would, about energy efficiency programs at 

the federal level that also connect with state and local resources 

like the Industrial Assessment Centers or the Weatherization Assistance Program. How can we make sure that more small and medium businesses are aware of these resources, and what sort of 

long-term and compounding benefit do you see them get from an 

investment in energy efficiency of this type. 

Ms. CALLAHAN. Great. Thank you very much for the question. I 

want to back up a little bit to the talk that so many have engaged 

in on the volatility—potential volatility of price of natural gas. One 

thing that has not been mentioned, and you can take out the Alliance to Save Energy, maybe I should note, is fuel neutral. We do 

not talk about it. We just want whatever you use, to use it smarter. 

One of the ways that small businesses, in particular, I think, can 

insulate themselves from the volatility in the marketplace is to become as efficient as possible. Consumers and businesses do not care 

about the per kilowatt hour cost of electricity. They care about 

what their bill is every month. So, if they can make investments, 

lower those bills, become more productive and more competitive, 

that is what is important. 

And, I think that the federal programs are connecting in a lot of 

ways. The Department of Energy funds the State Energy Offices, 

which do a lot of this work through either the Energy or the Economic Development Offices. As I said earlier, Senator, when you 

were not in the room, we really need the federal government to 

work at the state and local level and with partners and trade allies 

and organizations that are working on the ground, because that is 

the best way to connect with the small businesses, to meet them 

where they live, to talk in the terms that they understand about 

building and growing their businesses and generating jobs and adding to the bottom line. 

So, the Industrial Assessment Centers are great. You mentioned 

Pennsylvania. My written example has an example in Tennessee, 

working through the University of Tennessee in Murfreesboro and 

a company that was able to compete better than all of its competitors during the downturn in the recession because of the energy audits that were done there and the improvements made. Those are 

all across the landscape. 

The Department of Agriculture, through its Renewable Energy 

Assistance—or its Rural Energy Assistance Program and loan, they 

are helping out, too. 

I think one thing that really needs to happen at the federal level 

is a convergence and a one-stop shop, if you will, of all the different 

resources that are available. Folks try to do that. The SBA has 

some of that, but more needs to be done and we need a central location for small businesses to come and get the help that they 

need. 

Senator COONS. Well, thank you, Kateri, and I will just mention, 

Senator Shaheen has just introduced a bill, the Small Business EnDeShaun on LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

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ergy Efficiency Act, that would expand the eligible functions for the 

SBA 504 loans to include energy efficiency work studies, retrofits. 

I have joined as a cosponsor. I think it is a great way to expand 

some of the reach of the SBA into this field. 

I have a bipartisan bill with Senator Moran, the Master Limited 

Partnerships Parity Act, that would make accessible an existing financing vehicle that is mostly used for pipelines in oil and gas, but 

it would make it accessible for energy efficiency investments, as 

well. I think we have got a lot of work to do together to make sure 

that energy efficiency is part of the menu of trying to reduce the 

total energy costs of American manufacturing. 

Thank you all for your appearance today and for your testimony. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much. 

Thank you all very much, and certainly this discussion will inform in a very important way my work and others’ work regarding 

energy legislation affecting small businesses. 

I know Senator Markey has additional questions. I am going to 

invite everybody to submit those for the record, because, unfortunately, I cannot stay, and at least one of our witnesses cannot stay. 

But, certainly, everyone is invited to expand on questions, and, of 

course, we will get appropriate answers for the record. 

Senator MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, could I just be recognized for 30 

seconds? 

Chairman VITTER. Sure, 30 seconds. 

Senator MARKEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I could envision a situation where the negotiation between Iran 

and the United States and the other countries in the world go sour, 

it is rejected in Congress, and one of the options is to bomb Iran 

and its nuclear programs, and I could then envision the price of oil 

going to $5 a gallon, $6 a gallon, and I could see American oil here 

and natural gas here protecting us against that, that we were not 

exporting. 

And, as well, in terms of the economic studies, yes, there are 

some studies that say that there are winners and losers, but the 

winners are the oil and gas companies and the losers are the manufacturers, the utilities and consumers and the natural gas vehicle 

industry. So, maybe you can say that, whoa, well, look at the tremendous job creation over here for oil and gas, but look at all the 

losers that are left in their wake because the price of natural gas 

has gone up so much. 

So, I just wanted to kind of throw that in, and I will submit my 

questions, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity. 

Chairman VITTER. Okay. Well, I am sure this debate will continue, I have no doubt, so I will look forward to it. 

Thank you all very, very much, and the hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:48 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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