Jim Rogers provides The Daily Energy Report his thoughts on attending the American Power Act proposal announcement by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman.

Full Transcript:

Ben Lack: We’re here with Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy. Thanks so much for giving us some of your time.

Jim Rogers: I’m delighted to be here. Thank you.

Ben Lack: Well, today is a pretty historic day. You were able to witness something pretty cool. Can you give us a little information about what happened earlier today?

Jim Rogers: I was honored to be invited by Senator Kerry to the unveiling of the American Power Act. He and Senator Lieberman were there, and there were representatives from corporate America, from the religious communities, from the environmental communities around our country in support of this bill which would put a price on carbon and, most importantly at the end of the day, a cap on emissions and will lead to a stronger economy in the future.

Ben Lack: Talk to us about what the cap would look like for the government and how we could implement that.

Jim Rogers: I think what’s significant about this bill it is structured in a way that minimize the cost impact on consumers, particularly electric consumers of companies that supply electricity from coal. And it helps them make the transition to a low-carbon world in a way where they don’t see their electric prices fly up but kind of smoothes out the cost impact over time.

Ben Lack: As a delegate of the utility or the energy industry, what do you have to do as a company in order to communicate this new legislation with your customers?

Jim Rogers: We need to make it clear that by 2050 we have to retire or replace every plant that we operate today except our hydro facilities. So with or without this legislation, we’ve got to start down the road. What this legislation does give us a roadmap, we’ll make more informed decisions and translate into lower prices over time.  So, to me, this is a key roadmap for us going forward.

Ben Lack: There’s obviously the benefit of carbon, but this is also a jobs bill as well.  Can you shed some light on that?

Jim Rogers: Sure. I mean, today we’re building two coal plants, two gas plants, and we going to have 5,000 people employed. And as a consequence of that, we’re going shut down fifty- to seventy-year-old plants that are high-emitting plants. That’s an example of how we’re creating jobs, shutting down old plants but building more modernized, more efficient, lower-emitting facilities for the future.

Ben Lack: Do you see a lot of these jobs coming from energy efficiency solutions or other areas, other sectors?

Jim Rogers: I think it’s across the board. It’s from not just from new coal plants or gas plants or nuclear plants or wind or solar. But the emphasis on the energy efficiency has got to be paramount. It’s a low cost investment. It means people changing values. But it also means companies like ours stepping up and taking as our mission to help our consumers use energy even more wisely than they do today.

Ben Lack: So what are some of the road blocks that this announcement has in order to fully get passed?

Jim Rogers: Well, it’s like all legislation. We have forty legislative days, plus or minus, before the election. They haven’t finished the financial bill. They have other legislation they have to finish. They have a very crowded agenda, and the conventional wisdom is it won’t get done this year. But I’m hoping that lightning strikes so we can make this happen. And I came from the press conference today with a good feeling that we can get it going. Because if we can pass this legislation, it’s one step in the direction of helping us get our mojo back into our economy, and that is important for the future.

Ben Lack: Final question. This is more of a personal question. I’m curious to know why you do the things that you do.

Jim Rogers: Well, I’ve been a CEO for twenty-one years, started my career as a consumer advocate. I believe I have a mission. I mean, I wake up every morning knowing that I transform the lives of eleven million people who are using electricity that we produce. I also wake up every morning with the notion that I’m in the position to shape energy and environmental legislation that will not only affect today, people today, but future generations, and that really motivates me and gives me the passion that I have to get out and get going and make something happen.

Ben Lack: Well, Jim, thanks so much for your time. We’re glad that you were able to take part in EEGlobal today and the conference with Senator Kerry and Senator Lieberman and we wish you continued success.

Jim Rogers: Thank you very much.

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