(Midway, KY) - On Saturday, November 8, 2014, The Women's Network introduced the latest study by Commonwealth Policy Institute (CPI), the study group created by the Network to address issues of state concern. CPI, chaired by Col Owens, is a group of volunteers and experts that research and produce reports and recommendations. It is then up to the members of The Women's Network to advocate for the recommendations made by CPI. In the past two years, CPI has produced reports and recommendations on tax policy and education.

"Kentucky's Energy Future...at the Crossroads" begins with the current condition of Kentucky energy policy. It takes a little over a page to come to the point that present policy boils down to one four letter word - "COAL."

Coal has been for over one hundred years THE source of energy and wealth for the Commonwealth. The CPI report urges policy makers to recognize that those days are coming to an end.

Quoting from the introduction:

"...Coal produces the bulk of Kentucky's electricity, although the quickly expanding natural gas industry is making inroads. Coal, while losing market share, and despite air and water concerns, will be important in Kentucky for decades...

...Kentucky's electricity generation is unbalanced: 93 percent is from coal whereas the national average is 40 percent.3 Kentucky is vulnerable to coal shortages and market pressure and needs to diversify energy sources.

...Natural gas emits half the greenhouse gases of coal and in the near-term can be a "bridge fuel" from old fossil fuels (i.e., coal and oil) to renewable energy sources.

...Nuclear-generated electricity is relevant nationally but not in Kentucky where nuclear plants are barred by Kentucky statute. Furthermore, costs are prohibitive, and there is nowhere to dispose of radioactive waste.

...Kentucky is vulnerable to coal shortages and market pressure and needs to diversify energy sources."

The CPI report makes clear there is no one solution. As one speaker put it, "We don't have a silver bullet for energy issues. We have silver buckshot."

Solving Kentucky's energy conundrum will mean addressing issues as diverse as energy efficiencies, as in wrapping water heaters and winterizing homes and businesses, to reworking state law to allow renewable energy to be sold back into the grid.

In companion articles, WKJ examines some of the issues raised by CPI's report - energy efficiency, renewable energy, least cost and economic development in rural Kentucky, including remarks by coal country legislators about the future of their signature industry.

Nothing worth doing is easy and revamping Kentucky's outdated dependence on one source of energy will take individual, corporate and governmental effort.

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1 The US has 13.6 years supply of natural gas according to this new British Petroleum report. http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/Energy-economics/statistical-review-2014/BP-statistical- review-of-world-energy-2014-full-report.pdf , p. 20 accessed July, 2014
2 The US has 12.4 years of natural gas reserves using 2012 EIA statistics in the BP calculation. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_enr_sum_dcu_NUS_a.htm, accessed July, 2014
3 http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=KY

For a copy of energy plan, click on "More"