Energy and Aluminum

A funny thing happened in last month's Kentucky Association of Manufacturers energy conference. In the opening session, the first four speakers mentioned "aluminum" in their remarks. That's a reasonable assumption to those of us long involved in the industry. With 400 MW smelters and mega-mcf' users of natural gas, energy is the 400 pound gorilla in the aluminum manufacturing arena.

The take-away here is that Governor Steve Beshear, Secretary Len Peters, Energy and Environmental Cabinet, House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, and Paul Cicio, President of Industrial Energy Consumers of America ALL mentioned aluminum as a critical stakeholder in Kentucky's current and future energy policies, practices, and resources. This fact was not lost on a couple of seasoned lobbyist who were in attendance. As they pointed out to me, probably wouldn't have happened in a forum like this a year earlier.

In the first meetings of KAN, Kentucky Aluminum Network, there was interesting debate over the mission and objective of the newly formed industry association. Awareness and advocacy emerged as the top goal. While the work is never done and the network continues to evolve, I felt a strong sense of satisfaction upon hearing these key speakers include aluminum in making their case for sensible, cost effective, and sustainable energy policy for manufacturers in Kentucky.

With our continued presence in Frankfort at the committee witness table, in the offices of legislators, or at the podium in key news conferences, more and more of the state's policy makers and elected officials know who we are!

Be it energy consumption, employees, tax contributions and economic impact, aluminum is the 400 pound gorilla in the room, and yes, people are listening and yes, they know who we are!