The Reality of Powering our Supply Chain

By Catherine Reheis-Boyd, WSPA President and CEO

With cargo ships stuck at the Port of Long Beach, a lack of truckers, pandemic-induced labor shortages and increased demand for consumer goods across the world, Californians today are feeling the impacts of a global supply chain crisis. Policymakers, labor groups, and politicians are working to alleviate impacts on ports by increasing trucking weight limits and moving shipping containers through ports more quickly. This is essential to keeping food on the shelves and gifts under the tree this holiday season. But here’s the reality: none of this is possible without safe, reliable energy produced by the women and men of the Western states.

More than 40 percent of the total containerized cargo entering the U.S. comes in through California, the nation’s largest market for delivery of goods. The supply chain that moves containers from ships to their end destinations relies on our ability to produce energy in California – an effort that is currently being jeopardized by policies to limit in-state oil production.

By now, we’ve all likely heard to some degree about pandemic-related issues with transporting and delivering goods. But with billions of transactions for holiday gifting coming to fruition between Thanksgiving and the New Year, and shipping, travel, and delivery at an all-time high, supply chain issues are now front and center in all of our lives.

It’s important to think about the realities of powering that supply chain. How do goods get from A to B? We’re excited about the continued advancement of renewable energy sources and the possibilities within the technologies our members are working to develop every day. We support an “all of the above” energy policy as we work towards a sustainable energy future together. We need energy from all sources to keep our world and economy moving. So as policymakers work to optimize our supply chain this year, we ask that they remember that the energy that fuels the supply chain is just as important as the movement of containers or trucking limits.

President Biden has recently acknowledged the critical role oil and gas plays in our supply chains and day-to-day lives. Policymakers need to keep this reality in mind when it comes to developing our energy future. We can’t scale renewables fast enough to meet the demands of today.

Our global supply chain needs a consistent source of reliable energy to be able to function. And that valuable supply needs to be supported for years to come to maintain our global supply chains, from transporting critical medical supplies to delivering our holiday cheer.

###

Related News & Resources