The need for increased energy production and what Alabama leaders can do to facilitate it was a topic across multiple panel discussions at the Business Council of Alabama’s annual Government Affairs Conference Saturday.
Gray Swoope, an economic development consultant and former Florida secretary of commerce, praised the state’s recent investments in roads and high-speed internet, but said the biggest issue in infrastructure is the expanding need for electricity.
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Data centers are “knocking on doors” in many states looking for places that can power them.
“There’s a lot of innovation going on in how it is generated, how power is used in that world,” Swoope said. “And states that are figuring out how to do that are going to be energy rich.”
Projections show energy demand in 10 years will be 33% more than what’s produced today, he said.
“You don’t get there overnight … start doing the supply chain to get it built,” he said.
Swoope gave the state kudos for this year’s Senate Bill 304 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, authorizing the State Industrial Development Authority to issue up to $1 billion in bonds to provide loans and other financial assistance for eligible energy infrastructure projects through an “energy infrastructure bank.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Mary Sell and Alex Angle and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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