Reliable, affordable and clean energy is vital to growing Alabama’s economy and creating high-paying jobs.

That’s what Energy Institute of Alabama Chairman Seth Hammett told members of the Andalusia Lions Club Wednesday.

Hammett said the mission of the Energy Institute is to build public support for Alabama’s energy industry.

He said the nonprofit is made up of representatives from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Alabama Municipal Electric Authority, Alabama Rural Electric Association, Electric Cities of Alabama, Alabama Power Co. and PowerSouth Energy Cooperative.

“The goal is for us to speak as one voice,” he said. “Energy is essential to our way of life. We know that energy must be reliable, affordable and clean.”

Hammett said those things are vital to expanding the economy.

Alabama’s economy is still anchored by agricultural and forestry, he said, but acknowledged that Boeing, Airbus, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Remington, Honda and Hyundai also have an important place in the economy.

Hammett, who has recruited industry since the 1970s, said energy isn’t the first thing business candidates want to know about, but it’s in the first five.

“They want to know what kind of energy is available,” he said.

Hammett said energy — more specifically the cost of energy – is what gave Alabama the upper hand when recruiting and securing ThyssenKrupp to build a steel mill in Calvert.

Hammett said had it not been for Alabama Power’s good rates, the German conglomerate would have located in Louisiana. The plant has since been purchased by ArcelorMittal and operates as AM/NS Calvert.

Seth Hammett, left, was the guest speaker at the Andalusia Lions Club on Wednesday. He is shown with Lion Bill Patton, who invited him. (Kendra Majors / Andalusia Star-News)

Hammett said after being in public office for more than 30 years, he knows the importance of influencing public policy. He said the Energy Institute was created to give the utilities one louder voice.

Hammett’s team has been traveling the state talking energy fact and fiction, he said. They have held meetings with legislators in Tuscaloosa and Spanish Fort, and plan meetings in Birmingham, where they will tour Miller Steam Plant, a coal mine and coal barges.

Congressional staffers from Washington, D.C., as well as state legislators, are taking part in these meetings.

Hammett said they plan a session in Opelika, Montgomery, another in Birmingham and one in Hartford.

He said the talks are important because the energy business is changing.

“Economics. Now there is as much electricity – actually slightly more – coming from natural gas than coal,” he said. “It’s more because of the price.”

Hammett said at one time natural gas was $13 per British thermal unit, and now it’s around $3 per BTU.

“Fracking changed everything,” he said. “It has revolutionized.”

Another way the industry is changing is through public policy, he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has imposed the Clean Power Plan, but the U.S. Supreme Court in February granted a stay halting its implementation.

Hammett said the plan calls for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emitted from plants. If the EPA’s plan is upheld, he saidit will cost industry billions of dollars to implement.

He said the Energy Institute isn’t taking sides on the Clean Power issue, but rather attempting to explain the facts.

Hammett also talked about wind and solar energy, but said while those power sources are important, they aren’t the only answer.

Hammett said that as a young boy, he and his grandfather would drive from Rose Hill to Dozier to get haircuts. On the way, they would pass a home where a widow lived.

In the winter, they would see her in the car trying to stay warm. In the warmer months, she would be under a tree or on the porch.

“My granddaddy said she was just getting by,” he said.

Hammett said when a 100-watt light bulb would blow, the widow would replace it with a 40-watt bulb.

She would listen to the news on her radio and then unplug it and put it away until the next time she listened.

When she purchased an electric stove, she asked the installers not to put it against the wall, so she could unplug it when she wasn’t using it.

“So people are just getting by,” he said.

Hammett said that’s what he tells policymakers: that the industry can handle the costs of the changes associated with policy, but is it something that a widow can handle?

This story originally appeared in The Andalusia Star-News.