Whether you are an employee or a business owner understanding your company’s combined energy profile is key to understanding the true extent to which your employment relies upon energy issues.  In turn we better understand the need for insuring that access to renewable and alternative energy issues do not turn into a detriment to prosperity.

An easy way to calculate your energy profile is to add your company’s monthly electrical bill plus the monthly natural gas bill, monthly fuel oil, propane, gasoline and diesel bill along with an energy portion of your average monthly bill for energy dependent products in addition to the energy portion of transportation cost to receive materials and customers to and from your business. 

So what does this tell you?  The first three are obvious direct expenses.  The energy portion of energy dependent products you use and consume means the energy component of plastics, metals, wood, paper, etc.  All these things take energy to produce.  For example, if your company extrudes plastic, a large portion of raw material cost is energy.  The same is true for steel and most metals.  Similarly, a large part of the cost of paper, cardboard and wood products is energy cost. 

Look at the cost of your company’s freight in and out, or the travel cost of your customers.  If freight and travel cost change your customers’ buying habits then ultimately, it impacts your business. 

By combining these elements of cost you will have a real idea of how energy directly and intimately impacts your company.  The U.S. economy is very energy dependent, so every action to change that cost impacts your business.  Nevada is more energy dependent than most states because we don’t produce much energy compared to our usage, and this influences every aspect of our businesses.  Renewable energy can be beneficial as long as the cost is not so high that most businesses lose the ability to compete on a global scale.  It is when these business prohibitive costs occur that business moves and take jobs along with them. 

As a Nevadan you need to understand where your representatives stand on energy independence and how to achieve this goal without hurting the business community and limiting jobs.  You need to know whether representatives understand that one cannot and should not exist without the other.  Contact your representatives today to let them know that you value energy independence and your job.  With thoughtful research and planning we can achieve both.