The radical shifts in energy costs in the U.S. will reduce the competitiveness of Delta manufacturing and farming operations in 2001 and it is likely that the added cost of diesel fuel, electricity, natural gas, and other forms of energy will cause the loss of Delta jobs and reduce profit potential of Delta farming operations and manufacturers. "On the manufacturing side, we have companies operating in the Delta that have already laid off highly-qualified and long-term employees due to the impact of energy prices that have driven their profit potential to the ground," states Griffin Norquist, chairman of Delta Council's Industrial and Community Development Department. The Yazoo County banker explains that areas which rely on agriculture and agribusiness are traditionally more sensitive to the economics of energy costs than other industrial areas of the country. Due to the dependence of energy on the production, processing, transportation, and warehousing of agricultural commodities, and the inability of agriculture to pass these costs to the consumer, agricultural businesses and farmers have oftentimes dipped into their equity in order to weather economic jolts such as rising energy costs. "Of course, there will be strong reverberations throughout our entire industrial sector as manufacturers and agriculture try to prepare to move their products to market with the anticipation that one of their major overhead costs will double or triple during 2001," adds Norquist when speaking about rising energy costs. "There is the distinct opportunity for non-agricultural and industrial employers to pass some of their energy costs on to the consumer, but industries must evaluate whether they can continue to successfully maintain their market share in a business environment that requires the consumer to accept the increased cost," says Norquist. In the area of agriculture, Delta Council Vice President Chat Phillips, a catfish farmer from Yazoo County, notes that all of the inputs for agricultural production and value-added processing are intensely dependent and sensitive to the price of energy. Phillips cautions that the cost of a transport of fuel has more than doubled since the 2000 crop season, not to mention the cost of drying grain, producing feed for catfish, and the cost of irrigating crops. "There is no doubt that the most serious challenges facing our national energy policy are related to situations like that in California, where homeowners are being rationed for their residential needs; however, as national leaders respond to the urgency of re-evaluating our nation's energy policy, Delta Council will be stressing to federal lawmakers that some action must be taken to extend relief to business and agriculture as all of us out here try to adjust to the doubling or tripling of energy costs for production inputs and processing," states the Yazoo County catfish grower. "The process for manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer requires huge volumes of natural gas, and the providers of fertilizer will pay 2-5 times as much for natural gas as they did in 2000," adds Phillips. DBJ