[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5349-H5355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL GAS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) is recognized for
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this House Energy and Commerce
Special Order is to talk about America's energy dominance, especially
with natural gas.
This conversation is very important today because the World Gas
Conference happens in this town, Washington, D.C., next week. What a
difference a decade makes.
When I joined Texas Senator Phil Gramm's office in 1998, one ugly
word described American oil and natural gas. That word was peak.
Experts, here and around the world, said America had peaked in our
production of oil and natural gas.
Every year, we would buy more oil and gas from foreign sources, and
we had to buy oil from some companies that didn't like us very much and
hurt us by taking oil away.
No one cared about a group called OPEC until they stopped the flow of
oil that they had and that we needed.
OPEC was led by Arab nations who were upset that we resupplied our
best ally ever, Israel, when they were invaded by their neighbors. It
happened
[[Page H5350]]
in 1973. It happened again in 1979. Gas prices doubled overnight.
In 1979, I had just gotten my driver's license. My job was to take
our family cars and fill them with gas that had gotten down to a
quarter of a gallon in the tank. I got in line for 45 minutes or maybe
as long as an hour. We could only purchase 20 gallons of gasoline. We
could only buy that gasoline on days per your license plate. If the
last number was odd, buy gas on an odd day. Even, even day.
Heck, a guy on a lawn mower was behind me getting gas one day. That
is how bad it was just one decade ago.
But thanks to the American private sector and our ingenuity,
hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, America has a whole new
world order for energy. We have global energy dominance, and that is
what we are here to talk about today, that special happening right now
in America.
Right now, our country, America, is the number one producer of oil
and gas in the entire world. Our natural gas increasingly powers our
homes and our businesses, making our air cleaner and our economy
stronger, especially on the Gulf Coast, where I am from.
OPEC knows their days of controlling the market and punishing people
for bad actions they perceive are over. They have right now, as we
speak, flooded the market with oil to try to keep prices low and stop
America's newfound energy dominance. They have tried and they have
failed.
We had more oil and gas than they had. We have that gas, and now we
are letting the free market take over, and we have a lot more who can
tap that in a moment's notice.
And this doesn't just mean affordable power and gasoline at home. It
also means American jobs.
One study last year said over 800,000 jobs in the gas and oil
industry came to our country for this renaissance. This renaissance,
this dominance, has allowed us to export natural gas and oil for the
first time since 1975. Over 40 years not on the market.
We are going from basically zero exports of natural gas to 10 billion
cubic feet per day in exports.
It wasn't long ago we were building terminals to import natural gas,
and now we are reversing them to export natural gas. That is what
American energy dominance looks like.
And as we say in Texas, there is a new sheriff in the global natural
gas market, and that sheriff's name is Uncle Sam.
And these huge exports of natural gas are helping America export
liquid freedom to friends we want to help, and hurt those who use
energy as a weapon to control other countries.
For too long, a former KGB spy and Russia's de facto dictator,
Vladimir Putin, has controlled nations that escaped the Iron Curtain
when the Berlin Wall fell in 1991. Nations like Lithuania, Estonia,
Poland, and Ukraine were still beholden to what Ted Poe calls the
Napoleon of Siberia, Mr. Putin.
If they did not do what Mr. Putin wanted, they lost all power.
Summers were scorching; winters were bitter cold. Comply or punish. You
are not free.
America, right now, is taking these weapons away from Mr. Putin.
Cheap natural gas takes away the hooks of tyranny.
This is important even for countries that don't buy our gas because
our gas is making the market a true market with competition and lower
prices. That market puts a lid on bad actors and what they can charge.
But sadly, this explosion, this dominance, caught the previous
administration by surprise and we were way behind the curve in getting
our natural gas on the global market.
Good news: The Energy and Commerce Committee stepped up in this
Congress to make sure we get these exports going and these projects
approved quickly.
{time} 1715
We made sure they are safe, great for our environment, with minimal
impacts, and we take all of the local concerns into account. But red
tape and these silly delays hurt us. We have stopped that and have got
a free market going in so many important ways.
In this Congress, the 115th Congress, we are using this new
opportunity to expand our Nation's energy dominance with natural gas.
This means, for the whole world, cheaper, cleaner power, the jobs that
come with that, and it brings American jobs back home from overseas.
Right now, America is exporting freedom to friends and allies and
taking away a monopoly from bad actors. Get ready, world. Uncle Sam is
coming to your neighborhood, your hometown.
I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), chairman of the
Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Texas, the
vice chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, who has just been a real
leader on energy issues across the country and around the globe.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about the shale revolution and what
it has really meant not only for jobs and growth in America, but energy
worldwide. The shale revolution and the dramatic increase in domestic
oil and natural production has really been remarkable. American
innovation did this. Technological advancements did this. It
transformed the United States from an importer of natural gas to a
major exporter.
The positive effects, the enormous effects are being felt around the
globe. OPEC and the established gas suppliers like Russia, they all bet
against the United States. And guess what. They have lost.
Now, as American energy exports reach world markets, they are losing
their stranglehold on supply and prices. U.S. LNG exports are going to
markets across Asia, North America, Europe, and, yes, to even some of
our allies in the Middle East.
The rise of the U.S. as a global energy superpower means that energy
markets are more open. They are more transparent and competitive than
ever before. And we are creating great American jobs here. We really
are. If you look at these regions where these finds have been
discovered and now are being developed, people are getting good wages,
good jobs. They are building out, and it makes us stronger.
President Trump didn't want to say, ``We want to be energy
independent''; he wanted to say, ``America is going to be energy
dominant.'' And that is what we are becoming. That is a good thing.
By the way, as we find this new natural gas and we build out more
generating facilities, we are also reducing our carbon emissions. We
are below the 1995 levels. I don't think there is a country on the
planet that has reduced emissions more than the United States during
this period, so we are making progress there, too.
The increase in LNG exports around the globe over the past 2 years
will help us and is the result of continuing expansion in the U.S. LNG
export capacity. Two LNG projects, Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove
Point in Maryland, have been online since 2016. That has increased the
U.S. LNG export to 3.6 billion--that is with a B--cubic feet per day.
There are four more projects scheduled to come online in the next
couple of years: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in
Louisiana in 2018, and Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas in
2019. Once completed, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to reach 9.6
billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019. That is the end of next
year.
Meanwhile, in my home State of Oregon, work continues on the Jordan
Cove LNG export facility in Coos Bay.
As export capacity continues to increase, the United States is
projected to become the third largest LNG exporter in the world by
2020, following closely behind Australia and Qatar.
As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have prioritized
a progrowth, proconsumer, all-of-the-above, and, frankly, all-of-the-
below approach to energy that includes a focus on natural gas. We have
held a number of hearings.
We have looked into the overall impacts of natural gas development,
the enormous number of new jobs, good family wages, middle class jobs
and economic growth, the increased use of natural gas for power
generation, the reduction in carbon emissions, the need for new
infrastructure, and the advantages for domestic manufacturing and
global competitiveness.
We have looked at all of that in the Energy and Commerce Committee,
and my colleagues, many of whom you will
[[Page H5351]]
hear from tonight, Mr. Speaker, have really led on this. My colleague
from Texas (Mr. Olson) has really been a fine leader on the Energy
Subcommittee.
I encouraged our Members to work across the aisle. Growing American
energy and great-paying jobs should be a bipartisan effort. We need to
improve the regulatory process so we can solve some of the challenges
that may prevent us from reaching our full American potential.
This is our century. This is the American century, and we are seeing
great progress. We cut taxes. We are growing a million jobs and have
the lowest unemployment rate in decades. We have more job openings than
people to fill them, and a lot of that has to do with energy.
For example, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have
introduced and the House has passed legislation that would modernize
the permitting processes for interstate and cross-border natural gas
pipelines and LNG export facilities. These bills all passed the House
on a bipartisan basis, Republicans and Democrats getting together,
getting things done. I am encouraged by the support they are receiving
in the Senate, too.
While these bills have not yet been signed into law, the Trump
administration is very receptive to our approach to improve
coordination and permit reviews and dedicate a single Federal lead
agency. Part of the swamp back here is there are so many people, so
many agencies, and so many duplicative processes that have been
accumulating for decades.
And if you are the innovator who wants to do something new, if you
want to grow jobs in your community, your State, your region, you have
got to navigate this morass of red tape and regulation and permitting.
About the time you think you have got it done, some other agency shows
up, and then somebody else and then somebody else, and your enormous
investment languishes out there for years and years and years.
We can do better than that. You can maintain all of the important
environmental law, but if we have a lead agency, we can find some
efficiency.
I think the vice chairman would agree that we might be able to find
efficiency in the Federal Government. I think it is possible. And I
think with the lead agency, we can.
This one-agency, one-decision process is now being rolled out because
of the Trump administration, with a goal to cut down permitting time to
2 years or less. I think you can probably do it faster than that, but,
hey, we will take 2 years or less. That is a big win.
Our energy security is stronger today than at any point in America's
history, due in large part to natural gas. Natural gas has contributed
to jobs and economic development both here in America, here at home,
and it is improving the efficiency of our power generation fleet. It is
increasing the competitiveness of our manufacturers who use it as both
a fuel and a feedstock. It is strengthening our hand diplomatically,
and it is creating jobs, jobs, jobs, good-paying jobs. It is a win-win
across the board.
And so I appreciate the vice chairman's leadership on this special
time for us to come to the House floor and share the great progress of
the Energy and Commerce Committee and the country, the bipartisan work
we are doing, and the great innovative future that lies before us.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Walden for his comments to
remind the American people and the entire world that this American
dominance of natural gas has made America's air cleaner for global
emissions.
As the chairman knows, America has reduced gas emissions 11 percent
in the last decade. I told that to people in India this past March and
they were stunned.
How did you guys do that? Our air is so dirty? What should we do?
It is simple: Buy American liquified natural gas.
And they are doing that right now.
The next speaker is a good friend from Ohio, a man who Mr. Putin
fears because he has control of what is called the Utica shale play in
Ohio.
A man from India, Prime Minister Modi from India, loves Bill Johnson
from the great State of Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and
colleague, Representative Pete Olson, for partnering with me to colead
this Special Order tonight on the benefits of natural gas and liquified
natural gas exports, especially as the United States prepares to hold
the World Gas Conference next week.
I am honored to share this floor time with Mr. Olson to talk about
this very important topic, and I also want to thank many of my
colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for participating in
this Special Order tonight to talk about this important topic.
I represent rural eastern and southeastern Ohio, which is no stranger
to the benefits of natural gas. My district sits on top of, as
Representative Olson just mentioned, the Utica and the Marcellus shale
plays, which have led to a growing interest in new and exciting
manufacturing opportunities like ethane cracker plants and ethane
storage opportunities.
In fact, one recent report led by Shale Crescent USA and IHS Markit
forecasts that this region will supply 37 percent of the Nation's
natural gas production by 2040. This same report forecasts that natural
gas liquid production from these two plays will increase from 0.53
million barrels per day in 2017 to 1.37 million barrels per day in
2040, an increase of over 150 percent. Other studies predict that the
region has sufficient ethane feedstock to support up to five ethane
cracker plants.
These opportunities are huge. These are massive construction
projects, putting upwards of 10,000 construction workers to work over a
6-year period, with upwards of 1,000 permanent employees once those
plants go operational.
Additionally, ethylene projects within the region will have a
comparative advantage because of the access to ample supplies of
locally produced, low-cost ethane and because of the fact that the
region is in close proximity to over two-thirds of U.S. polyethylene
consumption. And that is only half the story.
The economic and geopolitical benefits of exporting our excess gas
are equally exciting as these benefits are helping to encourage oil and
gas activity throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
As you will hear from multiple colleagues tonight, the U.S. is now
the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, and we are
projected to become a net energy exporter by 2026. Natural gas
production is at an all-time high, and reserves are so large that they
are predicted to meet domestic demand for almost a century.
Ohio alone reached new heights in October of 2017 as natural gas
production reached 5.5 billion cubic feet per day. Simply put, we must
do everything we can to take complete advantage of this abundance, and
that includes LNG exports.
However, the window of opportunity for American LNG exports will not
remain open indefinitely. The U.S. is in fierce competition with other
LNG-exporting nations, and if America misses our opportunity to get
into these international markets in a big way, our share of the global
gas market could be greatly reduced. Subsequently, opportunities to
support our national security and strengthen the energy security of our
allies through American LNG will diminish as well.
So we must continue to elevate and promote the United States as a
reliable source of natural gas onto the world market, which will
diversify our friends' and allies' energy sources, greatly reduce their
vulnerability to a single monopolistic supplier, and change the
conversation at the table with the likes of Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Additionally, studies have found that LNG exports support thousands
of American jobs, many of them within manufacturing. ICF International,
Inc., estimates that these jobs will occur across the entire value
chain, translating into millions of dollars in new wages for American
workers.
In fact, the Department of Energy once again highlighted the benefits
of LNG exports with a study it released just this past week. This
study, which is in addition to four other studies commissioned by DOE
since 2012, presented data that demonstrates just
[[Page H5352]]
how LNG exports are a net benefit to our economy.
Additionally, these exports increase our GDP. They lower the trade
deficit. And it is for those reasons, these reasons, that I have led
the effort to ensure the U.S. does all it can to take advantage of our
ability to export natural gas.
Most recently, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 4606,
the Ensuring Small Scale LNG Certainty and Access Act, out of committee
in a bipartisan fashion. I was proud to author this bill, which seeks
to codify the Department of Energy's recent efforts to encourage
exports of small volumes of natural gas.
There is a significant interest in potential for U.S. natural gas in
the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, although not in the
quantities that the current large-scale domestic exporting facilities
were built to address via conventional liquefied natural gas tankers.
H.R. 4606 will help the U.S. to act on these interests through greater
regulatory certainty and a reduction in administrative regulatory
burdens.
{time} 1730
Now, when I first came to Congress in 2011, I worked hard to advance
the idea that energy independence and security are the next great
frontiers for America.
Today, energy independence and security have been replaced by a new
concept. Mr. Speaker, you have heard Representative Olson mention it,
and you have heard Chairman Walden mention it. It is called energy
dominance; and with it, all the global economic and geopolitical
implications that come with being the king of the energy hill.
Such an energy vision that harnesses America's innovative
exceptionalism will lead to new discoveries and technologies around
domestic energy production, storage, distribution, and usage; and will
lead us to greater economic prosperity and job growth.
I am excited to help further that vision which includes natural gas
and LNG exports. I am excited for all the great opportunities that lie
ahead for our country, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on
those benefits tonight.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Ohio. I also thank my
dear friend for reminding me that Utica is the Marcellus in your
district. It also reminded me over and over of the benefits the
gentleman has had in Ohio. Rough parts in the country had some bad
years, some down times. We have something that Texas called the Eagle
Ford shale play that goes down from basically San Antonio to Laredo, a
rough part of Texas, not very much growth there. When Zavala happened
back home--I was down there about 3 years ago--a man got his first
royalty check. He was thrilled. He goes to his bank to deposit, in his
Sunday best suit, and says to the guy there: Put this in my account.
His banker said: Great, I got it.
He puts it in his account. He comes back and says: Okay, that is
100,000--whoa, whoa, whoa--100,000? I thought it was 1,000.
His mind could not see the zeros, the periods, and the commas. We
changed his world with American ingenuity.
The next person up is the former leader of this committee, the
chairman, a proud Texas Aggie, and the single most strongest force to
get the crude export ban lifted that was installed in 1975, Chairman
Joe Barton from Ennis, Texas.
Mr. BARTON. I thank Congressman Olson for his leadership as vice
chairman of the subcommittee and a tireless leader on behalf of energy
in this country.
Also, I want to thank Congressman Johnson for his strong efforts and
also compliment him on his playing in last week's Congressional
Baseball Game. Congressman Duncan was also on the team and played well
as shortstop.
Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania back in the mid-1800s. As the oil
industry began to develop, they more and more would run into what we
would today call associated gas. Every now and then while drilling for
oil they would hit a well that didn't have any oil, but all it had was
what today we call natural gas.
They didn't know what to do with it. They used the oil to make
kerosene, lubricants, and home heating oil and things like that, but
they didn't have a real purpose for natural gas. So they would just
flare it, just literally in the field, light a match, put a flare pipe
up and flare it. As time went on, they discovered that it had a fairly
high Btu energy content, and they discovered a way to contain it, to
store it, and to transport it through pipelines. Because it was a gas,
it was not a liquid in its natural state, so while it was not as
valuable as oil, it had enough value that it was worth looking for and
worth keeping.
You rock along and you rock along, and in the 1950s and 1960s, we
began to set price controls on natural gas in interstate commerce. The
Federal Government would regulate the price and as a consequence people
stopped looking for it, because it wasn't economic to find it unless
you could find a well that you could sell in intrastate commerce,
within the State.
When I ran for Congress in 1984, I ran on the platform of repealing
what was called the Natural Gas Price Act of 1978 where Congress had
set a price control on interstate natural gas in some cases as low as 2
cents per 1,000 cubic feet. Gas in the intrastate market, deep gas, was
selling as high as $15 per 1,000 cubic feet. There is a big difference
between $15 and 2 cents.
One of my first accomplishments in Congress under President George
Herbert Bush, the first President Bush, was to see the NGPA repealed.
The Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 was repealed, and it was my
amendment that did that. So I was very proud of that.
Rock along a few more years, and in 2005, I was chairman of the
Agriculture Committee, and we were doing a major energy bill, the
Natural Gas Policy Act of 2005. We did a lot of things in that bill. We
felt at that time that there was going to be a shortage of natural gas
in this country. Some of the States, States like Massachusetts,
California, and New York, were trying to prohibit import terminals for
natural gas, for liquefied natural gas, LNG, being built. The States
would not give the permits.
So in the infinite wisdom of the Congress, we passed, as a part of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a section, an amendment to the bill,
that gave ultimate decisionmaking authority to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Because we thought we were going to
need to build these import terminals to import natural gas and the
States were going to try to thwart it, we required a consultation with
the States. The States had to be involved in the process, but the
ultimate decision would be made by the Federal Government under the
auspices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
A funny thing happened, Mr. Speaker. Some oil producers and gas
producers down in Texas--one of them was a Texas Aggie, a guy named
George Mitchell--decided that you had all these shale formations, and
there were hydrocarbons in them, but they were like rock. Literally, if
you look at a core sample of some of these shale formations, which you
all had mentioned today in this Special Order, it is just like solid--
it is solid rock.
George Mitchell and others decided, by golly, we can get natural gas
out of that if we fracture the rock under pressure and create tiny
little cracks where natural gas can escape from. Come to find out it
worked. Then they also decided: Do you know what? Instead of drilling
the classic vertical well, what if we bent the drill bit at a 90-degree
angle and drilled horizontally?
Son of a gun if that didn't work too.
So the combination of hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling
made all of these shale formations economic, and the result was an
absolute bonanza of natural gas available at economically recoverable
prices in the United States of America.
Congressman Johnson has mentioned some of the formations up in his
part of the country, the Marcellus and the Utica. Of course, Mr. Olson
talked about the Eagle Ford shale down in Texas, the Barnett shale in
my part of Texas. All over this country--Pennsylvania, even in New
York, California, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Ohio, and Kansas--there are shale formations--literally almost
everywhere in the United States--and in most of those shale formations,
it is economically recoverable
[[Page H5353]]
to drill for natural gas--and in some cases for oil also--but tonight
we are talking about natural gas.
Funny things happened. We didn't need to import natural gas. We had
so much of it, we could export it. We used that provision we put in the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 to begin to license, not import terminals but
export terminals. Congressman Olson, Congressman Johnson, and Chairman
Walden have talked--and I am sure Mr. Bucshon and Mr. Duncan will talk
later--about the economic consequences of that. We are exporting or
going to export about 2 billion cubic feet a day this year of liquified
natural gas.
We are going to quadruple that in the next few years. If you look at
the economic value of that, if you assume that you are selling it
overseas about $4 per 1,000 cubic feet, this year we will export three-
quarters of a trillion dollars--a trillion dollars is a thousand
billion. And not in the near future, we are going to be exporting
several trillion dollars worth of natural gas every year, hundreds of
thousands of jobs, just an economic--I don't know what you would call
it--a bonanza. It is not a windfall because it is not luck. It is hard
work. It is American ingenuity and American technology. It is
revolutionizing the energy markets.
As has been pointed out, we are also beginning to export oil as a
consequence of the ban being repealed for crude oil exports. That is a
story for another Special Order.
The future for natural gas in this country as a source of fuel is
unlimited. The economic benefits are obvious, but there is another
benefit, and it is the ability to export freedom. When we export our
natural gas, in many cases we are exchanging the source of the supply
from a totalitarian--not quite totalitarian, but certainly not a
totally democratic country like Russia--with a free country like the
United States.
Now, it has been mentioned that Qatar, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia are
also large exporters of natural gas, and they are allies of the United
States, friends of the United States. But they don't have, as of yet,
the purely democratic institutions, the totally free markets, and the
free market capitalistic system that we have here.
So when we send our natural gas overseas, we are also sending to the
countries that use it, economic, and in some cases, political freedom.
They cannot be held hostage to sources of supply that don't have the
same democratic values that we do.
So, as Congressman Johnson pointed out earlier, the World Natural Gas
Conference is here in Washington next week. A number of us will
participate in that conference. It is really a tribute to the natural
gas industry in the United States that they have used the American
innovative spirit and American technology to create a product which
brings benefits economically not only here but overseas, and it really
helps, in my opinion, put freedom in the driver's seat.
So this is a great Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Olson for leading it and the
other members of the Energy and Commerce Committee for participating. I
am proud to be a part of this group.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend from Texas. I want to
thank my dear friend for also saying the name of George Mitchell. As
you know, George Mitchell revolutionized our energy with hydraulic
fracturing, directional drilling of the Barnett shale play by Fort
Worth. It took Mr. Mitchell 35 or 36 wells to drill before the first
one came back viable.
{time} 1745
That money was private sector money, not money from D.C. The private
sector made this revolution possible. I thank the gentleman for
reminding us about what happened.
By the way, people think the gentleman's car may be there, the
Corvette convertible, in the background. It looks like a 1959, maybe a
1963.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon), a
good friend and also a doctor
Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Olson and Mr. Johnson for
hosting this Special Order.
Manufacturing is a key industry that helps drive Indiana's strong
economy. According to the National Association of Manufacturers,
Indiana manufacturers exported $33.78 billion in goods and employed
16.8 percent of the Hoosier workforce in 2016. Much of the credit for
such a strong manufacturing presence in Indiana is its relationship
with natural gas.
In 2016, a comprehensive study was released detailing the positive
effects that domestic natural gas brought to communities across the
Nation. The study prepared by the National Association of Manufacturers
provides examples of how natural gas is increasing the industrial
strength and worldwide competitiveness of American companies.
Among the findings, the study said that the natural gas industry has
added nearly 1.9 million total jobs to the economy and saved working
American families an average of $1,300 in disposable income in a single
year through the production and use of shale gas.
According to the study, the U.S. supply of natural gas is projected
to increase by 48 percent throughout the course of the next decade,
resulting from the growing demand for this energy source.
During periods of high commodity prices, companies that rely on a
high volume of natural gas to manufacture products can find it
difficult to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly global
market. However, an abundant supply of domestic natural gas has led to
a reduction in natural gas prices. In turn, this increased
affordability is allowing these companies to increase their
manufacturing output.
Further, the transportation of natural gas through an expanding
national pipeline network means that this clean-burning natural
resource is also becoming more accessible for American companies and
presents a growing number of manufacturing opportunities.
Through the increased production of domestic shale gas alone, more
than a million American jobs were created to help meet the demand for
the energy source.
Additionally, the need for the manufacturing of new natural gas
transmission pipelines across the Nation added several hundred thousand
jobs on top of that. This surge in new jobs, coupled with the monetary
profits gained from additional natural gas production, has led to a GDP
hike of $190 billion. Ultimately, this translates into more disposable
income in the pockets of hardworking Americans.
Finally, the use of natural gas, both as a fuel source and a raw
material, has resulted in environmental benefits as well, and we should
not lose sight of that.
With the International World Gas Conference just 1 week away, I am
proud of the continued growth and success of our domestic natural gas
industry, which is helping to power this country's economic and
manufacturing growth.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Johnson), my cohost, to follow up the comments of Dr. Bucshon as we
transition to going overseas.
Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas mentioned
it; Chairman Walden mentioned it; Mr. Barton mentioned it. We should be
celebrating, and that is what we are doing here tonight. All America
should be celebrating the good fortune that we have to be blessed with
such an abundance of natural gas.
In my home State of Ohio, and many other areas in the Midwest and
Appalachia, the production of natural gas and its valuable liquid
byproducts is providing a much-needed boost to our local economies.
Let me give you some figures. From 2011 to the end of May 2018, we
had drops in unemployment in the counties that comprise my 18-county
district by more than 48 percent. Some of those counties, especially
the ones that have the heavy shale plays, have seen drops of
unemployment upward of 60 percent. It is unbelievable.
In addition to the direct benefits, the natural gas industry also
supports hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs across the country
and supplies our industries with a reliable and affordable source of
domestic energy.
Next week, as thousands of visitors and dignitaries from around the
world arrive here in D.C. to attend the World Gas Conference, we should
reflect on
[[Page H5354]]
our country's energy dominance--you have heard that term several
times--and how that affects our standing on the world stage.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States
has remained the world's top producer of natural gas ever since 2009,
when we surpassed Russia in production levels.
Additionally, last year, we set a record in natural gas production,
with gross withdrawals reaching almost 91 billion cubic feet per day.
I am telling you, Mr. Speaker, this is a big deal for America. It is
charting the way for a new future of energy dominance and leverage not
only in the economic energy markets, but also on the international
stage.
So there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about where America is
going on the energy front because of natural gas.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 15 minutes
remaining.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina
(Mr. Duncan), from the home of William Barret Travis, the commander of
the Alamo.
Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
holding this Special Order and for recognizing South Carolina's role in
helping the Republic of Texas.
You heard the words from the gentleman from Ohio about the economic
impact on his State, and on America, with America's energy independence
and the renaissance that we are experiencing.
In a tax reform committee hearing today, Chairman Walden talked about
the economic benefits of tax reform on the energy sector, but also on
America.
We are blessed in this country with natural resources. We have an
abundance of natural gas.
What does an abundance of natural gas mean? That means that, last
year, for the first time since 1957, we are an exporter of natural gas.
Now what does that mean not only for American producers that are
providing the natural gas and the LNG terminals that are being built
along the coastal regions in Houston and Louisiana--and, hopefully, one
day in South Carolina, we will have an LNG terminal to help us play a
part in that--but what does that mean for our allies and friends around
the world? Well, just think about it.
Mexico is a huge importer of U.S. LNG. Not only are they importing
natural gas through a pipeline from the plays down in Eagle Ford and
Barnett in Texas, but they are also importing LNG.
We all know the situation in Venezuela. Venezuela is imploding. So
many countries in South America, Latin America, are relying on
Venezuelan energy. The Caribbean nations are relying on Venezuelan
energy. South American countries are relying on that.
If we can provide, through LNG exports, sustainable, reliable energy
sources for the Caribbean nations, that is a game changer for them, the
Panama Canal being a distribution hub for U.S. LNG to be distributed
all through Latin America.
I was in Spain recently and talked with the Spanish folks. They want
to be the LNG importer of American LNG so they can distribute across
Western Europe so that Western Europe can be less reliant on Russian
gas.
Europe is reliant on Russian gas, and Russia definitely has used the
spigot for energy sources as a political tool against Europe. In fact,
the Lithuanian President recently said this: ``U.S. gas imports to
Lithuania and other European countries is a game changer in the
European gas market. This is an opportunity for Europe to end its
addiction to Russian gas and ensure a secure, competitive, and
diversified supply.''
American LNG exported to our friends and allies around the world is a
game changer for the geopolitics of energy. We can provide abundant
natural gas that we have produced in this country to folks around the
world and lessen their dependence on less reliable sources. American
businesses will benefit from that, and our neighbors and friends will
benefit from that. That is why it is so important.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order
tonight and for allowing me to speak about something I am very
passionate about and that is using the abundant resources we have in
this country to change lives around the globe.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, since I have known the gentleman, he has been
a champion for American energy independence. Drill, baby, drill. Frack,
baby, frack.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus),
the chairman of the Environment Subcommittee.
Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, it is great to be here tonight to talk
about something that we have talked about quite a bit. I am glad to see
the gentleman has, obviously, the LNG terminal and the Lithuanian-
flagged Independence. I also brought it down.
I don't have to be as complete in my comments, because I have heard
the comments of easing and helping Europeans be independent of imported
Russian natural gas.
Lithuania is on the Baltic Sea. I am the chairman of the Baltic
Caucus. We have Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. I have spent a lot of
time watching them and encouraging them in their actual leadership of
Eastern Europe. They set out in 2014 to become independent of Russian
gas. So they went through the process of getting the LNG terminal.
I love the name. It is called the Independence so they can be
independent and free. They have a history of being extorted by the
Russians in the crude oil department. There is a refinery there called
Mazeikiu Nafta, which a U.S. company bought and then the Russians
turned off the oil.
So those are the extortions and the concerns. Now what they have is
the ability to compete in the open market. They had their first LNG gas
come from the United States earlier in 2017. They now have an ability
to negotiate for the best price, which helps a lot.
First of all, it helps their citizens. It helps, obviously, their
businesses. It also helps the allies in surrounding countries. What
they have now been able to do is negotiate through the Baltic region of
pipelines and storage, and we have had talks, as you know, on smaller
export LNG vessels to be able to get to smaller communities.
We are a party of all-of-the-above technology. We believe in having
the energy resources compete for lower prices. I am glad the gentleman
from Texas came down here and is expounding the virtues of freedom it
has provided for the Baltic countries, and I look forward to continuing
shipping U.S. liquefied natural gas, which helps our balance of trades
and creates jobs in America, to our allies and friends around the
globe.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, this was not coordinated. We came together
with pictures of the Independence. But my friend knows this better than
I do. How many people turn out--those are ordinary people--to watch a
tanker come into port? Why are they coming out to watch that tanker? It
is because they know that tanker is their freedom from Mr. Putin and
Russia.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gaetz). The gentleman from Texas has 8
minutes remaining.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr.
Tipton).
Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding.
This is really about creating jobs on American soil, creating
opportunities, literally, for our families to be able to have better
prospects for the future.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to be able to talk about, not only America,
but the world's energy future. In my district of Colorado, we benefit
from vast energy resources. In 2016, we learned that one of these
resources, natural gas, has even greater potential than initially
thought.
{time} 1800
The U.S. Geological Survey announced that the Mancos shale formation
in Piceance Basin had the potential to be the second largest natural
gas deposit in the United States. The abundance of natural gas in
western Colorado puts us in the unique position to be able to create
jobs here at home and also to supply American allies with reliable
sources of energy well into the future.
[[Page H5355]]
For too long, our Nation's adversaries have supplied America's allies
with energy resources. We cannot let countries like Russia lead in the
global energy market when the U.S. has the resources to be able to
supply countries in Europe and Asia with affordable and reliable
energy.
Last year I called on the administration to examine a project that
would allow for the U.S. to send LNG to Asian markets. The proposed
Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline would transfer the natural gas from
Piceance Basin in western Colorado to the Jordan Cove terminal in Coos
Bay, Oregon.
The Jordan Cove terminal is estimated to have the capacity to be able
to transport 7.8 million metric tons of LNG annually to the Pacific
Northwest and Asia. Unfortunately, under the previous administration,
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied the application for the
Jordan Cove project, citing a lack of global demand. Not long after the
application was denied, Jordan Cove procured an agreement for 75
percent of the pipeline's capacity, proving that there is demand for
U.S. LNG in Asia.
It is my hope that FERC will soon approve the resubmitted application
for the Jordan Cove project and we can bring good-paying jobs to
western Colorado and send clean, affordable, and reliable energy to
Asia.
As the U.S. works to advance technologies that decrease the
environmental footprint of energy production, it cannot be ignored that
countries like China and India continue to be some of the world's top
polluters. We can responsibly develop U.S. natural gas resources to be
able to benefit communities across our Nation and by transporting our
energy resources to countries around the globe. The United States can
have a measurable impact on the economies and environmental health of
communities overseas.
The United States cannot sit back and let other countries lead the
world into the energy future. The time for responsible development of
natural gas is now and to be able to create jobs here at home.
Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Colorado for his
comments. The gentleman is always welcome here. I thank my friend for
pointing out the fact that, we think oil and gas in America, we think
the coasts: the Gulf Coast, Pacific Coast, Atlantic Coast.
But my friend enlightened us. It is not just the coasts. It is the
heart and soul of America, the interior, States like Colorado, Wyoming,
North Dakota. All these States have shale plays. All these States are
booming now with American energy production.
I would like to close with a couple comments and maybe take a tour of
the world as it stands today.
We started exporting our natural gas less than 2 years ago. Right
now, 29 countries have received American liquified natural gas. Those
countries are Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, China,
the Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Poland,
Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE,
and the UK.
American energy has touched the entire world. They are feeling our
dominance in a very healthy and great way. We are giving them their
freedom. Liquid American freedom is on the market right now.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________