[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 85 (Thursday, June 23, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H5085-H5086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         STILL NO ENERGY POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk, 
sadly, about the fact that America once again is completing another 
month, another halfway through another year, with no energy policy.
  Is it important that we have an energy policy? Should we have an 
energy policy? Well, I happen to think we should. With oil approaching 
$60 a barrel and natural gas at $7.50 today, that is the highest fuel 
prices this country has faced, ever.
  Gasoline, we hear a lot about. In the last 20 years, gasoline prices 
have increased 86 percent. It is on the news every night. We talk about 
it as if it is a tragedy. Now, it is painful, because it costs all of 
us more to drive than we would like. But we have choices there: what 
size vehicle, what kind of mileage it has, and what trips we take.
  But in natural gas, the people that use natural gas heat their homes, 
provide their air-conditioning, run their businesses. They cannot make 
those same choices. Natural gas prices have increased in the same 
length of time 550 percent. I want to tell my colleagues, if you heard 
complaints last winter about natural gas prices for heating our homes, 
next year is going to be a lot more difficult. Because the gas we put 
in the ground today will have been paid $7.50 for, and last year at 
this time it was less than $5 that we were putting into the ground. We 
put it in storage in the ground at this time of year so we have enough 
in the winter.
  We are now 62 to 64 percent dependent on foreign countries for oil. 
On natural gas, we are 88 percent self-sufficient. We import about 11 
percent from Canada and 1 percent is from liquefied natural gas. Like I 
said before, $60-a-barrel oil is painful but, in my view, $7.50 and 
continuing rising natural gas prices has the ability to kill our 
economy, and I will tell my colleagues why.
  We are an island to ourselves with natural gas prices. When we pay 
$55 or

[[Page H5086]]

$60 for oil, the whole world pays that, all our competitors pay that, 
and we are a very competitive global economy. But when we pay $7.50 for 
natural gas, Canada pays about $6. Europe is in the $5 range. China, 
our big competitor, pays $4, giving them another advantage on top of 
cheap labor and all the other ways they manipulate the economy.
  Trinidad in northern South America, $1.60. Russia, 90 cents, North 
Africa, 80 cents. Because of these prices for natural gas and a 
government here in Washington who will do nothing about it, three 
industries are leaving our country that are some of the best-paying 
jobs we have left. Twenty-one fertilizer factories that our farmers 
depend on closed last year. Why? Because their number one ingredient to 
make fertilizer is natural gas as an ingredient and as a fuel to make 
it. The petrochemical companies, again, 40 to 55 percent of their cost 
is natural gas. They are leaving as we speak. The polymers in plastics, 
the best jobs in America, are leaving as we speak.
  We could be totally self-sufficient on natural gas if we made the 
right decisions. We need to open up many areas of the West that have 
been locked up, and we need to streamline the permitting process so 
that natural gas can move forward timely. We need to open up the Outer 
Continental Shelf, where there is enough gas to totally supply this 
country for 50, 60 years without any question.
  With the clean fuel, natural gas is the clean fuel. No 
NOX, no SOX, a fourth of the C02; it 
is the nonpolluting fuel, it is the one we ought to be using. We could 
be using it in vehicles, we could be using it in a lot of ways that we 
are not using it today to need less oil. But we must open the 
production of natural gas on our Outer Continental Shelf. Every country 
in the world, Canada, does and sells it to us. They drill in our Great 
Lakes and sell it to us. Europe, Germany, England, Norway, Sweden, 
Australia, New Zealand all produce gas on the Outer Continental Shelf, 
with no negative impact.
  A natural gas well is not an environmental hazard. It is a 6-inch 
hole in the ground with a steel casing cemented at the bottom and at 
the top, and you let gas out. It is a gas that is a clean burning fuel. 
And when you are 40 or 50 miles offshore, nobody knows they are there. 
There are fine beaches where natural gas is produced. There is fine 
recreation, there is fine fisheries.
  Natural gas is the bridge to the future of America's economy, and if 
this Congress does not do something about it, they are going to give 
the best jobs in America to the rest of the world. In fact, last year 
one of our major chemical companies moved 2,000 jobs to Germany; not a 
cheap market.
  Mr. Speaker, my conclusion is the number one issue facing the economy 
of this country is the availability and the price of natural gas and 
the decision is in our hands, this Congress' hands, and we need to make 
it soon.

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