[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 53 (Friday, April 4, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2613-S2614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Lieberman, and Mr. 
        Dodd):
  S. 2822. A bill to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to repeal a 
section of that Act relating to exportation or importation of natural 
gas; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, along with Senator Clinton, Senator 
Lieberman, and Senator Dodd, I am introducing legislation that will 
correct a fundamental wrong perpetrated in the 2005 that allowed 
Federal bureaucracy to override local control by placing the Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission in the primary role of siting Liquified 
Natural Gas, LNG, terminals. That action, taken in the Energy Policy 
Act of 2005, took what had historically always been a state government 
responsibility--the permitting of LNG storage terminals--and handed it 
off to a Federal agency in Washington, DC--FERC.
  At the time, 45 Senators went on record saying that cutting State 
siting agencies out of the LNG siting process was a bad idea and the 
history of FERC's actions since then have borne us out.
  Right now, in Oregon, we have three separate LNG proposals pending 
before FERC. Together, they would have a combined capacity of 3.3 
billion cubic feet, BCF, of gas per day. Oregon and Washington, 
together, only use 1.33 BCF per day. Yet, FERC categorically refuses to 
address the basic question of whether the three proposed facilities are 
even needed to serve our market. FERC also refuses to consider whether 
any of the three publicly announced interstate pipeline proposals to 
bring natural gas to Oregon from the Rocky Mountains would be a better 
option. In fact, FERC asserts that it's not its job to determine which, 
if any, of these proposals best serves our market. FERC also asserts 
that it has no obligation to determine which of these proposals--and 
the hundreds of miles of pipelines that would cut through forest lands, 
farms, vineyards, and residential neighborhoods to connect them to the 
interstate pipeline system--has the least environmental impact to our 
State and our citizens' private property.
  To make matters worse, FERC's insistence that each of these projects 
is a separate, unrelated project has produced a bureaucratic nightmare 
of competing public meetings, scoping hearings, and filing requirements 
for each project. Letters from local officials to FERC asking 
legitimate questions about impacts on local land use don't get 
answered. They simply get filed, because that's what the FERC process 
is set up to do--to process paper and not address real concerns.
  The end result is a public process in which the public has no due 
process and no assurance that their concerns will be heard, much less 
addressed.
  At every turn, FERC's LNG siting process in Oregon has defied common 
sense and public accountability. It is a process divorced from the real 
world questions that need to be answered. The situation in other parts 
of the country is no different.
  It's time to restore the local and State role in these critical 
decisions about in whose backyard a pipeline or

[[Page S2614]]

LNG plant will be built. It is time to reverse the ill-considered 
decision Congress made in 2005 when it overrode State and local 
decision-making to put a Federal bureaucracy in charge of LNG siting 
authority. This bill would do exactly that.
  I am pleased that Senator Clinton is joining me in sponsoring this 
important legislation to give States and local communities a say in 
where LNG facilities and pipelines should be built. I urge colleagues 
to join me in sponsoring the bill.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
placed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 2822

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. EXPORTATION OR IMPORTATION OF NATURAL GAS.

       (a) In General.--Section 311 of the Energy Policy Act of 
     2005 (Public Law 109-58; 119 Stat. 685) is repealed.
       (b) Application.--The Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717 et 
     seq.) shall be applied and administered as if section 311 of 
     the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (and the amendments made by the 
     section) had not been enacted.

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