[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 161 (Monday, November 2, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H12143-H12144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        OUR NATURAL GAS RESERVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Stearns) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, thanks to new drilling technologies that 
are unlocking substantial amounts of natural gas from shale rock, the 
Nation's estimated gas reserves have surged by 35 percent, according to 
a recent study. The study conducted by the Potential Gas Committee, the 
authority on natural gas supplies, has indicated that the United States 
possesses a total natural gas reserve of 1,836 trillion cubic feet of 
natural gas, or enough to last almost a century at current consumption 
rates. This new estimate shows an exceptionally strong and optimistic 
gas supply picture for this country, according to the report, which is 
issued every 2 years by a group of academic and industry experts. The 
new estimate is the highest resource evaluation in the committee's 44-
year history and some geologists say even this estimate is too 
conservative.

[[Page H12144]]

  Much of the 35 percent increase comes from estimated gas reserves 
that are trapped deep in dense shale rock which drilling companies have 
only recently learned how to tap. Shale formations are deep 
underground, 6,000 feet or more, and the rock is relatively 
impermeable. Deep drilling is expensive, and in the past the amount of 
gas that could be recovered was not sufficient to justify the cost. 
However, new advances in production techniques have boosted all 
previous estimates of financially recoverable natural gas.

  One shale formation that is receiving new attention is the Marcellus 
basin, a 400-million-year-old shale formation stretching from New York 
to West Virginia. That basin alone is believed to hold as much as 500 
trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or the approximate equivalent of 80 
billion barrels of oil. It's not clear, however, how much of this shale 
gas is recoverable.
  In recent years, natural gas producers have expanded the use of a 
technique called horizontal drilling. After drilling more than a mile 
below the Earth's surface to reach the shale layer below, a drill 
operator then slowly steers the drill bit to one side until it is 
heading sideways across the shale layer. This technique allows access 
to more of the shale than a traditional vertical well could provide. 
However, even with this new technique, the density of shale rock still 
traps most of the gas. Producers therefore use a process called 
hydraulic fracturing in which a water-and-sand mixture is forced at 
very high pressure into the well that creates millions of tiny cracks 
in the rock, enabling more of the gas to be released. And while shale 
gas only provides a small fraction of the Nation's total gas 
production, many experts believe the rising supply of natural gas means 
it can be substituted for other fossil fuels.
  Natural gas can also serve as a bridge between our current energy 
feedstocks and renewable energy production. According to Guy Caruso, 
the former administrator of the Energy Information Administration, 
``natural gas has a role to play as a bridge because of the long lead 
time and scalability issues of renewable fuels. It's nice to have 
aspirations about renewable energy and efficiency, but we need to 
recognize these long-term goals and that we need something to get us 
there in the meantime.''
  As an energy source, natural gas is cheaper than oil, and when burned 
it emits 30 percent less carbon dioxide than oil and 45 percent less 
carbon dioxide than coal on an energy equivalent basis. Natural gas is 
also highly efficient. Approximately 90 percent of the natural gas 
produced is delivered to consumers as useful energy. In contrast, only 
about 30 percent of the energy converted to electricity in conventional 
generating facilities ever reaches consumers. And with 84 percent of 
the natural gas consumed in the United States being produced 
domestically, an increase in the use of natural gas would not only 
dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions but it would also reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil.
  Natural gas powered vehicles in use today are also helping to improve 
air quality by displacing petroleum powered vehicles which contribute 
about three-fourths of the carbon dioxide pollution found in urban 
areas. According to NGV America, one of out of every 10 transit buses 
and over 130,000 additional school buses, taxicabs, garbage trucks and 
other vehicles on U.S. roads are already fueled with cleaner burning 
natural gas. In fact, in 2008, the use of natural gas vehicles 
displaced almost 300 million gallons of petroleum use in the United 
States.
  Using natural gas instead of coal or oil is a low-cost, low-emissions 
solution for reducing our Nation's dependence on foreign energy sources 
while also reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

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