[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 114 (Monday, July 21, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4646-S4647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                UKRAINE

  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I wish to start with my support of the 
comments of the Senator from Oregon. We need to get a highway bill done 
this week, and I look forward to working with him, particularly on a 
long-term plan with some of the concepts he has put forward. We need it 
for our infrastructure across this great Nation. Again, I look forward 
to working with the Senator in that endeavor and express my thanks.
  I rise to speak on the issue of Ukraine and the need to address that 
situation and address it with a long-term strategy.
  Last week Russian separatists shot down a Malaysian airliner with 298 
souls on board. Innocent people were killed because Russia wants to 
control Ukraine--if not all of Ukraine, certainly Eastern Ukraine.
  The Obama administration is struggling to respond. President Obama 
talks about the need for Vladimir Putin and Russia to be accountable. 
Meanwhile, Russia continues to deny what is going on. Putin continues 
to arm Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, separatists led by 
Russian special forces, military operatives armed and directed by 
Moscow.
  We need to respond. Our country needs to respond, and we need to 
respond with a long-term strategy and not just talk and not a short-
term strategy, and that is something we can do. We can respond, and we 
need to respond with a long-term strategy.
  We can lead with strong sanctions against Russia--sanctions that 
would truly affect the banking sector and other sectors of their 
economy in a meaningful way. We can help Europe follow us with these 
same sanctions. We can help them by providing energy to the European 
Union.
  Europe is dependent on Russia for its energy. I brought some charts 
to depict the situation. The first chart shows countries in Europe and 
how many of them get all or a very large share of their natural gas 
from Russia. So they are dependent on Russia for their energy, and that 
is an incredible source of strength for the Putin regime.

  Here we see--I know it is somewhat difficult--all of these pipelines 
coming out of Russia through Ukraine and into the European Union, 
supplying all of that energy to these European countries. Because of 
that, we see all of these countries that are dependent on Russia. That 
is an incredible source of strength and power for Russia, and it is 
holding up Europe from engaging in the kinds of sanctions that could 
really stop Russia--stop the Russian economy and stop President Putin 
in his tracks.
  We can break that trend and we can break that stranglehold by 
allowing more LNG--liquefied natural gas--exports from our country. We 
have the companies right now, today, that want to build LNG export 
facilities, but they are being held up from doing so.
  I wish to go to my third chart. This isn't all of them, but right 
here there are 16 companies--13 on our coast, 3 in Canada--and 1 of 
these actually has received conditional approval. But here are 13 
applications for companies that want to build LNG facilities to export 
natural gas, and they are being held up. All of these have been held up 
somewhere between 1 and 2 years. They can't even get permitted or 
approved by the Department of Energy to build those facilities.
  What are we talking about? Let me give a specific example of one of 
them--a company my colleagues have probably heard of--ExxonMobil. They 
want to build a $10 billion facility at Sabine Pass in Texas. I just 
pointed this one out on this chart right here, in this area on the 
gulf. They are ready to go right now. They have been in the application 
process for maybe 1 or 2 years, and they think they are maybe halfway 
through it. So they have another year or 2 years before they can build 
a $10 billion facility that will move natural gas. They will bring it 
right into the UK, right into Europe. Why aren't we green-lighting this 
right now, today? Why do we continue to hold this up?
  Some critics say it is going to take them some time to build it. 
Well, of course it is going to take some time to build, but the faster 
we get these projects permitted, the sooner they are going to get 
built. The reality is they will not only have an impact as they are 
able to move gas into the market, they will have an impact today 
because those European countries will know these other sources of 
supply are coming.
  Also, Vladimir Putin knows we are serious about providing alternative 
energy to Europe, and I think that will make a big difference in terms 
of strengthening the European countries' readiness to join us with the 
kinds of sanctions we need to truly make a difference.

[[Page S4647]]

  Two weeks ago I introduced legislation to do exactly what I am 
talking about--the North Atlantic Energy Security Act. The cosponsors 
include Senator McCain, Senator Barrasso, and Senator Murkowski, who is 
the ranking member on the energy committee. Senator Barrasso worked to 
put a lot of the legislation together. Senator McCain has always been 
very active in the Ukrainian situation. Together we put together this 
bill with a lot of pieces of this legislation that have already been 
passed in the House--already passed the House. Quite simply, it will 
enable us to produce more natural gas, move it to market, and export it 
to our allies. It increases onshore production of natural gas. It 
allows us to gather it and move it to market, and it allows it to be 
exported.
  Quite simply, what does that enable us to do? Well, States such as 
mine today are flaring off, burning off $1.5 million a day of natural 
gas because we don't have a market for it. So we just burn it. We just 
burn it because we can't get the kind of legislation we have developed 
passed. We can't get it to the floor for a vote. So instead of taking 
that natural gas--millions of dollars a day--that is going up in smoke 
and moving it down to these facilities and over to our allies, we are 
burning it.
  It would be better for our economy. It would create jobs. It would be 
better for our environment. It would create jobs. It would certainly be 
better for our economic growth. It would create revenues to deal with 
the debt and deficit without raising taxes--just through economic 
growth. It would make a big difference for the national security of our 
country and our allies. It is common sense. What are we waiting for? 
Let's get beyond just talking about what needs to be done in Ukraine 
and let's get going. Let's get going with a long-term strategy.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. I ask unanimous consent to speak for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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