[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 3, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S536-S537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ENERGY POLICY MODERNIZATION BILL

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, for the past week the Senate has been 
debating the way that America produces and uses our energy. We have 
talked about how these issues affect our economy, how they affect our 
communities, and how they affect the world--the world that we hope to 
leave to our children.
  As Senators have come to the floor and offered their ideas, I have 
tried to keep one basic idea in mind, and that idea is that we want to 
make energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can, as long as it 
doesn't raise costs on American families. I think that is the goal of 
many Members of the Senate with regard to this bipartisan legislation.
  I want to talk today about two bipartisan ideas--ideas that some of 
us have offered to make this legislation even better. One of the first 
amendments the Senate took up on this bill was an amendment I offered, 
along with Senator Schatz, that passed by voice vote. He is a Democrat, 
I am a Republican, and it is something that both of us think is a very 
good idea.
  This amendment creates a prize system to encourage new technologies 
that could remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently 
sequester it. A lot of the Members of this body talk about reducing 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Some of them want to reduce this by 
cutting the amount of emissions of carbon dioxide; some want to do it 
with a carbon tax; and some others want to do it by banning some of the 
energy sources that we need today to power our economy. The problem 
with that approach is that it severally reduces how much energy we as 
Americans can use, and it raises the cost of energies on hardworking 
families.
  We just got the new economic numbers that are out in terms of 
economic growth in America for the last quarter of last year--0.7 
percent. That is the last quarter of 2015. That is nowhere near the 
growth that we need in this country for a healthy economy. It is 
nothing.
  Cutting back on the types of energy resources Americans can use by 
some of these proposals or by making energy much more expensive is not 
going to help our economy grow as we need it to in terms of having a 
healthy, strong economy.
  The amendment that Senator Schatz and I have introduced looks at this 
issue from a very different direction. It looks at the carbon that is 
already in the atmosphere. The amendment says we should be looking much 
more at finding a way to remove some of that carbon dioxide. To get 
that done, America needs to invest more in developing new technology 
that can accomplish it, not just through more spending or more 
government research but by setting up a series of prizes for different 
technical breakthroughs. By doing that, we can turn to ingenuity

[[Page S537]]

and to innovation to solve the problem. That includes the private 
sector, universities, and even just someone out tinkering in their 
garage and coming up with a great idea.
  Prizes like this are not a new idea. Back in 1714 the British 
Government offered a big prize for the first person to invent a better 
way for measuring longitude. It was a clockmaker whose name was John 
Harrison. He won the prize, and his idea transformed the way that we 
sail the seas.
  In 1927 Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop from New York to Paris. This 
helped create the new modern aviation industry. He took the flight to 
win a $25,000 prize-sponsored by a New York hotel owner.
  The prize created by this amendment--and there is more than one. 
There are several prizes. The prizes created by this amendment are 
meant to encourage that kind of new thinking, that kind of bold action. 
So that is one of the amendments, one of the bipartisan ideas.
  Another amendment and idea that we have talked about, which is again 
bipartisan, is an amendment we voted on yesterday, amendment No. 3030. 
This was an idea that had bipartisan support. My lead cosponsor was my 
friend from North Dakota, Senator Heitkamp. This amendment would have 
expedited the permit process for natural gas gathering lines on Federal 
lands, on Indian lands. Gathering lines are pipelines that collect 
unprocessed gas from oil and gas wells and then ship it to a processing 
plant. At the plant, the different kind of gases--methane, propane--are 
separated from one another. Then they are shipped out again by other 
pipelines to locations where they can be sold and used by people to 
power our country, to power our economy. That is what the producers 
want to do. The problem is, we don't have enough of these gathering 
lines to gather up this gas and send it to the processing plants. So a 
lot of times there is only one option, and that is to flare or vent the 
excess natural gas at the well. If there were more gathering lines, 
then we would have a lot less waste.
  You don't have to take my word for it. Last month, the Obama 
administration proposed a new rule that restricts this kind of flaring 
of oil and gas operations on Federal land and on Indian land. In that 
rule, the administration admitted that the main way to avoid flaring 
``is to capture, transport, and process'' that gas for sale, using the 
same technologies that are used for natural gas wells. It makes sense. 
The administration said that the rate of energy production in some of 
the areas outpaces the rate of development of this infrastructure to 
capture the gas. The administration said the production had overwhelmed 
the capacity of the gathering lines, and Senator Heitkamp and I were 
talking about ways to deal with the problem. Even though the 
administration seems to recognize and give voice to the problem, its 
proposed rule doesn't actually address the problem or provide a 
solution, and Senator Heitkamp and I have a solution.
  The rule doesn't do anything to speed up the permit process for 
natural gas gathering pipelines. The President ignores that component. 
Whether you agree with this new rule or you disagree with it, the only 
practical way to reduce the venting or the flaring of natural gas is to 
build more of these gathering lines. The rule will not work without 
them.
  If we don't build the infrastructure to solve the problem, the 
administration's rule will end up pushing oil and gas production off of 
Federal lands, off of Indian land, and this is completely unacceptable. 
It is unworkable.
  The Obama administration says this type of gas venting and flaring is 
bad for the environment. They say the government is losing royalty 
money because the gas isn't being sold. I agree. That is why the 
bipartisan amendment Senator Heitkamp and I sponsored would solve both 
of these problems at once. Even though we weren't able to get that 
amendment adopted yesterday, this is an idea that all Republicans and 
Democrats should be able to support. It would help Americans get the 
energy we need and do it in a cleaner way and at a lower cost. That is 
the goal.
  I know Senators on both sides of the aisle are going to keep talking 
about this idea, and we are going to keep trying to get it enacted into 
law. These are just two commonsense, bipartisan ideas Republicans and 
Democrats have offered to solve the energy challenges America is 
facing.
  In my home State of Wyoming, people know we need to balance a strong 
economy and a healthy environment. They are in favor of using our 
natural resources responsibly. Part of that is remembering that these 
are resources and resources should be and can be used.
  We should also recognize that the important resource we have in this 
country is American ingenuity. We should be investing in it. We should 
be cutting through the redtape that holds back innovation. Abraham 
Lincoln once said that when we face new and difficult challenges, we 
must think anew, and we must act anew. Lincoln knew the importance of 
setting a big goal, of unleashing the ingenuity of the American people 
to get it done. He had the vision for the transcontinental railroad. He 
also signed the original charter for the National Academy of Sciences. 
We must think anew; we must act anew.
  It is not enough for environmental extremists to say that the 
resources have to stay in the ground. That is not realistic. That is 
not responsible. America can do better, and the American people are 
ready to be part of this solution. They are ready to make energy as 
clean as we can, as fast as we can, without raising costs on American 
families. They need us to help show the way. With this kind of 
bipartisan solution I have been talking about today, I think we can 
take a step toward reaching that goal.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.

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