[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5349-H5355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL GAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this House Energy and Commerce 
Special Order is to talk about America's energy dominance, especially 
with natural gas.
  This conversation is very important today because the World Gas 
Conference happens in this town, Washington, D.C., next week. What a 
difference a decade makes.
  When I joined Texas Senator Phil Gramm's office in 1998, one ugly 
word described American oil and natural gas. That word was peak.
  Experts, here and around the world, said America had peaked in our 
production of oil and natural gas.
  Every year, we would buy more oil and gas from foreign sources, and 
we had to buy oil from some companies that didn't like us very much and 
hurt us by taking oil away.
  No one cared about a group called OPEC until they stopped the flow of 
oil that they had and that we needed.
  OPEC was led by Arab nations who were upset that we resupplied our 
best ally ever, Israel, when they were invaded by their neighbors. It 
happened

[[Page H5350]]

in 1973. It happened again in 1979. Gas prices doubled overnight.
  In 1979, I had just gotten my driver's license. My job was to take 
our family cars and fill them with gas that had gotten down to a 
quarter of a gallon in the tank. I got in line for 45 minutes or maybe 
as long as an hour. We could only purchase 20 gallons of gasoline. We 
could only buy that gasoline on days per your license plate. If the 
last number was odd, buy gas on an odd day. Even, even day.
  Heck, a guy on a lawn mower was behind me getting gas one day. That 
is how bad it was just one decade ago.
  But thanks to the American private sector and our ingenuity, 
hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling, America has a whole new 
world order for energy. We have global energy dominance, and that is 
what we are here to talk about today, that special happening right now 
in America.
  Right now, our country, America, is the number one producer of oil 
and gas in the entire world. Our natural gas increasingly powers our 
homes and our businesses, making our air cleaner and our economy 
stronger, especially on the Gulf Coast, where I am from.
  OPEC knows their days of controlling the market and punishing people 
for bad actions they perceive are over. They have right now, as we 
speak, flooded the market with oil to try to keep prices low and stop 
America's newfound energy dominance. They have tried and they have 
failed.
  We had more oil and gas than they had. We have that gas, and now we 
are letting the free market take over, and we have a lot more who can 
tap that in a moment's notice.
  And this doesn't just mean affordable power and gasoline at home. It 
also means American jobs.
  One study last year said over 800,000 jobs in the gas and oil 
industry came to our country for this renaissance. This renaissance, 
this dominance, has allowed us to export natural gas and oil for the 
first time since 1975. Over 40 years not on the market.
  We are going from basically zero exports of natural gas to 10 billion 
cubic feet per day in exports.
  It wasn't long ago we were building terminals to import natural gas, 
and now we are reversing them to export natural gas. That is what 
American energy dominance looks like.
  And as we say in Texas, there is a new sheriff in the global natural 
gas market, and that sheriff's name is Uncle Sam.
  And these huge exports of natural gas are helping America export 
liquid freedom to friends we want to help, and hurt those who use 
energy as a weapon to control other countries.
  For too long, a former KGB spy and Russia's de facto dictator, 
Vladimir Putin, has controlled nations that escaped the Iron Curtain 
when the Berlin Wall fell in 1991. Nations like Lithuania, Estonia, 
Poland, and Ukraine were still beholden to what Ted Poe calls the 
Napoleon of Siberia, Mr. Putin.
  If they did not do what Mr. Putin wanted, they lost all power. 
Summers were scorching; winters were bitter cold. Comply or punish. You 
are not free.
  America, right now, is taking these weapons away from Mr. Putin. 
Cheap natural gas takes away the hooks of tyranny.
  This is important even for countries that don't buy our gas because 
our gas is making the market a true market with competition and lower 
prices. That market puts a lid on bad actors and what they can charge.
  But sadly, this explosion, this dominance, caught the previous 
administration by surprise and we were way behind the curve in getting 
our natural gas on the global market.
  Good news: The Energy and Commerce Committee stepped up in this 
Congress to make sure we get these exports going and these projects 
approved quickly.

                              {time}  1715

  We made sure they are safe, great for our environment, with minimal 
impacts, and we take all of the local concerns into account. But red 
tape and these silly delays hurt us. We have stopped that and have got 
a free market going in so many important ways.
  In this Congress, the 115th Congress, we are using this new 
opportunity to expand our Nation's energy dominance with natural gas. 
This means, for the whole world, cheaper, cleaner power, the jobs that 
come with that, and it brings American jobs back home from overseas.
  Right now, America is exporting freedom to friends and allies and 
taking away a monopoly from bad actors. Get ready, world. Uncle Sam is 
coming to your neighborhood, your hometown.
  I yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), chairman of the 
Energy and Commerce Committee.
  Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Texas, the 
vice chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, who has just been a real 
leader on energy issues across the country and around the globe.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to talk about the shale revolution and what 
it has really meant not only for jobs and growth in America, but energy 
worldwide. The shale revolution and the dramatic increase in domestic 
oil and natural production has really been remarkable. American 
innovation did this. Technological advancements did this. It 
transformed the United States from an importer of natural gas to a 
major exporter.
  The positive effects, the enormous effects are being felt around the 
globe. OPEC and the established gas suppliers like Russia, they all bet 
against the United States. And guess what. They have lost.
  Now, as American energy exports reach world markets, they are losing 
their stranglehold on supply and prices. U.S. LNG exports are going to 
markets across Asia, North America, Europe, and, yes, to even some of 
our allies in the Middle East.
  The rise of the U.S. as a global energy superpower means that energy 
markets are more open. They are more transparent and competitive than 
ever before. And we are creating great American jobs here. We really 
are. If you look at these regions where these finds have been 
discovered and now are being developed, people are getting good wages, 
good jobs. They are building out, and it makes us stronger.
  President Trump didn't want to say, ``We want to be energy 
independent''; he wanted to say, ``America is going to be energy 
dominant.'' And that is what we are becoming. That is a good thing.
  By the way, as we find this new natural gas and we build out more 
generating facilities, we are also reducing our carbon emissions. We 
are below the 1995 levels. I don't think there is a country on the 
planet that has reduced emissions more than the United States during 
this period, so we are making progress there, too.
  The increase in LNG exports around the globe over the past 2 years 
will help us and is the result of continuing expansion in the U.S. LNG 
export capacity. Two LNG projects, Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Cove 
Point in Maryland, have been online since 2016. That has increased the 
U.S. LNG export to 3.6 billion--that is with a B--cubic feet per day.
  There are four more projects scheduled to come online in the next 
couple of years: Elba Island LNG in Georgia and Cameron LNG in 
Louisiana in 2018, and Freeport LNG and Corpus Christi LNG in Texas in 
2019. Once completed, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to reach 9.6 
billion cubic feet per day by the end of 2019. That is the end of next 
year.
  Meanwhile, in my home State of Oregon, work continues on the Jordan 
Cove LNG export facility in Coos Bay.
  As export capacity continues to increase, the United States is 
projected to become the third largest LNG exporter in the world by 
2020, following closely behind Australia and Qatar.
  As chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have prioritized 
a progrowth, proconsumer, all-of-the-above, and, frankly, all-of-the-
below approach to energy that includes a focus on natural gas. We have 
held a number of hearings.
  We have looked into the overall impacts of natural gas development, 
the enormous number of new jobs, good family wages, middle class jobs 
and economic growth, the increased use of natural gas for power 
generation, the reduction in carbon emissions, the need for new 
infrastructure, and the advantages for domestic manufacturing and 
global competitiveness.
  We have looked at all of that in the Energy and Commerce Committee, 
and my colleagues, many of whom you will

[[Page H5351]]

hear from tonight, Mr. Speaker, have really led on this. My colleague 
from Texas (Mr. Olson) has really been a fine leader on the Energy 
Subcommittee.
  I encouraged our Members to work across the aisle. Growing American 
energy and great-paying jobs should be a bipartisan effort. We need to 
improve the regulatory process so we can solve some of the challenges 
that may prevent us from reaching our full American potential.
  This is our century. This is the American century, and we are seeing 
great progress. We cut taxes. We are growing a million jobs and have 
the lowest unemployment rate in decades. We have more job openings than 
people to fill them, and a lot of that has to do with energy.
  For example, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee have 
introduced and the House has passed legislation that would modernize 
the permitting processes for interstate and cross-border natural gas 
pipelines and LNG export facilities. These bills all passed the House 
on a bipartisan basis, Republicans and Democrats getting together, 
getting things done. I am encouraged by the support they are receiving 
in the Senate, too.
  While these bills have not yet been signed into law, the Trump 
administration is very receptive to our approach to improve 
coordination and permit reviews and dedicate a single Federal lead 
agency. Part of the swamp back here is there are so many people, so 
many agencies, and so many duplicative processes that have been 
accumulating for decades.
  And if you are the innovator who wants to do something new, if you 
want to grow jobs in your community, your State, your region, you have 
got to navigate this morass of red tape and regulation and permitting. 
About the time you think you have got it done, some other agency shows 
up, and then somebody else and then somebody else, and your enormous 
investment languishes out there for years and years and years.
  We can do better than that. You can maintain all of the important 
environmental law, but if we have a lead agency, we can find some 
efficiency.
  I think the vice chairman would agree that we might be able to find 
efficiency in the Federal Government. I think it is possible. And I 
think with the lead agency, we can.
  This one-agency, one-decision process is now being rolled out because 
of the Trump administration, with a goal to cut down permitting time to 
2 years or less. I think you can probably do it faster than that, but, 
hey, we will take 2 years or less. That is a big win.
  Our energy security is stronger today than at any point in America's 
history, due in large part to natural gas. Natural gas has contributed 
to jobs and economic development both here in America, here at home, 
and it is improving the efficiency of our power generation fleet. It is 
increasing the competitiveness of our manufacturers who use it as both 
a fuel and a feedstock. It is strengthening our hand diplomatically, 
and it is creating jobs, jobs, jobs, good-paying jobs. It is a win-win 
across the board.
  And so I appreciate the vice chairman's leadership on this special 
time for us to come to the House floor and share the great progress of 
the Energy and Commerce Committee and the country, the bipartisan work 
we are doing, and the great innovative future that lies before us.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Walden for his comments to 
remind the American people and the entire world that this American 
dominance of natural gas has made America's air cleaner for global 
emissions.
  As the chairman knows, America has reduced gas emissions 11 percent 
in the last decade. I told that to people in India this past March and 
they were stunned.
  How did you guys do that? Our air is so dirty? What should we do?
  It is simple: Buy American liquified natural gas.
  And they are doing that right now.
  The next speaker is a good friend from Ohio, a man who Mr. Putin 
fears because he has control of what is called the Utica shale play in 
Ohio.
  A man from India, Prime Minister Modi from India, loves Bill Johnson 
from the great State of Ohio.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and 
colleague, Representative Pete Olson, for partnering with me to colead 
this Special Order tonight on the benefits of natural gas and liquified 
natural gas exports, especially as the United States prepares to hold 
the World Gas Conference next week.
  I am honored to share this floor time with Mr. Olson to talk about 
this very important topic, and I also want to thank many of my 
colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for participating in 
this Special Order tonight to talk about this important topic.
  I represent rural eastern and southeastern Ohio, which is no stranger 
to the benefits of natural gas. My district sits on top of, as 
Representative Olson just mentioned, the Utica and the Marcellus shale 
plays, which have led to a growing interest in new and exciting 
manufacturing opportunities like ethane cracker plants and ethane 
storage opportunities.
  In fact, one recent report led by Shale Crescent USA and IHS Markit 
forecasts that this region will supply 37 percent of the Nation's 
natural gas production by 2040. This same report forecasts that natural 
gas liquid production from these two plays will increase from 0.53 
million barrels per day in 2017 to 1.37 million barrels per day in 
2040, an increase of over 150 percent. Other studies predict that the 
region has sufficient ethane feedstock to support up to five ethane 
cracker plants.
  These opportunities are huge. These are massive construction 
projects, putting upwards of 10,000 construction workers to work over a 
6-year period, with upwards of 1,000 permanent employees once those 
plants go operational.
  Additionally, ethylene projects within the region will have a 
comparative advantage because of the access to ample supplies of 
locally produced, low-cost ethane and because of the fact that the 
region is in close proximity to over two-thirds of U.S. polyethylene 
consumption. And that is only half the story.
  The economic and geopolitical benefits of exporting our excess gas 
are equally exciting as these benefits are helping to encourage oil and 
gas activity throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
  As you will hear from multiple colleagues tonight, the U.S. is now 
the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas, and we are 
projected to become a net energy exporter by 2026. Natural gas 
production is at an all-time high, and reserves are so large that they 
are predicted to meet domestic demand for almost a century.
  Ohio alone reached new heights in October of 2017 as natural gas 
production reached 5.5 billion cubic feet per day. Simply put, we must 
do everything we can to take complete advantage of this abundance, and 
that includes LNG exports.
  However, the window of opportunity for American LNG exports will not 
remain open indefinitely. The U.S. is in fierce competition with other 
LNG-exporting nations, and if America misses our opportunity to get 
into these international markets in a big way, our share of the global 
gas market could be greatly reduced. Subsequently, opportunities to 
support our national security and strengthen the energy security of our 
allies through American LNG will diminish as well.
  So we must continue to elevate and promote the United States as a 
reliable source of natural gas onto the world market, which will 
diversify our friends' and allies' energy sources, greatly reduce their 
vulnerability to a single monopolistic supplier, and change the 
conversation at the table with the likes of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

  Additionally, studies have found that LNG exports support thousands 
of American jobs, many of them within manufacturing. ICF International, 
Inc., estimates that these jobs will occur across the entire value 
chain, translating into millions of dollars in new wages for American 
workers.
  In fact, the Department of Energy once again highlighted the benefits 
of LNG exports with a study it released just this past week. This 
study, which is in addition to four other studies commissioned by DOE 
since 2012, presented data that demonstrates just

[[Page H5352]]

how LNG exports are a net benefit to our economy.
  Additionally, these exports increase our GDP. They lower the trade 
deficit. And it is for those reasons, these reasons, that I have led 
the effort to ensure the U.S. does all it can to take advantage of our 
ability to export natural gas.
  Most recently, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 4606, 
the Ensuring Small Scale LNG Certainty and Access Act, out of committee 
in a bipartisan fashion. I was proud to author this bill, which seeks 
to codify the Department of Energy's recent efforts to encourage 
exports of small volumes of natural gas.
  There is a significant interest in potential for U.S. natural gas in 
the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, although not in the 
quantities that the current large-scale domestic exporting facilities 
were built to address via conventional liquefied natural gas tankers. 
H.R. 4606 will help the U.S. to act on these interests through greater 
regulatory certainty and a reduction in administrative regulatory 
burdens.

                              {time}  1730

  Now, when I first came to Congress in 2011, I worked hard to advance 
the idea that energy independence and security are the next great 
frontiers for America.
  Today, energy independence and security have been replaced by a new 
concept. Mr. Speaker, you have heard Representative Olson mention it, 
and you have heard Chairman Walden mention it. It is called energy 
dominance; and with it, all the global economic and geopolitical 
implications that come with being the king of the energy hill.
  Such an energy vision that harnesses America's innovative 
exceptionalism will lead to new discoveries and technologies around 
domestic energy production, storage, distribution, and usage; and will 
lead us to greater economic prosperity and job growth.
  I am excited to help further that vision which includes natural gas 
and LNG exports. I am excited for all the great opportunities that lie 
ahead for our country, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on 
those benefits tonight.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Ohio. I also thank my 
dear friend for reminding me that Utica is the Marcellus in your 
district. It also reminded me over and over of the benefits the 
gentleman has had in Ohio. Rough parts in the country had some bad 
years, some down times. We have something that Texas called the Eagle 
Ford shale play that goes down from basically San Antonio to Laredo, a 
rough part of Texas, not very much growth there. When Zavala happened 
back home--I was down there about 3 years ago--a man got his first 
royalty check. He was thrilled. He goes to his bank to deposit, in his 
Sunday best suit, and says to the guy there: Put this in my account.
  His banker said: Great, I got it.
  He puts it in his account. He comes back and says: Okay, that is 
100,000--whoa, whoa, whoa--100,000? I thought it was 1,000.
  His mind could not see the zeros, the periods, and the commas. We 
changed his world with American ingenuity.
  The next person up is the former leader of this committee, the 
chairman, a proud Texas Aggie, and the single most strongest force to 
get the crude export ban lifted that was installed in 1975, Chairman 
Joe Barton from Ennis, Texas.
  Mr. BARTON. I thank Congressman Olson for his leadership as vice 
chairman of the subcommittee and a tireless leader on behalf of energy 
in this country.
  Also, I want to thank Congressman Johnson for his strong efforts and 
also compliment him on his playing in last week's Congressional 
Baseball Game. Congressman Duncan was also on the team and played well 
as shortstop.
  Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania back in the mid-1800s. As the oil 
industry began to develop, they more and more would run into what we 
would today call associated gas. Every now and then while drilling for 
oil they would hit a well that didn't have any oil, but all it had was 
what today we call natural gas.
  They didn't know what to do with it. They used the oil to make 
kerosene, lubricants, and home heating oil and things like that, but 
they didn't have a real purpose for natural gas. So they would just 
flare it, just literally in the field, light a match, put a flare pipe 
up and flare it. As time went on, they discovered that it had a fairly 
high Btu energy content, and they discovered a way to contain it, to 
store it, and to transport it through pipelines. Because it was a gas, 
it was not a liquid in its natural state, so while it was not as 
valuable as oil, it had enough value that it was worth looking for and 
worth keeping.
  You rock along and you rock along, and in the 1950s and 1960s, we 
began to set price controls on natural gas in interstate commerce. The 
Federal Government would regulate the price and as a consequence people 
stopped looking for it, because it wasn't economic to find it unless 
you could find a well that you could sell in intrastate commerce, 
within the State.
  When I ran for Congress in 1984, I ran on the platform of repealing 
what was called the Natural Gas Price Act of 1978 where Congress had 
set a price control on interstate natural gas in some cases as low as 2 
cents per 1,000 cubic feet. Gas in the intrastate market, deep gas, was 
selling as high as $15 per 1,000 cubic feet. There is a big difference 
between $15 and 2 cents.
  One of my first accomplishments in Congress under President George 
Herbert Bush, the first President Bush, was to see the NGPA repealed. 
The Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 was repealed, and it was my 
amendment that did that. So I was very proud of that.
  Rock along a few more years, and in 2005, I was chairman of the 
Agriculture Committee, and we were doing a major energy bill, the 
Natural Gas Policy Act of 2005. We did a lot of things in that bill. We 
felt at that time that there was going to be a shortage of natural gas 
in this country. Some of the States, States like Massachusetts, 
California, and New York, were trying to prohibit import terminals for 
natural gas, for liquefied natural gas, LNG, being built. The States 
would not give the permits.
  So in the infinite wisdom of the Congress, we passed, as a part of 
the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a section, an amendment to the bill, 
that gave ultimate decisionmaking authority to the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Because we thought we were going to 
need to build these import terminals to import natural gas and the 
States were going to try to thwart it, we required a consultation with 
the States. The States had to be involved in the process, but the 
ultimate decision would be made by the Federal Government under the 
auspices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
  A funny thing happened, Mr. Speaker. Some oil producers and gas 
producers down in Texas--one of them was a Texas Aggie, a guy named 
George Mitchell--decided that you had all these shale formations, and 
there were hydrocarbons in them, but they were like rock. Literally, if 
you look at a core sample of some of these shale formations, which you 
all had mentioned today in this Special Order, it is just like solid--
it is solid rock.
  George Mitchell and others decided, by golly, we can get natural gas 
out of that if we fracture the rock under pressure and create tiny 
little cracks where natural gas can escape from. Come to find out it 
worked. Then they also decided: Do you know what? Instead of drilling 
the classic vertical well, what if we bent the drill bit at a 90-degree 
angle and drilled horizontally?
  Son of a gun if that didn't work too.
  So the combination of hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling 
made all of these shale formations economic, and the result was an 
absolute bonanza of natural gas available at economically recoverable 
prices in the United States of America.
  Congressman Johnson has mentioned some of the formations up in his 
part of the country, the Marcellus and the Utica. Of course, Mr. Olson 
talked about the Eagle Ford shale down in Texas, the Barnett shale in 
my part of Texas. All over this country--Pennsylvania, even in New 
York, California, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, 
Ohio, and Kansas--there are shale formations--literally almost 
everywhere in the United States--and in most of those shale formations, 
it is economically recoverable

[[Page H5353]]

to drill for natural gas--and in some cases for oil also--but tonight 
we are talking about natural gas.
  Funny things happened. We didn't need to import natural gas. We had 
so much of it, we could export it. We used that provision we put in the 
Energy Policy Act of 2005 to begin to license, not import terminals but 
export terminals. Congressman Olson, Congressman Johnson, and Chairman 
Walden have talked--and I am sure Mr. Bucshon and Mr. Duncan will talk 
later--about the economic consequences of that. We are exporting or 
going to export about 2 billion cubic feet a day this year of liquified 
natural gas.
  We are going to quadruple that in the next few years. If you look at 
the economic value of that, if you assume that you are selling it 
overseas about $4 per 1,000 cubic feet, this year we will export three-
quarters of a trillion dollars--a trillion dollars is a thousand 
billion. And not in the near future, we are going to be exporting 
several trillion dollars worth of natural gas every year, hundreds of 
thousands of jobs, just an economic--I don't know what you would call 
it--a bonanza. It is not a windfall because it is not luck. It is hard 
work. It is American ingenuity and American technology. It is 
revolutionizing the energy markets.
  As has been pointed out, we are also beginning to export oil as a 
consequence of the ban being repealed for crude oil exports. That is a 
story for another Special Order.
  The future for natural gas in this country as a source of fuel is 
unlimited. The economic benefits are obvious, but there is another 
benefit, and it is the ability to export freedom. When we export our 
natural gas, in many cases we are exchanging the source of the supply 
from a totalitarian--not quite totalitarian, but certainly not a 
totally democratic country like Russia--with a free country like the 
United States.
  Now, it has been mentioned that Qatar, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia are 
also large exporters of natural gas, and they are allies of the United 
States, friends of the United States. But they don't have, as of yet, 
the purely democratic institutions, the totally free markets, and the 
free market capitalistic system that we have here.
  So when we send our natural gas overseas, we are also sending to the 
countries that use it, economic, and in some cases, political freedom. 
They cannot be held hostage to sources of supply that don't have the 
same democratic values that we do.
  So, as Congressman Johnson pointed out earlier, the World Natural Gas 
Conference is here in Washington next week. A number of us will 
participate in that conference. It is really a tribute to the natural 
gas industry in the United States that they have used the American 
innovative spirit and American technology to create a product which 
brings benefits economically not only here but overseas, and it really 
helps, in my opinion, put freedom in the driver's seat.
  So this is a great Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Olson for leading it and the 
other members of the Energy and Commerce Committee for participating. I 
am proud to be a part of this group.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend from Texas. I want to 
thank my dear friend for also saying the name of George Mitchell. As 
you know, George Mitchell revolutionized our energy with hydraulic 
fracturing, directional drilling of the Barnett shale play by Fort 
Worth. It took Mr. Mitchell 35 or 36 wells to drill before the first 
one came back viable.

                              {time}  1745

  That money was private sector money, not money from D.C. The private 
sector made this revolution possible. I thank the gentleman for 
reminding us about what happened.
  By the way, people think the gentleman's car may be there, the 
Corvette convertible, in the background. It looks like a 1959, maybe a 
1963.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Bucshon), a 
good friend and also a doctor
  Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Olson and Mr. Johnson for 
hosting this Special Order.
  Manufacturing is a key industry that helps drive Indiana's strong 
economy. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, 
Indiana manufacturers exported $33.78 billion in goods and employed 
16.8 percent of the Hoosier workforce in 2016. Much of the credit for 
such a strong manufacturing presence in Indiana is its relationship 
with natural gas.
  In 2016, a comprehensive study was released detailing the positive 
effects that domestic natural gas brought to communities across the 
Nation. The study prepared by the National Association of Manufacturers 
provides examples of how natural gas is increasing the industrial 
strength and worldwide competitiveness of American companies.
  Among the findings, the study said that the natural gas industry has 
added nearly 1.9 million total jobs to the economy and saved working 
American families an average of $1,300 in disposable income in a single 
year through the production and use of shale gas.
  According to the study, the U.S. supply of natural gas is projected 
to increase by 48 percent throughout the course of the next decade, 
resulting from the growing demand for this energy source.
  During periods of high commodity prices, companies that rely on a 
high volume of natural gas to manufacture products can find it 
difficult to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly global 
market. However, an abundant supply of domestic natural gas has led to 
a reduction in natural gas prices. In turn, this increased 
affordability is allowing these companies to increase their 
manufacturing output.
  Further, the transportation of natural gas through an expanding 
national pipeline network means that this clean-burning natural 
resource is also becoming more accessible for American companies and 
presents a growing number of manufacturing opportunities.
  Through the increased production of domestic shale gas alone, more 
than a million American jobs were created to help meet the demand for 
the energy source.
  Additionally, the need for the manufacturing of new natural gas 
transmission pipelines across the Nation added several hundred thousand 
jobs on top of that. This surge in new jobs, coupled with the monetary 
profits gained from additional natural gas production, has led to a GDP 
hike of $190 billion. Ultimately, this translates into more disposable 
income in the pockets of hardworking Americans.
  Finally, the use of natural gas, both as a fuel source and a raw 
material, has resulted in environmental benefits as well, and we should 
not lose sight of that.
  With the International World Gas Conference just 1 week away, I am 
proud of the continued growth and success of our domestic natural gas 
industry, which is helping to power this country's economic and 
manufacturing growth.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Johnson), my cohost, to follow up the comments of Dr. Bucshon as we 
transition to going overseas.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas mentioned 
it; Chairman Walden mentioned it; Mr. Barton mentioned it. We should be 
celebrating, and that is what we are doing here tonight. All America 
should be celebrating the good fortune that we have to be blessed with 
such an abundance of natural gas.
  In my home State of Ohio, and many other areas in the Midwest and 
Appalachia, the production of natural gas and its valuable liquid 
byproducts is providing a much-needed boost to our local economies.
  Let me give you some figures. From 2011 to the end of May 2018, we 
had drops in unemployment in the counties that comprise my 18-county 
district by more than 48 percent. Some of those counties, especially 
the ones that have the heavy shale plays, have seen drops of 
unemployment upward of 60 percent. It is unbelievable.
  In addition to the direct benefits, the natural gas industry also 
supports hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs across the country 
and supplies our industries with a reliable and affordable source of 
domestic energy.
  Next week, as thousands of visitors and dignitaries from around the 
world arrive here in D.C. to attend the World Gas Conference, we should 
reflect on

[[Page H5354]]

our country's energy dominance--you have heard that term several 
times--and how that affects our standing on the world stage.
  According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States 
has remained the world's top producer of natural gas ever since 2009, 
when we surpassed Russia in production levels.
  Additionally, last year, we set a record in natural gas production, 
with gross withdrawals reaching almost 91 billion cubic feet per day.
  I am telling you, Mr. Speaker, this is a big deal for America. It is 
charting the way for a new future of energy dominance and leverage not 
only in the economic energy markets, but also on the international 
stage.
  So there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about where America is 
going on the energy front because of natural gas.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 15 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina 
(Mr. Duncan), from the home of William Barret Travis, the commander of 
the Alamo.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
holding this Special Order and for recognizing South Carolina's role in 
helping the Republic of Texas.

  You heard the words from the gentleman from Ohio about the economic 
impact on his State, and on America, with America's energy independence 
and the renaissance that we are experiencing.
  In a tax reform committee hearing today, Chairman Walden talked about 
the economic benefits of tax reform on the energy sector, but also on 
America.
  We are blessed in this country with natural resources. We have an 
abundance of natural gas.
  What does an abundance of natural gas mean? That means that, last 
year, for the first time since 1957, we are an exporter of natural gas.
  Now what does that mean not only for American producers that are 
providing the natural gas and the LNG terminals that are being built 
along the coastal regions in Houston and Louisiana--and, hopefully, one 
day in South Carolina, we will have an LNG terminal to help us play a 
part in that--but what does that mean for our allies and friends around 
the world? Well, just think about it.
  Mexico is a huge importer of U.S. LNG. Not only are they importing 
natural gas through a pipeline from the plays down in Eagle Ford and 
Barnett in Texas, but they are also importing LNG.
  We all know the situation in Venezuela. Venezuela is imploding. So 
many countries in South America, Latin America, are relying on 
Venezuelan energy. The Caribbean nations are relying on Venezuelan 
energy. South American countries are relying on that.
  If we can provide, through LNG exports, sustainable, reliable energy 
sources for the Caribbean nations, that is a game changer for them, the 
Panama Canal being a distribution hub for U.S. LNG to be distributed 
all through Latin America.
  I was in Spain recently and talked with the Spanish folks. They want 
to be the LNG importer of American LNG so they can distribute across 
Western Europe so that Western Europe can be less reliant on Russian 
gas.
  Europe is reliant on Russian gas, and Russia definitely has used the 
spigot for energy sources as a political tool against Europe. In fact, 
the Lithuanian President recently said this: ``U.S. gas imports to 
Lithuania and other European countries is a game changer in the 
European gas market. This is an opportunity for Europe to end its 
addiction to Russian gas and ensure a secure, competitive, and 
diversified supply.''
  American LNG exported to our friends and allies around the world is a 
game changer for the geopolitics of energy. We can provide abundant 
natural gas that we have produced in this country to folks around the 
world and lessen their dependence on less reliable sources. American 
businesses will benefit from that, and our neighbors and friends will 
benefit from that. That is why it is so important.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order 
tonight and for allowing me to speak about something I am very 
passionate about and that is using the abundant resources we have in 
this country to change lives around the globe.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, since I have known the gentleman, he has been 
a champion for American energy independence. Drill, baby, drill. Frack, 
baby, frack.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus), 
the chairman of the Environment Subcommittee.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, it is great to be here tonight to talk 
about something that we have talked about quite a bit. I am glad to see 
the gentleman has, obviously, the LNG terminal and the Lithuanian-
flagged Independence. I also brought it down.
  I don't have to be as complete in my comments, because I have heard 
the comments of easing and helping Europeans be independent of imported 
Russian natural gas.
  Lithuania is on the Baltic Sea. I am the chairman of the Baltic 
Caucus. We have Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. I have spent a lot of 
time watching them and encouraging them in their actual leadership of 
Eastern Europe. They set out in 2014 to become independent of Russian 
gas. So they went through the process of getting the LNG terminal.
  I love the name. It is called the Independence so they can be 
independent and free. They have a history of being extorted by the 
Russians in the crude oil department. There is a refinery there called 
Mazeikiu Nafta, which a U.S. company bought and then the Russians 
turned off the oil.
  So those are the extortions and the concerns. Now what they have is 
the ability to compete in the open market. They had their first LNG gas 
come from the United States earlier in 2017. They now have an ability 
to negotiate for the best price, which helps a lot.
  First of all, it helps their citizens. It helps, obviously, their 
businesses. It also helps the allies in surrounding countries. What 
they have now been able to do is negotiate through the Baltic region of 
pipelines and storage, and we have had talks, as you know, on smaller 
export LNG vessels to be able to get to smaller communities.
  We are a party of all-of-the-above technology. We believe in having 
the energy resources compete for lower prices. I am glad the gentleman 
from Texas came down here and is expounding the virtues of freedom it 
has provided for the Baltic countries, and I look forward to continuing 
shipping U.S. liquefied natural gas, which helps our balance of trades 
and creates jobs in America, to our allies and friends around the 
globe.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, this was not coordinated. We came together 
with pictures of the Independence. But my friend knows this better than 
I do. How many people turn out--those are ordinary people--to watch a 
tanker come into port? Why are they coming out to watch that tanker? It 
is because they know that tanker is their freedom from Mr. Putin and 
Russia.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gaetz). The gentleman from Texas has 8 
minutes remaining.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. 
Tipton).
  Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for 
yielding.
  This is really about creating jobs on American soil, creating 
opportunities, literally, for our families to be able to have better 
prospects for the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to be able to talk about, not only America, 
but the world's energy future. In my district of Colorado, we benefit 
from vast energy resources. In 2016, we learned that one of these 
resources, natural gas, has even greater potential than initially 
thought.

                              {time}  1800

  The U.S. Geological Survey announced that the Mancos shale formation 
in Piceance Basin had the potential to be the second largest natural 
gas deposit in the United States. The abundance of natural gas in 
western Colorado puts us in the unique position to be able to create 
jobs here at home and also to supply American allies with reliable 
sources of energy well into the future.

[[Page H5355]]

  For too long, our Nation's adversaries have supplied America's allies 
with energy resources. We cannot let countries like Russia lead in the 
global energy market when the U.S. has the resources to be able to 
supply countries in Europe and Asia with affordable and reliable 
energy.
  Last year I called on the administration to examine a project that 
would allow for the U.S. to send LNG to Asian markets. The proposed 
Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline would transfer the natural gas from 
Piceance Basin in western Colorado to the Jordan Cove terminal in Coos 
Bay, Oregon.
  The Jordan Cove terminal is estimated to have the capacity to be able 
to transport 7.8 million metric tons of LNG annually to the Pacific 
Northwest and Asia. Unfortunately, under the previous administration, 
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied the application for the 
Jordan Cove project, citing a lack of global demand. Not long after the 
application was denied, Jordan Cove procured an agreement for 75 
percent of the pipeline's capacity, proving that there is demand for 
U.S. LNG in Asia.
  It is my hope that FERC will soon approve the resubmitted application 
for the Jordan Cove project and we can bring good-paying jobs to 
western Colorado and send clean, affordable, and reliable energy to 
Asia.
  As the U.S. works to advance technologies that decrease the 
environmental footprint of energy production, it cannot be ignored that 
countries like China and India continue to be some of the world's top 
polluters. We can responsibly develop U.S. natural gas resources to be 
able to benefit communities across our Nation and by transporting our 
energy resources to countries around the globe. The United States can 
have a measurable impact on the economies and environmental health of 
communities overseas.
  The United States cannot sit back and let other countries lead the 
world into the energy future. The time for responsible development of 
natural gas is now and to be able to create jobs here at home.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Colorado for his 
comments. The gentleman is always welcome here. I thank my friend for 
pointing out the fact that, we think oil and gas in America, we think 
the coasts: the Gulf Coast, Pacific Coast, Atlantic Coast.
  But my friend enlightened us. It is not just the coasts. It is the 
heart and soul of America, the interior, States like Colorado, Wyoming, 
North Dakota. All these States have shale plays. All these States are 
booming now with American energy production.
  I would like to close with a couple comments and maybe take a tour of 
the world as it stands today.
  We started exporting our natural gas less than 2 years ago. Right 
now, 29 countries have received American liquified natural gas. Those 
countries are Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, China, 
the Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, 
Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, 
Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, 
and the UK.
  American energy has touched the entire world. They are feeling our 
dominance in a very healthy and great way. We are giving them their 
freedom. Liquid American freedom is on the market right now.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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