[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2678-S2679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Natural Gas Flaring

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments to 
speak on an issue that, as you know, is important to American families 
all across the country.
  Hardworking Americans long for cheap and efficient sources of energy 
for their homes, for their businesses, and for their schools, and one 
of the answers--not the only answer, but one of the answers--to this 
dilemma is clean-burning natural gas.
  Natural gas is an abundant energy source that, unfortunately, in some 
cases is being squandered. We can do a better job of getting the fuel 
to consumers. In fact, we waste too much of this useable fuel source 
through a process known as natural gas flaring. Natural gas flaring is 
a practice where the natural gas is intentionally burned off at a drill 
site.
  What I can happily report, however, is that President Trump and his 
administration have begun to take the necessary steps to address the 
underlying causes for this inexcusable waste.
  Just last month, President Trump signed a pair of executive orders to 
expedite the construction of pipelines that will allow oil and natural 
gas to be safely and economically transported from drill sites to end 
users.
  The President took the courageous first step in addressing a problem 
that has been present for far, far too long, and I am talking, of 
course, about the lack of infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure 
not only chips away at the great economic benefits our country receives 
thanks to our drilling boom, but without pipelines and other means of 
transport, processing, and storage, the cheaper and cleaner burning 
natural gas is too often wasted--natural gas, mind you, that could be 
powering businesses, schools, and even tens of millions of homes across 
the United States.
  I would also like to note that I would be remiss if I didn't mention 
the environmental benefits of natural gas. Simply put, natural gas is 
an environmentally friendly fuel source. This abundant fuel is not only 
incredibly efficient, with a 92-percent energy efficiency, but the use 
of natural gas reduces carbon emissions as well. When compared to other 
fossil fuel sources, burning natural gas results in far fewer 
pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, nonmethane organic 
gas, and carbon dioxide. In fact, depending on the pollutant, using 
natural gas can mean a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 90 
percent--90 percent--in some cases.
  As our drilling boom continues in America, by implementing greater 
direct use of natural gas, we can cut thousands and thousands of tons 
of carbon emissions from our atmosphere every year, and these are 
numbers that we should all be able to get behind.
  Ever since the advent of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal 
drilling, we have been able to extract crude oil from deposits that we 
not only didn't think we could ever reach but from deposits we didn't 
even know existed until a few years ago.
  American ingenuity is truly an amazing thing, and that American 
inventiveness and perseverance have led the United States in becoming 
the world's leader in oil production. Did you ever think America would 
lead the entire world in oil production?
  Unfortunately, the infrastructure to support this boom has lagged. 
When drilling for oil, it is not an a la carte menu. Once the drill 
reaches the desired deposit and begins pumping the targeted crude oil 
to the surface, what is also brought to the surface alongside the crude 
oil is natural gas. You simply cannot drill for shale oil and not 
extract natural gas.
  The problem, however, is while we should be looking at this 
phenomenon as a net positive--one drill extracting two sources of 
energy--far too often this natural gas byproduct is wasted because the 
infrastructure is simply not there to move the large quantity of 
natural gas to consumers. In one of our Nation's busiest oil fields--
perhaps the busiest, at least operating in America today--the Permian 
Basin in the great State of Texas and the great State of New Mexico, 
our shale drillers have long complained that they have no way to move 
natural gas to the market because there simply aren't enough natural 
gas pipelines. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that not only is there 
a severe lack of pipelines, there is a severe lack of alternative 
transportation options as well. When it comes to transporting oil and 
natural gas, we have four alternatives: pipeline, train, truck, and 
boat--pipeline, train, truck, and boat. Until President Trump signed 
his Executive orders last month--one requiring the Transportation 
Department to allow liquefied natural gas to be shipped via specialized 
rail and tanker trucks--too much of the natural gas extracted had no 
way of getting to open markets. In the Permian Basin alone--remember in 
Texas and New Mexico--about 3 percent of the natural gas that comes to 
the surface with the oil is flared. That means it is just burned off. 
It is wasted.
  Now, 3 percent may not initially sound like a lot, but when you run 
the numbers, it becomes clear that we are wasting a vast amount of 
money and a huge source of energy. There is so much oil being extracted 
in the Permian Basin alone that over $1 million worth of natural gas is 
burned away, flared, wasted every day; $1 million worth of natural 
gas--a relatively clean source of energy, better for our environment--
is burned away every single day. To put that in perspective, the entire 
daily energy needs of Montana or New Hampshire could be met with just 
the gas that is flared in 1 day in the Permian Basin. A further look at 
the numbers suggests that by the end of 2018 alone, so much natural gas 
was burned off in the Permian Basin that the entire residential energy 
needs of Texas for the year could have been met--the entire State of 
Texas.
  The problem is likely only going to get worse. The Permian Basin is 
far from the only area in which flaring occurs today in our country. 
Just accounting for the month of October this past year in North 
Dakota, it was reported that the amount of gas flared or burned off or 
wasted was enough to heat 4.25 million homes. The amount of natural gas 
flared, burned, wasted for the month of October, just in North Dakota, 
would have heated 4.25 million homes. This has to change. We simply 
cannot continue to sit by as millions of dollars are literally burned 
off every day into the atmosphere.
  I thank President Trump. He took some great initial steps in trying 
to solve the wastefulness inherent in flaring from speeding up the 
construction of much needed pipelines to ordering increased use of 
specifically designed trains and tanker trucks. The American people 
will have far more access to this abundant and ever-present fuel source 
for their homes, for their businesses, and for their schools. There is

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still a long way to go--a long way to go. Additional miles of pipeline 
and specialized train cars are just the beginning. I believe we can do 
better--much better, in fact--than simply sitting idly by as we watch 
good fuel being burned off into the night sky.
  (Ms. McSALLY assumed the Chair.)

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