Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to express concerns about the Menendez/Burr amendment, to include the NAT GAS Act in the transportation bill.

This legislation would provide tax credits to promote natural gas vehicles and refueling infrastructure by imposing a user fee on natural gas fuel used as vehicle fuel. Although the tax credits are detailed in the legislation, it is less certain whether the imposition of a new tax applied to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) used for transportation will cover the costs of the subsidies.

Instead of providing more directives from Washington to the marketplace, Congress should be concerned with the overall access to energy, and the President should work to alleviate the pain caused by his policies which raise energy prices. Companies and consumers can make their own choices about what fuel to use, and what kind of car to drive. We should be out of the game of favoring one choice over another, and ensure that fuel supplies are not unnecessarily restricted.

Consumer choice should be the driver of technology in the marketplace, not securing favor in Washington. In fact today consumers can evaluate a myriad of vehicles that fit their needs, from hybrids to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. In addition, the high cost of gasoline and lower cost of natural gas has already led General Motors and Chrysler/Dodge to announce plans to build natural gas fueled pick-up trucks.

While the market is already seeing some transition toward natural gas vehicles, President Obama's policies to limit supplies of fossil fuels could cause economic pain for natural gas users in the future. President Obama's support of duplicative, unnecessary regulations at the federal level, raising taxes on producers, and restricting access to federal lands by keeping them off-limits or by slow-walking permits, will result in raising natural gas prices by reducing supply.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration continues to enact policies that harm oil and natural gas production. Consider the rising cost of gasoline and the Obama administration's failure to take concrete actions to alleviate the pain Americans are feeling at the pump. The average U.S. price of a gallon of regular gasoline has more than doubled since the week of his inauguration in January 2009, from $1.84 to $3.82.

I have great pride for my home state of Texas, and the countless producers and operators who have made Texas the leading U.S. producer of oil and natural gas, and we know that America has only just begun to tap its vast resources. Unfortunately, the Obama administration's proposed offshore oil and natural gas leasing plan for 2012 to 2017 eliminates 50 percent of lease sales provided for in the previous plan, and imposes a moratorium on developing energy from 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Expanding access to federal onshore and offshore lands, and eliminating permit delays for leases, could help reduce prices and strengthen our energy security while creating jobs and boosting tax revenues. The moratorium on exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, and persistent delays for permits in shallow and deep water leases, could result in a 19 percent decrease in production in 2012 compared to 2010, according to the Energy Information Administration.

At the same time the President highlights our Nation's vast natural gas resources, his administration through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering burdensome new regulations on which would make securing that fuel much more difficult. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that the EPA alone ``is moving forward with 31 major economic rules and 172 major policy rules'' that affect our energy supply. The Chamber rightly calls this ``an unprecedented level of regulatory action.''

Given the Administration's track record with gasoline prices, it is easy to see a similar direction for natural gas prices in the future--particularly as the EPA continues to propose devastating regulations that lead to the retirement of coal-fired electricity generation and ensure greater demand for natural gas in power generation. American energy producers are also deeply worried about the EPA's proposed greenhouse gas regulations, which will serve as an energy tax on all consumers.

I know there are natural gas producers and transit authorities in my State who favor this legislation, however, instead of directing demand for a product, I believe we should concern ourselves with ensuring ample supplies of the fuels we need. We should promote access to our Nation's natural gas, and discourage duplicative regulations, and stay out of the business of manipulating demand for its use and leave that to the marketplace.

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