Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. FLEMING. I thank my good friend, who is also from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), and I do support the Cassidy-Fleming amendment.
Mr. Chairman, the President has bragged about the increase in energy production during his tenure as President of the United States.
However, what we have actually found is that there has been a 15 percent decline in energy production on Federal lands and offshore, where he is in control. On the other hand, in the private sector, we have had a veritable explosion in production, if you don't mind my using that term.
What is that reflective of? It is reflective of the miracle that is fracking, which is going on in the U.S. today.
One of the centers of that is the Haynesville shale in my district, where we have produced an abundance of natural gas. We used to have to import it from other countries. Today, we have such a glut that we have capped many of the wells.
Natural gas is the cleanest carbon-based energy; so, while we are taking down coal, why aren't we increasing the production of natural gas? In doing so, why not supply it to the rest of the world? Because the air we breathe in the United States is the same air they breathe in China and in Russia and vice versa.
I support this amendment. Let's stop throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery of natural gas production and energy production in general, and let's get the cost of energy down for Americans.
Let's stop this nonsense, this hyperregulatory atmosphere we have. Despite the President's claim, it is American ingenuity--it is innovation by Americans, specifically fracking technology and horizontal drilling--that has brought about this wonderful miracle that we have.
Let's get on board. Let's get both sides of the aisle on board with this, and let's stop messing around with our technology. This is going to be the first LNG export facility--that is, Lake Charles, which is just below my district, in Congressman Boustany's district--from which we are going to be supplying the rest of the world with natural gas--which, as I say, has half the carbon footprint of coal.
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