Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. Chairman, the United States is the largest producer of natural gas in the world and has a large and growing natural gas reserves base.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that proven and unproven reserves of natural gas are large enough to fuel America for over 90 years at current consumption rates, and more is being found.

A study sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and published by IHS concluded that unconventional gas development supported over 900,000 jobs in recent years.

The U.S. Department of Energy, however, recently changed the process by which it reviews and approves liquefied natural gas export projects to non-free trade agreement countries.

Among its process changes, the DOE is releasing a new environmental report that explores the life-cycle greenhouse gas impact of U.S. LNG exports. According to the DOE, the report will be used to ``inform its decisions'' regarding greenhouse gas emissions of U.S. LNG exports for use in electric power generation in Europe and Asia.

With this new report, the DOE is compromising with intervening environmental groups that want the criteria and scope of the ``public interest'' to include life-cycle greenhouse gas emission impacts.

While the DOE claims that impacts are not ``reasonably foreseeable'' at this time, by acknowledging special interest environmental group requests for expanded scope of review beyond the LNG facility, the DOE opens the door to prolonged litigation.

LNG export projects already go through extensive environmental impact analysis during the project's National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, review. This new report adds another layer of legal risk and uncertainty to an already extensive and difficult process.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the Cassidy-Fleming amendment and notes that the DOE's sole jurisdiction lies in considering the public interest of exporting the commodity and should not waste funds, potentially delaying license application review in an effort beyond its jurisdiction.

The Cassidy-Fleming amendment prohibits the DOE from applying its report or the perceived impact on life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions in its LNG export public interest determination process, so I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to my colleague from Louisiana, Dr. Fleming.

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