Oklahoma Congressmen Push for Natural Gas Exploration

By Janice Francis-Smith

Four members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to open more of the U.S. coastline for natural gas exploration.

H.R. 4318, or the Outer Continental Shelf Natural Gas Relief Act of 2005, was authored by Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa. Since the measure was introduced November 15, 117 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors, including Oklahoma’s congressmen John Sullivan, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole and Dan Boren.

Our demand for natural gas is increasing every year, Lucas said. It just makes sense that instead of increasing our imports of natural gas from foreign countries, we should look at our own supplies instead.

The measure would expand states’ control of federal waters along the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS, for natural gas production. The United States’ OCS includes four leasing regions: the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, the Atlantic OCS Region, the Pacific OCS Region and the Alaska OCS Region.

Currently, states’ control over the continental shelf – that is, the undersea plain between the continent and the deep ocean – extends three miles seaward. H.R. 4318 would extend states’ control out to 20 miles for natural gas leasing.

Those states would enjoy 40 percent of the revenue from new natural gas leasing off their coasts. Peterson said that provision could provide billions of dollars for participating states.

The measure would also direct 10 percent of all revenue earned from new offshore natural gas leasing to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, often called LIHEAP, a federal account created to help those in need pay their winter heating bills.

Congress held a hearing on the bill Nov. 17 and referred the measure to the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality. The bill may be up for a vote in the House as early as February. Until then, Peterson and other supporters of the measure have quite a battle ahead of them, as the legislation’s chief Democratic sponsor, Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, indicated during the November hearing.

We’re legislators here, not theologians, Abercrombie said. But unfortunately – we’re coming up against what some people believe is sacred text. As a result, some of us who believe that there’s legitimate reason to raise the issue of how to explore for and extricate natural gas – find ourselves having to defend the very idea that such a question should be asked. And that’s unfortunate.

Environmental groups have successfully opposed repeated attempts to open up more of the U.S. coastline for oil and gas exploration over the past few years. But Peterson is hoping that this winter’s heating bills will encourage more Americans to look more favorably on his legislation as a means to lower prices and reduce America’s dependence on foreign countries for energy resources.

Representatives of manufacturing and agriculture industries were joined by consumer advocates in speaking in favor of the measure at the congressional hearing held before the House Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

Geoffrey Hunt, senior vice president of Massachusetts-based lighting products company Osram Sylvania, and Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, said the rising cost of natural gas is eroding U.S. companies’ global competitiveness.

We are global operators, said Gerard. We have a choice. When the board gets together and asks where we’re going to open chemical plants, and natural gas costs a fraction abroad, it’s not much of a decision. We’ll have to go elsewhere.

David Bradley, the executive director of the National Community Action Foundation, said rising energy bills are pushing more low- income Americans into poverty. Members of the state chapters of the American Farm Bureau also supported the measure.

Not only does the increasing cost of fertilizer affect my bottom line, but it also impacts the economy in my local community, said Keith Oellig of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. And the worst part is that I can’t pass that cost along.

Illinois Farm Bureau President Phillip Nelson said farmers are paying higher expenses for electricity, fertilizers, farm chemicals, heating barns and poultry houses and drying grain due to the rising cost of natural gas, but the price of the food and fibers they produce has not risen accordingly. Nitrogen fertilizer, for instance, today costs twice as much per ton as it did in 2002.

The effect on the agriculture industry was highlighted by Lucas, who represents a largely agrarian district.

Higher natural gas costs are being passed on to consumers, through everything from higher electricity bills to more expensive fertilizer for farmers, Lucas said. We should use all our available resources to alleviate these costs. How much higher must natural gas prices get before we act?

As he advocates for the bill, Peterson has noted that the measure focuses on encouraging natural gas exploration only. In dozens of speeches he has given on the subject, Peterson asks if anybody has ever heard of a beach being spoiled by pollution from a natural gas well – he says he never has.

We’re here today because of a problem caused by government, Peterson said to the subcommittee. But there are solutions. By opening the Outer Continental Shelf, we can take advantage of the largest pot of gas, nearest to the people, without having any adverse impact on the environment – none.