Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. My friend and colleague from Arizona is absolutely right. The three of us have traveled together to Ukraine. We have traveled together to Latvia and Lithuania.

What we hear everywhere we go is: Please sell us natural gas. Please sell us energy. Please help us undermine what Putin is doing to us.

Energy should be used as a geopolitical weapon, and it is the advances in technology in just the last decade that have made all of this possible. The Senators from Arizona and North Dakota are both correct. We are producing more now than ever. They are well aware of that throughout Europe and throughout the Baltics--to the point that Lithuania is even in the middle of acquiring an at-sea platform to change liquefied natural gas into natural gas--to warm it up, if you will, for use--and it is called the Independence. That is the name of this platform. It is to give them independence from Russia.

That is what they are investing in, and now they are saying to us: Please send it our way.

The technology has changed so much that in 2005 a book came out called ``Beyond Oil,'' and it was sent to every University of Wyoming first-year student coming in. They were invited to read it, and there was a whole section on liquefied natural gas.

At the time the technology wasn't developed enough for us to be so blessed in the United States to produce it, so that they were talking about actually building terminals in Louisiana, Texas, to import liquefied natural gas from other places.

Now we have reversed it. We are now in a position where we have such an abundance of liquefied natural gas, as my colleague from North Dakota said, we are flaring it off, burning it to the point of $1.5 million a day. That is the value of that gas, and there is also tax revenue that is not being collected because this isn't being sold, so our States could use the revenue. The Federal Government would benefit from us selling this rather than burning it, but yet we don't have the opportunity to do so because of the specifics of the laws with which we are faced.

We need to change the law. We need to be able to export. We need to be able to have permits to export, and we are seeing a lot of foot-dragging by this administration, which is why there are bills on this floor, bipartisan pieces of legislation, to help us use our energy abundance as a geopolitical weapon to undermine Vladimir Putin's ability to use energy as a weapon of his own, a club against, as we have said, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia--all of these areas that are so dependent upon Russia for their gas, when they would rather buy it from us.

It would be an opportunity for us in America to become a net exporter in a way that would help balance our trade and balance our payments. It would bring cash back into the United States and we would be so much less dependent on the Middle East for sources of energy. We should be relying on that at home.

I look to my colleague from Arizona and say he is absolutely right in his leadership, in his direction, and in his global view that he has seen in his incredible service to our country. He has seen the shift. He has seen the future, and he knows the future success for our country comes in exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe, to our NATO allies, to Ukraine.

That is why we bring to the floor today the North Atlantic Energy Security Act, which we believe will help our country, help globally, and help us not just economically but help us geopolitically as well.

I turn to my friends from either Arizona or North Dakota to continue in this discussion, and then I will get back to some specific things that are happening around the world.

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Mr. BARRASSO. It is interesting. The Senator from South Dakota, the Senator from Arizona, and I were reviewing this article in today's Wall Street Journal, Thursday, July 10.

The headline is ``In the Arctic, Shipping Route Is Set to Supply LNG to Asia,'' and there is a map of the globe. It says:

Shipping companies in China and Japan said they would start a regular service to carry Siberian natural gas across the Arctic Ocean to East Asia, showing how Asian demand for the fuel is reshaping global shipping routes.

So with the forces at play--Asia's demand for natural gas, Japan's move away from nuclear power, China's struggle with pollution--this is an opportunity for us to use a resource we have in the United States and export it in a very profitable way for our country, put people to work, increase tax revenues to the States, increase tax revenues to the Nation, and improve our balance of trade. The technology is now allowing us to do it, but the government is not. That is the biggest problem we have--a bureaucratic Federal Government that is not allowing what we have and what we have learned to use. The government is blocking it, and that is why we have come to the floor today to try to encourage additional exports to Europe and support the North Atlantic Energy Security Act.

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Mr. BARRASSO. The legislation is bipartisan. We have Republicans and Democrats alike who realize there are incredible values to us as a nation to be exporting liquefied natural gas.

At a time when the technology is there, the will is there, we need to get a vote on the Senate floor. I offered the amendment before and bring it again today as legislation, the North Atlantic Energy Security Act. It is about energy, it is about security--our economic security, our energy security--and our opportunities on the geopolitical stage to use our resources to the best advantage of our Nation and our Nation's citizens.

I thank the Senator from North Dakota for his continued leadership in this area.

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