Expanding Access to Sustainable Energy Act of 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, if I would have come before this House in 2005 and said to my colleagues, ``I have a policy proposal. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in parts of the country that have lost them. It will help free us from wars in the Middle East. It will save middle-class families hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year on their energy bills. And the best part is, it will allow us to reduce carbon emissions for the first time in the history of the United States,'' that would sound like a Democratic policy--more jobs, less war, lower bills, less carbon.

That policy was the shale revolution, and it was, in truth, a partnership between government research and entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania and Texas and other places that figured out new techniques to get natural gas out of the ground.

Some have opposed the continuation of natural gas drilling simply because it is a fossil fuel, and I ask them: Who gets credit for the reduced carbon emissions over the last 15 years? Natural gas has made a bigger difference than anything. But we still have a duty to continue trying to improve that process.

A lot of people don't realize that the National Energy Technology Laboratory, NETL, that exists in western Pennsylvania, has never given up on trying to clean up these processes. They have made great gains, particularly in the area of produced water and taking the water that is used to get the gas out of the ground and removing the contaminants so that the water can be recycled and used over and over again. We have already seen that in the short life of shale drilling in western Pennsylvania. The NETL has improved recycling of water immensely.

My amendment would give additional money to the Secretary of Energy to double down on this research and, most importantly, establish a demonstration project for the first time ever to better recycle and dispose of this water right onsite, eliminating the loud and noisy trucks that drive through people's neighborhoods and the risk of contaminating our water table.

This has been a tremendous technology for western Pennsylvania and the United States, and we can continue making it better.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source