AGA Chief Critical Of Hold Up On US Energy Bill
Friday November 21, 6:55 pm ET
HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--The American Gas Association's chief administrative officer weighed in Friday on what he called "a minority of U.S. senators who turned their backs" on natural gas customers by blocking a controversial energy bill.
Those senators should be held accountable, said David Parker, president of the AGA, a consortium of gas utility companies based in Washington.
The blocking action dealt a severe setback to President George W. Bush's proposal to redirect the nation's energy agenda toward increased production of oil, gas, coal and corn-based ethanol.
Critics of the bill, both Democrats and Republicans, said it would provide too many favors to industry and hinder cleanup of water fouled by MTBE, a gasoline additive.
"It's a bill - not a policy," said Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - News) International's president Darcel L. Hulse, commenting in a panel discussion at a natural gas summit in Houston this week.
Also critical was Matt Simmons, an energy investment banker in Houston and an energy consultant to the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign. Simmons earlier this week said the bill offers no short-term solution to the nation's natural gas shortage and pointed to a generally flat gas production rate through the last several years.
The Republican-led bill includes hundreds of provisions for energy and related industries including $23.5 billion in tax breaks and a proposal to double ethanol use, an economic boon to farmers.
Supporters of the bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said will cost taxpayers nearly $32 billion, say the legislation would open the doors for new investment in the U.S. electric grid, provide loan guarantees for construction of a natural-gas pipeline from Alaska to Chicago and provide $23.5 billion in tax incentives for domestic oil and gas development and alternative energy.
But that Alaska pipeline is years away. Even Alaska's Republican Gov. Frank H. Murkowski, a former senator elected last year to the governor's seat, says the time is now to bring Alaskan gas to the U.S. markets.
"Literally 30 years of work have been put into bringing Alaska's tremendous gas resources to market," the governor said this week at a natural gas summit in Houston.
"This has always been a big challenge and often we've been told to wait for the market to welcome us. Now the time has come," he said.
Murkowski pointed to urgent market needs for Alaskan gas in Alaska, Canada, the Lower U.S. 48 states and the Pacific Rim.
But Parker, one of the natural gas industry's chief lobbyists, Friday limited his criticism to those Senate votes that held up the consideration of the bill on Friday.
"We are extremely disappointed that a minority of senators used parliamentary tactics to block consideration of a bill that otherwise would have won approval of a clear majority of the Senate," said Parker.
The energy bill was overwhelmingly passed earlier this week by the Republican- led House.
Parker, who earlier this week predicted victory for the bill by a slight margin, said the Senate vote not only denies U.S. consumers greater supplies of clean, efficient natural gas at affordable prices, but also abandons low-income and working families."
The AGA's chief administrative officer said the energy bill also seeks to expand funding for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Natural gas meets nearly 25% of the U.S. energy needs. The AGA represents 191 local energy utility companies that deliver natural gas to more than 53 million homes, businesses and industries throughout the U.S.
-By John Edmiston, Dow Jones Newswires, 713-547-9209; john.edmiston@dowjones.com |
