Is passage of national energy legislation in sight? Perhaps - and it is long overdue. We have debated energy policy for more than four years, and it is time we act in order to provide American consumers affordable and reliable energy supplies.
Consumers paying their heating or electricity bills have felt the pinch of high natural gas prices for some time now. But high natural gas prices affect our economy even more widely. Natural gas is a heat and power source for major industries, including iron and steel, paper, food, glass, cement, textiles, rubber, aluminum and plastics. Natural gas is essential to manufacturing products that we use in our daily lives - from clothing to computers, compact discs, drugs, sports equipment, contact lenses, cosmetics - and the list goes on and on. Natural gas also is used to make strong, lightweight materials that help make cars and planes more fuel efficient.

Clean-burning natural gas has become this nation's fuel of choice. Reliable gas-fired turbines are the natural electricity generation partner for intermittent wind energy projects. Unfortunately, our increasing appetite for natural gas is not being matched by a commitment to develop our domestic gas supplies. As Congress' Joint Economic Committee said, "A combination of policies and circumstances that simultaneously encourages demand while constraining supply is a recipe for problems." The results of this appropriately termed "recipe for problems" are manifest in the facts:

* According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, demand for natural gas is expected to increase by 40 percent by 2025 - yet production of natural gas has remained flat for the last decade.

* The average Midwest household has paid 71 percent more for natural gas heat this past winter than they did five years ago.

* U.S. farmers paid $6 billion more for energy in 2003 and 2004, in part because higher natural gas prices have increased the average cost of nitrogen fertilizer from $100 per ton to more than $350 per ton, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

* Rising energy costs have contributed to the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs - including more than 240,000 lost in energy- intensive industries like forest products and chemicals since 1998.

* U.S. chemical manufacturers have been especially hard-hit by high natural gas prices. Natural gas costs increased by $10 billion since 2003, and $40 billion in business has been lost to overseas competitors who pay less for natural gas.

Almost 27 percent of the nation's technically recoverable natural gas - 284 trillion cubic feet, enough natural gas to fuel more than 70 million homes for 45 years - is here in the Mountain West. Most of it is on nonpark, nonwilderness public lands.

It is even more essential to the nation's economic future because Congress has blocked development of the offshore natural gas resources on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Few states are affected more by natural gas demand than Colorado. For more than a century, the oil and gas industry have been part of this state's fabric. As the sixth-largest producer in the country, we directly employ some 15,000 people in order to meet the needs of both Colorado and U.S. consumers (Colorado is one of only six states that exports more gas than it uses). The communities in which we live and work benefit as well, through oil and gas property taxes ($116 million in 2004) and local sharing of state severance taxes ($58 million in 2004) and federal leasing revenues ($54 million in 2004). These monies support local government programs, including school, fire and other special districts.

America needs affordable and reliable energy, especially natural gas. America's oil and natural gas industry supports a comprehensive energy policy that encourages conservation, sustains a balanced energy portfolio (including alternative energy sources), and emphasizes environmental stewardship. But we can't do an effective job for American consumers and the American economy unless we all make ensuring reliable, affordable energy supplies an urgent national policy goal.

The energy legislation now being considered by the Senate is not perfect, and getting a bill passed will require more debate and a lot of hard work. But continuing to coast along with a patchwork energy policy is a course of action that this country literally cannot afford.


Publication date: 2005-06-20