The Source - Spring 2009 - (Page 35)

at the Department of Interior does not expire until 2012. President Obama and the majority in Congress will be looking to address these issues quickly by working to enact a comprehensive energy bill. The new president has signaled his openness to expanding domestic oil and gas production as one part of a larger energy bill that also encourages conservation, efficiency, and renewables. Many in Congress also support additional domestic production of oil and gas. The American Public Gas Association (APGA) has long advocated to lawmakers that increased domestic supply is one fundamental component of long-term affordable natural gas. It is important that APGA members continue to educate their representatives on the importance of access to domestic natural gas supply with appropriate environmental protections in keeping prices affordable for consumers. APGA will continue to make the case to Congress that increasing the domestic supply of natural gas is a fundamental component of the solution to bring rising prices back to a long-term affordable level. APGA also will argue that to the extent additional natural gas demand is created by other policy goals, there needs to be a policy goal that achieves an identical increase in the amount of natural gas supply. CLIMATE The 111th Congress and the new Obama administration most likely will take a drastically different approach than the previous Administration and Congress. It is expected this government’s leaders will be actively looking for multiple ways to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through legislation, executive order and agency rulings. Congress took initial steps to address climate change by including $70-plus billion in the recently enacted Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 to be used for projects that reduce emissions and make America more energy secure. Another signal President Obama sent that he plans to rethink the U.S. approach to energy and climate policy is that he created a new White House advisor position to coordinate these policies across multiple federal agencies including the Departments of Energy, Interior, Transportation, State, Defense, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others. This position has been referred to as the “energy czar” in the press, and is also tasked with working with Congress to pass legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner is currently serving in this role. The makeup of the 111th Congress will be much more climate changefriendly than the previous Congress. The strongest momentum in Congress is to pass new cap-and-trade legislation that puts in place legally binding caps on U.S. emitters of carbon and creates tradable/marketable credits to be turned in each year to the federal government to comply with those caps. This system will effectively put a price on emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Climate change legislation was debated on the Senate floor last Congress. The bill lacked sufficient support to pass and was pulled from the floor. The House held several hearings on climate change related issues but no bills made the floor for debate or a vote. However, climate change is a top-tier issue for both the House and Senate leadership this Congress and they will actively push to pass climate change legislation. APGA will continue to advocate to lawmakers the critical role that natural gas will play in a carbon-constrained economy. Natural gas will have to be a large part of the solution to climate change because of its inherently clean nature compared to other fossil fuels. APGA is extremely concerned that strict carbon controls could lead to massive fuel switching from coal to natural gas-generated electricity, which could drastically increase the price of natural gas for consumers. It is APGA’s position that for every additional unit of natural gas demand created from carbon reduction regulations, Congress should open access to equal units of domestic supply. THE SOURCE | SPRING 2009 , VOL. 1, ISSUE 3 35 http://www.farwestcorrosion.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Source - Spring 2009

The Source - Spring 2009 Contents First Person APGA Events Q&A: One-on-One with Senator Jeff Bingaman Great Malls Think Alike The Economy and Your Customers Member to Member New Technology: Saving Energy Never Felt So Good New Technology: Get Pumped! Legislative Outlook The Pipeline Advertiser.com Advertisers' Index At Last

The Source - Spring 2009

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