The Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) projection that consumer natural gas bills will be 14% lower this winter heating season is “cold comfort” because gas costs have nearly doubled over the past five years, said the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Tuesday. The group also cautioned Congress against using the expected lower winter gas costs as an excuse to delay action on legislation to open more of the federal offshore to drilling.

The EIA this week forecast that gas consumers will spend an average of $826 to heat their homes this winter, which is $119 less than what they spent during the 2005-2006 heating season, but still roughly double the $465 that it cost on average in the winter of 2001-2002 to heat their homes, the ACC said.

“This winter’s anticipated cost decline follows an unusual combination of events — curtailed production after last year’s hurricanes and a record warm winter that reduced consumption. But make no mistake the natural gas crisis hasn’t gone anywhere. Natural gas costs continue their march upward, American jobs are being shed by the millions, and the nation’s economy and security remain at risk — due in large measure to current federal energy policies,” said ACC President Jack N. Gerard.

“The nation simply can no longer afford a ‘fair weather’ energy policy under which a warm winter represents our only relief from steadily rising energy prices. Instead, what residential and industrial energy consumers need is affordable and reliable access to the nation’s abundant natural gas supplies in the Outer Continental Shelf [OCS],” he noted.

The Senate and the House have passed vastly different bills to open up parts of the federal OCS to oil and natural gas drilling, but lawmakers failed to negotiate a compromise on the measures before departing for the November elections last month. The negotiations reached a stalemate because while Senate leaders would prefer that the House accept their narrower OCS bill (S. 3711) in place of the more expansive House offshore bill (HR 4761), House leaders have resisted the overture. Republicans are expected to resume OCS talks during the lame-duck session.

The Senate bill would make available 8.3 million acres in the Lease Sale 181 area in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in a tract south of Lease Sale 181 for oil and natural gas leasing. The more comprehensive House measure seeks to open up a greater swath of the OCS that has been closed to producers. It would give states bordering the Pacific and East Coasts the option to allow oil and gas drilling within 100 miles of their shorelines.

“We and the millions of Americans who rely on affordable and reliable American energy are counting on Congress to keep its word, finish the job and enable OCS legislation to become law this year. When Congress returns following the mid-term elections, energy legislation belongs at the top of the priority list,” Gerard said.

While much of the OCS remains off-limits, the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountains States (IPAMS), which represents independent producers, believes the anticipated winter price break for gas consumers is a “direct result of improved access” to onshore public lands. IPAMS Executive Director Marc W. Smith cited increased production in the Intermountain West region as a key contributing factor.

“Our industry has responded to high prices by drilling more wells and increasing production, which in turn has caused prices to fall,” he said. Smith emphasized the need, however, for policymakers and lawmakers to continue to provide producers greater access to non-park, non-wilderness public lands, where the vast majority of western natural gas reserves are believed to be located.

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