Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, and other House Republicans on Wednesday expressed frustration with many of the natural gas price complaints of Democrats whose states consume large amounts of gas, but have done little to contribute to supply. The states — notably Florida, California and the New England region — oppose pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects within their boundaries and/or object to drilling off their coastlines, while fueling their electric generation plants mostly with natural gas.

“It’s with great concern that I review the list of energy projects — these are real projects, folks, these aren’t make-believe — that have been delayed, killed [or] postponed in the very areas of the country where the prices for winter fuels are expected to be the highest,” he said during a hearing by the House energy panel’s Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee that examined the outlook for winter fuel supply and prices.

In California, the second largest natural gas-consuming state, at least two LNG terminal projects have been delayed — the proposed Cabrillo Port and Port of Long Beach terminals, he noted. In the Northeast, where 51% of the households rely on natural gas, blocked projects include the Connecticut-to-Long Island Islander East Pipeline, the proposed Broadwater LNG terminal facility in Long Island and Weaver’s Cove LNG terminal in Fall River, MA, Barton said.

The Weaver’s Cove project, a joint venture of Amerada Hess and Poten Partners, “showcases the lengths [to which] opponents will go to stop a project,” he noted. “The real conspirators seem to be the very people we are trying to help — the people of New England.” These projects that “would have provided more natural gas to heat…homes have been stopped cold.”

Barton said his district in Texas produces 1 Tcf of natural gas annually, much of which will flow to other regions of the country, and that producing rigs are located within 10 miles of his backyard.

“So it really, really upsets me when I look around the country and see these high prices and we have a clamor to do something about it. But when we try to do something about it, the very people we’re trying to help say ‘No.'”

Several Republican committee members also said they opposed increased funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), arguing that the program, as currently structured, offers financial assistance to heating customers in the Northeast and Midwest during the winter, but provides little or no funding for air-conditioning customers in the South during the summer months. The GOP lawmakers are seeking a reform of the program.

A number of GOP lawmakers called for the removal of the restrictions on drilling on the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), with Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) saying the lack of access was tantamount to “criminal negligence and it has to stop.” He noted the United States was the only developed nation without access to its OCS.

Despite the run-up in oil and natural gas prices following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) said Tuesday that Congress was unlikely to push for expanded OCS drilling this session due to a lack of momentum among lawmakers. However, he noted that he would press President Bush to exercise his authority to open up a portion of the gas-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico to leasing (see Daily GPI, Oct. 19).

Barton expressed concern about the need to develop more market-area storage. “Isn’t it true that if my producers in Texas and everywhere [else] in the country produced as much as they could, we’d still have a price problem because we can’t store the natural gas for the demand that exists in the winter [in the] Northeast?” he asked.

“I definitely think we’d still have a price problem because the problem is ultimately we were not producing enough new gas to meet the growth in demand in the last decade,” responded Guy Caruso, director of the Energy Information Administration.

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