House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is expected to announce Thursday the creation of a House task force that would recommend ways to head off a potentially dangerous shortfall in natural gas supplies later in the year.

As a one-time member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Hastert sees an “ominous sign on the wall that a natural gas crisis is looming,” said spokesman Pete Jeffries.

The task force will include 18 members, mostly from the Energy and Commerce Committee and House Resources Committee, he noted. The chairmen of the two committees, Reps. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) and Richard Pombo (R-CA), will head the task force. The two lawmakers called for a task force to be set up in a letter to Hastert in late June.

Task force members will identify the current problem and propose ways to avert a crisis in the gas markets, said Jeffries, and would report back to Hastert within a few months. He would not say if the group would write legislation.

A press briefing on the task force is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday on the House side of the Capitol Building.

Also Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will have an oversight hearing to explore the gas supply deficit. The featured speaker will be Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Appearing before a House panel last month, Greenspan called on the U.S. to become a bigger player in the global liquefied natural gas market.

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