While it did not agree with all of the provisions of the draft energy bill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) on Tuesday urged the panel to take “decisive action” and forward the measure to the House floor quickly,.

“With a tightening balance between natural gas supply and demand, and energy costs increasing across the board — putting additional financial strain on customers — there is a clear and urgent need for an updated energy policy,” wrote NGSA President R. Skip Horvath in a letter to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The NGSA, which represents producers and marketers, backed provisions in the bill that would allow for more offshore natural gas development, including offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, and it urged the federal government to remove permitting barriers for new LNG facilities. It also called on Congress to clarify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s jurisdiction over the siting of LNG facilities.

In addition, the producer-marketer group favored increased producer access to non-park, non-wilderness federal lands, a move that a National Petroleum Council study estimated could save consumers up to $300 billion in natural gas costs during the next 20 years, according to Horvath.”Next, natural gas infrastructure must be sustained and enhanced to help the industry continue to improve reliability and to provide safe and efficient natural gas to customers.”

Lastly, the NGSA “strongly supports” competitive and efficient gas markets, Horvath said. “We urge regulators to support physical and risk management tools that allow market participants to moderate the effects of price changes. Additionally, to create more efficient markets, we support improved price transparency and greater liquidity.”

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