Coming one day after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress of the gravity of the U.S. natural gas supply shortfall, the Senate on Wednesday passed a bipartisan amendment as part of its broad energy bill that would require the secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) to report to Capitol Hill on the gas market.

The report would be due within six months after the enactment of a Senate energy bill, and would provide a comprehensive analysis of gas supply and demand in the United States for the period between 2004 and 2015. It would recommend federal actions to balance supply and demand. The National Petroleum Council (NPC), an oil and gas advisory committee to the DOE secretary, already is working on a report on gas demand and supply issues, which is expected to be released late in the fourth quarter.

The proposal was sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Gas Committee’s subcommittee on energy. He said he plans to schedule subcommittee hearings as soon as possible to take a “hard, honest look” at the “emerging natural gas crisis,” and at what steps can be taken in the short and long term.

Greenspan “is usually a little difficult to interpret, but he was not difficult to understand” when he testified about a potential demand-supply train wreck this week and in late May, Alexander said on the Senate floor Wednesday. The nation’s top banker, Greenspan, said he was “surprised at how little attention the natural gas problem has been getting,” and he blamed it on “contradictory federal policies.”

“This is not some abstract issue,” said Alexander. “We’ve got plenty of gas, but no access to it.” In the short term, the gas situation could slow down the nation’s economic recovery, cause further job losses, and send electricity rates “sky high,” he noted.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said high gas prices have taken their toll on her home state. The number of ammonia producers in Louisiana has fallen from nine companies, employing 3,500 workers in 1998, to three companies now, employing less than 1,000 workers.

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