Balancing Natural Gas Policy: Fueling the Demands of a Growing Economy

WASHINGTON, September 25 - Red Cavaney, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, today issued the following statement regarding the delivery of the National Petroleum Council's natural gas report:

"The National Petroleum Council has put forth a much-needed, insightful analysis of today's natural gas situation, which is the inevitable result of decades of public policy failure to adequately address our country's energy needs.

"If our nation is to meet its growing energy demands, we must further elevate efforts to promote greater energy efficiency while increasing and diversifying our natural gas supplies.

"We agree with the NPC that increased supplies from abroad - in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) - and from within our own borders are needed. The construction of more import facilities is crucial if we are to increase LNG supplies. To increase domestic supplies, the impediments preventing the industry from producing natural gas on non-park, non-wilderness government lands while protecting the environment must be significantly reduced. And, to bring this new supply to consumers, our nation's pipeline system needs expanding, including construction of a pipeline to bring Alaskan natural gas to the lower-48 states.

"These concepts form the core of the NPC report and deserve the immediate attention and action on the part of government officials if consumers are to be protected from the possibility of yet further constrained supplies and price volatility."

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