Douglas Alexander: “This is an amendment about the emerging natural gas crisis. It would require the Secretary of Energy, within 6 months…”

“This is an amendment about the emerging natural gas crisis. It would require the Secretary of Energy, within 6 months from the date of enactment of this Energy bill, to submit a report on natural gas supplies and demand. I offer this amendment because I believe it will help us deal with what I am afraid is an emerging natural gas crisis. If that were to occur, we would be able to protect our jobs, heat or cool our homes at reasonable costs, and clean our air to the standard that we wish. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, working with our chairman of the full committee, I intend to help schedule hearings as soon as possible on this emerging crisis. This report and these hearings should help us take a hard, honest look at what we do short term and long term. Alan Greenspan is usually a little difficult to interpret when he testifies but he was not difficult to understand on May 21 when he testified before the Joint Economic Committee. This is what he said about natural gas: In contrast, prices for natural gas have increased sharply in response to very tight supplies.…”