Ed Royce: “This amendment would decrease the allocation of the Department of Science and the Department of Energy budget by $10…”

“This amendment would decrease the allocation of the Department of Science and the Department of Energy budget by $10 million. And let me give you an example of what $10 million is used for, by way of example, in this department. There's $10 million for appropriating money to methane hydrate research and development. Now, Mr. Chairman, I was once a capital projects manager and I understand the impulse to invest in technologies that are going to have a payback, that are going to provide a return. But to do that, not only do you have to be able to figure out whether or not it's possible to get that payback, but it has to be a viable alternative when compared against other competing alternatives. And that's what I want to speak to here. The government here in the U.S. has already spent $155 million on research and development commercialization for this technology, for methane hydrate, over the last 5 years. Taxpayers do not need to subsidize the gas hydrate industry to find equivalent alternatives to replace oil. We are at $100-a-barrel oil. There is already enough financial incentive in the commercial market to research methane hydrate if it, in fact, were a viable energy option. I just have to tell you, no one has tried to extract methane hydrates in a commercial way because it is not economical. Think about this for a moment: It is only found in the Arctic. It is only found offshore.…”