Political Quotes

“Before we go to the point of order dance, which we seem to be pretty good at, I want to explain why this is an important step. It is not as strong as the previous issue I raised, but it is, nonetheless, a very, very important step in the process of how we are going to export our liquefied natural gas. As I said earlier, the United States is blessed with a very significant amount of natural gas. Many people raise the question about whether we should export it at all. That question is interesting, but moot because we are going to export it. We have already had one facility that has been approved and will be soon exporting gas. The question that this amendment addresses is: Will that gas be exported on American ships, with American flags, with American sailors? As I said with regard to the previous amendment that I brought up, this issue has already been resolved with regard to the importation of natural gas. We are now talking about the exportation of natural gas, and therefore, we would simply do the same thing we do with import--do it on American ships, with American sailors, with the American flag. There is a reason for that. I explained that earlier. It has to do with our maritime industry. It has to do with the safety of those ships. Let me just tell you that these ships carry an extraordinary amount of natural gas, and should there be an incident, then it could be extraordinarily dangerous in our ports. That is why the original law in 2006 was put in place.…”