Bob Beauprez: “I thank the gentleman. It is estimated that if we could construct that gas pipeline that my colleague referred to from…”

“I thank the gentleman. It is estimated that if we could construct that gas pipeline that my colleague referred to from ANWR, 400,000 new jobs, direct and indirect jobs, would be created from that one action alone, including increasing dramatically the supply of natural gas to the lower 48. I repeat, 400,000 new jobs and lower gas prices. Now, the gas my colleague referred to, and I referred to as well under the Rocky Mountain States, I held a hearing in my district recently on this subject, and I learned a lot. I learned, for example, that under nonpark, nonwilderness Federal land, I repeat, nonpark, nonwilderness Federal lands, we have enough natural gas to take care of the demands of 100 million homes for 157 years. Now what I cited earlier here, natural gas prices up 92 percent, this is akin to the old biblical tale of the people going through a famine, the granaries being full and the pharaoh being unwilling to unlock the doors. We have natural gas. It is those crazy, environmentally overly-sensitive policies that have restricted us from going to get it; and the same people who now restrict us from going to get it were the very people who told us a few years ago that we need to convert to natural gas. Why? Because it is affordable, it is clean, and it is abundantly available. Well, now they are telling us we ought to go get it somewhere else, from abroad, and ship it here in tankers as liquified natural gas. We do not have the storage for it.”