Ed Whitfield actually said...

We all want to reduce our trade deficit and perhaps one day have a trade surplus.

Policies that delay or prevent energy exports are detrimental to energy producing states like Kentucky, and they hurt the nation as a whole.

If our trading partners don't get their coal or natural gas from us, they will very likely get it from another energy-exporting nation.

The reality is that market forces will determine the amount and to what extent we export our energy from the U.S.