Charlie Melancon: “I think about the technology as it was brought up a second ago. One of the concerns that we have to have here as a…”

“I think about the technology as it was brought up a second ago. One of the concerns that we have to have here as a Congress is there is a lot of technology out there. But there is a lot of perception that there is more technology than is factually out there. What we can't do with Federal policy is put demands and time slots, et cetera, production, that far exceeds what the technology provides for. We need to make sure that we put a bill out there that is going to be reasonable. We don't want to run off our good-paying jobs. As discussed by Mr. Peterson earlier, natural gas is a basis for everything from fertilizer to foods to plastic, heating our homes, you name it, it is there. We need to make sure as the government, that we provide in the policy sections of these bills not only the financial support mechanism through tax breaks and other mechanisms to encourage the development of alternative fuels and to encourage the research and development of these new concepts, these new technologies, we as a government need to put that carrot out there so as to get industry to participate and to get involved in it and not discourage it. Some of what we have seen in some of the legislation is a concern to us because it is going to be difficult to become energy independent if you are delaying the time frames for providing drilling permits to drilling companies, if you are having longer review periods for whether and when you can drill. We don't want to walk over the environmental issue.”