Haley Stevens: “I think it is something on which the Senate ought to concentrate because we are clearly going to have to have a gas…”

“I think it is something on which the Senate ought to concentrate because we are clearly going to have to have a gas pipeline to bring to market the gas which was reinjected into the ground as Prudhoe Bay oil was produced. To bring that to market--50 to 70 trillion cubic feet of gas--we need a pipeline 3,000 miles long, gathering pipelines up to 1,500 miles long. We are now in the position where there are only two steel mills in the world that are capable of delivering this steel pipe as it is designed. Before the vote, I outlined the number of jobs that we have lost in the steel industry and the situation with the American steel industry. For this gas pipeline, we need 5.2 million tons of steel. We need $3 to $5 billion in steel orders. We cannot get that steel unless the U.S. steel industry gets back on its feet. So for that reason, I started to think about how we could use some of the cashflow from the development of ANWR to start the process of the gas pipeline.”