On the recordSeptember 26, 1996
I was told that the scientific societies' concerns and scientists' concerns had been taken care of. I found out later they were not, and I regret that I voted for the bill on false information I was given. But I did want to point out that, even though this bill is certainly better than the one that passed this body a few months ago, now that the Senate amendment is included, I still have a serious reservation about the entire topic. As has been mentioned here, helium has tremendous uses in the scientific world. We continue to find more all along. The difficulty is, it is a very limited resource. It is found in economically feasible quantities only in certain gas fields in this country. If we do not recover it at the time that the gas is pumped out of the ground, that helium is lost because it is simply pumped out with the gas. When the gas is burned, the helium goes into the atmosphere.
Source
govinfo.gov
