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LNG Proposal Will Test Senator Barrasso's Ability to Produce

John Barrasso

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso has been a leading voice calling on Congress to lift a decades-old ban on exporting U.S. natural gas overseas. It really heated up last year when Russia invaded the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea. Senator Barrasso remembers it well.

“There were a bi-partisan group of us actually in Ukraine the day that the Russian helicopters landed at the gas plant just North of the Crimea, which tells you what it was all about. It was about the gas. And Putin uses energy to hold European countries and Ukraine hostage.”

After Russia’s brazen disregard for international law, lawmakers in both parties started getting behind Barrasso’s proposal to lift the ban on shipping liquefied natural gas to foreign markets. He says it’s a win-win for the U-S. 

“Well, we have an incredible abundance of natural gas specifically in Wyoming that we could be using, not just to help our economy at home which is important but could also undermine Putin’s ability to hold all of Europe hostage.”

But the issue has lost momentum. Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis says other issues are dwarfing it of late.  

“It’s not on the very front burner because we’ve been doing, of course, appropriation bills, we’ve got a deal with Greece, there’s the Puerto Rico issue…

I think the LNG issue is second tier to those issues but we’ve now got those pretty well cleared off of the top of the stove. So it’s time to move this LNG issue to the front burner.”

Lummis is optimistic though, especially because House Speaker John Boehner just got back from a visit to the region.  

“Well I’m hopeful as a result of the Speaker’s trip to Eastern Europe over the July fourth recess that he could see the importance to Lithuania, Poland, Finland and other places he visited of having alternative sources of supply for Eastern Europe other than Russia.”

It may not be that easy to get on the agenda in the Senate though. Maryland Democratic Senator Ben Cardin is the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. He says he welcomes a robust energy debate this summer. But Cardin says the problem is Barrasso and other party leaders aren’t bringing the bill up as a standalone measure.

“The challenge is that it looks like it’s coming on as amendments to other bills and that’s not the place it should be debated. It’s not a simple yes-no answer.”

Cardin says a part of the problem is Eastern European countries don’t have the capacity or facilities to accept U-S natural gas exports. Opponents of Barrasso’s proposal, like Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey, argue supporters are merely using the fighting between Ukraine and Russia as an excuse.

“Well the LNG will go to the highest priced bidder in the world, which will be China.”

Markey adds that increasing natural gas exports will hurt the U.S. economy.  

MARKEY “[It] will have a negative impact on manufacturing, on utility electricity rates for American consumers, and I just think that the tradeoff is very bad for America since this low priced natural gas is giving us an incredible competitive advantage over other countries in the world.”

Congresswoman Lummis says that isn’t a concern for her and other lawmakers from energy producing states.

“Of course being from Wyoming I prefer to see natural gas prices a little higher, so having alternative markets is a good thing.”

For Senator Barrasso the current U-S policy is nonsensical. 

“Well part of it is actually being flared in North Dakota because we can’t get the permits to build the gathering lines to capture it, which is a complete waste. Some of the reports have said it’s 3 million dollars a year of just flared off gas because people, they’re trying to capture it but the Government won’t provide the permits to build the gathering lines. So there’s an abundance. There is a waste.”

Barrasso is part of the Republican Party's leadership team in the Senate, so this issue will test whether he can turn personal power into economic help for his home state.

Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo is a reporter who has been covering campaigns and every aspect of federal policy since 2006. While he has filed stories for NPR and more than 40 of its affiliates, he has also written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Campaigns and Elections Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Guardian, The Omaha World-Herald, VICE News and Washingtonian Magazine.
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