Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives in opposition to efforts by major natural gas exporting countries to establish a cartel or other mechanism to manipulate the supply of natural gas to the world market for the purpose of setting an arbitrary and nonmarket price or as an instrument of political pressure.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 500) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives in opposition to efforts by major natural gas exporting countries to establish a cartel or other mechanism to manipulate the supply of natural gas to the world market for the purpose of setting an arbitrary and nonmarket price or as an instrument of political pressure, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution and yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I would like to thank our distinguished colleague, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, for introducing this important resolution.

Madam Speaker, one of the most confusing inventions over the past century was the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Some call it a cartel, some call it a monopoly, and some just call it what it is, that is, price-gouging by a few countries that have managed to challenge the international security in the process.

Recently, several leaders of the major exporters of natural gas, including Iran, have publicly advocated the establishment of an international cartel similar to that of OPEC , thus proposing to create a ``gas OPEC.''

The Iranian supreme leader has been very clear in his interest to use his cartel as an instrument for political purposes.

Although the United States currently is largely self-sufficient in natural gas, our usage is projected to increase over time, which could result in a growing dependence on world supply. Our European and Asian allies are heavily dependent on imported natural gas. Therefore, we believe a debate should begin on how we can use the world's resources fairly to avoid penalizing those dependent on such resources, and to avoid the crisis that has generated the utilization of energy from Sudan by many of our allies like those in Europe and Asia while genocide is occurring in that country.

The creation of this cartel would pose a major and long-term disruption to the world's energy supply and convene a potential crisis that would significantly undermine America's interests. We cannot stand by and let yet another global oligopoly in the form of a gas OPEC to be established which would ultimately raise the cost of energy globally in an unfair manner; nor can we allow the major natural gas exporters, some of whom are current or potential adversaries of the United States, to develop a powerful political weapon to be used against us and our allies. I can only imagine what policy ends such a body would aim to achieve with its natural gas leverage.

Not only the United States would be impacted, but many of the developing nations and many of our friends and foes around the world. The world's natural resources belong to the world's people, and the fact that such a potential organization could deny that would be a catastrophe, particularly for those emerging developing nations.

This resolution puts on notice those countries seeking to establish a cartel in natural gas that the United States regards such efforts as a threat to the security of the entire world. This proposed cartel would, I believe, be part of a dangerous throwback through authoritarianism. It would create instability in the respective regions and, in Iran's case, to the world. No one wishes to see them commence an axis that would embolden their respective nations and their respective regimes.

I strongly support this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

MS. ROS-LEHTINEN. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment, and a cosponsor of this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, let me join in the debate that has taken somewhat of a slightly different turn that I think is enormously important.

This resolution speaks to the confusion that we have experienced when there is an organization that blocks others from benefiting from the world's natural resources. I am reminded that my colleague, Congressman Nick Lampson, and myself offered a few years ago an amendment to ask the Department of Interior to do an inventory of the resources that were in the gulf. We know that the gulf offers many different geographic regions. The exploration in those areas is somewhat controversial. But in the areas of Louisiana and Texas, it has been accepted and, frankly, has been one of the most safe approaches to the question of exploration of natural resources.

But I raised that question, having listened to a number of my colleagues, to say that a component to the idea of ensuring that the world's resources are spread fairly and are not held to penalize or punish is the acceptance of the resources in the region, in the gulf region. As we speak, there are a number of explorations and finds that are going on safely and environmentally safely, if you will, that are utilizing new finds in natural gas.

The idea of a cartel or an organization on natural gas again to penalize and punish unfairly those who don't have the resources certainly should be spoken to by this Congress. I also believe that the issue has to be one that is addressed by the respective heads of the agencies, the Secretary of Interior, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of State, to be able to address these questions on a diplomatic basis, so that, in essence, we can move this resolution and be able to stop this at its start.

I am glad that the names of Qatar, Trinidad and Canada were mentioned, because there are positive relationships that have been engendered. Nigeria has been a country that has been friendly to the United States and should be mentioned as well.

So we have a long way to go on disestablishing, of providing some break in the idea that when you organize, you organize to punish and to penalize; you organize to take away resources; you organize to gouge; you organize to undermine. I frankly believe that there are many ways of looking at this question of natural resources to be spread, and one of them, of course, is to improve the utilization of natural resources here in the United States and particularly the utilization of those in the gulf region.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, let me close by simply indicating we have many solutions that have been offered on the floor, including the full addressing of this resolution, but likely the recognition of natural gas resources right here in the United States of America. With that, I ask my colleagues to support H. Res. 500.

Madam Speaker, I would first like to commend our distinguished colleague, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, for introducing this important resolution.

Madam Speaker, the majority of our fellow Americans first learned about the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, during the energy crisis in the 1970s and came to associate the organization with it. According to many, the cartel involved in controlling petroleum prices has not served the interests of America and its allies well.

Recently, several leaders of the major exporters of natural gas have publicly advocated the establishment of an international cartel similar to that of OPEC, thus proposing to create a `Gas OPEC.'

Although the United States currently is largely self-sufficient in natural gas, our usage is projected to increase over time, which could result in a growing dependence on world supply. Our European and Asian allies are already heavily dependent on imported natural gas.

The creation of this cartel could pose a challenge to the balance in the world's energy supply which will require a strong diplomatic response by America.

It is not in America's interest to have control of the world's natural gas supply in the hands of a few countries. Nor can we allow the major natural gas exporters, some of whom are current or potential adversaries of the United States, to develop a powerful political weapon to be used against us and our allies.

The U.S. should vigorously use diplomatic means to cultivate a constructive dialogue with countries like Russia, Venezuela, Canada and Trinidad & Tobago, to name a few, to find a solution which will best serve the interest of America and its allies.

This resolution puts on notice those countries seeking to establish a cartel in natural gas that the United States will be vigilant in protecting our economic and political interests.

I strongly support this resolution and urge my colleagues to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida and those cosponsoring this legislation.

I couldn't agree more that we must prevent or do everything we can to make sure there is not a cartel. There is some hard evidence though. Dow Chemical recently shared with me their natural gas cost. In 2002, they spent $8 billion for natural gas. In 2006, that same bill cost them $22 billion. And it is rising. It is the reason they are now investing $32 billion in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Libya, because natural gas is dirt cheap there. New chemical plants are going to replace us.

Mill Hall Clay Products was in my district for 83 years making clay pipe. They went out of business this year, and the sole reason was natural gas cost prices. When it would reach a certain level, they no longer could be profitable, and they are history.

Natural gas, clean, green natural gas, is our bridge to the future, and we must have it affordable.

Currently, it is in high usage to make ethanol. We use a lot of it to make biodiesel. When the wind and solar, the sun doesn't shine, we turn on a natural gas power plant. Natural gas is our bridge to the future. We could displace a third of our auto fleet, short-haul vehicles with natural gas, and remove the need for 2.5 million barrels of oil a day.

But folks, it is great to urge that we don't have a cartel formed, but Russia is working hard at this. We just hope and pray that they are not successful because we know what they want to do; they want to control the price.

I had this debate with the President some time ago on Air Force One that LNG was going to be the answer to our future natural gas needs, and 2 years later we are not importing much more natural gas than then because we can't buy it. When a ship gets filled with natural gas, it is a commodity. Spain outbids us routinely. Japan outbids us routinely. Our ports, we have been trying to build ports and have not been able to get them permitted. They are only at 40-some percent of capacity. Why, because we can't buy it because of the demand in the world marketplace for it, countries who don't have any.

Our fortunate part is America can be self-sufficient on natural gas. We could not import one cmf if we chose to produce it. Canada currently furnishes about 15 percent of our gas. We get about 2 percent with LNG. The rest we produce ourselves, but we have locked up much of our mainland. We have locked up our Outer Continental Shelf. We can go out of sight where it isn't in sight. There has never been a natural gas well that has ever polluted a beach. And if it is out of sight, nobody knows it is there.

Since 1913, Canada has produced natural gas in our Great Lakes, and they sell that gas to us. We don't even know it is there. The ship moves in, they drill their well, and the underground guys go down and put the piping in. Then they sell the gas to us. If they are slant drilling, they are probably selling us our own gas.

Clean, green natural gas should never be a long-term problem for America. All we need is the will to produce it. Clean, green natural gas, it is the best

fuel we have. No NOX, no SOX, a third of the CO2. The whole climate change issue, natural gas is the biggest, most significant change we can make. And we don't need to lose the Dow Chemicals in the future. We don't need to lose the Mill Hall Clay products in the future. We just have to get out of our minds that a gas well is not something that pollutes. It is a hole in the ground with a pipe in it that lets clean, green natural gas out.

We need to make sure that we never have a cartel setting our prices like we do in oil. Today the oil prices are in the $70s, because the cartel is in control. They have been in control for a couple of years now. They lost control for a while. They are back in control today, and they control the price of energy. We must not let that happen with natural gas. We have had the highest natural gas prices in the world for 6 years because it is not a world market. And we must change that so that we can compete. We will lose our chemical plants, our fertilizer plants, our polymer plants, our plastic plants. We will lose aluminum and steel that we have left. And I predict, because gas is only a buck and a quarter in Trinidad, just a short distance from here, one day on a ship, we will be making glass and bricks there and bringing them here, and the working people of America will not have a job because of high natural gas prices.

That is an issue that this Congress needs to deal with. It is important that we do not let a cartel form. We can't stop that, we can only sell, and we must continue to sell, but we can prevent it by producing the clean natural gas that is abundant in this country.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, for several decades, the world's supply of petroleum has been held hostage to the whims of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, also known as OPEC.

Over the past decades, OPEC has manipulated production to bring about enormous price increases. It has repeatedly manufactured energy crises and imposed embargoes against individual countries for political purposes, including right here in the United States. As a result of its policies, several of its members, and especially their elites, have grown enormously wealthy at the expense of the global economy, which has suffered severe disruption and slower growth.

Envying the success of this greedy model, many of the world's exporters of natural gas have begun taking steps to create a similar cartel in natural gas which has been termed as a ``gas OPEC.''

There are some in the West who dismiss the feasibility of a new OPEC for natural gas, citing differences in the structure of the oil and gas industries. However, Madam Speaker, the leaders of many of these gas- exporting countries do not share those doubts, and several have been publicly enthusiastic about the prospects of this new project.

In January of this year, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, proposed that Russia and Iran cooperate to establish a cartel for natural gas, prompting the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to state his great interest in this project. And Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has announced his eager support for the proposed cartel, which he describes as an expansion of his efforts to establish a similar structure in our own Western Hemisphere.

These are not empty statements. As the gas-exporting countries formed in Doha on April 9, 2007, a committee chaired by the Russian Government was established to study the proposals for greater coordination of policies, including pricing that participants confirmed would be necessary for the creation of such a cartel.

The threat is not only economic, but strategic. Officials from Iran have made clear their interest in using this gas OPEC as an instrument for political purposes. Russia has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to use its role as a supplier of oil and gas to exert political pressure on other countries, such as Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus, among others.

NATO officials have warned of the danger of Europe's increasing dependence on Russian energy. But plans by the Europeans to diversify their sources of supply with countries such as Algeria have been called into question as Moscow has actively courted these to secure greater coordination of policies, including pricing.

Beyond Europe, U.S. allies, such as Japan and South Korea, are heavily dependent on imported natural gas. Countries such as China and India are rapidly increasing their reliance on foreign suppliers.

Currently, the United States is largely self-sufficient in natural gas. However, we are projected to greatly increase our usage over the next decades, which could produce a growing reliance on world supply.

If we are to prevent the rise of this new threat, the United States must make clear to these governments who are contemplating the establishment of this new organization that we will regard the establishment of a natural gas cartel as prejudicial to our Nation's security and global security.

We must also develop a joint strategy with our allies and all countries that are importers of natural gas, including by diversifying sources and access to international markets, such as pipelines.

As we proceed, Madam Speaker, we must keep in mind that several gas- exporting countries, such as Canada, Trinidad and Qatar, are friends of the United States. We must seek to enlist their assistance in stopping this menace before it becomes a reality that, once established, may be with us forever.

The creation of a ``gas OPEC'' world constitutes a major new threat to the security and to the economic well-being of the United States, our allies and the world. We must not stand back and let yet another global extortion racket be established. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to my good friend from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany), a Member from a major oil- and gas-producing district.

Madam Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson), who has been a congressional leader and has been very engaged on the issue of energy independence.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, for yielding time.

Madam Speaker, energy security is a critical issue with far-ranging implications for the United States and our allies. The United States is dependent on foreign oil and currently self-sufficient with regard to natural gas. However, in coming years, the U.S. will become increasingly an importer of natural gas as demand continues to increase to fuel our power plants, to provide feedstock to manufacturing processes and to heat our homes.

Over the course of the past decade, we have seen the evolution of the natural gas markets from a very localized market to a regional market and now international markets with international pipelines and the advent of liquefied natural gas imports.

Natural-gas-producing countries now, many who are not friendly to the U.S., are proposing the formation of a gas cartel. Another OPEC-style cartel that artificially manipulates supply and prices will clearly pose harm to the U.S. economy as well as to that of our allies.

My district, the Seventh Congressional District of Louisiana, is a major

producer of oil and gas. In fact, over the next few years, about 25 percent of all natural gas being consumed in this country will come from my district, either through pipelines, production or through liquefied natural gas imports.

I currently have one facility, a liquefied natural gas facility, that is undergoing expansion, and three others that are undergoing construction as we speak. I will say that if we see a reduction or problem with price fixing and limitations in this global market for liquefied natural gas, clearly it could have an impact not only with regard to jobs in Louisiana, but it will affect the gas distribution to the Midwest of this country, as well as to the Northeast, because I have a confluence of pipelines where the pricing mechanism for natural gas is set in my district as well as a major distribution hub.

This resolution recognizes the looming problem, and I support passage of this resolution to express the sense of Congress, but also support a joint and coordinated strategy with our allies to stabilize global markets for natural gas and to consider how we move forward on new energy exploration, alternative modes of transportation, and also to develop new technologies for new alternative energy sources.

The responsibility for energy security in this country doesn't lie solely with the Energy Department. It is also a component of our vigorous diplomatic efforts at the State Department to ensure that we have open markets and our intelligence services to assess threats. Furthermore, it needs to be part of research funding, and Congress must consider legislative changes to promote private investment and to encourage private research and development.

Our energy supply should not be influenced by the whims of our enemies. Energy independence is a matter of economic and national security. Over the next 20 to 25 years, we need to manage our dependence on fossil fuels in a strategic way while we develop alternative measures that are sustainable, diverse and friendly to our environment.

I wholeheartedly support this resolution and will closely monitor the formation of any potential cartel for natural gas, and will continue to press my colleagues for progress and sincere work on energy security measures, so that we can all work towards less dependency on foreign sources.

Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of H. Res. 500, which condemns the establishment of a natural gas cartel. On April 9 of 2007, several gas-exporting countries agreed to form a natural gas cartel similar to OPEC. The cartel would be initially composed of countries that have nearly 70 percent of the world's reserves. Those countries include Russia and Iran.

Though the U.S. currently is largely self-sufficient in natural gas, we are projected to greatly increase usage over time. That could result in a growing dependence on world supply.

At that point, minor disruptions can lead to rapid price increases that could have grave consequences for the United States' manufacturing base. This could be particularly disastrous for the chemical and plastics industry and advanced composite manufacturers because they use natural gas as their feedstock. Soaring prices today in this country have already challenged their competitiveness. Unfortunately, in 2004 alone, increases in natural gas prices forced the closure of scores of chemical companies and cost roughly 100,000 well-paying jobs.

If the United States loses our advantage in chemical manufacturing companies, that will be the demise of manufacturing as a whole. Because without chemicals, you cannot have a strong manufacturing base. With the chemical industry on a particular siege by the high cost of natural gas now, one can only imagine what would happen if an OPEC-type group got together and decided to gouge America and increase greatly the cost of natural gas.

Natural gas materials are used broadly for defense products. Disruptions in the supply are detrimental to America's defense industrial base and therefore our ability to defend ourselves. We must not stand by and let yet another global extortion group, such as OPEC, take over and command the world's supply of natural gas.

The purpose of this resolution is to send a strong message to the people involved in these international conspiracies to back off, that the United States will do whatever is necessary to make sure that the people who control the world's supply of natural gas do no harm to this country.