And i just want to make one further comment. I know this misunderstanding, but there is a reason we do this the way that we do. In my state of oklahoma we will list a number of projects. People going out in transportation districts in the state of oklahoma, make there own priorities so that my job is not so much to see what can be done in a state of oklahoma but where the priorities come from the state. People just overlook that. That is one of the systems it does seem to work well. Hopefully we we will be able to do a good a good job with this bill. Any further comments you want to make. Mr. Chair, mr. Chair, i want to thank you and the Committee Members. You you have a tough job and it is an incredibly important job. The governors will partner with you in any way that can be useful to get predictability, get the trust fund reauthorized and give a certainty. Within your states. That is that is so important that we do that. Absolutely. There is another thing that you can do apply the pressure necessary to our own elected people to let them no what the number one priority is. To use the constitutional argument that is what we are supposed to be doing. And as i have heard it said many times before people were trying to make comments its right down to transportation. I transportation. I have heard them say i wasnt talking about transportation. So its something we are going to deal with something that does what i would not like to see is have a system change wed take the states out of the system is youre the your the once you no where the priorities are what needs to be done, and where your elected officials live. That would be helpful. Senator any further comment . Chairman, i echo what you are suggesting. Thank you both very much for being here. Appreciate it. We are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] screeria nigeria. Highway trust fund. Later, Governor Bill Walker delivers the alaska state of the state address. Thursday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee examined a proposal to increase exports of liquefied natural gas. The house has already passed a bill on the subject. This hearing chaired by senator Lisa Murkowski of alaska is about two hours. Meeting of the Energy Committee this morning. Thank you to members and thank you to those on panel joining us. As you know, weve had kind of a busy week here on the committee. Senator cantwell and i have logged a few hours standing up in chambers there trying to move a keystone bill through. And our hope is that were on the final run of that. But i appreciate Committee Members coming a little bit earlier. We had initially noticed this for 10 00. But in an effort to try to get through this important hearing, then tndend to our business on the floor, we bumped it up. So thank you to our witnesses for the accommodation. I want to recognize the lead bipartisan sponsors of s33. Well have some remarks this morning so ill keep my comments brief this morning. I want to recognize, congratulate them and their cosponsors, senator capito on the committee, hoeven and gardner, as well and senators udall, toomey. I have long argued that exports of liquefied natural gas should be expedited from the United States to our friends and allies overseas. I made the case in my energy 2020 two years ago and again in two more recent white papers. One called americas opportunity to join the global gas trade, as well as signal to the world. Know from the outstart that i fully support the bill that we have in front of the committee. I think it is the culmination of years of wroshg here in the legislative congress. I can remember when senator dick lugar introduced in december 2012 laid out concept exports for nato members should receive expedited treatment at the doe. As proposals came forth more countries were added. Eventually the entire world trade organization. Yesterday we voted on senator cruzs wto amendment as part of the ongoing keystone xl debate. Last year thewe saw proposals to give the department of time limit for authorizations of these licenses with the clark starting start at various points. After final authorization, after prefiling and so forth. Many colleagues cosponsoring this current legislation were involved in those efforts as was our former colleague, senator mark udall. I think we would all recognize that this legislation in front of us, ds33 is a xromcompromise. Imperfect in certain ways. But i do think it is the result of some very serious work by very serious people coming together to try to address an issue. I thank my cleegszolleagues for all that they have done together on this. I will turn to my Ranking Member for comments. Thank you. As you said, were on the floor on a pretty serious policy discussion on energy and were having this hearing this morning. I think it is obvious to everybody were two female Committee Chairs but we also have two female staff directors. I think the fact were having this hearing and the floor debate at the same time just shows we are capable of multitasking when it comes to energy policy. Makes for a busy day. At this hearing we are here to discuss s33. That is a bill to seek accelerated and more certainty to the process of determining natural gas exports. And whether they are in the Public Interest. As we consider this bill, and how to discuss it with be we obviously are interested in taking advantage of americas abundant natural gas and its ability to help transnorm our economy. It was only ten years ago when we were discussing how we would need to import narg gas and how many new term nals wreeds need to build to meet growing demand. Todays natural gas has become so plentiful and inexpensive that we reverse the flow and turn those l and g import facilities into e port facilities. Today well discuss some of my colleagues i think five members of the committee are looking for ways to speed up the export permitting process. I appreciate that they are doing so in a way that respects the critical nipa process, maintains the legal requirements for exports to receive a Public Interest determination, and i would note however that the department of energy recently changed the process to approve these new projects and the goal of this was to speed up the overall approval process so as we consider s33 and whether this legislation im interested in finding out whether these issues have actually been addressed. So is the new revised doe process actually working in the five months since the department of energy adopted its new policy it has issued four separate approvals for l and g export facilities. Currently 32 are pending. We must consider whether the revised process the is the best way to evaluate throws projects. And determination about the Public Interest. A fixed deadline is not necessarily always the best in the applicants best interest as well. What if the authorization cant be made in 45 days but could be made in 60 or 90 days. It would be unfortunate the applicant would get turned out rather than from a Public Interest determination. Third, is it appropriate to make the decision before the ferc process is completed. Right now doe starts its process after approval. But that requires more than just review review. All of these are important questions that will have for todays hearing. Thank you so much for giving our colleagues a chance to be here to discuss this issue. I would say besides the five members who have very support for this legislation and some of it has already been implemented, we have great concerns about what is the impact of in as it relates to pricing midwest and to natural gas. I being from a hydrostate am always very aware of how energy is the lifeblood of the economy and how it has built the northwest economy over and over again. I want to understand how this will impact also our Big Industrial users and the impact. Look forward to having questions from the panelists who are here today to testify. Thank you. Thank you, senator cantwell. I want to note for the record senator portman was added was cosponsor to this bill as we appreciate his involvement as well. Thank you very much, clarm murkowski. Thank you for holding todays hearing on lick wide natural gas export exploration. The lng permitting certainty and transparentscy act would expedite the permitting process for lng exports to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the United States. It would require the secretary of energy to make a final decision on an export application within 45 days after virnlt environmental reviews process is complete. It would provide for expedited judicial review for export projects. Final finally, exporters will publicly be required to disclose. The legal challenges to l and g export projects will be resolved expeditiously. In short our bill will give investors greater confidence that export projects will be permitted and built. Our bill is carefully crafted and it is a bipartisan compromise. Our bill offers congress the best chance to do something meaningful for lng exports. Study after study has shown that lng exports will create good paying jobs across america, in states like oregon, West Virginia coll next mexico and wyoming wyoming. It will reduce our nations trade deficit. It will even help president obama fulfill his goal of doubling our nations exports which he set five years ago this week. Finally, it is a powerful means to bring about positive change throughout the world. It will help increase the Energy Security of key u. S. Allies in partners throughout europe and air shah asia. Lnge ports will also give countries an alternative to energy from iran. In conclusion id like to thank senator hinrich for his leader ship on leadership on this bill. Hes been a great leader on this project. Finally i would like to thank the witnesses for their willingness to of it t here today. Thank you. Thank you for your lone leadership on this issue and that of senator hinrichs as well. Thank you for holding this hearing. I very much appreciate the work of senator brasso and his staff in putting together this bibill. I am incredibly pleased to join my colleagues, senators in sponsoring this bill. In sponsoring this bill. In sponsoring this bill. At chair mentioned, our bill follows directly from the work in the last congress of our former colleague senator udall and senator gardner. And my home state of new mexico, some of you flowknow, ranks seventh in the nation in good production. The main producing region in the region is san juan. In farmington, aztec. The good news is we have large reserves of natural gas. But prices have been depressed to less than 3 per million btu negatively affecting the Gas Producing regions. I support the cautious approach taken at the department of energy. It makes sense for d ochltdoe to complete its review of application for exports after the review has been completed. Recent studies show that the industry can fully support modest levels of exports of lng with minimal impacts on consumers while boosting the nations economic output and jobs in states like senators brassos and mine. I cosponsored this bill because i believe it will help stimulate Job Opportunities for my states gas industry while fully preserving both environmental and safety reviews and does determination of Public Interest. Including the authority to approve or deny applications to export lng. The bill will also provide much needed transparency by making available to the public the countries to which lng has been delivered. Thank you again for holding this hearing and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. Thank you. Now we turn to our panel. Well begin this morning with mr. Smith and just go down the row. I will introduce everyone at outset here and then well move for five minutes presentations, then followed by questions from the members here. We first have mr. Christopher smith, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the department of energy. Mr. Paul cicio welcome. Martin durbin. Mr. Ross eisenberg. And then our last panelist this morning, mr. David korunyi. Welcome to each of you. Thanks you, clarmhairman murkowski and members of the committee. I appreciate this opportunity to be here to discuss the department of energys program regulating the export of lick wide natural gas and to answer questions about s33. Since 2010 when we began receiving longterm applications to export lng to nonfta countries the department demonstrated its compliment to protecting Public Interest. We conduct a thorough Public Interest determination process, one thats expeditious judicious and fair. That includes ample opportunity for public input to evaluate in an export is in the Public Interest, a determination allows balancing a range of important factors including xlik impacts, international dynamics, security of natural gas supply Environmental Concerns and Market Dynamics and developments. I testified before this Committee Last july. And at the time we Just Announced a new procedure for processing lng applications. I told you that by focusing our efforts on the projects that had completed the safety evaluation process, that reviewed that it would help us to make our Decision Making more effective and efficient and that it would allow the department of in rg to focus on those projects that were most mature and therefore most likely to be constructed. Since the announcement of the new procedures the Decision Making process has been completed on two projects. In total the department has approved 5. 7 billion cubic feet per day and longterm e baltimoration. Weve issued thorough orders that can stand up to the scrutiny that they are sure to receive and weve done it within days of the project getting signoff. I believe this demonstrates our commitment to act expeditiously and effectively in addressing the departments responsibilities under the flarl gas act requirements. In done seclusion i appreciate the xlits interest in discussing this very important issue with the department of energy and i look forward to this discussion. We understand the significance of this issue. Ill be happy to answer any questions the committee might have. Thank you, mr. Smith. Chairman murkowski Ranking Member cant well and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to be here today. My name is paul cicio president of the industrial consumers of america. We are an industrial consumer advocate. We are not opposed to lng exports. However, today there is no Energy Public policy decision more important whether or not than to approve an export facility for 20 to 30 years. Reason is all risks associated with the export of lng fall on consumer. The larger the ln ghchltg export volume, the larger the cumulative risk. Today because of unfettered lng exports, domestic prices have tripled in australia because the australian zbvlth aregovernment failed to protect the consumer. We do not want to see that here long term. If policy makers do not fully implement the act. Lng objection ports create winners and losers. It explains how higher Natural Gas Prices can be expected to have a negative effect on outfit an employment particularly by sectors that use large amounts of natural gas. That is us. Figure 12 of our written testimony is directed from the report and shows how exports result in loss of labor income wages. Capital income and indirect taxes. Combined these accelerate wage disparity. The net economic gain at its peak is a meager 20 billion in 2020 and declines from there. Bottom line is that the bulk of the population is negatively impacted to the benefit of a few raising questions about how it can be in the Public Interest. Announcer the in their Wisdom Congress passed the natural gas act. Congress understood that unlike so many other tradable products, natural gas is different. Because consumers do not have a substitute and it is not renewable. Congress felt a responsibility to act in their behalf to protect unknowing consumer who does not have the ability to understand the longterm implications of lng exports. For this reason the natural gas act includes a provision called the Public Interest determination and it is completed for each application to export to nonfree trade governments 37 governments. The Government Accountability office says the doe has not defined Public Interest. It is a glaring omission if not a legal issue. If the doe has not defined Public Interest how can they make decisions on 145 Million Consumers . Without a definition of Public Interest, how much public hardship can be inflicted before the doe denies the next application . The defenses anything of Public Interest is not a Macro Economic number like the so ln called net economic benefit number of the report. The real definition of Public Interest was pioneered by justice brandice. The Public Interest is that which produces the most good for most people. The National Gas Act specifically anticipates that adjustments to lng exports would be in the Public Interest when it states that doe may from time to time, after opportunity for hearing and for good cause make such supplemental order in the premises as it may find necessary and appropriate. So the natural gas act creates an obligation for the d