U.S. Senator Criticizes DOE on Natural Gas Exports

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  U.S. Sen. Angus King says the Department of Energy (DOE) is allowing too much natural gas to be exported without studying its impact on domestic prices. At a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, King blasted the DOE for continuing to increase natural gas exports.

“The number of LNG terminal applications now approaches 50 or 60 percent of the total production in this country, and you’re telling me that won’t affect domestic prices? That doesn’t pass the straight face test,” King says.

King says the impact can only be determined by a study which the agency has not done. He says current natural gas prices are to the advantage of the U.S. economy which should not be undone by increasing exports.

For the Department of Energy to continue issuing these permits,which, under the law, are supposed to take into consideration the public interest, without doing as I understand it, a recent study of what the elasticity of demand is and what the effect on prices, I think is utterly irresponsible,” says King.

 Courtesy: www.mainepublic.org