A group of 22 U.S. Senators urged President Obama to consider the impacts of natural gas exports when looking to approve new natural gas export facilities.
In a letter to the president, the Senators pointed out that families saw skyrocketing energy bills this winter in some parts of the country faced with short supplies of natural gas and propane, shortages that could be exacerbated with increased exports. They also pointed to the hundreds of thousands of American manufacturing jobs created in the last few years, in part because of low natural gas prices. Aggressive, unlimited new exports of natural gas could raise prices for families and American manufacturers.
The letter reads in part: “Families and businesses depend on affordable and reliable supplies of natural gas. This winter many parts of the country faced tight supplies of propane and natural gas and families were left to face high energy bills…. Taking a longer-term view, the United States has benefited from rising supplies and lower prices for natural gas since 2008. Thanks in part to lower natural gas prices, America’s manufacturing sector has created more than 600,000 jobs since 2010. The Boston Consulting Group concluded that affordable natural gas prices could lead to 5 million more manufacturing jobs by the end of the decade. We must ensure that we do not squander what is clearly an American competitive advantage right now for American manufacturers and for the American economy.”
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