US Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, held a hearing on how increasing exports of LNG will create thousands of high-paying jobs and support U.S. allies abroad. The hearing, entitled “Importing Energy, Exporting Jobs — Can it be reversed?” was Landrieu’s first as chair of the committee.
“Thanks to extraordinary and swift advances in technology to locate, capture and produce natural gas, today this committee will discuss the expanded opportunities to export LNG, the possibilities to create high-paying jobs in America and support our allies in Europe and budding democracies across the world,” Landrieu said. “Nowhere is this more evident than in my home state of Louisiana and all along the Gulf Coast – America’s energy coast! The oil and gas industry supports over 300,000 jobs in Louisiana, and has been a major factor in securing below average unemployment for the last 5 years.”
A 2013 study by David Dismukes at LSU found that by 2019 more than 200,000 jobs will be created by new unconventional energy production in Louisiana alone. A recent LSU report estimated that from 2012 – 2018, US$47 billion of private sector investment will be made in new and existing plants and projects in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson Davis Parishes. That investment is expected to create more than 37,000 new high-paying jobs.
Testifying before the Committee were Mr. Adam Sieminski, administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, Jaroslav Neverovič, minister with the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania, David Montgomery, senior vice president of NERA Economic Consulting, David L. Goldwyn, nonresident senior fellow with the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and Edward C. Chow, senior fellow with the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Accelerating America’s entry into the global natural gas market is a win–win–win situation,” Neverovič said. America wins through job creation, economic growth, and more revenues for government. Customers across Europe win by access to more competitive, clean-burning U.S. natural gas. And, strategic cooperation of NATO allies would be strengthened—consequently stability on the European continent wins when monopolistic levers of influence are reduced or eliminated.”
“The present situation in Ukraine has taught us all one lesson—no nation should be able to use its monopolistic energy supplies to punish any other nation,” Neverovič said. “So, in conclusion, my message to you is simple. Let’s work together to let competition in, push the monopolists out, and bring natural gas prices down in Europe as they have come down in America.”
Last week, Russia sanctioned nine U.S. officials, denying them entry into Russia because they hold views in opposition to Russia’s actions against the Ukraine. Senator Landrieu was one of the nine sanctioned officials.
Subscribe
