Washington, DC -- The American Gas Association (AGA) today released the following statement on S.3036, the Boxer substitute to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that will be debated on the Senate floor this week.
“AGA believes that natural gas utilities and their customers should play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and AGA stands ready to work with Congress to develop a legislative consensus on how best to achieve this goal. However, AGA believes that the current structure of S.3036 should be modified to reflect the three decades of success that natural gas customers have had in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the average residential natural gas customer uses nearly one-third less natural gas today than in 1980. Further, natural gas provides nearly half of all energy consumed in the residential and commercial sectors but accounts for less than 6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It is the most efficient and lowest carbon-emitting fossil fuel.
“To ensure that residential and commercial natural gas customers continue to conserve and use natural gas efficiently, as well as to lessen the potential economic impact on these customers, AGA advocates that they should be covered through the aggressive promotion and implementation of state- or utility-sponsored conservation and efficiency programs, tightened building codes and standards, and higher appliance efficiency standards.
“AGA hopes that when Congress passes climate change legislation, it will serve the best interests of the 64 million U.S. households and 5 million schools, hospitals and business establishments that depend on clean-burning natural gas, while it continues to promote the goal of significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. To that end, AGA, as part of a coalition of industry stakeholders, sent a letter to every member of the U.S. Senate urging support for an amendment submitted by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), which would regulate emissions from natural gas use in the most efficient and effective manner.”