Roy Outlines Critical Role of American Energy

Calls for the protection of private property rights and continued commitment to domestic energy

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Ranking Member Chip Roy (R-Texas) outlined the incredible power and potential for American energy during his opening statement at today’s subcommittee hearing on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) permitting of natural gas projects. Ranking Member Roy emphasized the importance of private landowner rights and the need for FERC to improve its processes and procedures to better protect private property rights.

The remarks as prepared for delivery are below.

Thank you, Chairman Raskin, and thank you to the witnesses from FERC for their willingness to appear before the Subcommittee to discuss FERC’s role regarding landowner rights as it relates to natural gas projects.

Under the leadership of the Trump Administration and my former boss Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, the United States achieved unprecedented energy independence.

In the past 15 years alone, we have seen a transformation across our national energy portfolio—driven heavily by abundant natural gas.

In 2017, we became an exporter of natural gas for the first time in 60 years.

Private sector innovation led to a combination of fracking and horizontal drilling allowing us to tap into large volumes of gas previously uneconomical to produce.

In North America, there are an estimated 4.244 quadrillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas reserves—enough gas to power the United States for at least 175 years at current rates of consumption.

Between 2008 and 2018, fracked natural gas added 17 times more energy to the U.S. than all solar panels and wind turbines combined.

A worthy example, this hearing room is kept warm in the middle of December by the natural gas-powered Capitol Power Plant down the street.

Unfortunately, that is not the case across America.

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 25 million U.S. households say they’ve gone without food or medicine to pay for energy bills.

12 million say they’ve kept their home at an unsafe temperature.

Abundant, affordable natural gas is key to driving down these energy poverty statistics.

The U.S. can not only benefit from this resource domestically, we can export fuel across the world to developing nations and allies who do not want to depend on Russia, China, or Iran for their energy needs.

The strategic development of energy resources requires infrastructure for public use, and that brings us to our subject matter today.

Pipelines are critical to ensure everyone has access to natural gas in a safe and efficient manner.

I have experience dealing with eminent domain concerns in my district in the Texas Hill Country.

The 430-mile Permian Highway Pipeline was approved before my first term in Congress.
This was an intrastate pipeline, so it did not involve the FERC certification process, but I understand some of the very real concerns landowners have when approached with this situation.

I’ve asked state legislators to review the processes in place within the state to protect private property rights. Landowners should be fully compensated and made whole.

It is important to note FERC is an independent regulatory agency, not a stage for political theater.

FERC is continuing to improve its processes and procedures to ensure landowners’ rights are protected while simultaneously approving essential pipeline projects that will help Americans access affordable natural gas.

The Natural Gas Act was amended in 1947 to provide eminent domain authority to interstate natural gas pipelines with FERC-approved certificates of public convenience and necessity.

The authority to use federal eminent domain for a pipeline project is one that is only used by pipeline companies as a last resort.

A survey by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America concluded that from 2008 to 2018 only 1.67% of individual tracts needed to construct the surveyed projects were acquired after a judicial determination of just compensation in an eminent domain proceeding.

On June 9th, FERC issued Order No. 871, which revised its regulations to provide that it will not issue notices to proceed with construction of facilities authorized under the NGA until the commission acts on any rehearing request related to FERC’s authorization of the facility.

This ensures that a pipeline will not begin construction and landowners’ property will not be disturbed unless and until FERC has addressed the rehearing requests.

This action highlights that FERC is striving to protect landowners’ rights, and I am confident we will learn more about additional measures in place to address related concerns.

However, I suspect there could be ulterior motives surrounding natural gas pipelines—motivated not by private property rights, but rather another leftist attack on American energy.

Democrats are not shy in their support of carbon taxes, fracking bans, and leftist schemes like the Green New Deal that would destroy millions of jobs and force more Americans into energy poverty.

My colleagues in this Committee have repeatedly attacked efforts to build robust and competitive energy infrastructure.

This April, Chairman Raskin and 29 Democrats led a letter to FERC calling for a moratorium on the approval and construction of new natural gas pipeline projects and Liquified Natural Gas export facilities.

The United States is blessed to have abundant and affordable energy resources. We must use those resources to advance American interests and quality of life, while leading the world in economic growth with energy at the forefront.