According to reports, the bill "would require the Department of the Interior to accept bids to drill for natural gas on public lands only from companies that say they will offer the extracted natural gas for sale in the U.S."
Previously, in mid-January, Rep. Markey made related comments on exporting natural gas.
According to a press release on his web page he states, "Today is a wake-up call to American consumers and businesses who rely on natural gas that higher prices are on the horizon if we don’t keep our natural gas here in America. . . . The affordable domestic supplies we’ve recently developed could soon become a thing of the past if companies are allowed to export large volumes of American natural gas supplies to foreign countries.” Read Rep. Ed Markey's press release.
A second bill titled the "North America Natural Gas Security and Consumer Protection Act", was also introduced which would prevent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from approving new terminals that would export domestic natural gas.
Read the Democrats' Natural Resource Committee press release.
