Not quite a decade ago members of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources attended numerous meetings to consider the 2005 Energy Policy Act. At that time we discussed, at length, the need to import more liquefied natural gas to meet our growing energy demands. Thanks to extraordinary and swift advances in technology to locate, capture and produce natural gas, today this committee meets to discuss the expanded opportunities to export liquefied natural gas and the possibilities to create high paying jobs in America and support our allies in Europe and budding democracies across the world. Because of price reductions in domestic gas prices, Methanex, the world's largest producer of methanol is literally breaking down a factory piece by piece in Chile and shipping it back to Geismar, Louisiana, where it originally was. New discoveries in oil and gas have fortified our economy in the last few years, perhaps buffering us from an even deeper recession, and providing new, high paying jobs for thousands of Americans.