If the US Congress passes, and the White House approves, a cap-and-trade
system for greenhouse gases, the price of all types of energy will rise, said
Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"It is a reality people need to accept if they are willing to embrace
some significant efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Bingaman, a
New Mexico Democrat. "And that is all kinds of energy, not just natural gas."

"If a cap-and-trade system is structured properly, we can mitigate the
amount of increase in natural gas prices from what it might otherwise be," he
said Monday at a news conference. "There is a danger that a cap-and-trade
system would be set up in such a way that there would be enormous pressure to
move to much greater use of natural gas and that would result in substantially
higher prices."

Raising the price of energy "is not good news to a lot of people, but
some believe that the importance of reducing greenhouse gases is such that we
need to proceed," the New Mexico Democrat said.

Bingaman also said charges that his bill and other energy-related bills
would impede future oil and gas production "have no basis in fact.

"It is true [the legislation] is not focused on providing additional
incentives for increased production," he said. The legislation "tries to work
on reduction of energy demand to a much greater extent."

He said the Senate needs to look at provisions of the House energy bill
that energy producers have criticized. "We need to look at each of those and
make sure that they don't result in reduction of production," he said, adding,
"but it's my impression that most of the provisions that people are upset
about do not have any major impact on reducing production."

--Rodney White, rodney_white@platts.com