mr. chairman , i rise today to urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the peterson amendment to end the 20 year moratoria on natural gas production from the outer continental shelf and gulf of mexico . 
high natural gas prices have not only affected the 61 percent of u.s. households that use natural gas for heating and cooking , but america 's small businesses , including agriculture . 
the agricultural industry depends on natural gas for crop drying , irrigation , heating , farm buildings , food processing and nitrogen fertilizer production . 
undoubtedly , the most demanding use of natural gas by the farm sector is in the production of nitrogen fertilizer . 
it accounts for 90 percent of total costs of producing fertilizer . 
the surge in natural gas prices over the last four years has been a key reason why nitrogen fertilizer costs have jumped by nearly 50 percent at the farm level . 
this problem is not going away on its own , a recent report by iowa state university estimates that farmers can expect to pay 20 percent more for fertilizer this year than they did last year . 
nitrogen fertilizer is an essential component in today 's high-yielding agriculture and accounts for more than 40 percent of the total energy input per acre of corn harvested . 
the importance of nitrogen to crop production can be illustrated by the fact that it is applied to 96 percent of all corn acres , 86 percent of all wheat acres and 80 percent of all cotton acres . 
according to data from the university of illinois , without nitrogen fertilizers , corn yields would reduce by one-third to one-half . 
this 20 year moratorium has created a supply squeeze for natural gas . 
on one hand , electric utilities and other industries have been influenced to move away from using our plentiful supplies of coal and towards the use of natural gas . 
natural gas has been the fuel of choice for more than 90 percent of the new electric generation to come online in the last decade . 
at the same time , access to natural gas is limited due to environmental policies . 
clearly we ca n't have it both ways . 
our family farmers are already efficient . 
since 1980 , they have increased efficiency by 35 percent while still boosting corn yields by 40 percent . 
but they need congress to produce the kind of policies that enable them to access the resources they need at a reasonable price . 
american agriculture is being held hostage to high natural gas prices , yet we have a plentiful supply right here in the united states . 
a vote in favor of the peterson amendment will be a vote for agriculture . 
