trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/mi38en_fuwj3u-nh6umn7w2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Oil, gas industry finding 'different attitude' from regulators under Trump

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


Oil, gas industry finding 'different attitude' from regulators under Trump

The relationship between oil and gas interests and federal regulators has improved significantly under President Donald Trump, which could lead to a smoother infrastructure build-out, a U.S. senator and a pipeline CEO said at the opening forum of the industry conference CERAWeek by IHS Markit.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said at the Houston conference March 5 that a U.S. energy renaissance is in full swing and, with the arrival of the new administration, is "being supported by federal government policies." That support is a major change from a frequently hostile relationship between the industry and government regulators during the Obama administration, he said.

"We moved from a federal government that intentionally tried to delay projects for as long as possible for eight years to an administration that views many of you in this room as partners in opportunity," Sullivan said.

One of the key changes between the Obama and Trump administrations is an interest in streamlining the permitting process, the junior senator from Alaska said. Sullivan said there is a growing bipartisan consensus that the current regime is too long and too costly. He is one of the sponsors of the Rebuild America Now Act, which does not have a Democratic co-sponsor.

"To really bring certainty ... we need to focus on actual legislation to bring permanence to the permitting system," he said, noting that it can eight years to build a pipeline and seven years to build a bridge due to permitting problems. "The obstacles are well known. We need to streamline the permitting process ... to bring the timelines down to reasonable times: a year and a half, two years."

The use of an environmental impact statement by federal agencies has gone from verification that a project is being constructed properly to a weapon to slow infrastructure expansion, he said. "It's delay, delay, delay. An EIS is now thousands of pages, costs millions of dollars, and nobody reads them."

Plains All American Pipeline LP CEO Greg Armstrong, who was also on the panel, agreed that there has been a change in how federal agencies and the oil and gas industry work together since Trump took office.

"Over the past 12 to 14 months, we've seen a different attitude," he said. "We're seeing an atmosphere of partnership." Unlike Sullivan, however, Armstrong was not entirely positive in his assessment of the Trump administration. He spoke out strongly in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement and in opposition to proposed tariffs on steel, saying a loss of NAFTA and implementation of tariffs would significantly damage his company.

"As far as NAFTA goes ... we need some form of NAFTA. I think it's warranted that it needs to be updated," he said. "From a standpoint of tariffs, we spent the weekend trying to figure out [how it could affect the company.] We have $1.5 billion worth of projects that could be affected."