“API Releases 5-Point Policy Plan to Make Energy Great Again”, by Jim Willis
“In remarks made yesterday, API President Mike Sommers said his organization supports (!) massive worldwide shakedown of America called the Paris Accords (which targets HIS members for extinction).
API Releases 5-Point Policy Plan to Make Energy Great Again
CNG/LNG | EXPORTING | INDUSTRYWIDE ISSUES | PIPELINES
November 13, 2024
We won’t lie—we have a love/hate relationship with the American Petroleum Institute. Big Oil companies (like Exxon) control the organization (they pay big membership fees), and often, Big Oil is at odds with smaller, independent oil and gas producers like those who do most of the shale drilling. The API tends to suck up to politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In remarks made yesterday, API President Mike Sommers said his organization supports (!) the massive worldwide shakedown of America called the Paris Accords (which targets HIS members for extinction). Go figure. However, the API isn’t all bad. The API released a policy roadmap yesterday for the incoming Trump administration.
In remarks made yesterday to reporters, Sommers said he wants Traitor Joe Manchin’s “permitting reform” bill, introduced in July, to get passed now, in the lame duck session of Congress, so dementia Joe Biden can sign it into law (see Barrasso, Manchin Release Bipartisan Energy Permitting Reform Bill). Sommers admits the bill only gets us (maybe) 75% of the way toward true permitting reform. He thinks if we can get 75% now, Trump can finish the final 25%. Perhaps it’s not a bad strategy. We’ll take half a loaf any day over no loaf at all. But, the incoming Republican Congress can certainly provide a whole loaf. Why accept a half loaf now when the cavalry is riding into town on January 20th and can do the job right—can give us a whole loaf? Perhaps we don’t understand politics as well as we thought we did.
Back to center. The API released a “5 Point Policy Roadmap” yesterday. We’ve embedded it below. It’s really quite good (here comes the love part):
Protect consumer energy choice and dump EV mandates.
Bolster geopolitical strength by lifting the LNG pause and approving pending export requests immediately.
Leverage our natural resources by ramping up offshore and onshore leasing once again, and dump the methane tax.
Reform the permitting system so we can build pipelines again.
Advance sensible tax policy to encourage infrastructure investment.
We love all of those things. They make sense.
The API issued this press release to announce its policy roadmap:
The American Petroleum Institute (API) today released a new policy roadmap for the incoming Trump administration and next Congress to secure American energy leadership and help reduce inflation. Beginning with an open letter to President-elect Trump, the 5-point policy roadmap details concrete steps Washington can take in 2025 and beyond to protect consumers, bolster geopolitical strength, leverage our national resources, reform our permitting system and advance sensible tax policy.
“Our country has a generational opportunity to fully leverage U.S. energy leadership to improve the lives of all Americans and bring stability to a volatile world,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers wrote in the letter to President-elect Trump. “It has never been more vital that America control its energy future.”
“Yet our continued success is far from guaranteed, and we have been heading down a path of extreme regulations threatening everything from our choice of home appliances to the cars we drive,” Sommers said. “As an industry committed to American prosperity, we stand ready to work with you and Congress to reverse course and advance a robust vision for securing America’s energy dominance.”
API’s 5-point policy roadmap outlines the path forward, including:
Protect consumer choice
Repeal the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) tailpipe rules.
Repeal the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
Deny/Rescind EPA’s Waiver for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) rule.
Bolster America’s geopolitical strength
Lift the Department of Energy’s (DOE) LNG permitting pause.
Swiftly process all pending export applications now languishing at DOE.
Ensure the open access of American energy to global markets.
Leverage our natural resources
Issue a new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) five-year offshore leasing program.
Repeal restrictive onshore leasing rules, starting with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Conservation and Landscape Health Rule.
End EPA’s methane fee that misinterprets Congressional intent and does little beyond increasing the cost of production for American oil and natural gas.
Reform our permitting system
Reform the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).
Reform the Clean Water Act.
Advance judicial reform.
Repeal the Biden-era NEPA rules.
Advance sensible tax policy
Retain the 21% corporate tax rate to ensure global competitiveness.
Maintain and extend tax provisions for domestic infrastructure investment.
Preserve crucial international tax provisions. (1)
Mike Sommers spoke to reporters. Paul Gough from the Pittsburgh Business Timeslistened in:
A top national oil and gas industry trade group is urging President-Elect Donald J. Trump to roll back several Biden-administration initiatives around liquified natural gas, methane emissions reductions and repeal regulations on fuel economy and electrical vehicles to unleash a new wave of the energy boom.
The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday released a policy roadmap the organization, which has smaller groups around the country including in Pennsylvania, hoped would cut energy-related inflation and also cement the United States’ energy leadership that has come along with the Marcellus, Utica and other shale-gas revolution over the past two decades.
API President Mike Sommers told reporters during a conference call Tuesday that last week’s election results were a wakeup call.
“It is clear that energy was on the ballot,” Sommers said. “Whether it was EV mandates in Michigan or fracking in Pennsylvania, voters across the country and on both sides of the aisle sent a clear message to policymakers that they want an all-of-the-above approach to energy, not government mandates and restrictions.
He said the letter, which was sent to Trump and the leaders of the 119th Congress, would help cement American energy leadership.
That includes repealing the Environmental Protection Agency’s upcoming tailpipe rules that would require a majority of new vehicle sales to be electric by 2032 and rescinding an EPA waiver for what it called a California ban on new gasoline-powered cars by 2035; restarting the flow of new LNG projects and applications and clearing the way for more exports of oil and gas; reduce corporate tax burdens; and lifting the challenges to onshore and offshore leasing programs.
“The American people want to see smart, pragmatic policies for protecting consumers, strengthening national security and growing our economy,” said Amanda Eversole, API’s EVP and chief advocacy officer.
Another provision of API’s plan was even more timely, given that the EPA’s methane-emissions fee became finalized earlier Tuesday. Sommers said he’d like to see Congress work with the new EPA to repeal the rule next year. Some oil and gas companies have said they don’t mind the EPA methane emissions regulations; others, particularly smaller companies, are still opposed.
“The United States leads the world in the production of oil and gas and the reduction of emissions,” Sommers said. “We support the ambition of the Paris climate accords but regardless of whether we stay in or out our focus will be on the dual challenge of emissions reduction and on meeting the world’s energy needs.”
Also on the agenda for the lame-duck session of Congress that began Tuesday is the permitting reform bill cosponsored by retiring U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, I-West Virginia. It would, in Manchin’s words to the Business Times earlier this year, help speed the process of all types of permitting including pipelines and electrical infrastructure.
Permitting reform is something that was brought up as a major issue moving forward by Appalachian natural gas producers, including Range Resources CEO Dennis Degner and EQT Corp. CEO Toby Z. Rice, during the DUG Appalachia conference Thursday in Pittsburgh.
Sommers said API believes permitting reform can be done in the lame-duck session.
“It’s a priority and we believe that while it may only be about 75% of what we need to get this country moving again and energy infrastructure built,” Sommers said. “We want to get that bill done now and then go get the next 25% when the new president and the new Congress take office.” (2)
Here’s the API’s “5 Point Policy Roadmap to Secure American Energy Leadership and Help Reduce Inflation”:
…
(1) American Petroleum Institute (Nov 12, 2024) – API Releases New Policy Roadmap for Incoming Administration and Next Congress to Secure American Energy Leadership and Help Reduce Inflation
(2) Pittsburgh (PA) Business Times/Paul Gough (Nov 12, 2024) – American Petroleum Institute urges Trump to unleash energy potential