A relentless Oklahoma U.S. Sen Alan Armstrong is spreading the word about the country’s great need for permitting reform and he’s not afraid to point the finger at Congress.
In his latest interview, the Republican Senator, who until a few months ago was Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Williams Cos. where he had been a longtime CEO and President, said it’s obvious the U.S. does not have enough infrastructure to get its abundant energy supplies to the markets that need them.
“And the only reason we don’t have the infrastructure is because we don’t have the political courage to demand that we get those projects built. And it really is right here in Washington in terms of Congress doing their job to straighten out our permitting processes,” asserted Armstrong in a Sunday night interview on Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.
The interview focused on Armstrong’s new permitting reform bill, the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act.
Responding to Gowdy’s questions, the senator blamed many of the problems that slow or even block some needed energy projects is within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) the U.S. environmental law signed on January 1, 1970. The laws require federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions with Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements.
“The problem is the and the judicial standards that exist within our NEPA laws is actually where the problem is,” said Armstrong in a blunt response. “And that causes the agencies to have to operate in the way they do. And it and it ices capital out of the from the investors because the investors have no confidence that they’re going to be able to when they do get a permit, actually be able to hold the permit.”
Interview Script:
Gowdy: Oklahoma Senator Alan Armstrong wants to reform our permitting process to allow us to build and streamline energy projects here. So who or what is standing in the way? Let’s find out. Senator Armstrong joins us now.
Welcome, Senator. Thank you for joining us. Do we have enough oil and gas in the U.S. to not be reliant on the rest of the world?
Armstrong: Yeah, absolutely. Not only do we have enough oil and gas, we, you know, continue to find new resources as well. And our country is extremely well positioned on the supply side, better than any other country. It ought to be it ought to be what we take advantage of as a country.
But what we don’t have is we don’t have enough infrastructure today to be able to get those abundant supplies to the markets that need them. And the only reason we don’t have the infrastructure is because we don’t have the political courage to demand that we get those projects built. And it really is right here in Washington in terms of Congress doing their job to straighten out our permitting processes.
And that causes the agencies to have to operate in the way they do. And it and it ices capital out of the from the investors because the investors have no confidence that they’re going to be able to when they do get a permit, actually be able to hold the permit. There’s a number of instances.
And in fact, when I was CEO for the Williams companies, we had a project that was a billion dollar project. It was bringing very simple project, bringing low cost natural gas out of Pennsylvania, some of the lowest cost gas in the world and bringing it into the New Jersey markets. We spent the money. It was up and running for about nine months. It was running at near full load capacity on the pipeline. And a D.C. circuit removed our permit and how that ices up investment on who in the world would want to go and those kind of big dollars were in it. And a jurisdiction permit can be pulled. So those are the kind of things that have to be fixed. We have to fix the judicial standards and we have to make sure that when you get a certificate and a permit, you can rely on it.
Armstrong: You know, we’ve laid out principles of a bill that we’re bringing in Democratic support for because obviously in the Senate that is going to be required. The good news is there’s a lot of moderate Dems that would like to see this get done. And one of the very first principles is we are not going to in any way, shape or form diminish the environmental protections that exist with the permitting law.
There’s nobody even thinking, gee, if we could just cut corners on the environmental side, we could get this done. That is not the problem. The problem is the actual process and the do loops of our process and the litigation risk. And that’s what we’re trying to fix.
Gowdy: Senator, thank you for joining us on this Sunday night. Say hello to all my friends in Oklahoma. I went to college just south of you and I’ll be in Oklahoma City next year. So I expect to meet you in person. Until then, take care.
Senator: Fantastic. Thank you, Trey. Great pleasure.
