Top Oil Lobbyist Wants Government Open to Keep Rolling Back Environmental Rules

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Although the partial U.S. government shutdown, now marching into its fourth week,ย isnโ€™t hurting the oil and gas industry, according to Mike Sommers, the head of the American Petroleum Institute (API) says he wants the shutdown to end so that the Trump administration can get back to actively helping theย industry by meeting federal deadlines for rolling back environmentalย regulations.ย 

Nevertheless, there are signs the Trump administration is still at work on that fossil fuel-friendly agenda in some places, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite the longest government shutdown in U.S.ย history.

โ€œTo this point, we have not seen any major effects of the shutdown on our industry,โ€ Sommers told reporters, as part of the API CEO‘s annual State of American Energy address on the oil and gasย industry.

However, Sommers expressed concerns that a longer shutdownย โ€œโ€ฆ could slow efforts at the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department to roll back environmental regulations,โ€ย according to the Washington Examiner.

Jeffrey Holmstead,ย a partner at the law firm Bracewell LLP who previously served as both a coal lobbyist andย EPA official for Presidentย George W. Bush, echoed Sommers’ concerns about the Trump administration’s deregulatoryย efforts.

โ€œThere are some people who really support the regulatory reforms and are concerned that the administration is already behind on some things,โ€ Holmstead, who has a long history of working for the fossil fuel industry to fight environmental and climate regulations, recently toldย Roll Call.ย โ€œThereโ€™s no doubt that keeping the government shut down for too much longer certainly puts at risk some of the things that theyโ€™re trying toย do.โ€

Government shutdown ransom note spotted in D.C. during January 2019.
Government shutdown ransom note spotted in Washington, D.C., on January 10, 2019.ย 
Credit:ย Joe Flood,ย CC BYNCNDย 2.0

The current EPA has a March deadline for finalizing the repeal of the Obama adminstration’s signature climate change initiative, theย Clean Power Plan,ย whichย Holmstead has opposed in court. Several other environmental rule rollbacks have upcoming deadlines that the oil and gas industry fears may also be in jeopardy if they aren’t pushed through in the next twoย years.

In other words, with a former oil lobbyist currently running the Interior Department, a former coal lobbyist at the EPA, and a climate science denier in the Oval Office, there has never been a better time toย gut federal environmental protections โ€” an opportunity the fossil fuel industry is keen toย optimize.

Government Still Working for Fossil Fuelย Industry Duringย Shutdown

Speaking of the ex-coal lobbyist at the top of the EPA, Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler‘s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 16. But Senate Democrats are questioning whether some EPA staff who are not designated to work during the shutdown may be illegally helping Wheeler prepare for his confirmationย hearing.

This isn’t the only instance in which the governmentย appears to be working on efforts that would benefit the fossil fuel industry despite theย shutdown.

Andrew Wheeler shaking hands with Scott Pruitt.
EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who previously lobbied on behalf of the coal company Murray Energy, took over as interim EPA chief after Scott Pruitt resigned in Julyย 2018.ย Credit:ย U.S.ย EPA,ย publicย domain

When Alaskaโ€™s Energy Desk emailed an employee of the Bureau of Land Management, an out-of-office reply bounced back with the message:ย โ€œDue to the lapse in funding of the federal government budget, I am out of the office. I am not authorized to work during this time, but will respond to your email when I return to theย office.โ€

And yet that same employee has been documented working to advance theย environmental review process required to begin oil lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As The New York Times recently reported:ย โ€œDecades of protections are unwinding with extraordinary speed as Republicans move to lock in drilling opportunities [in ANWR] before the 2020 presidentialย election.โ€

And apparently not even a government shutdown is going to slow thatย effort.

Rep. Raรบl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), the chair of the House Natural Resources committee, has raised concerns about the seemingly preferential behavior, but there is no indication that the work, which may be using a BLM Alaskaย funding source previously approved by Congress, willย stop.

Matt Lee-Ashley,ย a former deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, told Bloomberg, โ€œThe oil industry is still getting business as usual and everybody else is getting shut out, so itโ€™s fundamentally not fair and it may be illegalย too.โ€

Closing Window ofย Opportunity

The oil and gas industry knows there is a limited window of opportunity while Trump and his team of former lobbyists are running the government. During his campaign, Trump promisedย that he would roll back regulations, and he has made good on thatย promise.

Examples include the regulations for reportingย methane leaks in the fracking industry and moving to modern braking systems for the oil trains used to move oil produced byย fracking.

While in Sommersโ€™ annual address, he said,ย โ€œThe key to energy regulations is to keep them grounded in common sense and hard science,โ€ his industry’s lobbying efforts point to the opposite. Methane releases, particularly by the fracking industry in places like the Permian Basin, are well documented (and previously underestimated) contributors to global warming, and years of research and real-world experience confirmย the safety improvements delivered by installingย modern braking systems on oilย trains.

And yet those regulations have been repealed under Trump, at the behest of the oil and gasย industry.ย 

Pre-dating Trump, there are many examples of breakdown and failuresย in the regulatory systemย that directly benefit the oil and gas industry, such asย the lack ofย the regulation of fracking waste,ย the flaring and venting of methane produced duringย fracking-fueld oil and gas activity, and the lack of proper oversightย ofย gas pipelines, oil trains, and natural gas storage facilities such as Aliso Canyon โ€” to name just aย few.

If existing regulations on air and water quality were properly enforced or new science-based regulations were enacted, for example, the alreadyย money-losing fracking industryย likely would be losing even more money and likely reining in its rampant production as aย result.

But with the current administration’s pro-fossil fuel priorities, it’s no wonder the top oil and gas industry lobbyist is eager to get the full power of the federal government back up to speed in carrying out aย vision that aligns quite well with itsย own.

Main Image: A sign posted January 2, 2019 indicating all Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are closed during the U.S. government shutdown. Credit:ย Joe Flood,ย CC BYNCNDย 2.0

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Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

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