MILLS: Trump Signals Big Energy Policy Changes In Washington

Insiders ENERGY REPORT: While Obama EPA takes one more shot At Oil & Gas By Alex Mills AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report)  During the Presidential Campaign that lasted more than a year energy and environmental issues were hardly ever raised. But just a couple weeks ago President-elect Donald Trump put energy and environmental issues on the front page of newspapers across the nation and stirred up a hornets nest when he named:

• Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Former Texas Governor Rick Perry as Secretary of the Department of Energy followed by the announcement that
• the Chairman & CEO of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson was his nominee for Secretary of State.

Lobbyists from environmental groups from coast-to-coast went to work developing public advocacy programs in opposition to all three but A.G. Pruitt drew a lot of the immediate attention. The Sierra Club one of the most liberal of all of the environmental groups unveiled an ad campaign aimed at denying Pruitts confirmation as the next U.S. EPA administrator. The digital ads will target senators in 10 states with a message urging them to say no to #PollutingPruitt for EPA. The environmental group has criticized President-elect Donald Trumps choice to lead the agency noting Pruitt  (left) is a leading critic of Obama administrations climate regulations. The Sierra Club did not reveal the cost of the one-week digital campaign but described it as a five-figure expenditure. The ads will target senators who the Sierra Club considers fence sitters" meaning that it believes these senators possibly could be persuaded to not vote for confirmation of Pruitt. Senators identified by the Sierra Club are:

1. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander (R)
2. Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R)
3. Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly (D)
4. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R)
5. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R)
6. North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D)
7. Nevada Sen. Dean Heller (R)
8. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D)
9. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman (R) and
10. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey (R)

Environmental groups are also upset with Perry who vowed during a previous campaign for president to dismantle the Energy Department as well as two other federal agencies. It has been pointed out that some of the functions at DOE could not be abolished completely. One of the primary duties at DOE includes protecting the U.S. nuclear arsenal. A large chunk of DOEs most recent budget request of $32.5 billion would go to overseeing nuclear weapons nonproliferation and cleaning up Cold War weapon production sites. Additionally DOE oversees 17 labs doing research on among other things next-generation supercomputers mapping the human genome and testing nuclear reactors. However many of the functions at DOE could be transferred to other government agencies such as moving the nuclear oversight to the Defense Department. Some have wondered for years why DOE ended up with nuclear weapons. The biggest irony of all is the nomination of the CEO of the largest U.S. oil company ExxonMobils Rex Tillerson to be the nations top ambassador. It wasnt very long ago that the CEOs of the major oil companies were ordered to come to Washington to testify about high energy prices and obscene profits." President-elect Trump has definitely turned Washington from the far left to the right. Obamas EPA Gets One More Shot At Oil & Gas Industry The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delivered a Christmas present to some 15000 owners of oil and gas wells across the nation last week in the form of certified letters demanding that the companies send EPA detailed information regarding wells they own. The Information Collection Request also called the ICR isnt really a request because EPA warns owners that if the information isnt received within 60 days they could be fined up to $90000 per day. The survey comes in two parts. Part 1 requires comprehensive information from onshore petroleum and natural gas production facilities to better understand the number and types of equipment at production facilities." Part 2 the facility survey" seeks information on production gathering and boosting processing compression/transmission pipeline natural gas storage as well as LNG storage and import/export facilities. There is a 180-day deadline for Part 2. The ICR is part of EPAs new methane regulation which was adopted this summer. Many observers thought that EPA would not send out the ICRs and wait to determine if anything should be done after the new administration comes into office. President-elect Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20 just about 30 days from the ICR filing deadline. Trump has vowed to reduce regulations on industry and there was speculation that the massive information exchange would not happen. Additionally oil and gas well owners are puzzled and upset because there has been a lawsuit filed against the methane rule by many states including Texas and several oil and gas industry organizations. Industry had requested that EPA exempt marginal wells but environmental groups demanded that all wells be required to submit information to EPA. The Obama Administration hurriedly put the survey together and got the certified letters in the mail just before Christmas.