The audio of a private meeting shows that the oil industry is bursting into the Trump administration



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The June meeting was frustrated by the slowness of the Trump Administration's key energy policies, including the EPA regulatory regulation measures and the efforts of the Department of the Interior. to stimulate production. A commitment to open more federal waters to offshore drilling has stalled in the face of legal and political repression, the decision of the administration to speed up pipeline clearance, especially for Keystone XL and the Mountain Valley Pipeline, has been challenged in court and states have sued for a collapse As for the rules on methane emissions, even some oil companies have complained is too broad.

At the meeting, Wayne D'Angelo, head of energy litigation at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, said that EarthJustice, the Council for the Defense of Natural Resources and other groups had Assigned more than three hundred times the lawsuits filed against the administration during his rewinding of the Obama era. rules, including those on methane emissions and hydraulic fracturing.

"There is a considerable amount of litigation regarding the regulatory agenda," D'Angelo said, adding that there were "many early wins for environmental litigation".

"I think the agencies will focus on fewer high-impact rules" in the run-up to the 2020 elections, D'Angelo added. "Maybe continue to do things with advice, in full knowledge of the facts. Whatever you do through advice, you can win. "

Barron said the program was struggling because of a talent gap in federal agencies, which he attributed to the reluctance of many experts to work for President Donald Trump.

"For some, the reluctance of the administration on non-energetic components, some of the things that it could say about other topics or on which you could read tweets, may suggest that you do not do not want speeches like this for the next 25 years or be presented as is by the Trump administration, "he said. "There is real reluctance on the part of some really competent people to sit in this administration, apart from the fact that they will not invite you if you do not support it from the beginning."

Distinguished baron Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt is a "competent technocrat" among an almost inexperienced staff. "They may want to enforce the policy, but at some point you will need people who know Washington well, who know how to write a rule, who have the experience of doing it at a high level," did he declare.

The professional association has not disputed the authenticity of the registration. "This seems to come from this meeting," said IPAA spokeswoman Jennifer Pett in an email. "However, it was an informal discussion, so we did not transcribe or record the conversation, so it can not be 100% accurate."

In audio, Katie Schroder, a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in Denver, which focuses on energy development on federal lands, said government lawyers could give up the defense of ongoing lawsuits if Trump lost in 2020.

"At this point we have to watch the clock," Schroders said at the meeting. "We are not far from 2020, we are not far from the next elections. Will any of this dispute be resolved at the time of the next administration? It's still part of the calculation. "

She said the industry wanted to see more than just guidance documents and decrees of the administration.

"The real victory is to put in place changes in the regulations … I do not know if there is enough energy and motivation inside to do this stuff," he said. she said.

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