Trending
"We need consistency," Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute of Pennsylvania said. "We need to know what to expect."
The leaders of the institute expressed frustrations with permitting processes, saying that permitting reform at both the federal and state levels is needed and is one of the institute's top priorities.
Wissman noted a recent Supreme Court decision to carry the Mountain Valley Pipeline project over its last permit-related hurdle and said while the pipeline's builders expect the project to be done this year, it took nine years to reach this point.
"It shouldn't be that way," Wissman said.
She noted the federal government is over a year past a deadline to revise and update the offshore drilling permitting process for the Gulf Coast and said at the state level, from Department of Environmental Protection region to region, the pace and process of securing permits varies greatly.
"It doesn't matter what segment of the energy industry you're in," permitting reform matters, Wissman said. "We can't do what we need to without it."
She emphasized the pressure increased demand for oil and natural gas places on consumer pricing.
"Europe is going to be asking for more gas, not less," she said.
Roughly half the price of gasoline at the pump is the cost of crude oil itself and added that if the U.S. could produce and transport more petroleum, it will put downward pressure on prices, Wissman said.
"We need more pipeline infrastructure," she said.
Wissman and the American Petroleum Institute of Pennsylvania are also skeptical about a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions, calling it "a de facto ban on internal combustion cars."
"It's a consumer choice issue," she said. "There's room on the road for all types of vehicles."
She added that the pace of the proposed implementation -- which sets a goal for 2035 -- is "not realistic."
Wissman said that in addition to its work in advocacy for the energy sector, which in Pennsylvania contributes $75 billion to the state's economy and can be credited with about 423,000 jobs created, the institute develops industry-wide standards and practices.
"They are widely recognized in the industry and highly sought after," she said.
Wissman also praised the natural gas impact fee, which she described as a "unique tax" that has brought $2.5 billion into counties and communities and noted that at former Gov. Tom Wolf's requests she serves on a task force to draft a report on the feasibility of placing a liquid natural gas hub in Philadelphia.
"We don't have a shortage of issues," Wissman said.