Last week I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation from Senator John Cornyn’s Regional Director Jay Guerrero to attend CERAWeek 2018. One of the more interesting panels was Friday March 9th with Senator Lisa Murkowski and Senator John Cornyn. Last year both Senators had a similar discussion at CERAWeek 2017. This year they reviewed a series of current political topics which relate to the energy markets, such as the 2018 Tax Reform, the lifting of the US oil export ban, the current LNG markets and LNG exports to places such as China, and the US Energy Independence and its impact on our international standing with friend and foe. Some points that the two Republican Senators highlighted are; we now have the lowest unemployment rate in many years, with 3-400,000 manufacturing jobs currently unfilled, the opening of a small but important area of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to exploration, and overseas profits getting repatriated to the US.
There were a few slightly colorful moments as the discussion came around to trade agreements tariffs and foreign diplomacy in China, Russia and North Korea. While these international issues have an impact on our lives and livelihood the discussions closer to home were more comforting, such as the 150 billion investments destined for US Gulf Coast which is being driven by the abundance of natural gas available in the US. Also the infrastructure investments pending such as the hardening of the US Gulf Coast against future major hurricanes, i.e. the Ike Dike. Knowing that these type of regional issues are on the agenda for our national leaders was re-assuring.
As I listened to these two politicians, I felt a sense of comfort that there are some in Washington DC with rational and linear thought processes. This calm discussion showed that each of them has a strong sense of balance on the issues of energy. I am hopeful that moderation and reasonableness will come back to our legislative process, and assist our industry in righting the ship from these troubled waters.
Be safe in all that you do,
Leonard Hale PMP
GC Energy Services
