API welcomes Senate action to increase certainty in pipeline permitting process

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2018 – API welcomed action today by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., along with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to introduce the Water Quality Certification Improvement Act of 2018. The legislation would improve the permitting process for energy infrastructure projects subject to section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). 

“Restoring certainty in the pipeline permitting process is critical to American jobs and ensuring that American consumers have the energy they need and demand every day,” said API Midstream Group Director Robin Rorick. “For too long, politicians have abused the Clean Water Act to block energy projects designed to improve the safety and integrity of our infrastructure. For example in New York State, these efforts to restrict natural gas delivery to New England have especially hurt consumers who depend on natural gas to generate the affordable electricity that’s needed to heat and cool their homes in extreme temperatures. 

“The legislation will strengthen the Clean Water Act by protecting it from these types of abuses and will help better protect the environment and communities surrounding energy infrastructure projects around the country. We hope that this legislation will advance quickly through the legislative process so that American consumers, workers and the environment can continue to benefit from America’s energy resources.”

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 10.3 million U.S. jobs and nearly 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s nearly 620 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 47 million Americans.