President Trump has signed an executive order establishing the National Energy Dominance Council. The council, tasked with proposing a strategy to lower regulatory obstacles, boost private investment and foster innovation, will serve to fulfill the president’s plans for energy dominance.
While deputy administrator at the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration during Trump’s first administration, I served on the coordinating subcommittee that delivered the “National Petroleum Council’s Dynamic Delivery: America’s Evolving Oil and Natural Gas Transportation Infrastructure” report to Dan Brouillette, then-secretary of energy. A critical study finding was that the benefits of the unprecedented increase in oil and natural gas production could not have happened without the significant expansion and adaptation of transportation infrastructure capacity.
We realized that existing infrastructure had been modified and adapted to near-maximum capacity at that point and that significant public and private investment in new and existing pipelines, ports, rail facilities and inland waterways would be essential in continuing down the path of energy dominance.
The transportation infrastructure for reliable and affordable energy delivery is interdependent, with pipe, truck, rail and marine transportation working with storage. It’s an “all of the above” approach.
Another finding of the report was that overlapping and duplicative regulatory requirements, inconsistencies across multiple federal and state agencies, and unnecessarily lengthy administrative procedures have created a complex and unpredictable permitting process.
We recognized that providing affordable energy to support economic growth and human prosperity had to be balanced with addressing environmental effects, including the risks of climate change. The report made several recommendations, which the National Petroleum Council adopted and delivered to Brouillette. Half dealt with changes that continue to be needed today in permitting processes and regulatory reform.
By late 2023, we faced energy scarcity, driven by artificial shortages of natural gas and oil. That scarcity wasn’t caused by a lack of resources — the United States has massive reserves — but by extreme environmental policies and a massive increase in regulations that led to higher energy costs for Americans and severely diminished energy security. As regulation proliferated, the siting of new infrastructure and expanding existing infrastructure became almost impossible.
While many think of pipelines when they think of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the agency is focused on the safe transportation of all hazardous materials by all modes. For transportation purposes, almost all the products necessary for energy dominance are classified as hazmat, including crude oil, natural gas, condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, biofuels, and many critical minerals and associated chemical products.
In 2023, trucks were dominant in the movement of fossil and mineral products over distances of less than 100 miles. For distances between 100 and 1,000 miles, the importance of pipelines and rail became more pronounced. Rail took the lead in moving distances of 1,000-2,000 miles. Marine transportation is essential domestically and for exports.
As new oil, gas and mineral plays are developed and new facilities producing petroleum products and refined critical and strategic minerals are sited, often in areas where pipelines are scarce, rail becomes the transportation mode of choice. Rail is essential for the country’s energy and economic security. Building and maintaining the rail system is as vital as drilling wells, and to that end, the rail industry invests $24.2 billion annually in improving and maintaining its networks of bridges, terminals and tracks.
While strengthening safety management systems, advancing and deploying new technologies, and creating a more performance-based regulatory framework will accelerate safety performance, investing in the maintenance of existing infrastructure and building infrastructure is key. Ridding the regulatory system of inconsistent requirements and costly overregulation, along with maintenance and construction of infrastructure, is an “all of the above” approach that the Energy Council should seek.
Without significant infrastructure investments and regulatory reforms, the safety of the overburdened energy and mineral transportation systems will be diminished over time. It is hoped that the National Energy Dominance Council will recognize the need for additional energy and mineral transportation infrastructure development alongside regulatory reform, and make recommendations and then implement them to reach energy dominance.
