Tariff threats. Rising uncertainty concerning the financial system. And a push for a lot decrease oil costs.
For all of their bravado about U.S. power dominance and enthusiasm for deregulation, American power executives are starting to fret about President Trump’s agenda.
Their issues crept into conversations in lodge assembly rooms and over personal meals this week in Houston, the place business magnates gathered for his or her most vital annual convention.
Absolutely, some hoped, the president would reduce oil and fuel firms a break on tariffs. Absolutely, the administration was not severe about pushing oil costs down one other 25 p.c. Absolutely, the turmoil of the final two months would quickly cross.
And simply as quickly as these glimmers of frustration or doubt slipped out, they had been gone, overshadowed by reward for Mr. Trump, his cupboard and the administration’s intention to unshackle American power firms — at the least those within the enterprise of manufacturing oil, pure fuel and nuclear energy.
Such is the power business’s delicate dance as of late. Corporations are attempting to stability combating for his or her pursuits, which frequently embrace free commerce, with a robust need to not offend the president. The oil and fuel business spent more than $75 million to elect Mr. Trump.
“We’re hopeful that as we proceed these conversations on commerce, that the power dominance agenda turns into extra vital than the tariff agenda,” Mike Sommers, chief govt of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and fuel business’s most important commerce group, mentioned in an interview on the convention, CERAWeek by S&P International.
