Jordan Blum, editorial director, Hart Energy: We are here at NAPE in downtown Houston. I'm joined by Anne Bradbury, the CEO of the American Exploration & Production Council. Thank you so much for joining us.

I will start with the hot topic, I guess right now is the Biden administration’s LNG pause. I wanted to get your take on just how big of a deal this is, maybe both practically and then in terms of a long-term potential chill, so to speak.

Anne Bradbury, CEO, American Exploration & Production Council: I think it's a little bit hard to know what the exact impact is going to be. We're very concerned about the policy announcement, obviously, and we think it sends the wrong signal to our allies. We think it sends the wrong signal to the world about the importance of U.S. LNG, both from a climate perspective and from a security perspective and from an American economics perspective. That being said, we're not going to see an immediate impact, so the Biden administration is now going to undergo some analysis or redo their analysis of what the economic and climate benefits are of U.S. LNG. We are very confident that if those studies are done fairly and objectively, that they're going to show that LNG is clearly a huge benefit to the American economy and to the climate. We're a little worried that the activists who sort of spurred this pause from the beginning are trying to tilt the scale against U.S. LNG in a way that isn't credible and would harm future approvals.

JB: The bigger concern is you're playing politics, essentially, with the industry.

AB: That's exactly right. You're playing politics with the industry. You're sending the wrong signals to our international allies, and you're sending the wrong signal about the importance of U.S. LNG to climate efforts. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that the Biden administration was saying how important U.S. LNG is in displacing coal around the world and is an essential part of their climate strategy. So it's a really puzzling and concerning reversal.

JB: On the other side of the coin, obviously there is a lot of LNG infrastructure projects already approved or under construction, so do you feel good about the bullishness of the industry as a whole?

AB: Absolutely. American oil and gas producers are not changing anything in the short term. Certainly we see strong demand for our product, both domestically and internationally moving forward.

JB: I'll say this somewhat facetiously, but at the same time you are having record high oil and gas production under President Biden. Obviously, I'm not saying he is to credit, but how do you see the state of things?

AB: We're at record high crude production, we're at record high natural gas production and we just became the world leader in U.S. LNG. But as you know, these are long-term decisions that companies are making and plans that they're making, and so the production that is happening today is a result of policies of years past. So I'm not saying President Biden gets zero credit, but he certainly does not deserve credit and most of the policies, which one of the things I talked about in my presentation, is a lot of the policies that they're putting in place are just starting to take effect and are going to be in effect for years to come, and those are going to be a significant headwind for the oil and gas industry moving forward.

JB: Obviously, there is a lot of regulatory concerns moving forward. There is methane tax issues, et cetera, and this is now an election year. It looks like we are having a Biden-Trump rematch, although that's not official yet, but can I just get your take on what you're expecting, looking forward to or anticipating?

AB: I think the first thing we're looking at is the slew of regulations that are going to be finalized in 2024, which most of these have been in progress for the last three years, and they're just hitting this year. And so I think the industry needs to be prepared for those and then for the potential that they're going to be implemented over the next several years. That being said, I think energy is going to be a really salient issue in 2024. Energy prices are always an important election year issue. We've got the methane tax that is just going to come into effect, and really one candidate supported it and signed into law. Another candidate has said they would repeal it, and so things like that I think are going to be really important election year issues and are going to get the attention of voters.

JB: It'll be a fun year. Well, thank you so much for joining us here at NAPE in downtown Houston. To read and watch more, please visit online at hartenergy.com.

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