Segrist: Permitting Outreach Efforts Land in Unusual Hands

Getting pipelines installed in the bluest states in the U.S. will take a coalition as diverse as the Village People.

West Texas oilmen. Preachers in Harlem, New York. Utility engineers.

“It’s the best coalition out there,” said Tim Ryan, a former Democratic congressman who is part of the leadership council for Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future.

Natural Allies is an educational 501(c)4 organization that conducts outreach, primarily to potential voters in areas where the government is hostile to natural gas infrastructure development.

Some of the country’s largest natural gas and midstream companies back the group, including The Williams Cos., Enbridge, EQT and Tallgrass.

Former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has been with the group since it started five years ago. Landrieu and Ryan both spoke at the 2025 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference to discuss the group’s goals with company attendees and journalists.

“Our message is the same this year as it was last year, as it was the year before,” Landrieu said. “We haven’t changed. We recognize the administration has changed, but our message has stayed consistent.

“Natural gas is part of the solution, not the problem. Natural gas lowers emissions. It keeps rates affordable. It strengthens national security and it helps us build the future.”

Along with the corporations at CERAWeek, Natural Allies has met with groups such as civil rights activist Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Landrieu said the industry has a chance to make some headway in blue areas by reaching out to people from the not-as-rich neighborhoods where pocketbook issues are a primary concern.

The failure to expand the natural gas infrastructure in New England has led to higher utility bills in the region. Residential gas rates in Massachusetts are 50% higher than the U.S. average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“It’s pretty unbelievable, the amount of the increased cost in poor neighborhoods, as well as in Boston generally, but it falls heavily on the poor,” Landrieu said. “You know, if wealthy people want to do the Green New Deal and charge themselves the cost of it, fine.

“But to do it and then put it on the shoulders of the poor and then pretend like you didn’t do that, that is outrageous and wrong, and that’s what’s going on in this country—pretending that they didn’t do that, and they did.”

Earth Day and the Constitution

Politics has always played a major role in permitting, sometimes in theatrical ways.

On Earth Day 2016, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo announced that his state would pull water quality certification permits for the Constitution Pipeline project. The natural gas line, which would have connected the Marcellus Shale to pipeline networks in New England, was ultimately canceled in 2020.

The Williams Cos., one of the primary backers of the project, walked away after continued opposition from political groups and environmentalists in New York. In 2019, the company’s earnings took a hit to the tune of $354 million because of the stalled project.

In 2025, New England is the only region of the U.S. that imports LNG. The product is used to boost gas supplies in the winter because there’s not enough regional capacity on the region’s pipeline network.

President Donald Trump pledged to revive the Constitution Pipeline in February. Trump met New York Gov. Kathy Honchul in mid-March to discuss the project.

During CERAWeek, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said he would be happy to finish the project if the region’s politicians—governors specifically—showed that they had changed their minds on policy. Williams also noted that the permitting process for a project, even one that’s not involved in a political fight, now costs more than double the cost of steel for the same project.

Turning the flow

Moderate Democrats will play a crucial role in tipping popular opinion in the blue states, Ryan said. Center-left politicians carry far more credit with the audiences that can be swayed.

Many Democrats have made the mistake of talking about one issue to one demographic group, he said, instead of about all the issues that affect them.

“I remember watching this happen. Democrats will talk to Hispanics about immigration. They’ll talk to black people about civil rights. They’ll talk to Asians about immigration or whatever,” Ryan said. “Like they live in a one-issue thing. But no, everybody’s worried about energy costs.”

Some of the blame for the current situation also lies on the energy industry’s side, Landrieu said. Frustrated at the setbacks under Democratic administrations, a lot of producers and midstreamers decided to only focus on friendlier parts of the country.

“I’ll be a little critical of the industry because, you know, the industry sort of stopped talking to Democrats, and Democrats stopped opening the door to the industry,” Landrieu said.

However, the conversation has finally shifted.

“Those doors are open, and there are broader conversations, because the conversation isn’t about drill, baby, drill; it’s about build, baby, build,” she said. “For the future, build cleaner, build more securely and build more affordably. It’s a unifying message.”

Landrieu and Ryan said the election of Trump is a signal the politics surrounding permit reform may finally be changing, though they said that the energy industry, in turn, needs to continue showcasing its efforts at reducing emissions.

“The industry is staying the course to reduce methane emissions,” Landrieu said. “The message we’re stressing this year is to recognize the benefits of natural gas in delivering an affordable electric grid to this country. If you didn’t notice in the last election, cost of goods was an issue.”