A number of industry groups warned President Trump about the potential harm the tariffs could cause for the oil and natural gas industry if enacted.
Trump announced the plans at a meeting with aluminum and steel industry representatives at the White House on Thursday, saying he would be signing an order soon to enact the tariffs. They say that the plan to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel imports could harm his energy dominance agenda by driving up the cost for oil and natural pipelines, refinery infrastructure, and liquefied natural gas export terminals.
“The actions taken today are inconsistent with the Administration’s goal of continuing the energy renaissance and building world class infrastructure,” said Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
“The U.S. oil and natural gas industry, in particular, relies on specialty steel for many of its projects that most U.S. steelmakers don’t supply,” Gerard explained.
The CEO of the American Gas Association, Dave McCurdy, raised similar concerns in a response to the president’s remarks at the White House.
“There is no doubt that a tariff on steel will increase the cost of certain pipelines and components,” McCurdy said. “Our industry has identified a number of specific challenges with obtaining some pipeline materials and equipment that are American made.”
The trade association that represents exporters of liquefied natural gas, which is a key part of Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, also came out in firm opposition to the proposed policy.
“We are concerned that the Administration’s plan to impose tariffs on steel could have the unintended effect of endangering much-needed U.S. LNG export projects,” said Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas.
“The Administration had taken meaningful steps to improve the current permit review process for natural gas infrastructure and it would be unfortunate if their steel tariffs created new and different barriers to projects,” Riedl said.
Trump announced that next week he will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum.
Even the solar industry said the steel tariff would increase the pain they are feeling from a separate action the president took this year by imposing a tariff on solar panel imports.
The steel tariff appears to make it even worse for the solar industry by driving up the cost of solar panel installations, the Solar Energy Industries Association said.
“Some of our installation companies have told us that the increase in the price of steel would further add to the costs of solar projects,” according to Dan Whitten, vice president of communications for the group.
On the much larger utility-scale projects, Whitten said a 25 percent steel tariff could add as much as 2 cents per watt to the cost of a project. “That is a significant added cost, especially on top of the job-killing solar tariffs.”
