Senator Alan Armstrong (R-OK) joined Bloomberg TV’s “Bloomberg This Weekend” to discuss his priorities in the Senate, including the need for permitting reform as a way to build critical infrastructure as well as lower fuel prices.

On who’s really bearing the burden of a broken permitting process:

“I’ve watched as our country has gotten to be the hardest place I can imagine to build critical infrastructure. I see it really holding back our country… [We] cannot get out of our own way in terms of being able to build critical infrastructure. Everybody thinks that’s just rough on the big bad companies – the pipeline companies, the utility companies – really, at the end of the day, the loser in that situation is the consumer… because that lack of infrastructure separates the abundant supplies we have in the U.S. from the consumer, and drives the cost up to the consumer.”

On the time being right to finally pass permitting reform:

“The chemistry is right, right now… There’s a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle that understand that we are really holding ourselves back as a country by not being able to build critical infrastructure.”

On the circumstances that led to our current, broken process:

“We’ve somewhat politicized the process of building big infrastructure… it’s not always what’s good for somebody’s own backyard, but it’s what is good for our country, and that dynamic stands in the way of us being able to get permitting done… We’ve moved from a country that says that the agency’s job is to see how we can do it in a constructive and an environmentally sensitive way, to one that some of our agencies think it’s their job to stop getting things built. And then we have very powerful NGOs here in the country that work hard to bring litigation against large infrastructure as well… Getting long-term infrastructure built [is] not going to lower our gasoline price tomorrow. It certainly will in the long run, but it’s not an immediate gratification and therefore, it’s not a very good mix for politics. That’s one of the reasons I find myself in a unique situation to really bring attention to the long-term issue of getting our permitting done here in the U.S.”

On rising gas prices:

“We should keep things in context. I remind people quite a bit that in June of 2022, retail gasoline average cost across the U.S. was $5.03. So far, this first week in June, that’s around $4.31. So, we’ve been here before in terms of short-term blips in gasoline prices that are caused by geopolitical issues, which you’ll recall in ’22, that was the Ukraine upset. These short-term things are going to happen, what we need to have is an abundance of infrastructure that doesn’t stand in the way.”

On the difference between Oklahoma and California:

“If you think about the difference between Oklahoma gasoline prices and California gasoline prices, those are completely self-inflicted in California, going from 43 refineries to 6 or 7 now. Getting rid of your critical infrastructure, not allowing pipelines to be built, is what drives [prices up] long-term… There’s a major pipeline that Phillips 66 and Kinder Morgan are trying to build called Western Gateway that would bring product from right here in Oklahoma into the California markets – those are the kind of things we should really be focused on.”

On an all-of-the-above energy strategy:

“We should be pursuing any and all energy options, and I do think that permitting reform in any bill that we get done is going to be good for all-of-the-above. What I don’t support is subsidy… When we’re permitting infrastructure, we shouldn’t be making decisions about fuel choices. The permitting process is complicated enough, and it ought to be focused around making sure we can build big, linear infrastructure in our country to connect supplies with markets that are hungry for that demand. It should not be focused on picking winners and losers as to energy sources.”