On Jan. 24, 2017, President Trump took four executive actions that affect the oil and gas pipeline industry. In the first two, he directed the appropriate agencies to take expedited actions to the extent permitted by law to review and grant permits necessary to build the Keystone XL project and the Dakota Access pipeline. In a third action, he issued an executive order to streamline the permit and approval process for high priority infrastructure projects by directing the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to designate “high priority” projects entitled to special stewarding through an expedited permitting process by the head of the relevant agency, and set up a reporting process directly to the president if the agency head fails to meet the schedule. These actions are likely to be viewed positively by the oil and gas industry.
