The U.S. 2016 presidential election is still more than 400 days away, and yet, most Americans are already sick of hearing about it. So far, the nomination portion of the race has been dominated by Trump Mania, with his “Make America Great Again” shtick. Despite the Trump Train gathering speed, most political observers don’t expect him to ever get near the White House. On the other side of the aisle, Hillary Clinton is still the presumed front runner, email scandals notwithstanding.
So how does the former First Lady, Secretary of State, and New York Senator feel about the oil and gas industry? What are Clinton’s stances on the oil industry? It’s a complicated question, but let’s look at the biggest issues.
Clinton recently stole some of Trump’s headlines by finally taking a public stance on the Keystone XL pipeline. Unfortunately for the oil and gas industry, she came out against the controversial pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to Texas. The pipeline threatens to split America in two, in more ways than one.
Unsurprisingly, Clinton has been moving towards the left on environmental issues, which doesn’t bode well for the petroleum industry. Not only did Clinton recently signal her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, but she also moved left on key issues like arctic offshore drilling and GOP plans for oil exports.
With Clinton losing support to socialist Bernie Sanders, and facing a possible confrontation with Vice President Joe Biden, she’s been staking out ground on issues important to the far left. And that means that she must be seen as taking a stand against Big Oil and Gas. Many players in the oil market hoped that if she takes the White House, Clinton would be a better ally for the industry than the current president. Now, her new environmental positions are making many analysts nervous.
Of course, as we mentioned, the election is more than a year away. It’s too early to start panicking.
