Trump Administration Pushes Energy Production and Housing Construction
Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.FUEL CRUNCH:In a series of meetings with the White House, the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillipshave warned that the disruption of energy flows from the Strait of Hormuz waterway due to the Iran war would continue to create volatility in global energy markets, Collin Eaton and Beno8it Morenne of The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Additionally, Exxon CEO said oil prices could continue to rise if speculators bid up prices and markets could see a supply crunch of refined products. The CEOs of Chevron and ConocoPhilips conveyed concerns about the scale of the disruption, the sources added.DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT:Secretary of Energy Chris Wright directed Sable Offshoreto restore operations of the Santa Ynez Unit and Santa Ynez Pipeline System to "address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil." Wright said, "This action issued under authorities provided by the Defense Production Act and delegated through Executive Order, 'National Defense Resources Preparedness,' as amended by President Trump's Executive Order, 'Adjusting Certain Delegations Under the Defense Production Act.'" Sable's facility can produce approximately 50,000 barrels of oil per day, a 15% increase to California's in-state oil production, that can replace nearly 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude each month, Wright noted.California Governor Gavin Newsom "condemned President Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright's desperate, reckless, and illegal orders invoking the Defense Production Act to attempt to restart the Sable Offshore pipeline." Newsom added, "The move is Trump's political attempt to point the finger at California to divide and distract the American people from his wartime failures and the massive spike in oil and gasoline prices his war has caused. Oil from the Sable Offshore pipeline would be a 'drop in the bucket,' according to Bloomberg-0.05% of total oil production-that would have no impact on lowering global oil prices...California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy. The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court."EXECUTIVE ORDER:The White House said that President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to "eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens that delay housing construction and increase housing costs for American families." The Order directs the EPA Administrator and the Secretary of the Army to review and revise stormwater, wetlands, and other water-related permitting requirements to reduce building and ownership costs, streamline Federal regulatory approvals, and increase home insurability. The Order also directs the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, and the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to eliminate "unduly burdensome rules and reform programs that constrain residential development and housing affordability." The Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Energy, and the Director of the FHFA are directed to eliminate or reform "overly burdensome" energy, water, and alternative-energy requirements for housing, including manufactured homes. The Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality is directed to issue guidance maximizing categorical exclusions under NEPA for housing construction and related activities. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation is directed to develop guidance simplifying historic preservation reviews to reduce barriers to building housing and related infrastructure. The Order calls for Federal agencies to provide incentives to State and local governments that adopt regulatory best practices to speed up permitting, curtail "green" building codes, reduce costly design and building mandates, enable innovative home construction methods, and extend residential development. The Order encourages new home construction by aligning Opportunity Zone incentives with single-family home development and New Markets Tax Credit programs. Publicly traded companies in the homebuilder space include Beazer Homes, D.R. Horton, Hovnanian, KB Home, Lennar, PulteGroupand Toll BrothersTIKTOK U.S. DEAL:The Trump administration is slated to receive a roughly $10B fee from investors in the recently finalized deal to take control of TikTok's U.S. business, the Wall Street Journal's Miriam Gottfried and Amrith Ramkumar. The major investors that hold stakes in TikTok's U.S. business include Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.MEETING WITH TRUMP:In the middle of the Trump administration's review of AT&T's$23B agreement to purchase spectrum licenses from EchoStar, AT&T CEO John Stankey visited the White House earlier this week, Semafor's Rohan Goswami. The meeting was presented as a way to foreshadow the telecoms giant's $250B investment in U.S. infrastructure and jobs, but the CEO also referenced the company's pending spectrum deal in the context of the broader investment, Goswami says, citing people familiar with the meeting. AT&T has denied any quid-pro-quo between Stankey's meeting and the government's review of the EchoStar agreement, the author notes.
