Alan Armstrong, Governor Kevin Stitt’s pick to fill the unexpired term of Markwayne Mullin in the United States Senate, hopes to put his decades of private sector experience building energy infrastructure to good use in a limited stint in public office. Armstrong was sworn in on Tuesday and will serve until a new senator is elected in November.
Senator Armstrong (R-OK) spoke with Griffin Media Washington Bureau Chief Alex Cameron on Tuesday:
ARMSTRONG: “I’d say I’m anxious to learn so I can contribute. And I’d say, if I’m anxious about anything, it’s making sure I figure out how things operate so I can actually contribute.
ARMSTRONG: “You know, being being in the energy infrastructure industry for a long time, it’s clear to me that our country is really holding itself back by not providing access to low-cost resources and let people decide what kind of resources they want and not having a permitting process that decides for people, but one that really lets any and all energy infrastructure be developed, and really connect the great natural resources that we have as a country to consumers and keep the cost low in the process of doing that. And so I’ve kind of been watching that for a number of years, and it’s really painful to see the impact that that’s having on our country, because we’ve just got so much opposition standing in the way of developing anything, and it really is those bottlenecks of infrastructure are causing people’s utility prices to be high right now. And so, for me, it was one of those things where I was, you know, I just retired as CEO in July. and felt like, hey, you’ve had a lot of benefit from this, from the state of Oklahoma. And it’s been a great place to be, but I wanted to make sure I was giving back and taking the opportunity to do that. Said another way, I didn’t want to sit around in my elder years and gripe about the things that nobody else did if I wasn’t willing to put myself into that position.
ARMSTRONG: “Yeah, so I’m very much looking forward to (working to pass permitting reform). And I know that, you know, that a lot of people probably have their doubts about that. But I will tell you, I do think that on both sides of the aisle, there’s people that realize that we’re really holding ourselves back as a country, and people are really frustrated. I think what we have to be careful about doing is not dictating that it’s this kind of infrastructure or that kind of infrastructure but it’s really, as long as it’s environmentally responsible and the way we constructed and install it, that it ought to be any and all infrastructure…I actually have been, you know, from the private side, I’ve actually been working with both sides of the aisle for quite some time on making sure people hear that picking one or the other is not the way to get there. We need to make sure that this works for all types of energy infrastructure. Let the American people choose what they want, but don’t be dictating that through the regulatory process.”