US Elections Heading for 'Best Outcome': Sempra

The US elections are heading for a Democrat win, with Joe Biden installed in the White House, but the Senate is going Republican. This would be a good outcome for the US, said US utility Sempra's vice-president of government affairs Brian Kelly, commenting on the "circus". Despite threats of legal action, "there is no way that Donald Trump can catch up," he told a Eurogas conference November 5, even if the final count is some weeks away. "Joe Biden will be installed January 24," he said. 

He commented on the fact that the conference was on the last day of the US membership of the Paris Agreement and speculated that one of the first things Biden would do next January would be to rejoin it. The incumbent president Donald Trump initiated the withdrawal process a year ago. But on the other hand he said US relations with China and Russia would also remain difficult under a Biden presidency, meaning problems ahead for the backers of Nord Stream 2.

Republicans however are likely to remain in control in the Senate, which means a divided government, he said, which is the best outcome for business. "Even though Biden wins, Republicans did amazingly well at the House, Senate and even state level," he said. The Republicans were helped in a number of states he said by Biden's hostile remarks on hydraulic fracking.

The outcome means only tinkering around at the edges, as far as energy policy under Biden is concerned. "With no mandate, it has be compromise," he said. "That is the best." 

However he can roll back environmental rules and for Sempra the biggest problem is defining risk in energy infrastructure. Building multi-billion dollar facilities could be very tough if they were declared an environmental risk. Only the Chinese can provide it, and that would be unacceptable both for the US and for the EU, he said.

The whole webinar, which also included presentations from the European Commission and from US exporters' group LNG Allies, may be watched here.