Latest / Balance of Power / Trump Farm Aid Raises Midterm Doubts; Romania Says Russia Escalating War in Ukraine

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Trump Farm Aid Raises Midterm Doubts; Romania Says Russia Escalating War in Ukraine · Balance of Power

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Speaker 5: Fascinating headline just crossing the terminal. Traders are no longer
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Speaker 5: fully pricing in a Fed rate hike. this year, pull
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Speaker 5: up the WIRP function on your Bloomberg terminal world interest
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Speaker 5: rate probability. And it would tell you the probability of
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Speaker 5: an interest rate in October is basically zero.
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Speaker 6: Hmm.
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Speaker 5: The probability of an interest rate hike in December now
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Speaker 5: only at 66 percent. The market's only pricing in about
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Speaker 5: 71 basis points in terms of higher rates. Joe, fascinating
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Speaker 5: to see that, though, on a day when oil prices
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Speaker 5: are once again on the march higher. We know the
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Speaker 5: Fed likes to look through as much as it can
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Speaker 5: energy shocks. But if these higher prices and diesel prices
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Speaker 5: in particular continue to filter through the rest of the economy,
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Speaker 5: it could create problems. Bit of an inflationary challenge.
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Speaker 2: A little scary to see Brent back to 112 today.
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Speaker 2: And WTI is starting to kick higher again. It is
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Speaker 2: now up over 2% and above $ 99 a barrel. We
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Speaker 2: could have triple-digit oil on both sides of the Atlantic
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Speaker 2: here by the end of the day. Interestingly, oil stocks
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Speaker 2: are not well. The XLE is down over 1%. You're
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Speaker 2: looking at the likes of Exxon and the rest heading
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Speaker 2: lower here in this interest rate scenario is really something.
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Speaker 2: How things have changed. in the throes of an earnings
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Speaker 2: reporting season and a market with a lot of volatility
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Speaker 2: and 12 days out from an election. You see John
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Speaker 2: author's column this morning, recalling the midterms in 2018, the
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Speaker 2: Christmas Eve massacre that followed with a change in majority
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Speaker 2: and traders are in potentially for some bumps in the
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Speaker 2: next couple of weeks.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the prevailing wisdom in financial markets is
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Speaker 5: that divided government can be a good thing. The question,
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Speaker 5: of course, is going to be just how divided government
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Speaker 5: will be when the ballots are counted after 12 days
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Speaker 5: from now. The president, of course, is doing his very
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Speaker 5: best to make sure that he has a united Republican
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Speaker 5: government still behind him as he continues his tour in
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Speaker 5: support of Republican candidates.
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Speaker 1: Today, he goes to Iowa.
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Speaker 7: Yep, it's on to Iowa. And W-I-R-P, go, right?
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Speaker 2: Everyone wishes they could get a terminal lesson from Kayleigh Lyons.
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Speaker 2: I get one on a daily basis just by sitting here.
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Speaker 2: Let's go to the White House. Bloomberg White House correspondent
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Speaker 2: Josh Wingrove is standing by as the president gets ready
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Speaker 2: for the flight to Sioux City. And Josh, it's interesting
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Speaker 2: that he'll be back in Iowa knowing that the farmer's
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Speaker 2: as we were discussing a bit earlier, are very concerned.
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Speaker 7: This is a new poll.
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Speaker 2: The April Farm Journal survey, nearly 40% of farmers considering
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Speaker 2: voting for Democrats because of all the reasons that we
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Speaker 2: just outlined. Can the president message to them this evening?
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Speaker 8: I think he's going to try to. He has been
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Speaker 8: in past... The rallies here, Joe, saying basically things will
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Speaker 8: cool down after the election in terms of energy prices.
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Speaker 8: It's just not clear that there is a lot of
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Speaker 8: evidence to support that. And part of the problem is
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Speaker 8: that in some states, these farmers don't have to vote Democrat.
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Speaker 8: They can, of course, go home or just stay home.
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Speaker 8: But there are a lot of states where there are
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Speaker 8: third party candidates running, including in Texas, where there's a
3:15
Speaker 8: libertarian running in the Senate race. Nebraska, where the vice
3:18
Speaker 8: president is, has an independent candidate running effectively as a Democrat,
3:21
Speaker 8: but still isn't independent. Other races have Libertarians, too, that
3:25
Speaker 8: could squeeze away some of those votes. And so as
3:27
Speaker 8: we've seen states where some gubernatorial races are splitting from
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Speaker 8: the Senate races with one party leading in one and
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Speaker 8: the other, the question has kind of been, will those
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Speaker 8: kind of collapse in on each other and get a
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Speaker 8: little narrower? Because as a general rule, American voters have
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Speaker 8: been moving away from the notion of splitting their ticket.
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Speaker 8: But this This cycle, it feels like a lot of
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Speaker 8: them might. In particular, whether it's energy prices or if
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Speaker 8: they have problems with a particular candidate, certainly in Texas,
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Speaker 8: the controversies around Attorney General Paxson are fueling questions about
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Speaker 8: that as well.
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Speaker 5: Well, speaking of splitting, obviously, Ashley Hinson has been trying
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Speaker 5: to create a bit of a split or at least
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Speaker 5: some distance between herself and President Trump. She's done so
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Speaker 5: in appearances on the debate stage. It'll be interesting to
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Speaker 5: see how she threads that needle when she's alongside him
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Speaker 5: in Sioux City today. Josh, it's one thing for Ashley
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Speaker 5: Hinson to be seen with President Trump. What about if
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Speaker 5: a Canadian diplomat were to be seen with Ashley Hinson or, frankly,
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Speaker 5: any other candidate running? in this election cycle. You have
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Speaker 5: some new reporting on this for us.
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Speaker 8: They've got to run for the door. Hit the floor.
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Speaker 9: Get away.
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Speaker 8: So our reporting is that on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark
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Speaker 8: Carney's government issued a new order basically banning any Canadian
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Speaker 8: diplomat from coming within, you know, 10 feet of anyone
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Speaker 8: running for office in America. They're not allowed to be
4:46
Speaker 8: in the same room as them. They're not allowed to
4:48
Speaker 8: schedule meetings with them. They can meet, if they have to,
4:52
Speaker 8: with people who are elected officials but aren't running for elections.
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Speaker 8: In other words, two-thirds of the Senate or whatever, governors,
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Speaker 8: you know, pick your poison. But in all cases, even
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Speaker 8: if they're not running, they don't want them taking photos
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Speaker 8: with it. So the Canadians are calling this a very
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Speaker 8: risk-averse approach. That's, I think, accurate, putting a mild spin
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Speaker 8: on it. But I think it just goes to show
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Speaker 8: right now that the sort of eggshells factor in U.S.-Canada
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Speaker 8: relations after the collapse of those talks in August. And
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Speaker 8: the question is, will these talks wrap up again in
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Speaker 8: the lame duck period? There have been ongoing sort of
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Speaker 8: simmering allegations from the Americans about that the Canadians were
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Speaker 8: sort of trying to put their thumb on the scale
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Speaker 8: in the elections or this or that. And in fact,
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Speaker 8: this week, a day after this edict went out, the
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Speaker 8: American ambassador in Ottawa put out a list of grievances.
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Speaker 8: It was pretty thin gruel, but, you know, sort of
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Speaker 8: illustrating that they were keeping their eye on things. And so...
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Speaker 8: The Canadians, of course, or at least a lot of
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Speaker 8: people back in Canada would say, hey, the president is
5:49
Speaker 8: talking about 51st statehood and leaning on Canada all the time.
5:52
Speaker 8: Basically got Carney elected in the first place. What, you know,
5:55
Speaker 8: if you want to talk election interference, then let's talk.
5:57
Speaker 8: But what Carney is doing, I think, is trying to
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Speaker 8: just basically leave no room for misinterpretation, leave no room
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Speaker 8: for error. And that's what this is about. But I
6:04
Speaker 8: do think we're going to see the potential for those
6:07
Speaker 8: talks to restart because, of course, remember, the president has
6:09
Speaker 8: threatened a new round of tariffs on Canada come January 1st.
6:13
Speaker 8: And so in that lame duck congressional period, these talks
6:15
Speaker 8: will be ongoing. And we'll see if the Canadian diplomats
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Speaker 8: take a similarly wide berth during that period as well.
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Speaker 5: All right, Josh Wingrove, great reporting from the White House
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Speaker 5: North Lawn today, Josh. Thank you so much. Of course,
6:29
Speaker 5: trade with Canada and with China gets back to one
6:31
Speaker 5: of the root of the issues that farmers are dealing with.
6:34
Speaker 5: It's not just about higher costs, but about their ability
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Speaker 5: to sell crops into other markets as well in a
6:39
Speaker 5: trade war situation. on a number of fronts, has been
6:41
Speaker 5: disruptive to that, which is maybe one of the reasons
6:44
Speaker 5: why President Trump is promising more aid to come to
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Speaker 5: the farm community. He might say the same on stage
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Speaker 5: in Iowa this evening, but he also announced it in
6:54
Speaker 5: Kansas earlier this week.
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Speaker 10: The Department of Agriculture. We'll be launching a new harvest
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Speaker 10: fuel relief program, providing our farmers with $ 8 billion in
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Speaker 10: support to offset diesel costs during this harvest season. And
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Speaker 10: Roger Marshall is the leader who fought for that to happen.
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Speaker 10: When the Republicans win, we will pass even more funding
7:19
Speaker 10: for our farmers.
7:20
Speaker 9: We love our farmers.
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Speaker 5: So let's get into this now. with our political panel.
7:26
Speaker 5: John Seaton is back with us, Republican strategist and founder
7:29
Speaker 5: and CEO of Echo Canyon Consulting, alongside Democratic strategist Hannah Moldavin,
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Speaker 5: Vice President of Political Communications at Fortius Global. Welcome to
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Speaker 5: you both. John, I'll begin with you. He already announced
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Speaker 5: the farmer's aid on Monday. Does he need to come
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Speaker 5: with more in hand to Iowa this evening?
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Speaker 1: I don't know more in hand.
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Speaker 11: I mean, I think that it's a strong kind of
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Speaker 11: closing argument. It's obviously extremely important to appeal to ag
7:55
Speaker 11: voters and farmers as we head into the final stretch here.
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Speaker 11: They've been hit very hard by rising fuel prices. I
8:01
Speaker 11: do think that they are still culturally very much with
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Speaker 11: the president. And in polling, I've seen folks who voted
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Speaker 11: with the president in 2000 and 2004 are sticking with
8:11
Speaker 11: him still. But it's very important for him to turn
8:14
Speaker 11: out every last Republican vote, which is kind of explains
8:16
Speaker 11: his travel.
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Speaker 7: Over the last 12 days.
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Speaker 2: What's the Democratic answer to this messaging when you're actually
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Speaker 2: in farm country, when you're surrounded by John Deere vehicles
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Speaker 2: that are fueled by diesel and you're at the tail
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Speaker 2: end of harvest here? What is the message to voters
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Speaker 2: and can you promise to fix it?
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Speaker 12: Well, the message to voters is too little too late
8:41
Speaker 12: for Donald Trump to fix this. I think that this
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Speaker 12: band-aid approach, which is what we're hearing some of these
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Speaker 12: farmers say that this money that Donald Trump promised in
8:50
Speaker 12: Kansas was, is not enough. And I think that no
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Speaker 12: farmer wants to be given just money. They want the
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Speaker 12: structural issues that allow them to do good work and
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Speaker 12: sell their produce and to be in place. And so
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Speaker 12: it's more than just giving money to put a Band-Aid
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Speaker 12: on the situation. It's how are we going to solve this?
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Speaker 12: And I think where Republicans have hurt now is credibility.
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Speaker 12: So Donald Trump said he would do these things, but
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Speaker 12: now we're talking about tariffs with Canada, China, Kayla, you mentioned,
9:21
Speaker 12: with the soybean farmers specifically. There's fertilizer that is an
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Speaker 12: issue here. The Farm Bill hasn't been reauthorized in a
9:28
Speaker 12: long time. So there are more issues than just throwing
9:31
Speaker 12: money at the problem. I do agree with John that
9:33
Speaker 12: farmers are a solid voting block for Republicans. So the
9:36
Speaker 12: question is, are those folks going to stay home? Are
9:39
Speaker 12: they going to look at the really good candidates I
9:41
Speaker 12: think that Democrats have put up in places like Iowa?
9:45
Speaker 12: So obviously Rob Sand, who's running for governor, I think
9:47
Speaker 12: he'll take that. He's doing really well. And then Josh Turek,
9:50
Speaker 12: who's running for Senate, an incredible candidate as well, who
9:53
Speaker 12: provides a different answer than what Republicans have been and
9:58
Speaker 12: I think show that they're good candidates for Iowa as well,
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Speaker 12: talking about lowering costs, talking about helping farmers in a
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Speaker 12: more structural way than just throwing money at them.
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Speaker 5: Obviously, as we're talking about farmers being a reliable Republican
10:11
Speaker 5: voting bloc and Iowa being a reliably red state, John,
10:14
Speaker 5: it actually did vote for a Democrat in the not
10:17
Speaker 5: so distant past. I mean, this was a state that
10:19
Speaker 5: voted for Obama two times. And I wonder if you
10:22
Speaker 5: still think that Iowa exists. How red is it really?
10:28
Speaker 11: What I know about Iowa and Quite possibly, like Hannah,
10:30
Speaker 11: I've had the opportunity as an operative to spend quite
10:32
Speaker 11: a bit of time there during presidential years. These are
10:36
Speaker 11: professional voters. These are very, very discerning voters. They really
10:39
Speaker 11: do their homework. They really want to hear from the candidates.
10:43
Speaker 11: They really want to make sure that they're making the
10:45
Speaker 11: right decision, not just for themselves and their families, but
10:47
Speaker 11: also for the country. And so I do think that,
10:50
Speaker 11: you know, the president is going to have a very
10:51
Speaker 11: receptive audience in northwest Iowa. Sioux City is exceptionally red.
10:55
Speaker 11: And I think that he's going to, you know, have
10:58
Speaker 11: an adoring crowd there. But I do think that, yeah,
11:00
Speaker 11: Iowa is not reliable for anybody because I think that
11:03
Speaker 11: Iowa voters kind of by their very nature are skeptical.
11:07
Speaker 1: They want to have their questions answered.
11:10
Speaker 11: They have trended very conservative as of late, and I
11:12
Speaker 11: do expect, while the governor's race does look like it's
11:14
Speaker 11: favoring the Democrat, the Senate race is certainly a toss-up,
11:18
Speaker 11: and I think that Congresswoman Hinson is probably marginally favored
11:22
Speaker 11: in that race.
11:24
Speaker 2: New York Times went back in time this morning to
11:28
Speaker 2: find that President Trump has the lowest approval rating for
11:31
Speaker 2: any president before a midterm since Harry Truman and the
11:34
Speaker 2: Democrats were routed in 1946. The president tells voters to
11:40
Speaker 2: pretend he's on the ballot. Does that give all of
11:43
Speaker 2: the candidates he is trying to stump for in places
11:47
Speaker 2: like Iowa and South Carolina the same approval rating?
11:51
Speaker 1: You know, it's tough.
11:52
Speaker 12: You can't have your cake and eat it too. And
11:54
Speaker 12: that's what Donald Trump is trying to do. He's trying
11:56
Speaker 12: to say to his MAGA voters, who historically have come
11:59
Speaker 12: out for him, but not necessarily during the midterms. During 2018,
12:04
Speaker 12: Democrats won the midterms during Trump's first term. So he's
12:08
Speaker 12: trying to get those voters out, those MAGA voters that
12:10
Speaker 12: really support him. The problem is that when you have
12:13
Speaker 12: such an unpopular president, Turning people out to support Donald
12:17
Speaker 12: Trump isn't a good strategy. Midterms are still a referendum
12:20
Speaker 12: on the president. The economy's not doing really well, right?
12:23
Speaker 12: We're seeing that inflation is rising the highest it has
12:26
Speaker 12: in five months. Wages are not keeping pace with that.
12:30
Speaker 12: So people are really feeling this. And with such a
12:32
Speaker 12: low approval rating, I don't know if it's the best
12:34
Speaker 12: strategy to say, pretend I'm on the ballot. Because if
12:37
Speaker 12: he does, I don't think the result is going to.
12:39
Speaker 2: Be what Republicans want. You know what the mantra is, though?
12:41
Speaker 2: I keep hearing Joe Biden's name. at all of these
12:43
Speaker 2: rallies and in all of these interviews, J.D. Vance and
12:46
Speaker 2: so forth, Joe Biden is the one Democrats got us here.
12:48
Speaker 2: It's going to take us a little longer to dig
12:51
Speaker 2: ourselves out.
12:53
Speaker 1: Joe Biden isn't on the ballot, right?
12:54
Speaker 12: He wasn't even on the ballot in 2024. I think
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Speaker 12: it shows a little bit how desperate Republicans are to
13:01
Speaker 12: find a scapegoat for the bad economy that they have
13:05
Speaker 12: right now.
13:06
Speaker 5: Well, we know that economic issues are front of mind
13:08
Speaker 5: and for a lot of different voting groups. John, just quickly,
13:12
Speaker 5: I wonder about the Maha coalition, if you will, because
13:15
Speaker 5: Politico just reported that Callie Means, a senior advisor to
13:18
Speaker 5: HHS Secretary RFK Jr., just resigned today over frustrations that
13:22
Speaker 5: the Maha agenda has stalled inside the administration. I note
13:26
Speaker 5: that Iowa passed its own Make America Healthy Again Act
13:30
Speaker 5: that was signed into law by Governor Reynolds earlier this May.
13:33
Speaker 5: I don't know how big the Maha movement in Iowa is,
13:36
Speaker 5: but it obviously is a driving force in large pockets
13:40
Speaker 5: of the country. Does the president and the Republican Party
13:43
Speaker 5: risk losing that part of the electorate as well?
13:47
Speaker 11: Look, I think that the Maha movement, just like activists
13:50
Speaker 11: since time immemorial, are learning that it is a very
13:53
Speaker 11: different thing to campaign than to govern, and it is very,
13:56
Speaker 11: very difficult to govern, and you don't always get 100%
13:58
Speaker 11: of what you want once you're in office. I do
14:01
Speaker 11: think that this president and this HHS secretary have been
14:04
Speaker 11: far more responsive to the concerns of the Maha movement
14:07
Speaker 11: than certainly their Democratic counterparts would have been.
14:10
Speaker 1: Will it cost them votes? I'm not sure.
14:12
Speaker 11: I do think, again, that when you look at where
14:14
Speaker 11: the president is campaigning and how He is kind of
14:16
Speaker 11: rocket fuel for turnout for Republicans in places like northwest Iowa.
14:20
Speaker 11: I do think that it is a sound political strategy. But, yeah,
14:24
Speaker 11: it is very different to campaign on something than actually
14:27
Speaker 11: when you're expected to deliver, actually get it done. Governing
14:30
Speaker 11: is hard, and I think that MAHA voters are learning
14:33
Speaker 11: that kind of in real time.
14:36
Speaker 2: Nice to spend some time with two operatives who have
14:38
Speaker 2: been there. Big thanks to John Seaton, Echo Canyon Consulting,
14:42
Speaker 2: and Hannah Moldaven with Fortius Global, our Democratic strategist. Appreciate
14:47
Speaker 2: your insights, as always, with just 12 days out. We're
14:50
Speaker 2: going to have much more ahead as we turn. to geopolitics.
14:54
Speaker 2: Oil prices on the rise today. Many are looking at
14:56
Speaker 2: Ukraine and Russia as the reason for that. And of course,
14:59
Speaker 2: it's more complicated. But we're going to get into this, Kayleigh,
15:03
Speaker 2: with the president of Romania, the future of NATO, and
15:06
Speaker 2: the threat from Russia straight ahead.
15:08
Speaker 7: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
15:10
Speaker 7: more coming up after this.
15:15
Speaker 4: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
15:18
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15:34
Speaker 5: Lots going on indeed, especially when you look at what's
15:36
Speaker 5: happening in the bond market and what's happening in oil.
15:39
Speaker 5: As Charlie mentioned, a lot of that, yes, has to
15:41
Speaker 5: do in terms of energy prices with what's happening in
15:44
Speaker 5: the Middle East. But President Trump would point the finger
15:46
Speaker 5: at what's happening between Ukraine and Russia and Ukraine's ongoing strikes.
15:51
Speaker 5: against Russian refineries, though Russia continues to strike Ukrainian energy
15:55
Speaker 5: infrastructure as well. President Trump says that is the big
15:58
Speaker 5: reason why diesel prices are higher, and it is one
16:00
Speaker 5: of the reasons why he is pressuring Ukraine to reach
16:03
Speaker 5: a deal with Vladimir Putin. The president's envoy, Steve Witkoff,
16:07
Speaker 5: of course, met with Putin in St. Petersburg just yesterday,
16:10
Speaker 5: and he announced that Russia and the U.S. and Ukraine
16:12
Speaker 5: would be holding trilateral technical talks sometime soon to end
16:16
Speaker 5: the war. The question is whether those talks will be
16:19
Speaker 5: fruitful and what the end of the war would look like,
16:21
Speaker 5: how much of its ambitions Russia is able to achieve
16:24
Speaker 5: in Ukraine and what that would mean for the rest
16:27
Speaker 5: of Europe. This is actually something that our colleague Francine
16:30
Speaker 5: Lacroix spoke about with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier
16:33
Speaker 5: this week, the risk he sees Russia posing to Europe
16:36
Speaker 5: more widely.
16:37
Speaker 9: Listen.
16:38
Speaker 13: My biggest concern is is the underestimated Russian impact on
16:45
Speaker 13: our societies, which has to do with the war in Ukraine.
16:50
Speaker 13: But this is only a part of the picture. The
16:55
Speaker 13: big picture is that Russia is on the way to
16:57
Speaker 13: destabilize the entire political order of our European continent. And
17:04
Speaker 13: this is obviously underestimated by many people in my country
17:10
Speaker 13: as well.
17:12
Speaker 2: That was just days ago. And it's with that thought
17:15
Speaker 2: that we begin our conversation. with the president of Romania.
17:19
Speaker 2: Nicușo Dan is joining us live from Bucharest, where he
17:22
Speaker 2: was once the mayor of that great city.
17:25
Speaker 7: And Mr.
17:25
Speaker 2: President, we welcome you to Bloomberg TV and radio. Thank
17:28
Speaker 2: you for joining us. I wonder if you agree with
17:30
Speaker 2: Chancellor Mears that Europe is underestimating the threat by Russia.
17:35
Speaker 9: Yeah, I totally agree with Chancellor Merz. We usually agree
17:39
Speaker 9: during the European Council. So, yes, we have the Ukrainian war,
17:43
Speaker 9: the Russian aggression and the collateral damages like drones that
17:49
Speaker 9: are falling on our territory. But on the other side,
17:53
Speaker 9: we can see the whole situation.
17:56
Speaker 1: Hybrid war that.
17:57
Speaker 9: The Russians are doing for all the European countries, meaning
18:01
Speaker 9: cyber attacks, sabotages, disinformation. And of course, that affects our societies.
18:09
Speaker 9: And to be honest, we have not been prepared to
18:13
Speaker 9: such hybrid war.
18:18
Speaker 5: Well, let's talk more about preparedness, especially as you mentioned, Mr. President,
18:22
Speaker 5: the drone incursions that have crossed over your sovereign territory.
18:26
Speaker 5: I know you've discussed this with NATO over the past
18:29
Speaker 5: many days, specifically Russia's escalating drone attacks in the Black
18:33
Speaker 5: Sea off of the coast of your country, as well
18:35
Speaker 5: as the coast of Bulgaria. What is the strategy to
18:39
Speaker 5: counter that escalation without risking direct engagement with Russia?
18:45
Speaker 9: Yes, first of all, so it began to happen one
18:51
Speaker 9: and a half year ago to have drones on our land,
18:54
Speaker 9: on the territory. Yes, and we could sort it incidentally. Yes,
18:58
Speaker 9: there have been attacks to the Ukrainian ports at the
19:02
Speaker 9: Danube and some of them can arrive to our territory.
19:07
Speaker 9: But now on the Black Sea, it is not an incident.
19:13
Speaker 9: In order that a drone hit a ship, the ship
19:19
Speaker 9: must be targeted because the space is so big. So
19:24
Speaker 9: what we did one year ago, of course, we have
19:30
Speaker 9: not been prepared for that kind of event. First of all,
19:37
Speaker 9: we order inside the European SAFE program, we order a
19:41
Speaker 9: lot of capabilities. And during that time, we have asked
19:45
Speaker 9: for our allies to some temporary equipment, some of them
19:50
Speaker 9: helped us. And we are doing the same. There have
19:54
Speaker 9: been a NATO meeting last week, and we did the
19:58
Speaker 9: same again, asking for some temporary capabilities inside the NATO,
20:03
Speaker 9: and we obtained some support. That's the technical point.
20:10
Speaker 1: And the big.
20:11
Speaker 9: Picture is that Russia is trying to escalate this Ukrainian war,
20:19
Speaker 9: trying to provoke the other European countries. We do not
20:22
Speaker 9: want to escalate. We want to keep calm and shut
20:26
Speaker 9: down the drones that arrive to our territory or territorial waters.
20:32
Speaker 1: Okay.
20:33
Speaker 7: You wonder how long that can last.
20:34
Speaker 14: Mr.
20:35
Speaker 2: President, I'm looking at the numbers provided by your government.
20:38
Speaker 2: A list of incidents reported in Romania by Russia since
20:42
Speaker 2: the start of the Ukraine war. Attacks near the border
20:45
Speaker 2: have totaled 164. You've scrambled aircraft 112 times. Unauthorized access, 54.
20:53
Speaker 2: Drone shot down, 6. Drone and identified fragments falling, 81.
20:58
Speaker 2: At what point do these trigger an Article 5 violation?
21:04
Speaker 9: So in fact, as I said before, the Russians are
21:11
Speaker 9: trying to escalate to provoke all the European countries. And
21:15
Speaker 9: we do not, my point of view is that we
21:19
Speaker 9: do not have to go in this escalation process. So
21:24
Speaker 9: we had our weekly meetings inside NATO, and more frequently
21:29
Speaker 9: it is necessary. And we became more equipped in order
21:34
Speaker 9: to answer to this provocation and stay calm and prepare
21:42
Speaker 9: better for next month and for next years.
21:46
Speaker 4: That's my answer.
21:48
Speaker 9: And continue, of course, supporting Ukraine.
21:52
Speaker 5: Well, so let's talk more about the support for Ukraine,
21:55
Speaker 5: because the United States' ongoing support for Ukraine is very
21:58
Speaker 5: much in question. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, Mr. President,
22:02
Speaker 5: about the Ukrainian allegations of Starlink service being slowed, of
22:05
Speaker 5: intelligence sharing being paused, though that has resumed. I'm sure
22:09
Speaker 5: you've seen some of President Trump's statements recently where he
22:12
Speaker 5: is pressuring Ukraine to make a deal with Russia. How
22:16
Speaker 5: much do you fear that a peace deal that Ukraine
22:19
Speaker 5: has pushed to accept on Russian terms? And what should
22:22
Speaker 5: Europe's response be?
22:25
Speaker 9: So first of all, there have been an American support
22:29
Speaker 9: for Ukraine from the beginning of that war. Secondly, of course,
22:36
Speaker 9: it is more a European affair than a United States affair.
22:42
Speaker 8: So it's.
22:44
Speaker 9: Logically, that financially the European had to support more the
22:48
Speaker 9: Ukrainian side. On the question of peace, of course, every
22:53
Speaker 9: one of us wanted to have a peace because it
22:58
Speaker 9: affects not only the countries in conflict, but also the
23:02
Speaker 9: region and economically, as you mentioned, the global economy. But
23:08
Speaker 9: the peace process in Ukraine must involve the Ukrainian people,
23:13
Speaker 9: of course. So that's our statement.
23:17
Speaker 2: It's been a large story, of course, in Ukraine involving
23:21
Speaker 2: recently its access to Starlink service. And there has been
23:26
Speaker 2: a back and forth here in the United States about
23:28
Speaker 2: who was responsible, Elon Musk, President Trump or someone inside
23:32
Speaker 2: the Pentagon. for throttling or in fact shutting off that service.
23:38
Speaker 2: We understand Romania has an active contract with Starlink, Mr. President,
23:43
Speaker 2: with a telecommunications authorization and a large subsidiary in Bucharest.
23:47
Speaker 2: Would you consider renegotiating or ending that contract because of
23:52
Speaker 2: what happened in Ukraine?
23:55
Speaker 3: Not at all.
23:58
Speaker 9: The contract we have is respected from both sides. I
24:05
Speaker 9: do not have a technical answer of what happened between
24:11
Speaker 9: the three parties, Ukraine, Elon Musk, and the U.S. administration.
24:18
Speaker 9: But as regarding Romania, everything is okay.
24:23
Speaker 5: Well, those three parties are in question. What about a
24:26
Speaker 5: different three parties? It has been floated that Russia, China,
24:30
Speaker 5: and the U.S. could all have a trilateral summit in
24:34
Speaker 5: part to discuss, President Trump says, denuclearization, but the fate
24:37
Speaker 5: of Ukraine also, I would imagine, would be a factor
24:40
Speaker 5: in that. Though Russia now says it's open to trilateral talks,
24:43
Speaker 5: Ukraine included, how important would it be for Ukraine to
24:47
Speaker 5: be at that negotiating table? Can the fate of Ukraine
24:50
Speaker 5: be decided without Ukraine's consent?
24:55
Speaker 9: No, as I said, Ukraine, so as concerned the war
25:00
Speaker 9: in Ukraine and the end of it, Ukraine must be
25:03
Speaker 9: part of negotiation. I understand that Ukrainians are ready for,
25:08
Speaker 9: they said publicly for years, that they are ready to
25:13
Speaker 9: have a proper negotiation. I do not feel that the Russians,
25:20
Speaker 9: they really want to have an end of this war
25:23
Speaker 9: in this very moment.
25:27
Speaker 7: Do you believe that President Trump does?
25:32
Speaker 9: I think he does, yes. But the question is, when
25:36
Speaker 9: you have many parties, they all have to agree. I
25:39
Speaker 9: don't know how far we are for that moment.
25:43
Speaker 2: Do you believe that this war can end as long
25:45
Speaker 2: as Donald Trump is the president of the United States?
25:50
Speaker 8: Sorry?
25:50
Speaker 7: Do you believe this war will end?
25:55
Speaker 2: While the president, while Donald Trump is president of the
25:58
Speaker 2: United States, can this war end?
26:01
Speaker 9: I hope, yes, because there are two and a half.
26:04
Speaker 1: More years, yes.
26:05
Speaker 9: I hope that the war will end soon. But the
26:12
Speaker 9: two parties have to agree, and I do not see
26:16
Speaker 9: Russia in this very moment to like it.
26:21
Speaker 7: Mr.
26:21
Speaker 2: President, we appreciate your time today, joining us late from Bucharest,
26:25
Speaker 2: Dikusha Dhan, live on Bloomberg TV and radio. And a
26:30
Speaker 2: fascinating conversation, Kayleigh, as we consider the throes that we
26:34
Speaker 2: have heard recently here in the United States when it
26:36
Speaker 2: comes to Starlink service, when it comes to sharing of
26:38
Speaker 2: intelligence and the future trajectory of this war, the President
26:41
Speaker 2: said would end on day one.
26:42
Speaker 5: And of course, the president says Russia wants to end it.
26:45
Speaker 5: The Romanian president just told us he sees Russia trying
26:48
Speaker 5: to escalate the conflict. We'll stay on this story right here.
26:52
Speaker 7: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
26:54
Speaker 7: more coming up after this.
26:59
Speaker 4: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
27:03
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27:06
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27:10
Speaker 4: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
27:13
Speaker 4: us live on YouTube.
27:16
Speaker 7: Stocks set for the worst day since.
27:19
Speaker 2: July, as traders pour money into bonds, we want to
27:22
Speaker 2: have a little more on this with Nora Melinda, Bloomberg's
27:26
Speaker 2: markets correspondent, who is also live at world headquarters in
27:30
Speaker 2: New York. You see interest rates start to tumble like this, Nora,
27:34
Speaker 2: and you wonder what's going on. Why are traders so upset,
27:38
Speaker 2: if nothing more than earnings reporting season?
27:41
Speaker 15: Well, what a day we're seeing here on Wall Street.
27:44
Speaker 15: As you mentioned, you're seeing a lot of investors going
27:46
Speaker 15: toward the bond market. Treasury's really being restored as a
27:49
Speaker 15: safe haven trade. And, you know, all of this, as
27:52
Speaker 15: you mentioned, this is in the backdrop of tech earnings,
27:56
Speaker 15: and they've really landed in a pretty sensitive moment. And
27:59
Speaker 15: really the main report that a lot of investors are
28:01
Speaker 15: dissecting is Meta. And what we saw from that report
28:04
Speaker 15: really is that it was a pretty strong report. We
28:06
Speaker 15: did see a strong business, but we also did see
28:09
Speaker 15: its credit risk hitting an all-time high. And then also
28:12
Speaker 15: the fact that Zuckerberg saying that he intends to spend
28:15
Speaker 15: even more money, spending more aggressively on artificial intelligence. So
28:18
Speaker 15: right now in this moment, there's not any questions really
28:21
Speaker 15: in the market as to whether or not there is
28:23
Speaker 15: AI demand. We know that there is AI demand, but
28:25
Speaker 15: the question really is how much these companies are actually
28:28
Speaker 15: willing to spend, how much they're going to have to
28:29
Speaker 15: spend to actually get there.
28:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:33
Speaker 5: And whether or not there's a bubble in the works,
28:35
Speaker 5: it was interesting to see John Gray from, Blackstone suggesting
28:39
Speaker 5: there is not a bubble after Ken Griffin had told
28:42
Speaker 5: Danny Berger earlier this week that he thought there definitely
28:44
Speaker 5: was one. That's all what's happening in large part in stocks. Nora,
28:48
Speaker 5: can I just quickly ask you why we're seeing oil
28:50
Speaker 5: higher today and yields plummeting? And by plummeting, I mean,
28:54
Speaker 5: we're down by double digits in terms of basis points,
28:57
Speaker 5: pretty much across the curve. What's going on?
28:59
Speaker 15: I mean, what a move we're seeing in the treasury market,
29:01
Speaker 15: just given the fact that we were seeing yields hitting
29:03
Speaker 15: multi-decade highs. We've been seeing such a surge when it
29:06
Speaker 15: comes to yields over the past few weeks. And as
29:08
Speaker 15: you mentioned, the two-year yield right now currently down about
29:11
Speaker 15: 16 basis points. We know that tends to be more
29:13
Speaker 15: policy sensitive when we got the Fed meeting coming up
29:16
Speaker 15: just around the corner here. But we also do have
29:19
Speaker 15: an eye on oil because, of course, with all the
29:21
Speaker 15: geopolitical tensions in focus, we did see that there were
29:24
Speaker 15: those deadly attacks in Saudi Arabia that really pushing oil higher,
29:27
Speaker 15: but it seems as though we're seeing the bond market
29:30
Speaker 15: really disregarding, I should say, what's happening in the oil
29:34
Speaker 15: market and the surge that we're seeing with Bright Crew
29:36
Speaker 15: currently sitting at about $ 112 a barrel. And we're seeing
29:40
Speaker 15: traders looking for any form of safety in this moment.
29:43
Speaker 15: So maybe it's just those riskier assets right now. If
29:45
Speaker 15: you look at any risky asset in the market, I'm
29:47
Speaker 15: also taking a look at Bitcoin, currently lower right now
29:50
Speaker 15: by about 4%. So all those risky assets, you're seeing
29:54
Speaker 15: investors not really wanting to put themselves in those spaces.
29:57
Speaker 15: And they're going to the only place that they know
29:59
Speaker 15: that they might find some sense of safety. And right now,
30:01
Speaker 15: that is the bond market, despite all the volatility and
30:03
Speaker 15: all the angst that we're seeing right now in this market.
30:05
Speaker 5: All right. The Haven Trade at play today, even despite
30:09
Speaker 5: higher oil prices. Nora Melinda in New York, thank you
30:12
Speaker 5: so much. Of course, those higher oil prices are prices
30:16
Speaker 5: that the president continually contends are going to come down
30:18
Speaker 5: as soon as the war with Iran is over, though
30:21
Speaker 5: we hear frequently on this program that something else could
30:23
Speaker 5: help bring prices down on a long-term, more sustainable basis.
30:27
Speaker 5: Permitting reform. making it easier to get new energy infrastructure
30:31
Speaker 5: projects up and running in the United States. We know
30:33
Speaker 5: this has been an ongoing conversation here in Washington. In fact,
30:36
Speaker 5: a permitting reform deal was struck just before Congress and
30:39
Speaker 5: the Senate left town for their election recess. It's an
30:42
Speaker 5: issue they may take up when the lame duck session begins.
30:46
Speaker 5: And it's one we've been talking about frequently here on
30:48
Speaker 5: Balance of Power.
30:49
Speaker 8: Listen.
30:50
Speaker 6: We just can't build refineries in this country anymore. We
30:52
Speaker 6: haven't built one since 1977. So we need to do
30:56
Speaker 6: more to build more here in the United States. We're
30:58
Speaker 6: hopeful that we can put enough pressure on the Senate
31:01
Speaker 6: and the House to come back to pass a permitting
31:03
Speaker 6: bill before the election. That is one thing that members
31:06
Speaker 6: of Congress and senators could take home today and say,
31:09
Speaker 6: I did something about the affordability crisis in this country.
31:12
Speaker 3: Having too much pipeline capacity here is not good for
31:15
Speaker 3: the big pipeline company, but it's great for the public.
31:18
Speaker 3: Industry is speaking with one voice, and it's starting to
31:20
Speaker 3: become something that's not just a nerdy guy like myself
31:24
Speaker 3: that's been focused in the energy space, been focused on
31:27
Speaker 3: the American public starting to really understand what a lack
31:31
Speaker 3: of infrastructure does to their utility bills.
31:33
Speaker 1: There's about $ 7.
31:34
Speaker 12: 9 billion in permitting and basically projects on the sidelines.
31:40
Speaker 1: It's costing American businesses and corporations out.
31:42
Speaker 7: There, the transmission lines. It takes... Four years.
31:46
Speaker 14: If those transmission lines go over state lines, it takes
31:48
Speaker 14: 10 years. We've never produced more than we are right now.
31:51
Speaker 14: Oil and natural gas. Yet, despite that, Americans' energy bills
31:55
Speaker 14: are up over 40%. That's a head-scratcher. How can that happen?
31:58
Speaker 14: It's because political forces blocked market forces. We need to
32:01
Speaker 14: get back to building infrastructure. And the solution is going
32:04
Speaker 14: to Unfortunately, it's going to take some political force to
32:06
Speaker 14: get us back in line.
32:07
Speaker 16: This would be, think of the Ezra Klein abundance Democrats
32:11
Speaker 16: working with Republicans who've long held that we need to
32:15
Speaker 16: be able to build big things unfettered from environmentalists slowing
32:19
Speaker 16: down the process. The holdup here is the election. And frankly,
32:23
Speaker 16: what we've seen since Labor Day in the Senate is
32:25
Speaker 16: exactly what we will see every post-Labor Day of an
32:30
Speaker 16: election year.
32:33
Speaker 5: The voices there of Mike Summers, the American Petroleum Institute president,
32:36
Speaker 5: Senator Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, former Congressman Patrick Murphy and
32:39
Speaker 5: Patrick Henry, who we just heard from, as well as
32:42
Speaker 5: the CEO of EQT, Toby Rice. And now we add
32:45
Speaker 5: another voice to the conversation as Emily Dominich joins us.
32:48
Speaker 5: She is executive director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council,
32:53
Speaker 5: and she's here with us. in our Washington, D.C.
32:55
Speaker 8: Studio.
32:55
Speaker 5: It's good to see you, Emily. Welcome back.
32:57
Speaker 1: Great to see you, too.
32:58
Speaker 5: To Bloomberg TV and radio. We're 12 days away from
33:01
Speaker 5: the election. I believe we're 18 days away from the
33:03
Speaker 5: lame duck session beginning. I know you negotiated the last
33:06
Speaker 5: permitting reform deal. How optimistic are you that one is
33:09
Speaker 5: there to be had in the lame duck?
33:11
Speaker 1: I think there's a really good chance.
33:13
Speaker 17: I give the Senate negotiators a lot of credit for
33:15
Speaker 17: being willing to put this bill out there and take
33:17
Speaker 17: criticism from both sides of the aisle and praise from
33:20
Speaker 17: both sides of the aisle. It takes a lot of
33:23
Speaker 17: guts to do that, and we're often discouraged from putting
33:25
Speaker 17: bills out into the open until you're ready to vote
33:27
Speaker 17: on them. I actually think this lame duck period has
33:29
Speaker 17: been really positive for the prognosis on permitting reform because
33:32
Speaker 17: you've seen folks from across the spectrum come out and say, hey,
33:35
Speaker 17: we really do need to change our laws in order
33:38
Speaker 17: to make it easier to build in America.
33:40
Speaker 1: So I I think we've got a good chance.
33:41
Speaker 17: We are certainly going to see Senate action on this
33:43
Speaker 17: bill when they come back after the election. And then
33:46
Speaker 17: it really, the devil's in the details on what the
33:48
Speaker 17: House can do in that lame duck session. You know,
33:51
Speaker 17: as a House girl myself, I know how hard it
33:52
Speaker 17: can be.
33:52
Speaker 7: Well, I hope you're impressed with how much we've embraced
33:56
Speaker 7: this story.
33:57
Speaker 2: As you can see, we've been talking about this for weeks.
33:59
Speaker 7: I love it.
33:59
Speaker 2: Going well back into the session because it's incredibly important
34:02
Speaker 2: to our listeners and viewers. And you have experience when
34:05
Speaker 2: it comes to negotiating permitting reform. As we look back
34:09
Speaker 2: to the National Environmental Policy Act in 2023, that did
34:12
Speaker 2: become law.
34:13
Speaker 7: What are we about to endure?
34:15
Speaker 2: What's the story that Kaylee and I will be telling
34:16
Speaker 2: when it does go to the House and we have
34:18
Speaker 2: two chambers knocking their heads together on this?
34:20
Speaker 17: Yeah, so I was a part of the Fiscal Responsibility
34:23
Speaker 17: Act reforms, which are the first ones in almost 50 years.
34:26
Speaker 1: So it's not a law we change often.
34:29
Speaker 17: And I think the big question mark here is, are
34:32
Speaker 17: we going to be able to hold together a deal
34:34
Speaker 17: that really– gets to the core issues that are important
34:37
Speaker 17: to both sides. So for the White House and for
34:39
Speaker 17: the administration, that's really reforms to judicial review. So how
34:43
Speaker 17: do we stop frivolous lawsuits from taking down projects? And
34:45
Speaker 17: how do we reform the Clean Water Act so we
34:47
Speaker 17: don't have a system where states can really veto any project?
34:50
Speaker 17: Those things have to stay in this bill. In order
34:52
Speaker 17: for it to get to a place where it gets
34:53
Speaker 17: to the president's desk and he's ready to sign it,
34:55
Speaker 17: we can't really move on those issues. But we have
34:57
Speaker 17: to be able to say, hey, can we get enough
34:59
Speaker 17: Democrats to the table to vote on this bill?
35:01
Speaker 1: And move it forward.
35:02
Speaker 17: And is there any wiggle room to, you know, strengthen
35:04
Speaker 17: some pieces and weaken other pieces and keep that coalition together?
35:06
Speaker 17: So really keeping that coalition is the challenging part, particularly
35:10
Speaker 17: in a House where, you know, we really don't know
35:11
Speaker 17: who's going to be controlling the majority and who's going
35:13
Speaker 17: to be running speaker races and all those other big
35:15
Speaker 17: things that change the narrative as we get into the
35:17
Speaker 17: lame duck.
35:18
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, we'll find out soon enough. You talk about
35:20
Speaker 5: the importance of getting a piece of legislation onto the
35:22
Speaker 5: president's desk. So where is the line between what the president,
35:27
Speaker 5: what the administration can do on its own in terms
35:29
Speaker 5: of cutting red tape and some of the deregulatory push
35:31
Speaker 5: we have seen undertaken versus what has to be codified
35:34
Speaker 5: into law by Congress?
35:36
Speaker 17: I think we really have gone almost as far as
35:38
Speaker 17: we can with the executive authority we have. And we've
35:41
Speaker 17: seen incredible growth and the ability to shorten timetables and
35:44
Speaker 17: really get projects online in these first two years of
35:47
Speaker 17: the Trump administration. And that's things like using categorical exclusions.
35:50
Speaker 17: It's using nationwide permits. It's rewriting regs to be more
35:54
Speaker 17: responsive to what Congress put in the law. It's using
35:56
Speaker 17: things like the permitting council, which I lead, to help
35:58
Speaker 17: to manage timetables for projects and ensure major infrastructure projects
36:02
Speaker 17: get through the process in a predictable way. We are
36:04
Speaker 17: using all of those tools every day to move projects
36:07
Speaker 17: faster than ever before in the history of this country.
36:09
Speaker 1: We're really excited to do it.
36:11
Speaker 17: But at the end of the day, we can't fix
36:12
Speaker 17: the litigation that often derails projects down the road. That
36:16
Speaker 17: is something that Congress really does have to act on.
36:19
Speaker 17: And so it's really, really critical that it's part of
36:21
Speaker 17: this bill.
36:21
Speaker 2: I can't imagine how busy you are. You're the general contractor, essentially,
36:24
Speaker 2: of all these projects we're talking about. How much has
36:27
Speaker 2: data center become part of your portfolio?
36:30
Speaker 17: We've added our first data centers in the history of
36:32
Speaker 17: the agency in this past year. We have a few
36:34
Speaker 17: of them on the dashboard, but we also support all
36:37
Speaker 17: of the infrastructure that goes into making those data centers possible.
36:41
Speaker 17: That is your power lines, it's your gas lines, it's
36:44
Speaker 17: power plants, it's the manufacturing that often comes online at
36:48
Speaker 17: the same time in other heavy load spaces. We really
36:51
Speaker 17: support the whole range of those projects. We also have
36:53
Speaker 17: really revitalized American mining and mineral processing industries that feed
36:57
Speaker 17: into the chips that make that supercomputing possible. So we
37:00
Speaker 17: really are looking at, like you said, we are the
37:02
Speaker 17: project managers for every large project that's navigating federal permitting.
37:06
Speaker 17: And we are here responsive to industry to make sure
37:08
Speaker 17: people want to build in America.
37:10
Speaker 5: Well, on mining and critical minerals, how much of the
37:14
Speaker 5: holdup on that, if you will, is simply just the
37:17
Speaker 5: constraint on expanding production versus bottlenecks and refining and processing?
37:22
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of both.
37:23
Speaker 17: When we came in at the start of the Trump administration,
37:25
Speaker 17: we looked at mining as sort of a forgotten industry.
37:27
Speaker 17: It's one we really should have taken seriously in this country.
37:31
Speaker 17: because of the vast natural resources that we are blessed with.
37:34
Speaker 17: But we sort of left it by the wayside. So
37:36
Speaker 17: we had a directive from my colleagues in the White
37:38
Speaker 17: House to take our portfolio from one project to 50
37:41
Speaker 17: in the first year. We now have 63 mining projects
37:43
Speaker 17: on the dashboard, and we finished permitting on over 20
37:46
Speaker 17: of them. So that finishing permitting number is way more important,
37:49
Speaker 17: because it shows if we pay a little attention to
37:51
Speaker 17: this industry, We can bring more projects online quicker. But
37:55
Speaker 17: that sort of means that as we bring more of
37:56
Speaker 17: those minds online, we've got to bring the processing online
37:59
Speaker 17: here in America too. So if you look at our dashboard,
38:01
Speaker 17: you'll see a shift where we're adding more and more
38:03
Speaker 17: mineral processing projects going forward because we want to be
38:07
Speaker 17: able to go to that next step in the supply chain.
38:09
Speaker 17: We really got to start at the beginning and then
38:10
Speaker 17: work our way to those more complex industries.
38:12
Speaker 7: What's your timeline on that?
38:13
Speaker 2: This stuff, to your point, has been neglected for a
38:15
Speaker 2: long time and can take years to ramp up.
38:18
Speaker 7: How long? Is it years to the next step or months?
38:20
Speaker 1: It depends.
38:22
Speaker 17: The law that we reformed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act
38:25
Speaker 17: says it should take one year for an environmental assessment
38:27
Speaker 17: and two years for an environmental impact statement. That means
38:29
Speaker 17: the most robust environmental review should take two years In
38:33
Speaker 17: the past, it's taken five to seven to 10 to
38:36
Speaker 17: 15 years for these mining projects.
38:38
Speaker 1: The law says two years.
38:39
Speaker 17: So by simply following the law, we've been able to
38:41
Speaker 17: take the number of days on our permitting dashboard from
38:44
Speaker 17: 1,500 days on average down to around 400.
38:47
Speaker 1: And that is really, again, just following the directives that Congress.
38:50
Speaker 17: Gave us and ensuring that we are responsibly implementing environmental
38:54
Speaker 17: laws without wasting a bunch of time in between. So
38:57
Speaker 17: I really think that project management role is allowing us
38:59
Speaker 17: to be able to say, OK, we can get a
39:01
Speaker 17: major mining operation up and running in a year and
39:03
Speaker 17: a half. That means I need to be thinking ahead
39:05
Speaker 17: to getting their processing online two years after that so
39:08
Speaker 17: they're ready to receive that product. So we really want
39:10
Speaker 17: to right shore and reshore these industries to the United States.
39:13
Speaker 1: We've got to be thinking long term.
39:15
Speaker 5: Well, so how long term is it, as the president
39:17
Speaker 5: promises and others in the administration say, permitting reform is
39:20
Speaker 5: the key to bringing down costs for consumers when it
39:22
Speaker 5: comes to energy specifically? What is the transmission time? Are
39:26
Speaker 5: these things that can be realized while President Trump is
39:28
Speaker 5: still president?
39:30
Speaker 1: I think so.
39:30
Speaker 17: I think, again, we've done everything we can to ensure
39:33
Speaker 17: we're bringing projects online inside this administration right now with
39:36
Speaker 17: no change in the law.
39:37
Speaker 1: And we have a lot of projects to show for it, right?
39:39
Speaker 17: Almost every timetable on the permitting dashboard, you can go
39:42
Speaker 17: pull it up at permitting.gov and see that most of
39:44
Speaker 17: them are finishing inside the window of the president's term.
39:47
Speaker 17: That said, if we get this bill passed into law
39:50
Speaker 17: or other permanent reforms passed into law, that gives us
39:52
Speaker 17: not only the ability to move projects faster, but to ensure.
39:55
Speaker 1: They can actually get built.
39:56
Speaker 17: Because the litigation often stops a project from getting built
39:59
Speaker 17: after it's been permitted. And that's why that judicial review
40:02
Speaker 17: reform is so important and such an important part of
40:05
Speaker 17: this proposal.
40:05
Speaker 7: Did you have to do permitting for the ballroom? Is
40:07
Speaker 7: that part?
40:08
Speaker 17: I didn't work on that one, but somebody did. For
40:13
Speaker 17: the Permitting Council, our projects are all brought to us
40:15
Speaker 17: by developers.
40:16
Speaker 1: It's an optional program. So we really serve.
40:19
Speaker 17: It is either critical infrastructure projects that the White House
40:22
Speaker 17: sends to me and says, hey, talk to this developer, Or, frankly,
40:24
Speaker 17: we have people who come to us on their own
40:26
Speaker 17: and say, hey, we think we've got a project that
40:27
Speaker 17: meets the parameters of your work, and we want to
40:29
Speaker 17: get the help of the agency.
40:30
Speaker 1: So we are out here.
40:32
Speaker 17: For everybody who's watching today, we'd love to work on
40:34
Speaker 17: your project.
40:35
Speaker 7: Amazing. Well, open for business.
40:36
Speaker 2: We only have about 30 seconds left.
40:37
Speaker 7: Just to be clear, does it matter to you?
40:39
Speaker 2: If a permitting reform deal were passed in the lame
40:42
Speaker 2: duck or in the new Congress, do you want to
40:44
Speaker 2: see that.
40:44
Speaker 7: Done in November when lawmakers return?
40:46
Speaker 17: You know, I wanted to see permitting reform passed into
40:48
Speaker 17: law five years ago. So, you know, I think the
40:51
Speaker 17: sooner the sooner, the better. Particularly if there's a party change.
40:55
Speaker 10: Certainly.
40:56
Speaker 17: I think there's always going to be a coalition to
40:57
Speaker 17: move this kind of a bill forward. But we can't
40:59
Speaker 17: waste any time if we're going to beat China and
41:01
Speaker 17: be the most robust economy in the world.
41:03
Speaker 1: We've got to be able to build.
41:04
Speaker 7: Well, let us know when you're running for office.
41:06
Speaker 17: We look forward to the interview.
41:07
Speaker 2: Emily Dominich, Executive Director, Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council. Where
41:11
Speaker 2: else are you going to hear an interview like that?
41:12
Speaker 2: This is Balance of Power alongside Kaylee Lyons. I'm Joe Matthew.
41:18
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make
41:21
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41:24
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41:27
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41:31
Speaker 2: at Bloomberg.com.