Mike Conaway: “You would think it would. Uncertainties about tax policies. How is a particular investment taxed and treated under our…”

“You would think it would. Uncertainties about tax policies. How is a particular investment taxed and treated under our code over an extended period of time or changes in that policy contribute to a reduction in the private investment in these various sources. Other government initiatives, like things like the government picking winners and losers in a particular area as opposed to looking to the market to do that, to give incentives to the markets to create the most efficient kinds of policies that are in place. But, nevertheless, anything that comes in front of this body that retards or discourages or puts in question the private investment into all domestic sources of energy, I think we have to challenge those, and respectfully. And the fourth lens I would look at is what does this do to the consumers. At the end of the day, you and I and the people who pay the light bills when we turn the switch on, who buy the gasoline at the pump have to pay those costs. And if we do things as a part of these policy initiatives that come forward over the next couple of weeks that arbitrarily and capriciously increase costs to consumers, then we need to challenge those. There has to be a pay the fiddler at some point in time. I mean, we have to pay for whatever sources of energy that we've had. We've enjoyed low gasoline prices for a long, long time, and we're coming to the end of those lower prices just because crude oil and natural gas are finite resources.”