Is this oops or good news for Houston? Don't know much about Perry's expertise in energy, except he probably wants to abolish the department of energy. So like the EPA guy who wants to hamstring or eliminate the agency and the Education gal who hates public education, and the sleepy neurogurgeon who hates housing and urban development Perry seems to be a GOP wet dream.
I gotta wonder if putting in Perry is for real or if it's some weird revenge fetish Trump has for keeping score ala Romney.
He probably hated having refineries and pipelines getting oversight from FERC or BOEMRE who probably take some cues from the EPA. This isn't a horrible pick, even though I'd rather see Tillerson here than at State. Having multiple Governors and a global CEO isn't a bad insurance policy for Trump's own fundamental weaknesses, there might be a James Baker or Don Regan in there somewhere. Although the Teapot Dome timeline is coming closer and closer to fruition.
I don't think Perry is any better or worse than anyone else Trump would realistically consider. The bulk of their budget is spent on the country's nuclear capabilities, which I don't think Perry knows squat about, and isn't particularly important to Houston or to Texas. A Trump DOE will probably cut back on money it spends on research and innovation, and especially venture capital type endeavors. One area where I think the pick matters is on exports of fossil fuels where DOE approval is needed. LNG export terminals have had a gauntlet of approvals to go through to get built and so we don't have very many. It's not clear to me what stance a Trump Admin would take -- export-friendly to allow our E&P industries to grow, or export-opposed to keep domestic prices low to encourage the growth of domestic energy-intensive businesses.
