September 17, 2026 Bloomberg TV -- Balance of Power.
What Alan Armstrong said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Alan Armstrong, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma and former CEO of Williams Companies, argued that permitting reform is the key to addressing high energy prices and ensuring long-term affordable energy. He noted a $3 per gallon spread between diesel prices in Oklahoma and California, attributing it to infrastructure constraints and state taxation. Armstrong discussed the Saudi East-West pipeline attack, saying that while actual construction repairs could take 2-3 days, the site must first be stabilized, and he emphasized the importance of redundant infrastructure to avoid market hostage situations. He expressed optimism about the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act, highlighting unprecedented cross-sector industry unity and growing public awareness of how infrastructure affects utility bills. Armstrong confirmed ongoing work with Senate Majority Leader Thune and House Democrats to secure passage before the end of the Congress, likely in the lame duck session.
Key takeaways
Armstrong says the $3 per gallon diesel price spread between Oklahoma and California is driven by California's infrastructure constraints and taxes, not the war.
He predicts the Saudi East-West pipeline repair could take weeks due to site stabilization, despite Secretary Wright's 2-3 day construction estimate.
He stated that having redundant infrastructure eliminates the threat of market hostage situations, as seen with Germany's dependence on Russian gas.
He is pushing for the American Energy and Mineral Infrastructure Act to pass in the lame duck session, with industry speaking in one voice.
Numbers and commitments
Figure
What it refers to
Type
At
$3 a gallon
Diesel price spread between Oklahoma and California
0:00So, when you look at diesel, which again is at an all-time high, do you see any reason to believe that those prices are going to materially come down in the near term?
2:06And if it stays down for weeks, what does that mean for prices?
4:15Senator, do we need the Strait of Hormuz back open?
5:52Is this going to be something handled in the lame duck session, Senator, or are you setting the baseline for the next Congress to do this?
7:26Well, with all that said, Senator, have you gotten a commitment from the majority leader, Senator Thune, that this will be on the floor before this Congress is over?
For more on the energy crunch, we're joined now by Republican Senator Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, the former CEO of Williams Companies, who is joining us live from Capitol Hill this evening. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. I won't ask you to be an economist and answer a technical economic question, but you are an expert in the energy sector. So, when you look at diesel, which again is at an all-time high, do you see any reason to believe that those prices are going to materially come down in the near term?
Yeah, you know, first of all, all things are viewed in my eye through permitting reform. And when you get to this question, it should be as well. If you look at the spread today between diesel prices in Oklahoma and California, it's $3 a gallon of spread. And that spread is largely driven by either constrained infrastructure because of California's decision to not support fossil fuel infrastructure there, or by their own taxation. And so, a lot of these things are self-inflicted. And if you really think about that $3 a gallon, that's actually more than prices moved in the state of Oklahoma for diesel prices between pre-war and now during the war. So it's fascinating to me how much gets thrown onto this issue around war. And what we really ought to be focused on here in the US is what we can do for the long term to make sure that we have affordable energy both at the pump, but more importantly at people's utility bills. You spend a lot more — people don't realize this — you spend a lot more on energy in your utility bills than you do on your gasoline or your fuel on an annual basis. And so utility bills are starting to be the thing that people are focused on, and they should be focused on it. Because when you think about permitting reform, you ought to think that that means more abundant, lower cost energy available at your home. And that's the kind of thing that we should really be focused on here in the Senate.
I want your take on what's happening in Saudi Arabia, Senator. Having run Williams Companies, you probably know more about pipelines than anybody on Capitol Hill. And the reporting today in the Washington Post would suggest that damage was far more extensive than we may have thought — damage inflicted on the East-West pipeline. At one point, there was a plume of smoke so large it could be seen from space. Secretary Chris Wright says it'll be operational in a matter of days. But analysts who have looked at images of the pipeline, and we're showing some right now to our viewers on Bloomberg TV, anticipate a much longer disruption. And that could mean ever higher prices. Tom Kloza at Gulf Oil says staggering increases at the pump for both gasoline and diesel are coming. Patrick DeHaan at GasBuddy says gas and diesel are set for a spike in the next 48 hours, hardest in parts of the nation's interior. When do you think, based on what you know, this pipeline could be up and running? And if it stays down for weeks, what does that mean for prices?
Yeah, well, obviously, I think, you know, these attacks point out the importance of adequate infrastructure and the impact that lack of adequate infrastructure has on prices. And so it really kind of makes the point. But I would say in terms of the timing on the repair, you know, the first thing that has to occur is the area has to cool off. You can't go in and repair a pipeline when the ground is glassified a lot of times from heat to that level from that kind of fire and explosion. But that doesn't mean that you can't route around that scene. You know, modern capabilities — we're used to thinking about pipelines taking forever to build, not because it takes forever to build the pipeline, but because it takes forever to permit a pipeline. And so, the actual construction though, Secretary Wright is absolutely correct that the actual construction there is a 2-3 day issue, but it first requires getting the site stabilized and having a work area that is back to normal because there is a lot of heat that's been impacted on the ground there that has to be dealt with first.
Well, so when we consider this notion of potentially, as we've heard administration officials float the idea of including Secretary Blest and that the Strait of Hormuz eventually is going to become a worthless waterway because you're going to be able to pipeline your way around it and get that energy out through alternate routes. Do you see that being near-term reality? Senator, do we need the Strait of Hormuz back open?
6 more exchanges in this transcript
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Armstrong, A. (2026, September 18). Senator Armstrong joins Bloomberg TV to Discuss the Urgent Need for Permitting Reform [Interview transcript]. Senator Alan Armstrong. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3043887/
MLA
Alan Armstrong. "Senator Armstrong joins Bloomberg TV to Discuss the Urgent Need for Permitting Reform." Senator Alan Armstrong, 18 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3043887/.
BibTeX
@misc{armstrong2026_3043887,
author = {Alan Armstrong},
title = {Senator Armstrong joins Bloomberg TV to Discuss the Urgent Need for Permitting Reform},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Senator Alan Armstrong. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3043887/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
