President coming to Pittsburgh next week
Trump to speak at Shale Insight conference
Making his second visit to Western Pennsylvania in as many months, President Donald Trump will tout his administration’s rolling back of regulations on the oil and natural gas industries in an address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
The president’s speech will touch on his record of promoting domestic energy production and removing permitting constraints, a White House official said.
Mr. Trump will be the first president to appear at the annual gathering of natural gas executives, the White House official said Wednesday. But Mr. Trump spoke at the conference as a candidate for president in 2016, promising to lift restrictions on American energy and “allow this wealth to pour into communities including right here in the state of Pennsylvania.”
The president will claim that the U.S., under his administration, has become the world’s leading oil and natural gas producer, the White House official said.
The conference will be held Wednesday and Thursday at the David L. Lawrence Convention
Center. Last year, the then-acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew Wheeler, spoke at the convention, and in 2017, then-White House
press secretary Sean Spicer delivered the keynote.
In a statement, Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer credited the Trump administration for leading an American energy revolution that “is driving environmental progress and providing benefits, including a manufacturing rebirth, that are making our nation stronger and more secure.”
In August, Mr. Trump visited the construction site of Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County. In an hourlong speech to more than 2,000 workers, he took credit for “unleashing” American energy and making the plant possible.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said the city was notified of the upcoming visit late last week, and it will be “all hands on deck” for the convention with a full deployment plan.
“We have always had a good working relationship with the United States Secret Service,” Mr. Hissrich said, adding that there will be meetings over the next few days to come up with a definitive plan.
Asked about the current political climate, Mr. Hissrich added, “We always look at the intelligence and we’re always prepared for whatever could come at us.”
A liberal super PAC attempting to convince Pennsylvania voters that Mr. Trump isn’t looking out for their interests pounced at news of the president’s planned visit.
“Donald Trump is trying to gaslight America,” said Jack Doyle, director of outreach for Priorities USA’s Pennsylvania effort. “He talks a big game about job growth in Pennsylvania, but the truth is we’ve lost the largest number of manufacturing jobs in the country this year.”
Mr. Doyle cited reports that Pennsylvania has lost 8,000 factory positions over the past 12 months, and that Mr. Trump’s rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan negated an attempt to incentivize renewable energy projects.