Midwest drivers, Pacific Northwest ratepayers will be first to see prices at pump and in utility bills increase if president imposes 25 percent levy on March 4.
WASHINGTON—If President Donald Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on imported goods from Canada on March 4, as he pledged to do on Feb. 27, drivers across the Midwest and utility ratepayers in the Pacific Northwest will be among the first to see prices at the pump and in their electric bills increase.
That consensus was among potential tariff-related impacts identified by the 2,200 public utility commissioners, regional transmission operators, and state regulators who attended the Feb. 23–26 National Association of Regional Utility Commissions’ (NARUC) Winter Energy Policy Conference in Washington.
Trump’s vow to place 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and an additional 10 percent on goods from China, raising the levy to 20 percent, was an ambient topic that filtered into many presentations and discussions during the annual NARUC event.
Utilities, grid operators, and energy developers were particularly concerned about how tariffs on Canadian goods, including on aluminum, would affect ratepayers and the oil refineries that provide much of the gasoline and heating fuel across the Midwest.
Canada is the United States’ most significant energy trading partner, supplying 60 percent of U.S. oil imports, 4 million barrels a day, making it the largest crude oil supplier to the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Canada provides nearly all U.S. natural gas imports—9 percent of the country’s total consumption—according to the EIA and American Gas Association, and is the U.S.’s largest supplier of minerals, the Center for Strategic & International Studies reports.
In addition, there are 37 power grids with cross-border transmission lines powering more than 7.5 million homes from New England to the Pacific Northwest, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), with New York and Massachusetts among states increasingly seeking to tap into Canadian hydropower.
American Gas Association (AGA) President and CEO Karen Harbert said a 25 percent tariff on Canadian natural gas would leave electricity rate-payers in some states “particularly exposed.”
“There are parts of our country that are going to really feel it. It’s going to be uneven if these tariffs come into play,” she said, noting “the state of Washington is 100-percent dependent on Canada’s natural gas.”
While “there’ll be some pain, we can weather it for a while. We’ve got a lot of natural gas in storage that we can use, and we’re filling it right now with the warm weather that we’re experiencing” across much of the country, Herbert said.
By John Haughey
