Pipelines and gas prices get attention at Lansing airport

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defended high gas prices as temporary but necessary during a Thursday visit to the Lansing Regional International Airport with U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett with a backdrop of hazy skies and airport maintenance equipment.

Asked whether he would return a donation linked to embattled Ohio Rep. Max Miller, Barrett said Miller was owed the right of due process and Miller is under an ethics investigation; Barrett compared Miller’s situation to William Lawrence, who won last week’s Democratic primary and is Barrett’s general election challenger and the congressman said his opponent is a convicted felon.

“He didn’t just chain himself to a bulldozer,” Barrett said. “He tried to shut down a pipeline, he required hours of law enforcement coming in to try and release this ridiculous protest, to shut down a pipeline, one of the safest ways of transporting petroleum products and other energy resources through pipelines. I know you guys want to cover up for him and everything, but you know it’s indisputable that he’s a convicted felon and I think he would agree with me. I hope that due process is an important protection. He certainly relied on it in his own proceedings.” 

Barrett and Duffy did not respond when asked at the airport about this week’s long-delayed approval by the U.S. Army Corps of the Line 5 pipeline, which will run under the Straits of Mackinac.

Not a road trip

Duffy’s staff said he was not traveling with his road trip film crew.

The secretary, along with members of his family, spent seven months traveling to a variety of sites, with the trips being filmed and sponsored by many of the companies Duffy oversees as a cabinet official, including Boeing and United Airlines. He said in an interview on NewsNation on Monday that the videos were done one weekends and that the release had been delayed.

“We had to do a little extra editing, got to make sure I come into compliance with all the ethics rules we have in government,” Duffy said on NewsNation.

He was not asked Thursday about the road trip videos.

Most beautiful airports in the world

Duffy said Barrett had supported the Trump Administration’s Big Beautiful Bill, which included $12.5 billion for airport overhauls, including millions for Lansing’s airport, which is getting upgraded flight bridges.

Duffy and Barrett talked about air travel and the importance of supporting airports and the people who fly frequently.

“We should have the most beautiful airports in the world and that takes money, that takes resources and that takes creativity,” Duffy said.

Gas prices

Asked about the increase of gas prices and the affordability of air travel for the average American, Duffy said gas prices are currently high and he tied that to the war in Iran.

“We can’t have a nuclear Iran, it destabilizes the world,” the secretary said. “In the short time we have some issues with the Strait of Hormuz.”

Gas prices are about $1 a gallon more than they were a year ago and are over $4 in much of the mid-Michigan area.

Iran said Thursday that it controls the strait, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil travels, but the Trump Administration disputes that claim and the president said Wednesday that the U.S. is in control of the strait. The war in Iran has lasted for six months.

Duffy said increased gas prices are necessary but temporary.

Duffy pointed to the price of a barrel of oil – around $82 a barrel, comparable to a year ago – and said it was “that low because of American energy dominance. And that’s a president who believes that we should actually produce energy here. We should refine energy here. And now we become a net exporter here. So again, we’re in a great place with what we produce in America and you have a short term disruption in the Middle East because a long term safety for America for the world because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”

He said nuclear weapons are cataclysmic not only for human lives but for environmental reasons.

Data centers

Barrett was asked about his stance on data centers and Duffy interjected to ask the reporter her name and news outlet (Beth LeBlanc, Detroit News).

Barrett said he opposes incentives for data centers.

“I have been somebody who is very protective of local control by local residents making these decisions for themselves,” Barrett said. “We should not be making zoning decisions in Washington, D.C., which is what my opponent has been asking for.”

Lawrence has proposed a federal moratorium on data centers and has pointed to data center incentives included in the Big Beautiful Bill, which Barrett supported and Duffy touted at the airport.

Barrett criticized Lawrence’s moratorium approach as taking away local control.

“I believe local stakeholders, local residents, ought to be making decisions for themselves,” Barrett said. “I think that any data center that is being proposed ought to be sincere and honest with the people in a community.”

He said data centers should provide their own electricity, to avoid costs for existing customers along with environmental considerations but not a national zoning policy regarding data centers.