With help from Ben Lefebvre, Darius Dixon, Eric Wolff and Anthony Adragna

Welcome to POLITICO’s guide to the World Gas Conference in Washington, D.C. It’s been a busy day, so let’s get right to it.

FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER: Energy Secretary Rick Perry praised U.S. technology innovation this morning as he welcomed thousands of gas industry members from more than 100 nations — but chose not to dwell on the worrisome specter of tariffs and trade wars emanating from the White House these days. Technological advances have allowed the U.S. to produce energy “more cleanly and efficiently, more abundantly and affordably” than anyone a few decades ago could have imagined, Perry said after the Blue Devils Drum Corps jolted everyone awake. He especially singled out the nation’s “equally astounding miracle in natural gas production.”

Perry recounted the development of advanced drill bits, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques that Mitchell Energy developed in the 1990s to unlock oil and gas trapped in shale rock, eventually making the U.S. the largest energy producer in the world. “As a consequence, America is on the cusp of energy independence,” he said, apparently overlooking the fact that U.S. petroleum imports still total about 10 million barrels per day even with the steep jump in domestic oil and gas production.

What me worry? On his way out the door (perhaps to head to his scheduled meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak), Perry suggested to reporters that he doesn’t expect President Donald Trump’s import tariffs to affect the build out of U.S. natural gas infrastructure. “The president is smart enough to know what he’s doing,” Perry said.

That a slightly different tone than he took during a media roundtable on Monday, when he said he hoped that tariffs targeting Chinese trading policies wouldn’t be too broad. “I try to be thoughtful and raise some warning flags as we work to get a fair trading system out there, that we don’t shoot a bullet that goes through the intended target and hit whoever is standing behind it as to be detrimental to the production of steel products, particularly for infrastructure in the United States,” he said then.

And though he didn’t bring up his efforts to protect U.S. coal and nuclear power plants from the ever-expanding reach of natural gas, he did tout the Trump administration’s “all-of-the-above” policy to support every fuel.

Perry’s speedy exit means he didn’t get to catch another surprise on the stage: the Harlem Globetrotters. It certainly beats a PowerPoint deck.

Thanks for joining us to drill deep into the World Gas Conference 2018. I’m Matt Daily, the energy editor at POLITICO Pro. I’ve been following the gas sector since Enron was a newcomer, and at the risk of stepping on Perry’s toes, I’ve never seen such a diverse international crowd at a gas industry event. The predictions a decade ago that the gas business would break out of its regional focus and turn into a global energy market like crude oil have certainly come true. Send your prognostications to me at [email protected], and follow me at @dailym1.

ABOUT THOSE TARIFFS: Exxon Mobil and Chevron struck a measured tone on the rising tensions around global trade this morning. The two giant companies, whose business relies on keeping the international markets open and accessible, were sanguine about Trump’s 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports, though of course they’d rather those penalties disappear.

“These things run the risk of becoming a bit of a drag on growth,” Chevron CEO and Chairman Michael Wirth told IHS Markit’s Daniel Yergin. Chevron tends to buy American when it can for its U.S. operations, but it has to buy some of the specialized steel from abroad. “So we have to procure those elsewhere. ... I think it runs the risk of becoming a drag rather than a huge negative.”

Exxon CEO and Chairman Darren Woods, meanwhile, said his company is “trying to keep a level-headed voice in the conversation” around the trade tensions. He welcomed Trump’s tax cuts and the administration’s deregulatory efforts but acknowledged that the tariffs could make some energy projects less competitive in the world market. “The world has been very well served with low tariffs and free trade,” he said — while offering special praise for NAFTA, the three-nation pact that Trump perpetually threatens to cancel. That trade agreement had helped draw oil and resources from Canada and Mexico to the U.S., which turns them into refined products and chemicals that are sold back to those countries. “It benefits us, it benefits Mexico, it benefits Canada,” Woods said.

Check out the DataPoint graphic here. Want to add DataPoint to your Pro account? Learn more.

Unsurprisingly, the United States’ trading partners are a bit anxious. The recent escalation is spooking European investors who might have otherwise been happy to partner in U.S. projects, according to Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president for the Energy Union. The EU made $2.56 trillion in direct investment in the U.S. last year, a level that looks shakier amid the current trade tensions, he said.

“We are living in an angrier world and an angrier environment,” Sefcovic told POLITICO. “Investors are nervous. I talk a lot to European industry, and I can tell you this is very much on the mind of business leaders.”

INFRASTRUCTURE

TYING OUR OWN HANDS? Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a senior Energy and Natural Resources Committee member, took to the podium to blame environmental advocates and some states for attempting to block pipeline construction across state lines. “We kind of need to get out of our own way,” the lawmaker from West Virginia said. “Building pipelines across state lines should not be more difficult than building across transnational boundaries, but often that has been the case.” She said she’s encouraged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure a “timely review” for pipelines as the commission considers changes to its process.

Like many other states, West Virginia has seen protests around building new pipelines, including a recent action that saw opponents take to the trees there and in Virginia to try to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A federal court recently put the line on hold.

A WORD OF CAUTION: One panel speaker offered some caveats amid all the optimism about the industry’s future and ambitious new projects. Tatiana Mitrova, director of the Moscow School of Management’s Energy Center, said the future of new pipelines was “really at risk” due to three factors: demand uncertainty, unsettled geopolitical situations and what she deemed ineffective advocacy about the environment benefits of natural gas. “That’s I believe three main pillars for natural gas pipeline development for the next 50 years, 100 years if we really want to have it as a long-term business,” she said.

HEY RENEWABLES, DON’T BE LIKE THAT: Executives from Shell, BP and Iberdrola sought to defuse tension between renewable energy advocates and the natural gas industry, arguing that the variability of wind and solar power means that the grid will require natural gas for the foreseeable future. “We must fight this notion that there’s an existential competition between gas and renewables,” said De la Rey Venter, executive vice president for integrated gas ventures for Shell. “Gas is the ultimate enabler of renewables. If you want big penetration of renewables, you need a gas backbone for next decade or two.”

CLIMATE CHANGE

METHANE ON THE BRAIN: Gas producers don’t seem fazed by the rising alarm around methane leakage highlighted by a Science study released last week — but say they’re committed to solving the problem. “It’s paramount,” said Orlando Alvarez, CEO of BP Energy. “We’re looking to do what we can to reduce the methane emissions. There’s technology to measure it, but there’s operational changes we can make today. It’s a top priority.”

The new study showed methane leakage from energy operations was 60 percent higher that previous estimates. Methane traps more heat than carbon dioxide, and leakage along the natural gas value chain undermines the industry’s arguments that its fuel helps fight climate change. Even though the Environmental Defense Fund estimated that about a quarter of current warming is due to methane emissions, the industry says it can get the problem under control. “We believe the methane question mark is a solvable thing,” Venter said. “We can put the case for gas beyond doubt.”

BP TO FEDS: STOP MUCKING AROUND AND LET MARKETS WORK: Alvarez said the U.S. gas industry is “at a crossroads right now between the market working and regulatory and political interventions.” Alvarez laid out four big dangers to the industry triggered by regulators: the Trump administration’s effort to subsidize coal and nuclear power; efforts by power markets to change market rules; new technology, most notably FERC’s new rule requiring power markets to allow batteries to bid in; and FERC’s review of all its gas pipeline certification procedures. “The regulatory risk right now for the gas and power market is high. It’s increasing uncertainty in both of those markets,” he said.