By Alan Kovski, Bloomberg BNA.

Tensions between the Obama administration and the oil and gas industry are high and may be headed higher in the last year of the administration.

Industry representatives do not dispute that their industry's relations with the federal government are very difficult, although they consistently express a hope for cooperation. They suggest the difficulties are not a matter of bureaucracies but rather of policies stemming from the White House, and the policies may be driven in 2016 by concerns about climate change and an activist campaign to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

“We just feel that it's a regulatory onslaught,” said Dan Naatz, senior vice president of government relations and political affairs at the Independent Petroleum Association of America.