Enbridge (ENB.TO)(ENB) can trace its utility roots back to a dozen gas-powered street lamps in downtown Toronto, says Michele Harradence, president of gas distribution and storage for the Canadian pipeline giant.

A handful of these relics still stand outside the city’s famed St. Lawrence Market, she told a business luncheon audience earlier this week.

Today, Enbridge’s sprawling network of energy infrastructure criss-crosses Canada and the United States. The Calgary-headquartered company owns North America’s largest natural gas utility by volume, and the continent’s largest oil transportation system.

Chief executive officer Greg Ebel recently told investors that Enbridge is increasingly well-positioned “in front of dramatic, secular changes in power demand.” His growth ambitions are backed by US$8 billion to US$9 billion in annual growth investment capacity.

“It comes down to risk-adjusted returns,” Ebel said on a Nov. 1 earnings call with analysts. “How quick you can take that capital, turn it into earnings for shareholders, which allows us to continue to drive the dividend forward.”

For Harradence, deploying those funds in Enbridge’s home country is a tough sell compared to rival investment opportunities stateside. In a speech earlier this week to the Empire Club Of Canada, she described investment in Canadian energy as “sputtering” due to a “tangle of regulatory knots, an unwelcoming tax climate, and tepid, fragmented incentives that cannot compete with those that are on offer right next door.”

“In the U.S., there is a very clear, holistic framework for attracting investment,” she told Yahoo Finance Canada in an interview prior to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. “If we’re going to invest, we want to invest in a place that’s secure, and a place where we have that certainty.”

Enbridge recently completed a strategic acquisition of three U.S. gas utilities, a big bet on the long-term value of natural gas in the energy transition. Ebel called the US$14 billion deal a rare and unprecedented “generational opportunity” when it was announced last fall. Along with being located in regions with high population growth like North Carolina and Utah, Harradence says supportive regulations for natural gas were a “very significant factor” behind the deal.

Speaking before president-elect Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday, she says Enbridge was “pretty agnostic” on Trump versus an administration led by Vice-President Kamala Harris.

“We have a huge gas transmission and midstream business, and we’re one of the largest renewable players on the planet,” Harradence said. “We’re really well set up due to the stable nature of our business to succeed regardless of outcomes.”