Industry Pulse: What convention attendees say are midstream’s biggest challenges

By Thomas Kalb

During the GPA Midstream Convention in San Antonio, I buttonholed 100 random people on the convention floor to ask a question, "What do you think is the most important issue facing the midstream industry today?"

The question was intentionally open-ended, and convention attendees shared their thoughts and engaged in discussions of the industry and its future.

Two issues dominated: the regulatory and permitting environment (government), and the broad ignorance of the industries and systems that make and deliver the energy that enables daily life.

The results represent a shift in industry sentiment from similar surveys conducted during the past several years, which found that the most important issue facing the midstream industry was meeting human capital needs. Staffing - particularly an aging midstream workforce and the challenges of recruiting young people - took a distant third place in this survey.

Conversations with respondents described the challenges with each of the dominant answers and identified potential plans of action:

1. Government. Attendees acknowledge government's role in assisting the midstream industry to meet its responsibility to society and thought it needs to work more closely with industry to balance legitimate public concerns with the need to deliver energy that's affordable, reliable, safe, and clean.

This issue is the biggest one on the minds of midstream operators. Convention attendees I spoke with believe the right path is for industry leaders and organizations such as GPA Midstream to constructively and aggressively engage in discourse with regulatory and political leaders to enable them to make the best, practical decisions for our energy system.

GPA Midstream has a history of working cooperatively with regulatory agencies and legislators to achieve practical solutions to statutory and regulatory goals. To join the effort to engage with government policymakers, consider joining a GPA Midstream committee. These committees are forums where industry peers work together to provide detailed comments responding to regulatory proposals and to advocate on behalf of the midstream.

2.Ignorance. Citizens and many public officials lack sufficient knowledge to develop thoughtful views about energy, environmental, or climate issues. Very few people have even a basic understanding of energy and how it enables modern life. The days of being able to quietly go about doing the job of delivering energy are gone.

This widespread ignorance is connected to the troublesome regulatory and permitting environment. Educating the public and policymakers about the realities of how energy is made and the tradeoffs of making wholesale changes may be able to help mitigate the top issue on the minds of midstream professionals.

The industry cannot behave as if unassisted common sense will prevail. Industry must engage in an aggressive effort to educate society about the complexities of energy. This kind of effort takes time and is an indirect path to promoting a more collaborative relationship with government officials and regulatory bodies. It's also a necessary path to solving practical issues related to government regulatory and permitting matters.

This survey is indicative of the dysfunctional relationship between society and the practicalities of producing and delivering the affordable, reliable energy it needs. It also points the midstream industry to solutions. To mitigate industry difficulties, it needs to better educate the public and government officials about our nation's energy ecosystem.

While the information gap between industry and society cannot be quickly closed, operators and professional organizations need to do the advocacy and education work before the pervasive ignorance results in expensive, unreliable energy that delivers enduring damage to the national economy.

Energy industry leaders and professional organizations should collaborate to promote the education of society and political leadership on energy matters. Top priorities would be a focus on a high-level understanding of the energy complex that is accessible and digestible to non-technical people in a succinct and interesting manner. This approach would need to include educating people about the tradeoffs, pace, and materials and supply challenges of changing the energy system.

GPA Midstream's Let's Clear the Air campaign is a great example of an information campaign dedicated to educating people about the midstream sector and the realities of energy. Let's Clear the Air brings midstream's experience, expertise, and perspective to the broader conversation about energy, environment, and the climate. Click here to learn more about Let's Clear the Air and to get involved.

Thomas Kalb is an energy expert and former Director of the Center for Midstream Management & Science at Lamar University. He is a regular contributor to the Let's Clear the Air blog, where he writes about issues, policies, and considerations impacting how we produce and use energy.

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