Following his presentation at the Marcellus-Utica Midstream conference in Pittsburgh, GPA Midstream’s vice president of governmental affairs Matthew Hite sat down with Hart Energy's Jessica Morales and discussed regulatory reform and its effect on the oil and gas, particular midstream, industry.

PITTSBURGH—“It’s been a wild and crazy couple of years; a lot going on,” exclaimed Matthew Hite, vice president of governmental affairs at GPA Midstream Association, as he took the stage at Hart Energy’s recent Marcellus-Utica Midstream conference. He was referring, of course, to the fast-moving, often turbulent and always unpredictable political and regulatory environment in Washington, D.C.

A registered federal lobbyist, Hite has a unique view of the policymaking machine because he is a regulatory specialist, legislative specialist and a policy specialist. “I’m either lobbying Congress or federal agencies, or coming up with some great ideas with our members on how to advance the midstream industry,” he said. The goal: halt the encroachment of overregulation on the industry.

From his vantage point, there are several things going on in Washington that energy industry members ought to be aware of, and more important, engaged in.

At the top of that list is the upcoming midterm election in November. “We seeing a lot of retirements coming through where a lot of members of Congress are making the decision on whether they’re going to have a heated race and whether they are going to get in or get out,” Hite said. “We also have a sort of ‘cleaning house’ due to the sexual harassment scandals. You’re seeing a number of members retiring due to that.”

That means there is a change leading up to the election, he said. “We’re starting to see in the House, for the Republicans, for them to maintain control it’s looking more and more challenging due to the retirements,” he said. “The Senate is different since the Democrats have 26 seats that have to be defending. The Republicans only have eight. So I think the Senate is in a much better position [for the Republicans] but who knows, a lot could change in a couple of months.”

Regulatory Reform

Hite said the “regulatory onslaught is unbelievable.” He said the Trump administration is not only getting rid of regulations, but also shutting off the faucet for regulations. “For the midstream industry it’s been really good because we’ve had a number of regulations that were onerous, duplicative and completely unreasonable,” he added.

“Sometimes regulations are good, but we’ve kind of creeped into having regulations for the sake of having regulations,” he continued. “The Trump administration’s main goal in the first year has been to reduce the regulatory burdens with the hope that the industry, and especially the midstream industry, can thrive.”

Political Nominations

“This is one of the things I feel the Trump administration struggled with,” Hite said. “They have struggled to get their people in place to run the federal agencies.”

Why is that significant?

“Imagine if you had a CEO get rid of the entire C-suite; no vice presidents, no managers, no directors. You just had labor and a CEO making every decision. The company would grind to a halt. It would barely be able to keep its doors open,” Hite explained about the political nomination process. “If you don’t have your people in place to run the federal agencies then the agencies are going to run themselves. A lot of times when they run themselves, it’s not the same direction as the administration wants them to go.”

The Trump administration is behind most other administration when it comes to selecting nominees. Hite said they have realized it and closed the gap “pretty quickly this past year.”

Environment

“I feel the industry does a great job, but we don’t do as good of a job as we should telling our story on the environmental front,” Hite said.

He said the industry is in a constant battle with environmentalists and NGOs. “It’s one thing for industry to put their money where their mouth is and to invest in habitat conservation, wetlands preservation, but then you see a commercial from the Sierra Club saying, ‘Please help us preserve the wetlands’ and then all these people start writing $25 checks and they think that money is going to preserve wetlands,” he said. It’s not going to preserve wetlands, it’s going to pay for high-powered attorneys and lobbyists to challenge everything the administration is doing that they oppose.”

He says the money is used to try and stop energy projects in the courts.

“You’ll see all these environmental groups say nasty things about the Trump administration, but in reality, they’re some of the biggest fans of the Trump administration,” he continued, “because it’s all about following the money.”

He clarified that many environmental groups have benefitted in fundraising since Trump’s election, including a 700% increase in fundraising for the Sierra Club since Trump’s election.

Hite says everything the Trump administration has done has been challenged in the courts. “People are going to have to fight for every inch when it comes to reform.

Len Vermillion can be reached at lvermillion@hartenergy.com or @LenVermillion.

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