As the Gas Processors Association (GPA) continues to expand its advocacy role, it has continued its efforts to get in front of issues on both the state and federal levels. As part of these efforts, the GPA has hired the firm of Van Ness Feldman and the Texas Energy Lobby to work with its director of government affairs, Jeff Applekamp, along with the GPA legislative committee.

Van Ness Feldman was brought on last year to work on the GPA gathering study done in conjunction with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) new pipeline safety bill.

“Through the GPA legislative committee, we worked some redline language and shared that with PHMSA staffers, who were very appreciative that we were among the few groups that actually gave them specific language changes that they could use to consider,” Lisa Epifani, member at Van Ness Feldman, told Midstream Monitor. “We saw a lot of our suggestions in their final product, so we were very pleased that the risk-based approach we emphasized were included.”

Epifani said that Van Ness Feldman works with Applekamp on a weekly basis and has a bi-weekly call with the Legislative Committee in order to address any potential issues affecting GPA membership.

“Our immediate concerns focus on the implementation of the PHMSA pipeline safety bill. GPA is continuing to build itself as a good resource for information to PHMSA by filing comments and visiting their office,” according to Epifani. She added that GPA has been very active in working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in terms of informing the Agency of its positions on potential regulations that would have a strong impact on the GPA membership.

GPA is also remaining on top of potential effects that EPA’s National Source Performance Standards (NSPS) will impact coal demand and increase gas demand for electric generation, thus having a direct impact on GPA members’ bottom line.

In terms of potential federal legislation that could impact the midstream this year, Epifani said that tax reform is likely to be at the forefront of any Congressional action this year and it is possible that master limited partnerships (MLPs) could be targeted for new regulations. The difficulty for GPA is that there haven’t been any formal announcements or legislation drafted on this front, so GPA is instead focusing on awareness and education of MLPs.

Education has been a focal point of Epifani’s GPA work with federal legislators and regulators. Van Ness Feldman and GPA have created a briefing to educate legislators and regulators on the midstream and NGLs.

“We made it a priority to educate people about the midstream sector, which has been overlooked compared to education efforts for hydraulic fracturing and transmission. Many people just focus on hydraulic fracturing and the price to the consumer and don’t fully appreciate the amount of investment necessary for processing plants to operate and expand,” she said.

GPA also works closely with Kelly McBeth of the Texas Energy Lobby, which focuses on issues in Texas. Currently, the Texas Legislature is not in session and there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the legislature heading into the November elections.

“We’ve gone through our redistricting process in Texas and are redrawing all of our state representatives, senators and congressional districts. Usually we have staggered terms, but this redistricting means that everybody is up for re-election,” McBeth told Midstream Monitor.

As there will be a lot of changes in the Texas Legislature, McBeth said that it is incumbent upon GPA and the midstream to get out and meet with their new representatives and senators and educate them about the industry, the same as what the Association is doing on the federal level.

“The other thing that’s happened in this redistricting process is that all of our interim hearings on air emission, fracing disclosure, oil casing and well safety have been put off, so the work that we normally see taking place in January, February, March and April hasn’t happened. We’re going to have this huge crunch to get all of those hearings done in a short amount of time, and that gives us a very short time to prepare for the session,” McBeth said.

Contact the author, Frank Nieto, at fnieto@hartenergy.com.