Suzanne Ogle recently sat down with Jack Burke of COMPRESSORTECH2 magazine to discuss the state of the industry, training opportunities and the importance of using the right words.
CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE MOOD OF THE MEMBERSHIP DURING THIS TIME OF CHANGE IN THE INDUSTRY?
As a matter of fact, I just jumped off our executive council meeting to come to talk with you. And there’s a lot of energy and excitement in the industry. I think people, even if they’ve been in the industry for a long time, feel like it’s a fantastic time to be in the industry now, because there’s certainly challenges but there’s also lots of opportunities within those challenges. As we’ve gone on through this kind of a push back over the years, it seems like there’s maybe a little bit of a renaissance in gas and more understanding that, as the reliability of systems have gotten compromised, gas is getting recognized as being even more important, especially when you’re looking at the harmonization of the electric and the gas system.
THE MAGAZINE RECENTLY DID A READER SURVEY AND BOTH REGULATION AND ENERGY POLICIES CAME UP AS MAJOR CONCERNS. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT THE SGA IS DOING AND WHAT YOU’RE HEARING ABOUT THOSE ISSUES?
Southern Gas Association is a training organization. We work hand in hand with the lobbying organizations, but we’re not a lobbying organization. So in terms of regulation and legislation, I think the best thing that we can do is create awareness and help interpret and operationalize regulation. We’re not going to go up to the Hill and lobby. We help our members interpret what’s going on. Where are the opportunities? Take the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), we’re looking at it from how business strategy can maximize the opportunity? What can an operator use in the IRA to advance your business model and strategy? So, there’s a lot of opportunities in that regard.
SOMETHING I HEARD YOU SAY IS WE SHOULD AVOID USING THE PHRASE “ENERGY TRANSITION.” WHY IS THAT?
We know words matter. One of the things I’m doing is putting out a series of five videos that discuss manipulative tactics that are used in disinformation, whether that’s fear-mongering or not giving all the pertinent information. We have to be sure we use our words in a way that creates an expanse of opportunity for natural gas versus a limiting opportunity for natural gas. And I think sometimes people feel like they’re in a place where they’re trying to speak the language that other people are speaking. In these situations people often think, if I use their words, it’s going to make sense to them or that they can relate to the idea better if I use their vocabulary. You have to realize that words are selected strategically to advance an agenda. Politicians use the power of words to persuade.
Think about the instances where there are court cases against natural gas being referred to as “natural”. They want to call it fossil gas. This vocabulary manipulation is dangerous. I think you have to be very authentic and I’m 100% sure that natural gas is a solution for a long-term basis, not a short-term basis. That’s why I encourage everyone to use the word evolution and not transition. Because since the Industrial Revolution, the natural gas industry has been evolving, we continue to evolve, and we’re going to evolve more to meet the demand for energy and the need to reduce emissions. We have an emissions problem, not a fuel problem. Natural gas is a tool in solving that emissions problem. And frankly, I believe that the renewables that we see now are just a stop on the way to where we’re really going to be an integrated energy system of the future.
IT SEEMS THAT, AT LEAST IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, THERE’S MORE WILLINGNESS WITHIN INDUSTRY TO TALK ABOUT THAT, AS OPPOSED TO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE TO DO MY BUSINESS. DO YOU SENSE THAT AS WELL?
That’s been evolving over the whole time I’ve been in the industry, which is more than 30 years now. There’s been a shift in the way people interact nowadays. And I think maybe the polarization has gotten people a little bit more emboldened and to realize that you can’t just go quietly down the path and say, “Hey, I’m doing my job over here; you worry about you and I’ll worry about me.” I have a learning mindset. so I believe that it’s always better to engage in a conversation and explore ideas. And so I think as an industry, we’re finally learning that you can’t just shove all that away. I think if anybody learned that it’s the E&P aspect of the industry. At first they didn’t want to talk about what was in their frack fluid, which is so innocuous in the first place. They did themselves such a disservice by not being transparent. You have to be at the table to collaborate. That’s why it’s important to really start to have a conversation that people can relate to.
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