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In this episode, we’re joined by Leakhena Swett, President of the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA), and Jay Cruz, Senior Director of Government Affairs and Communications.
Leakhena and Jay consider the key role of industry associations and explain how the ILTA advocates for its members. We also discuss the importance of knowledge-sharing and industry collaborations, and how the ILTA can help to facilitate these partnerships in the liquid terminals sector.
We also consider how collaborations are likely to evolve as the industry faces increasing regulatory and environmental pressures.
This episode of the Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast is sponsored by Owens Corning FOAMGLAS® cellular glass insulation — an impermeable insulation trusted in high-performing hydrocarbon processing facilities around the globe. Learn more at https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/insulation/foamglas
This episode of the Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast is sponsored by Owens Corning FOAMGLAS® cellular glass insulation — an impermeable insulation trusted in high-performing hydrocarbon processing facilities around the globe. Learn more at https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/insulation/foamglas
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What is Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast?
The Hydrocarbon Engineering podcast: a podcast series for professionals in the downstream refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast. I'm your host, Callum O'Reilly. And in this episode, I'm talking to Lakina Sweat, president of the International Liquid Terminals Association, as well as her colleague, Jay Cruz, who is the senior director of government affairs and communications for ILTA. Our conversation will span a number of topics, including the vital role of trade associations such as ILTA and the importance of industry collaborations. I hope you enjoy the episode.
Advert:The Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast is brought to you by Owens Corning Foam Glass Insulation. From managing vapor drive and mitigating corrosion risk to maintaining thermal performance and supporting safety on the jobsite, the insulating system plays a critical role in high performing hydrocarbon processing facilities. Learn more about how foam glass insulation contributes to the design of high performing insulating systems at cryogenic facilities at ww.owenscorning.com/foamglasslngstudy. That's www.owenscorning.comfoamglaflngstudy.
Callum O'Reilly:Hello, and welcome, Leakhena and Jay, and thank you for joining us. How are you both today? Doing well.
Leakhena Swett:I'm well. Thank you. Thank you for asking.
Callum O'Reilly:Great news. So I'm really looking forward to getting your thoughts on a number of topics. But before we dive in, I thought it might be a good idea to start with some introductions. So, Lakina and Jay, please could you just tell us a little bit about the ILTA and your roles at the association?
Jay Cruz:Hello there. My name is is Jay Cruz. I'm ILTA's senior director of government affairs and communications. ILTA is the trade association dedicated to companies that operate in the bulk liquid storage space, sort of in that midstream sector logistics component of the of the whole energy supply chain. We represent about 70 companies in this space.
Jay Cruz:Our members handle everything from oil and gas products, petrochemicals, asphalt, sustainable fuels like bioethanol and sustainable aviation fuels, some food products like molasses and olive oil. Our members operate in all 50 states with thousands of facilities across the country and around the world. My role, I lead ILTA's advocacy on Capitol Hill into the federal agencies, really trying to grow the association's advocacy as well as bolstering our long form communications to various publications and our written content.
Leakhena Swett:Great. Thanks, Jay. My name is Leakhena Swett. I'm the president of ILTA. My job at ILTA as being the president is overseeing the whole government affairs, our conference and trade show, our communications and our member engagement.
Leakhena Swett:So we're excited to talk about what we're doing this year and all the things that we've been trying to get accomplished this last year in 2024. So thank you for having us.
Callum O'Reilly:Great. Thank you both for those introductions. And again, thank you for joining us for this conversation. So I wanted to begin by asking what you consider to be the key role of associations such as yours in the sectors that you serve.
Leakhena Swett:Being in Washington, DC, associations are so vital to the industries because we represent our members on Capitol Hill, and we're that voice and we're that conduit to the industry. And in DC, there's an association on every block because we have that seat on on the hill on behalf of our members, and it's so important for associations to help and convene our members to have resources, and we put that together. And so we are basically being that voice for our members, but also interpreting what our members and our industry needs on the hill.
Jay Cruz:Like Leakhena said, you know, we're we're that conduit for communication. I mean, there are 330 some million people that live in The United States, and we only have 400 some odd elected officials in Congress and then within the White House, not everyone can talk to the federal government. It takes time. It takes targeted communication. And that's our role.
Jay Cruz:Right? So we help filter the message that our members want to convey to the officials that oversee them and translate their, what would normally be a very engineering heavy technical, you know, scientific approach to, the energy sector, right, for for the from the policy speakers on on on Capitol Hill and vice versa. Right? That that's that's a two way form of communication. Moreover, I'd like to say that associations like ours are also bridge builders with other interest groups.
Jay Cruz:The energy sector is not a one size fits all mode of transportation, right? There we engage with other associations that handle trucking, pipeline operations, barge, general energy safety, chemical safety, the like. Our job is to help connect the companies in our sector with companies outside of it, but parallel to it to better foster best practice development, the sharing of ideas and developments within the industry and within the wider the wider energy sector as a whole, serving as a as a platform and a springboard for ideas within our industry and without.
Callum O'Reilly:Great. Thank you both for that. Really interesting. You mentioned that you act as a voice for your members. So I was wondering how does ILTA advocate for its members and are you able to tell us about any recent policy wins that you've managed to get on Capitol Hill?
Jay Cruz:Sure. Mean, looking at your mind if I lead off on that one.
Leakhena Swett:Yeah, that'd be great.
Jay Cruz:I'd say ILT historically has been more of a regulatory voice. We have strong standing, longstanding connections with, you know, our Department of Homeland Security, our Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the US Department of Agriculture, and beyond. Just given the nature of our membership, we have a plethora of technical expertise at our disposal. So when an agency would put out a rule, again, our role as the association would be helped to, would be to help facilitate conversations between our private sector industry with, with the federal partners and steering rule making in a positive direction for everybody. I would point to our conversations with the Coast Guard around the TWIC Reader Rule implementation.
Jay Cruz:We've been a longstanding supporter of the Chemical Facility Anti Terrorism Standards Program that we're hoping to get reauthorized in the next year, working with the Environmental Protection Agency on several major air permitting issues related to air permitting at terminal facilities, the gasoline distribution rule and the NSPS Upper KC rule, really just serving as the technical expertise for the government to to bounce ideas off of and to communicate where needed. Because, again, we can't expect those who work in Washington to understand every aspect of every component of the energy sector. So we're there to help facilitate that. In terms of legislative advocacy, that's something we're actively growing. We, as the association, have created a government affairs subcommittee.
Jay Cruz:Again, within our 70 or so member companies, some of our our members have government affairs teams in house that we wanna leverage. We're hoping to make ILTA and its membership awareness of the bulk liquid storage sector something of a household name because at the end of the day, everyone's daily commute, the food products that they make, the clothing that they wear rely on bulk liquid products like ours. So our goal is to help bolster ILTA's image on Capitol Hill by utilizing our government affairs subcommittee. Know, the largest issue that we're pushing right now is related to the transition away from PFAS based firefighting foams. Historically, our sector, as good actors, have relied on PFAS based firefighting foams in their day to day safety operations.
Jay Cruz:We're working with several offices in trying to identify meaningful form of protection for the sector as that as that transition happens to guarantee them time and legal protection as they explore the their as they pursue the changes needed to meet the the necessary switch to non PFAS based alternatives.
Callum O'Reilly:Right. Thank you, Jay. So in addition to acting as a voice for your members, I'm really interested to know how ILTA fosters knowledge sharing between your members to drive innovation and operational best practices.
Leakhena Swett:Right. I think something that we do fairly well is bringing all of our members together And we create certain in person meetings along with virtual town halls and calls and bringing our members together and be able to share information. We have our large trade show, which is in Houston every year. We bring about 4,500 people together, 300 exhibitors with the latest innovation and products, and also conference program. And in the conference program, we have four tracks, over 50 speakers, and that's comprised of It's put together by professionals in the industry.
Leakhena Swett:We have a professional development committee, so we have people that are out there that are actually doing the job and making sure that they're keeping our industry current and relevant. We also have committee meetings twice a year. They're EGHSNS, which, like Jay was saying, we were at we just added our government affairs subcommittee. That is comprised of environmental security and health and safety. We meet, we go to where the members are, so we convene the members at two locations in person, but in the meantime, we're also doing monthly calls with them to make sure that we're doing listening sessions to seeing what is going on, what is keeping them up at night, and how IOTA can help.
Leakhena Swett:I think that's very important. Something else that we do is our TOPS, which is our Terminal Operation Practice Symposium. We have that annually. That is only for our terminal members. It's a it's a place where they come and talk about shared experiences, and it's all about safety, and sharing and creating a safe place where members can come together and have conversations and ask questions.
Leakhena Swett:And we create that space for our members. And it's an important thing to bring to our membership to feel that they can come and speak, how large a terminal is, how many employees they have. They all believe in safety, and that's something that we take pride in. So this is a space that we create for them once a year. And then when we're not meeting in person, we have our energy evolution series, which is a series of webinars that we use to help with consultants, with the help of consultants, to talk about what's going on in the industry and staying ahead of things and also bringing our members together that can't join us in person.
Leakhena Swett:So we're trying to see how we can engage our members through every facet, either in person, virtually, by phone, or webinar series. So those are the ways that we engage with our members.
Callum O'Reilly:So this is really clearly very important. And I I was wondering why do you think that industry collaborations are so critical in the liquid terminal sector? And how has ILTA helped to facilitate these partnerships?
Jay Cruz:As I mentioned earlier, the energy sector is not a one size fits all form of transportation in terms of getting goods from point a to point z, right, from extraction and refining to endpoint consumer. There are so many different forms of interplay when it comes to moving products, when it comes to refining products, when it comes to inspecting products, that our role, again, as the association for the industry is to help build bridges between other like minded and partner interest groups. So anything from policy, legislation, regulation, all policy development does not happen in a vacuum. And it's our role as the association to connect our members with those outside bodies when these conversations are growing here in Washington DC. For example or or in the individual states.
Jay Cruz:Like, for example, there was a a recent regulation passed in California related to zero emissions vehicles and how, you know, in California, chemical facilities like our that our members operate would be required to use essentially battery powered trucks at their facilities when moving products in and out that proposes or or that could lead to significant safety and security issues for our members. And so we, as the association, reached out to the California Trucking Association, to the American Trucking Association, that that sort of federal level body that that oversees the trucking associate or trucking industry. And so called the National Tank Truck Carriers, the association dedicated to tank truckers that move chemical based products. Just again, to to to bring awareness to the issue, to bring our expertise in contact with their expertise so that we can develop a common platform so that when we go to California or any other state that that that brings up a similar issue, everybody's on the same footing when it comes to what is the private sector's stance and perspective on on any given issue.
Callum O'Reilly:So are you able to share a success story where collaboration between ILTA members has led to a breakthrough in, be it safety, efficiency, or perhaps sustainability?
Jay Cruz:Sure. You know, I would I would say it's less to do with spontaneous breakthroughs and more a continued dedication to improvement year on year. ILTA runs an annual safety awards program, giving performance awards to companies that have demonstrated clear commitment to growing and fostering a strong safety culture within their companies. We, our conference and trade show every year, award what we call our Platinum Safety Award, which is a peer reviewed application process for companies to submit their safety performance based on their total recordable incidence rate, which is an OSHA metric for tracking workplace safety incidents. We develop a committee, fellow safety peers within the industry to judge these applications.
Jay Cruz:And what we've seen year on year is that the overall TRIR incidence rate has gone down considerably from when this program began, I want to say about a decade and a half ago at this point. You know, we take the information that we gather as part of that safety review process then we develop an annual safety performance report for the industry that our members can take back and use to better foster or better develop their own safety programs that we can use to inform our federal partners on developments within the industry and trends and have really used this data to bring the association forward as a whole when it comes to their safety protocol. As Lakita mentioned earlier, of course, we operate our terminal operating practices symposium, which again is that annual event where companies can come forward in a shared space to talk about a notable safety incident or near miss at their facility or involve involving some of their members at, at some point to, again, cross pollinate ideas, to share lessons learned, and really highlight how our respective private members can continue to share and learn with one another. Really stressing that idea about how we have continued to build bridges between our association and others.
Jay Cruz:Safety lessons learned from the National Tank Truck Carriers Association can carry over to ILTA and lessons learned with the American Waterways operators, at the Association of Overseas companies in the barge space, the channels, the shipping channel space can inform how our members operate their facilities with barge connection. So it's really about continuously bringing together the members within our association with external partners to share ideas, highlight the importance of continued dedication to safety overall so that everybody walks away at the end of the day with a stronger sense of what it takes to be safe at their facilities.
Callum O'Reilly:Okay, great. Thank you, Jay. And I was wondering, how do you see collaborations evolving as the industry faces increasing regulatory and environmental pressures?
Jay Cruz:I would say that's only going to be more important as time goes on. I think it's safe to say that the Trump administration is relatively pro industry, within within the wider energy sector. That offers groups like ours the chance to really make our voice heard in the way the regulation is developed or reconsidered over the next the next four years, the next two years in in this congress, what have you. ILT is more than happy to work with our members and other association bodies on broadening the scope of our expertise as we help shape Washington in a productive manner. So I think in in terms of how do we see it evolving, I think that's less of an evolution and more a strengthening and intensity, where we want to capitalize on the political landscape that we've that we currently find ourselves in because we have a we have the chance to do some really good things for the industry, and we I think we're in a strong position to do so.
Callum O'Reilly:So you you already mentioned earlier on some of the conferences and the webinars that ILTA offers, But I was wondering what resources or programs you offer that help can also help terminal operators stay ahead of any industry challenges and changes.
Leakhena Swett:Right. So we have our monthly newsletter, which is aggregated with information from our government affairs team and what is new that's going on in the industry. We also segment those monthly newsletters to have On the Radar, which is a membership newsletter that really concentrates on what is going on this month that we want our members to focus on. So it's about communications. We are actually launching a membership survey to really get a pulse of how our members like to communicate, how they like to be engaged.
Leakhena Swett:Is it through emails? We're going to be going through a new website development. So right now, our website is a hub. We have safety moments. We also have government affairs updates on there.
Leakhena Swett:We wanna make sure that what we're putting out for our members is what the is, like, how they like to be engaged and communicated with. But those are current tools that we're looking at, but we're actually gonna be ramping those up in this next year.
Callum O'Reilly:Great. Thank you very much, Leakhena. So perhaps a final question for me today. How do you see ILTA's role shifting in
Callum O'Reilly:the future as energy security, technology, and sustainability become even bigger priorities?
Leakhena Swett:I think ILTA is going to evolve because we are at the cutting edge with AI and a lot of things that are going on in the energy sector. Like Jay was saying, government affairs, with this administration, it's, we're going to be more aggressive, but we're also we already have a seat at the table. It's now what we do with it. I think aligning with the making sure that the rule makers and our members are fully educated and aligned with what we're trying to do as an industry. But I think us being at the table, being relevant and us being in tune with the cutting edge of what is going on in the sector is really important.
Leakhena Swett:I think us being here in DC is going to help with that. And that's where I think ICILTA is being a key player to all of this. Jay, I would love to see hear your thoughts too on it.
Jay Cruz:Yeah. Again, we, as the association, house the technical expertise that can meaningfully meaningfully inform policy that comes out of Washington. I I always I always go back to that. There's 330,000,000 people in the in The United States. Not everyone can talk to the government.
Jay Cruz:That's our role. Right? Where our role is as energy security technology and sustainable sustainability continue to grow in importance, that by consequence only increases the the importance of associations like ours as well, right, is serving as that conduit for communication and information sharing. You know, at the end of the day, terminals remain a vital component of our energy supply chain. And even as alternative forms of energy, ethanol, biofuels, stabilization fuels, liquid hydrogen, what have you, as those other liquid commodities continue to grow and take up more market share, the federal government is gonna continue to need to be informed about how those products are handled, how they're stored, how they're moved.
Jay Cruz:And that's where our membership comes in to to fill that knowledge gap. If we can leave a message for anyone listening, it's we want to continue to serve as a source of information and for communication and for collaboration, whether private sector or public sector. Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that everybody is everybody has the energy that they need. Everybody has the local good products they need. Everybody is safe.
Jay Cruz:Everybody is secure because we rely on these goods. We're going to continue relying on these goods. And there's plenty of space to, to strengthen communication up and down the, the information chain.
Leakhena Swett:Yeah. We, our industry is essential and we want to be that voice, but we also want to be a good partner too. So we're just here to represent the criminal liquid industry, but also be that voice and educate our lawmakers on what's going on within our industry and staying relevant.
Callum O'Reilly:Great. Thank you, Leakhena and Jay, for taking the time out of your really busy schedules to join us today and for shedding some light on the vital role that ILTA plays in the liquid terminal industry. I'll leave you both to get back banging the drum for your members over on Capitol Hill now, but, really appreciate your time, so thank you very much.
Leakhena Swett:Thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
Jay Cruz:Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you.
Callum O'Reilly:So that brings us to the end of this insightful discussion on the role that ILTA plays in helping to shape the liquid terminal sector. A big thank you to Leakhena and Jay for sharing their expertise and shedding light on the importance of advocacy, collaboration and innovation in this critical industry. As Lakina mentioned during our discussion, ILTA will be holding its annual conference and trade show from the June in Houston, Texas, and the team from hydrocarbon engineering will be there too. If you're attending, you'll be able to pick up a free copy of our tanks and terminals magazine, which is dedicated to exploring developments in the tank storage sector. And if you'd like to receive a regular print or digital copy of tanks and terminals magazine, you can register for a free subscription over at our website, www.tanksterminals.com.
Callum O'Reilly:If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like and subscribe for more conversations with industry leaders. Until next time, thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Advert:The Hydrocarbon Engineering Podcast is brought to you by Owens Corning Foam Glass Insulation. From managing vapor drive and mitigating corrosion risk to maintaining thermal performance and supporting safety on the jobsite, the insulating system plays a critical role in high performing hydrocarbon processing facilities. Learn more about how foam glass insulation contributes to the design of high performing insulating systems at cryogenic facilities at ww.owenscorning.com/foamglasslngstudy. That's www.owenscorning.comf0amglaflngstudy.