Pub.1 2019-2020 Issue 2

President's Message Dear UPA members and friends, W elcome to our second edition of UP DATE ! Reflecting on 2019, it was a year of intensive change for UPA and my first year as your President. Some highlights from 2019 include growing membership revenue 36% and adding a seat to our Executive Committee — welcome to CH4 Energy as a new Chairman’s Circle member in 2020! We held a number of well-attended and high-quality events including hosting Doug Benevento, EPA Associate Deputy Administrator, Greg Sopkin, EPA Region 8 Administrator, Brian Steed UDNR Executive Director, and Scott Baird UDEQ Executive Director. Our golf tournament was a sell-out success and the inaugural Uintah Basin Shootout received rave reviews and requests for a repeat in both the spring and fall of 2020. We also rolled out supplemental health benefits for members; see page 24 for details. 2019 also saw the establishment of the UPA Political Action Committee (UPA PAC) to elevate UPA’s position and strengthen our voice on state legislative issues. UPA was actively engaged in the massive tax reform undertaking starting from the 2019 Q1 legislative session, through the summer listening tour, in several one-on-ones, and through engagement on the final bill passed during a special session on December 12th. While the bill raises costs for motor and diesel fuel to support needed investments into our transportation infrastructure, the proposed tax on services evolved from what would have been a significant threat to our industry’s financial health to a package that largely holds our industry harmless. In order to continue supporting and protecting Utah's oil and gas industry, please consider making a UPA PAC contribution in 2020. With your backing, UPA’s membership committee overhauled our benefits and dues structure to transition UPA’s finances towards more sustainable long-term health. I recognize that there’s never a good time to increase dues. It was only a year ago that I was sitting on the member side, but a more substantial and stable budget is crucial to UPA being able to better serve you. During this change, the membership committee personally reached out to the majority of mem- bers and highlighted the goal of bringing a strategic communication ability to the Association. We’re making solid progress towards that goal thanks to your support. UPA has also recently joined the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) as a collaborating association and engages regularly with the other state, regional and national trades to share best practices, lessons learned and common narrative resources. Looking to the year ahead, we are excited to shake up our annual meeting in January at Sun- dance Resort and have an exciting line up of speakers. Look for a recap of the event in our next edition. My focus for 2020 is to grow our public relations and community outreach strategy. We need to thoughtfully engage with communities along the Wasatch Front and the Uintah Basin to keep our supporters armed and to proactively, rather than defensively, get our message out. I’m excited to continue to grow membership and keep Utah friendly to the oil and gas industry. I’m proud of our progress over the last year and primed to continue advancing UPA to better serve you. Change is often difficult but well worth the journey. Thanks to all of you for embark- ing on this journey of change with me and together drive a thriving oil and gas industry. I hope that you had a joyous and peaceful holiday season and that you are off to a newly energized and prosperous new year! Rikki Hrenko-Browning 5 UP DATE