Senator Sharon Hewitt
The BEC Interview with the gubernatorial candidate. PART ONE: Imagining Government Without the 17th Amendment; the Public Service Commission and Mr Lewis; and Energy
The BEC had the great pleasure recently to sit down with State Senator Sharon Hewitt, candidate for governor, for a long conversation about a great many topics.
Open, warm, paced in thought (as one would expect from a high-level engineer) Senator Hewitt confirmed every kind word we had heard about her. Fully accessible, articulate and insightful, we valued the conversation and we at The BEC are delighted to bring you this deep look into the policies and the guiding principles of Sharon Hewitt.
We will present this long conversation in multiple parts.
Hewitt serves as state senator of District One, which includes portions of Saint Tammany, Orleans, Plaquemines, and Saint Bernard parishes. An LSU graduate, 1981, in mechanical engineering, Mrs Hewitt, who met her husband while working in oil fields, pioneered in the industry as a woman, achieving very high levels of professional success in the oil and gas business.
She has served in government since 2016 and now has her eyes set on the Governor’s Mansion.
We are so very grateful to Senator Hewitt for granting this interview.
As we tend to do in interviews, we began with a question unlikely to have been asked of the senator before:
BEC: How would governing be different without the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution? [17A changed the way US senators are elected. Now by popular vote, until 1913 senators were selected by the state legislatures, to whom they were answerable. The BEC hopes our states may someday return to the original way and we go a bit further than the Constitution in believing US senators and US representatives should be paid by the states they represent, not by the US Treasury.]
Hewitt: That’s something I’ve not spent any time thinking about, so that’s kind of an interesting question. Clearly your federal delegation would be more more tuned in to things that are happening in the state. And you’d certainly have a closer relationship with your state elected officials if they were part of your journey of success or failure in getting to the Congressional level, so it could be beneficial that they’ll work harder to be sensitive to the issues of the state and to deliver resources to the state; it’s not that they don’t focus on that and do a good job on that but it might strengthen the ties between the state and the federal government and our representatives I would think.
We moved quickly to what the bec considers the single most significant political event of 2022: the election of Davante Lewis to the Louisiana Public Service Commission:
BEC: How familiar are you with Mr. Lewis and his agenda?
Hewitt: I actually saw him in the redistricting hearings that I lead. So the committee that I chair, Senate Governmental Affairs, did all the redistricting work this year. We spent a year on what we call ‘The Road Show’ and he was an active participant in much of that work and so I got to know him a little bit from that perspective. I understand, sort of, his views and kind of where he comes from and it’s certainly a completely different political viewpoint from what I have on most issues.
He obviously resonated with some people; I think the energy prices are a hot button and so voters quite often are looking for someone, usually the incumbent, to hold accountable for anything they don’t like. Whether the incumbent could have fixed it or not they hold them accountable, and certainly utility prices are increasing: we’ve had to go through multiple hurricanes with power outages for weeks and months, and I think all of those things contribute to dissatisfaction with incumbents.
And he obviously came in with a game plan and he obviously had a lot of outside financial support. So it is a little bit scary, and people have been writing about outside financial support and how it could effect elections in our state. Kind of like, “Stay out of our state and let us control our own elections and choose the people that we want to have represent us.” And when you have too much outside influence, that doesn’t happen. So, I think that’s what we saw and it’s a wake-up call politically for the candidates to make sure you can anticipate and be prepared for that potentially happening to other candidates, anytime anyplace anywhere. It could be anybody.
I described three aspects of Lewis’ election and his positions that concern me: 1) he sees utilities as ‘a human right’; 2) Entergy cannot cut a customer’s power off for non-payment; and 3) he self-describes as “Entergy’s worst nightmare.” I asked her prediction of how this might go:
Hewitt: Not great! Republicans control the PSC, so he should be a minority on the PSC. And hopefully the rhetoric of the campaign will slow down and he’ll get down to governance, into genuinely trying to solve the challenges and problems of our state. That would be my hope! If it’s just rhetoric, that’s not productive; you’re not solving anything. All you’re doing is driving wedges and guaranteeing the fact that you’re not ever going to work out a solution. So I hope that he doesn’t come in with that attitude, because he will never make any headway in accomplishing the things he’d like to accomplish. And of course, whether you’re in the majority or minority, there are things you’re going to want to accomplish and you’re only going to do it if you’re working together in most cases.
We moved into a discussion about energy generally, about renewables, and about the Senator’s experience as an engineer who worked for decades in the Gulf, delivering power to the people of Louisiana and the United States. I asked her general thoughts on energy and Louisiana:
Hewitt: I come from a long line of ‘oil field trash!’ My father, my husband, my brother, my brother-in-law all have supported families by working in the oil and gas industry; very successful careers all of those folks. So I’ve been around it all my life and I know that fossil fuels are going to be around for a very very long time. I testified before Congress a couple of years ago and that was a really interesting experience. I was there at the invitation of Congressman Graves and it was kind of right on the heels of AOC’s ‘The Green New Deal.’ And I was asked to be there as an expert testifying to the importance of the industry to the country and to the state of Louisiana. And they were talking about legislation they were considering that had to do with not allowing seismic, or leasing in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic or Pacific, and how that would hurt the country and the state. And I didn’t realize until later… the room was packed with people and I was the only oil and gas person in the room! It was like a room full of whale watchers! And the people that they had scheduled to testify, it was somebody from Florida who didn’t want any risk of contamination of their beaches, and somebody from South Carolina and somebody from California. It was all this fearful portrayal of the oil and gas industry being this huge awful negative thing!
So my message was several things: the first was the International Energy Administration has done a forecast that says 50% of the world’s energy will be provided by fossil fuels in the year 2040: the population is increasing, the demand is increasing, it’s not going away anytime soon. Fossil fuels will be here for the foreseeable future. And as you know, fossil fuels are used not just in producing energy, but the plastics and the chemicals and the fertilizers and the things we have become so dependent upon for our lifestyle.
The other point I made was that it doesn’t have to be a choice of fossil fuels, yes or no. We are the largest seafood producer in the country… and the best fishing is by the oil rigs! It provides a habitat… you can do BOTH: you can be the massive seafood provider for the country as well as be a major producer of energy and you can coexist. And we have!
The revenue and royalties that are paid by the oil companies off-shore, go to the federal government and part of that comes back; we are the largest beneficiary of that in Louisiana through our coastal restoration program. We’re spending like a billion dollars a year now in Louisiana on coastal restoration projects and the majority of that comes from the revenues that come back. Some of it also comes from the BP oil spill…. it’s significant, the benefits of the oil and gas industry.
It is frustrating to me on the national and state level for people to take the industry for granted. A day or two without energy would bring this country to its knees. We are dependent on reliable energy: quit taking the industry for granted and painting us as the bad guys. WE are the ones that are providing the lifestyle and the quality of life that we are so dependent on.
Having said that, I also do support an all-of-the-above energy strategy. I do think there is space for hydrogen as a fuel, hydrogen development… for wind and solar, carbon capture I think is a good thing; anytime you’re reducing green house gas emissions, that’s a good thing. And it’s something we are well-positioned in Louisiana for, because of our geology, and our pipeline infrastructure, and our manufacturing up and down the river, that’s a thing we can easily contribute to: reducing green house gases. It doesn’t make you ‘anti-fossil fuels’ to do that; it makes you being a responsible member of the community as it relates to the environment, in my opinion.
Wind and solar… let’s talk about wind. The federal government has identified a lease area off shore in southwest Louisiana, south of Lake Charles and one in the Galveston area, and I think they’ve chosen those areas because they’ve done some testing and that’s where the best wind is, so that’s the area they’re focusing on. Do I think that wind is going to really generate the kilowatts and the long term reliable and affordable energy that we need? I’m a little skeptical. But I believe in the free market and the free enterprise system…. so you know, if companies want to invest in wind and they put in some facilities and they may not work for very long, or they could be damaged in a hurricane, or things can happen, but that’s still a business investment that those companies need to make. My job as I see it as a state legislator is to make sure that none of those things are harming our other industries that we care about… it’s always about sharing the geography with the fishermen and the shrimpers and the crabbers and the oystermen, and the maritime industry and the oil and gas industry; they’re all fighting over the same geography so you have to find ways to coexist.
And I also want to make sure that our state is not left holding the bag with a bunch of junk left in the Gulf of Mexico. We learned that in the oil and gas business as it related to “orphan wells.” It’s more of an issue onshore, where larger companies sold out to smaller companies who sold out to the Mom and Pops, who ultimately went bankrupt when prices dropped and they walked away. And so we have about four thousand of those… and we’re doing a better job now. Several years ago we required companies to put up financial security, they had to put up money on the front end to cover costs on the back end should they walk away, then we’ve got the money in escrow, set aside to do the abandonment work. We passed legislation this past year to create a similar model for both the wind and the solar industries, so the state will be protected, should they go out of business. We’ll have the abandonment money escrowed so we can take care of that. It was an important thing to do, and do early: we didn’t do it early enough in the oil and gas industry; it was something we figured out after the fact and we got behind and really never caught up. It was a learning that we’re applying to these other industries.
I think you have to be open to the solar industry….
Now the solar industry is fighting with the farmers, because it’s always about geography… the value of the land for farming vs the value of the land for solar farms, but I think you have to give businesses in a free market system the opportunity to compete and to have access to our resources, to pay their share of revenue to the state or landholders, so you have to build the fair financial models: we’re protecting the consumers…
I’m working on legislation trying to require our state and the Public Service Commission in particular, to choose only, as we’re broadening the grid, to be most mindful of the most reliable and affordable energy supplies. So don’t diss the oil and gas industry because you’re trying to prop up these renewable industries, and of course they’ve benefitted from the federal government for so many years. You can’t cut off your nose to spite your face… you have to continue to be smart and these newer forms of energy need to figure out how to make the numbers work, themselves, without being incentivized and propped up by the government. Nobody’s propping up the fossil fuel industry… we’re paying significant royalties back to the government. And the guys right now [in renewables] aren’t paying anything.
There’s been legislation in congress to require these renewable companies to pay some revenue-sharing and royalty type things to benefit the states, similar to oil and gas, so they don’t get a free ride. So those are things we still need to work on.
And you have to have a very balanced portfolio at the end of the day; we’ve got great examples of states like California with rolling blackouts and $5 gasoline and a lot of that is the consequence of the policies they put in place. We’ve got a great example of what not to do: I don’t want that in Louisiana. We have to make sure that we have good policies and a level playing field that allows people to compete straight up.
If those wind and solar companies are able to do that and they’re willing to do that under those rules, then I believe in the free market and they should have the opportunity to do business in Louisiana. But we have to make sure we’re protecting the citizens and we’re protecting the state’s interest.
The BEC respectfully questioned if it’s a free market, referencing the government-backed incentives that solar and wind companies have benefitted from, generally. Is it a free market regarding renewables? Do we know, can we know, the actual costs of renewables?
We discussed Governor Edwards’ 2035 goal/target for Louisiana being a “carbon neutral” state:
Hewitt: I read that the mayor of New Orleans has pushed back her goals by five years because they have already concluded that they can’t get there. I think the same will happen with the state. I don’t know that I ever saw any compelling logical reason, or a path to get there, when they set those goals. Sometimes leaders will set big ole goals to drive behavior and if you get half way there, you’ve accomplished a lot; you’ve driven a big stake in the ground, so I sort of understand it from that perspective.
My concern is … you can’t manage a business based on carbon. You have to manage a business based on return on investment and cash flow and delivering the product and service, to be high quality… that’s what we’re called to do here in the business world. And trying to manage a business based on carbon is ridiculous, and I think what’ll happen is, there are companies that have gone so far out on a limb as far as their carbon goals and now they’re beginning to realize they can’t get there and their compensation at the executive level is tied to achieving their goals, and so what they’re doing in some cases - and I’m seeing this in the oil and gas industry - is they are selling good-producing assets, assets contributing to the bottom line - I’m talking oil and gas fields - they’re selling them because it helps them get to their carbon goal, but they’re shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to return on investment and cash flow and the value they’re adding to the company. And that’s the kind of stupid stuff that you do when you’re managing a business based on carbon.
Like back in my day, I could have made a similar argument about safety: you want everyone to be safe, no injuries on the job, but you can spend yourself into endless debt to be so focused on safety and it has to be a balance in managing your cash flow and return on investment while also being safe. You have to invest in safety but you can’t just go all-in where that’s the only thing you care about. My fear is that’s what we’re doing on carbon. As you know when you look at the world’s footprint regarding carbon, there are so many other bad actors out there, so many other countries…. Let’s suppose Louisiana were the poster child for a low carbon operation, well, the cost of doing business in that environment and the regulation would be so extreme that everyone would go to other states, or other countries, and that’s what’s happening.
In my professional career, I care about safety and I care about the environment, and we have to be good stewards of our environment, and I want to always be smart about that. Reducing green house gas emissions is an easy thing for me to support, but not where that is your only goal in life, because it doesn’t make business sense to do that and it can put your company, your state, your country, at a competitive disadvantage to everybody else. And at the end of the day, you’re like a drop in the ocean with the reduction of the carbon that you’ve accomplished, because there are so many other countries.
From a big picture, I have a lot of concerns about that. I will say, though, the top twenty projects that have been announced in the last two years in Louisiana all have carbon capture components to them. Every new manufacturer is also going to install a unit to capture carbon and inject it underground; that’s not such a bad thing! But you can’t get so far out over your skis that you lose sight of what your main mission is.
Visit the Hewitt For Governor website
Our conversation with the gubernatorial candidate and senator continues in Part Two to follow….
