Genesis Energy (GEL) Risk Analysis

If the restrictions contained in the Jones Act were repealed or altered or certain international trade agreements were changed, the maritime transportation of cargo between U.S. ports could be opened to foreign flag or foreign-built vessels. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, or the Secretary, is vested with the authority and discretion to waive the coastwise laws if the Secretary deems that such action is necessary in the interest of national defense. Any waiver of the coastwise laws, whether in response to natural disasters or otherwise, could result in increased competition from foreign product carrier and barge operators, which could reduce our revenues and cash available for distribution. Foreign-flag vessels generally have lower construction costs and generally operate at significantly lower costs than we do in U.S. markets, which would likely result in reduced charter rates. We believe that continued efforts will be made to modify or repeal the Jones Act. If these efforts are successful, foreign-flag vessels could be permitted to trade in the U.S. coastwise trade and significantly increase competition with our fleet, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Events within the crude oil and natural gas industry may adversely affect our customers' operations and, consequently, our operations and may also subject companies operating in the crude oil and natural gas industry, including us, to additional regulatory scrutiny and result in additional regulations and restrictions adversely affecting the U.S. crude oil and natural gas industry.

Investment in our units by tax-exempt entities, such as individual retirement accounts (known as IRAs), other retirement plans and non-U.S. persons, raises issues unique to them. For example, virtually all of our income allocated to organizations that are exempt from federal income tax, including IRAs and other retirement plans, will be unrelated business taxable income and will be taxable to them. With respect to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, subject to the proposed aggregation rules for certain similarly situated businesses or activities issued by the Treasury Department, a tax-exempt entity with more than one unrelated trade or business (including by attribution from investment in a partnership such as ours) is required to compute the unrelated business taxable income of such tax-exempt entity separately with respect to each trade or business (including for purposes of determining any net operating loss deduction). As a result, for years beginning after December 31, 2017, it may not be possible for tax exempt entities to utilize losses from an investment in our partnership to offset unrelated business taxable income from another unrelated trade or business and vice versa. Tax-exempt entities should consult a tax advisor before investing in our units. Non-U.S. unitholders are generally taxed and subject to income tax filing requirements by the United States on income effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business ("effectively connected income"). Income allocated to our unitholders and any gain from the sale of our units will generally be considered to be "effectively connected" with a U.S. trade or business. As a result, distributions to a non-U.S. unitholder will be subject to withholding at the highest applicable effective tax rate and a non-U.S. unitholder who sells or otherwise disposes of a unit will also be subject to U.S. federal income tax on the gain realized from the sale or disposition of that unit. Moreover, the transferee of an interest in a partnership that is engaged in a U.S. trade or business is generally required to withhold 10% of the "amount realized" by the transferor unless the transferor certifies that it is not a foreign person. While the determination of a partner's "amount realized" generally includes any decrease of a partner's share of the partnership's liabilities, recently issued Treasury regulations provide that the "amount realized" on a transfer of an interest in a publicly traded partnership, such as our common units, will generally be the amount of gross proceeds paid to the broker effecting the applicable transfer on behalf of the transferor, and thus will be determined without regard to any decrease in that partner's share of a publicly traded partnership's liabilities. The Treasury regulations further provide that withholding on a transfer of an interest in a publicly traded partnership will not be imposed on a transfer that occurs prior to January 1, 2023, and after that date, if effected through a broker, the obligation to withhold is imposed on the transfer's broker. Non-U.S. unitholders should consult a tax advisor before investing in our units.

In recent years, federal, state, and local governments have taken steps to reduce emissions of GHGs. For example, the IRA and the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act include billions of dollars in incentives for the development of renewable energy, clean hydrogen, clean fuels, electric vehicles, investments in advanced biofuels and supporting infrastructure and carbon capture and sequestration. Also, the EPA has proposed ambitious rules to reduce harmful air pollutant emissions, including GHGs, from light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles beginning in model year 2027. These incentives and regulations could accelerate the transition of the economy away from the use of fossil fuels towards lower or zero-carbon emissions alternatives, which could decrease demand for, and in turn the prices of, the oil and natural gas that we store, transport and sell and adversely impact our business. The EPA has also finalized a series of GHG monitoring, reporting and emission control rules for the oil and natural gas industry, and almost half of the states, either individually or through multi-state regional initiatives, have already taken legal measures to reduce GHG emissions, primarily through the planned development of GHG emission inventories and/or GHG cap-and-trade programs. In addition, states have imposed increasingly stringent requirements related to the venting or flaring of gas during oil and gas operations. In addition, in December 2015, the United States participated in the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France. The resulting Paris Agreement calls for the parties to undertake "ambitious efforts" to limit the average global temperature, and to conserve and enhance sinks and reservoirs of GHGs. The Agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016. On April 21, 2021, the United States announced that it was setting an economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent below 2005 levels in 2030. In November 2021, in connection with the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP-26) in Glasgow, Scotland, the United States and other world leaders made further commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including reducing global methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels. More than 150 countries have now signed on to this pledge. Most recently, at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP-28) in the United Arab Emirates, world leaders agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner and to triple renewables and double energy efficiency globally by 2030. Also at COP-28, 50 companies accounting for 40 percent of global oil production committed to eliminating their methane emissions by 2050 under the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter. These companies also committed to ending flaring by 2030. Furthermore, many state and local leaders have stated their intent to intensify efforts to support the international climate commitments. Efforts to regulate or restrict emissions of GHGs in areas that we conduct business could adversely affect the demand for the products that we transport, store and distribute and, depending on the particular program adopted, could increase our costs to operate and maintain our facilities by requiring that we, among other things, measure and report our emissions, install new emission controls on our facilities, acquire allowances to authorize our GHG emissions, pay any fees or taxes related to our GHG emissions and administer and manage a GHG emissions program. We may be unable to include some or all of such increased costs in the rates charged by our pipelines or other facilities, and any such recovery may depend on events beyond our control, including the outcome of future rate proceedings before the FERC or state regulatory agencies and the provisions of any final legislation or implementing regulations. Any GHG emissions legislation or regulatory programs applicable to power plants or refineries could also increase the cost of consuming, and thereby adversely affect demand for the crude oil and natural gas that we produce. Consequently, legislation and regulatory programs to reduce GHG emissions could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. It is not possible at this time to predict with any accuracy the structure or outcome of any future legislative or regulatory efforts to address such emissions or the eventual costs to us of compliance. Moreover, climate change may be associated with extreme weather conditions such as more intense hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes and snow or ice storms, as well as rising sea levels. Another possible consequence of climate change is increased volatility in seasonal temperatures. Some studies indicate that climate change could cause some areas to experience temperatures substantially hotter or colder than their historical averages. Extreme weather conditions can interfere with our production and increase our costs and damage resulting from extreme weather may not be fully insured. However, at this time, we are unable to determine the extent to which climate change may lead to increased storm or weather hazards affecting our operations.

Our forecast contemplates significant expenditures for the development, construction or other acquisition of onshore and offshore infrastructure as well as mining assets, including some construction and development projects with technological challenges. We (or our joint ventures) may not be able to complete our projects at the costs or within the timeframes currently estimated. If we (or our joint ventures) experience material cost overruns, we will have to finance these overruns using one or more of the following methods: using cash from operations; delaying other planned projects; incurring additional indebtedness; or issuing additional debt or equity. Any or all of these methods may not be available when needed, may be prohibited or restricted by our or our joint venture's debt or other contractual arrangements or may adversely affect our future results of operations. In addition, some construction projects require substantial investments over a long period of time before they begin generating any meaningful cash flow.

When we (or our joint ventures) market our products or services, we (or our joint ventures) must determine the amount, if any, of the line of credit to extend to our customers. Since certain transactions can involve very large payments, the risk of nonpayment and nonperformance by customers, industry participants and others is an important consideration in our business. For example, in those cases where we provide division order services for crude oil and natural gas purchased at the wellhead, we may be responsible for distribution of proceeds to all of the interest owners. In other cases, we pay all of or a portion of the production proceeds to an operator who distributes these proceeds to the various interest owners. These arrangements expose us to operator credit risk. As a result, we must determine that operators have sufficient financial resources to make such payments and distributions and to indemnify and defend us in case of a protest, action or complaint. Additionally, we sell NaHS, soda ash and caustic soda to customers in a variety of industries. Some of these customers are in industries that have been or could be impacted by a decline in demand for their products and services. Even if our credit review and analytical procedures work properly, we have experienced, and we could continue to experience losses in dealings with other parties. We utilize ANSAC as our exclusive export vehicle for soda ash sales to customers in all countries excluding Canada, South Africa, members of the European Community and European Free Trade Area and the South African Customs Union. As a result, we are exposed to ANSAC's customer relationships and the credit and other terms ANSAC extended to its customers. Further, many of our customers could be impacted by weakened economic conditions, and volatility in commodity prices, such as crude oil, natural gas, copper, molybdenum, and aluminum in a manner that could influence the need for our products and services and their ability to pay us for those products and services. It is uncertain to what extent commodity prices will experience increased volatility in the future.

Inflationary pressures have significantly increased over the last three years and could continue in the future. These inflationary pressures have increased and may further increase our operating costs, which in turn have caused and may continue to cause our capital expenditures and operating costs to rise. Sustained levels of high inflation have likewise caused the Federal Reserve and other central banks to increase interest rates, which raises the cost of capital, including the cost of borrowings under our senior secured credit facility, and depresses economic growth, which could adversely affect the financial and operating results of our business.