3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 24 – Oil and Gas Workers Association, BRICS, and #coal
The guys are back at it today.
00:00 – Intro
03:22 – Talks about Electric vehicles
08:10 – Oil and Gas Workers Association
09:44 – banned gas-powered stuff like lawnmowers and other things and natural gas
13:15 – BRICS alliance
19:07 – opening up a new coal power plant every week in China, talks about the US progress
22:46 – Outro
With 3 unique personalities, backgrounds, and one horrible team sense of humor, it makes for fun talks around the energy markets.
David Blackmon is a Forbes author and currently writes Energy Absurdities of the Day. He has several active podcasts with ….. His industry leadership is evident, but a dry, calm way of expressing himself adds a different twist.
R.T. Trevillon is the podcast host of The Crude Truth filmed in Fort Worth Texas and runs an oil and gas E&P company. Pecos Country Operating has been in business for ….years and has a constant commitment to all of their stakeholders and is actively working in this oil and gas market.
Stu Turley is the co-podcast host of the Energy News Beat Podcast. While Stu is a legend in his own mind,
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 24 – Oil and Gas Workers Association, BRICS, and #coal
Stuart Turley [00:00:04] Hello, everybody. Today is a great day. You know what today is? We get to sit down and talk to some folks that are just like the joke that your uncle used to say when he says, Hey, these three guys walk into a bar. I know two of those other guys we got him here today.
Stuart Turley [00:00:19] My name’s Stuart Turley , president, CEO of the Sandstone Group, and I’m just one of those podcasters. I got the energy news podcast. And first around the corner, we have the RT is an executive over there at Pecos Operating. He’s the podcast host for the Crude Truth. Welcome our RT. How the heck are you?
Rey Trevino [00:00:40] Oh, I am doing great recording from West Texas this morning. So an.
Stuart Turley [00:00:44] Undisclosed location.
Rey Trevino [00:00:47] We can say that. Yes, an undisclosed West Texas location. Thank you to everybody out there listening. No matter what time of day it is. Be sure to like, subscribe and leave us five star reviews on our podcast.
Stuart Turley [00:01:00] Oh, absolutely. And this is now available on all the really cool places that you listen to your podcast. Mr. David Where you. David Blackmon He’s one of my most favorite habits for the day.
David Blackmon [00:01:15] You have a hard habit to break.
Stuart Turley [00:01:18] So you are in you is a Forbes contributing author. He has got the Substack. He’s got the Texas legislature thing in Substack. But most importantly, it’s the energy absurdity. The day that you get to go ahead and subscribe like and everything else. And he’s the podcast host for the energy question as also the Energy Transition weekly edition. Welcome.
David Blackmon [00:01:48] That’s right. That’s right. We have fun with that one.
Stuart Turley [00:01:50] Oh, it’s a hoot. Too much going on. All three of the podcasts are going off like you wouldn’t believe. We’d like to give a shout out to everybody, but let’s get started on the show today. We got a couple really big ones rolling around the line here. And speaking of being addicted to something funny, I need all the help I can get. David, you’re in.
Stuart Turley [00:02:11] I got tickled when I read your energy absurdity of the day on your substack and the title is I’m going to read this and I want your opinion because it’s nice hearing it from you. Wednesday’s Energy Absurdity L.A. Times writer cries out for her very own energy absurdity Desk designation and gets it okay, that you had me on that one.
Stuart Turley [00:02:32] And then the next quote, I’m just going to read a couple quotes here, David, and then I’m going to turn it over to you and our team. Sometimes it’s almost as if these absurdities literally write themselves. It’s the case that Tuesday, when I read an op ed recently published by the L.A. Times, I’m ready to trade in my electric car. And here’s why. Man, that’s some real energy absurdity bait right there.
Stuart Turley [00:02:57] But wait, not only it gets better, take a gander at that 10th paragraph in the story. I can fill up a book. This is the author. I can fill up a book recounting how many frustrating and absurd experiences I had charging my car over the last three years and three months. And I haven’t even here 23,000 miles on the car yet.
David Blackmon [00:03:22] Isn’t that something? I mean, and God bless her, it’s a young lady, I’m sure a young lady named Mario Garza, who is not just a contributing writer to the L.A. Times, one of the biggest circulation newspapers in the country. She is the deputy editorial page editor of The New York Times.
David Blackmon [00:03:40] So, you know, or at The L.A. Times, excuse me. And the story just I mean, it’s hilarious to read it. If you’re somebody who views electric vehicles as I do, which is just an absurd, ridiculous project by the federal government to try to replace gasoline-powered vehicles that can’t work just due to all the limitations surrounding them.
David Blackmon [00:04:04] But, you know, the story is just this litany of complaints about how difficult it is for her to find a place to recharge her car. And even when she finds a set of charging facilities, a lot of them don’t work. They’re out of order. Their service record is awful. There was a recent study conducted by one of the universities out there in California. They found that 23% of the charging stations in the state of California at any given time are non operable.
David Blackmon [00:04:36] And so even when you look on your little app on your phone and it says, well, there’s a start charging station over behind the Whole Foods or in the target parking lot, you get there and things out of order. So you’ve got to go look for another one somewhere. And all the time your lithium-ion battery is discharging very rapidly and a lot more rapidly than Tesla and the other manufacturer assured you it would when you bought the car.
David Blackmon [00:05:02] And so it’s just. It’s a classic, you know, And she makes it very clear in the story she loves her parents. But one of the funniest things she says is I love not having to fill up with gas. Right. Why? Why do you love that? It takes 3 minutes to fill up your car. Gas, Even with a high speed charger, it takes you half an hour to fully charge your lithlithium-iontery. And it’s not free.
David Blackmon [00:05:28] I mean, people seem to have this thought in their minds that recharging your car is free at the high speed chargers now at some locations in California. It’s going to cost you more than 50 bucks to charge that battery. Okay. None of this is free anyway. It just if it was, you know, struck me as funny. I wrote about it, which is what happens to me every morning is why I do that.
Stuart Turley [00:05:53] It’s why you do it. Or.
David Blackmon [00:05:54] You are. Doing.
Stuart Turley [00:05:55] That on what you think on that. Well.
Rey Trevino [00:05:58] I think people are confused right now. I think we have people that truly have mental health problems putting off as individualism. I think people are looking at electricity in a way that is not that is not real. It’s a fugazi, as they would say, up in the northeast. Like David just said, certain people would say, is that a Yiddish word, Fugazi? But it’s not pretty, you know.
Rey Trevino [00:06:32] And I read something the other day that grabbed hold said like, hey, you know, a solar is free and we need to get it to everybody. But yes, solar and furnishing it is not free, you know. And so I could sit here and say oil is free, but harnessing that oil is going to cost money. And for us to be where we are and have somebody like this write this entire article about I don’t like this, I don’t like this, but I love not filling up with gas.
Rey Trevino [00:07:01] It always reminds me of a goofy old movie called Ten Things I Hate About You, where the whole all of that. And yeah, at the end you’re there. You know, I hate to do this, but I know I hate the way I don’t hate you at all. It’s like there’s no sense at all, you know? So, unfortunately, California’s doing everything wrong. The good news is Gavin Newsom is not running for president, So that’s good for right now. I guess.
Stuart Turley [00:07:26] I’m. I’m not putting any money on that.
David Blackmon [00:07:28] Yeah. I mean, the bad news is he’s not running for president because Joe Biden is running. So I’ve got to take the good with the bad.
Rey Trevino [00:07:36] Yeah. Got to take it.
Stuart Turley [00:07:38] We’re not even to the election yet. We got a long way.
David Blackmon [00:07:42] We got a long way to go.
David Blackmon [00:07:45] Yeah. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:07:45] It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t even see Michael. I mean, Michelle Obama show up.
David Blackmon [00:07:51] Why not? Nothing would surprise me anymore.
Stuart Turley [00:07:53] Nothing.
Rey Trevino [00:07:54] I agree.
Stuart Turley [00:07:54] And anyway. Hey, Artie, what about the other story that you had coming around the corner? What was that thing about?
Rey Trevino [00:08:02] Oh, man. I wanted to kind of just highlight I have been on the go and have been at some great events. Been invited by the Oil and Gas Workers Association.
Stuart Turley [00:08:13] Nice.
Rey Trevino [00:08:13] And their president is Matt Cody here actually in Midland. And I’ve been I had the opportunity to go some events with the ladies of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and I even got to hear Terry Lee speak,.
Stuart Turley [00:08:28] no way know.
Rey Trevino [00:08:29] So, yeah. And she’s I know she’s still embattled there in Arizona, but I’m hearing rumors that she may be on the short list for V.P., So but, hey, we can get into that later. But you know what? Here’s the one thing I do think that was very nice listening to Lauren Boebert and Carrie Lee. They’re both America first ladies and they’re both pro oil. But let me also say this are also for affordable, abundant energy.
David Blackmon [00:08:54] Okay.
Rey Trevino [00:08:54] So, you know, therefore so that’s also something that that was very exciting. So I just can’t think the old GW Oil and Gas Workers Association enough for inviting me to those events. And I was at another one here in Midland. Also. The good news here in the state of Texas is we passed through the House, I don’t think, or we passed through the Senate a bill where we ban gas bans. Dallas was in the process.
David Blackmon [00:09:19] Whoa! Oh, the gas man. Bang in the. Bands.
Stuart Turley [00:09:23] I went to Oklahoma State. What is a bang, bang, bang?
Rey Trevino [00:09:26] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:09:27] Is this bam, bam, out of the out of the Flintstones? What does that.
Rey Trevino [00:09:30] Show? Basically, you know, they they they’ve now done the same thing as they did with fracking a few years back. And then when the city outlawed fracking, they came in and said, no, we can’t do that. Well, the city of Dallas was trying to literally banned gas-powered stuff like lawnmowers and other things and natural gas. And so the Senate has passed here locally in the state of Texas, a ban to not have gas ban. David, is that right?
David Blackmon [00:09:59] Yeah. Yeah. They’re going to make it illegal to buy it for for local. Jurisdictions to enact bans or enact a ban on natural gas hookups for new home building in Nice. And that’s good because, I mean, those things are being done all over the country.
Stuart Turley [00:10:15] Hey, this is Elon. Hang on, hang on. Elon. Hey. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, That suggestion I turned in on the suggestion box. Yeah, How about a zero-turn Tesla? Yeah, that’d be great. In mon yard. I think Austin needs a much better, but not great. You know,.
Rey Trevino [00:10:33] That was great.
David Blackmon [00:10:34] Oh, sure. Yeah, I’m sure he loved that one. So I got to tell you, I’m gonna give you a preview of tomorrow’s absurdity. This comes from a reader named Douglas Art Hardwick. LinkedIn?
Stuart Turley [00:10:44] Oh, yeah.
David Blackmon [00:10:44] He sends me links to do. Yeah, And he’s great guy. Really spun. He’s got his own podcast, too. Anyway, he sends me links to two stories once a Bloomberg article, and it goes to this gas ban about a ban in Oregon that the industry is fighting back against. Right. And who is supporting helping to support the ban on new gas hookups in the state of Oregon.
David Blackmon [00:11:06] But old reliable Jane Fonda, who doesn’t even live in Oregon. But Jane Fonda signed a letter of support for the get this ban. Then he sends me a link to a second story, which was published the same day as the Bloomberg story about Jane Fonda and her, I guess, soon to be ex-husband, putting their Los Angeles home up for sale, $8.5 million. How about photos of all the stuff in the house? And what do you see in Jane Fonda’s home?
David Blackmon [00:11:35] Natural gas fireplace in the living room, a natural gas fire or gas fire pit and a natural gas grill out on the patio. It doesn’t have any photos of the kitchen, but I’m sure if you had a photo of the kitchen, you would see a natural gas stove in the kitchen. Okay.
David Blackmon [00:11:51] But this is who’s signing the letter supporting the ban on part of the ban on gas hookups in the state of Oregon. Jane Fonda. It’s it’s the height of hypocrisy and it’s it’s the political left in action anyway. Anyway, that’s going to be tomorrow’s absurdity.
Stuart Turley [00:12:08] Nice. So instead of NIMBY, not in my backyard. Would it be near NIMBY, huh? Not in my home. Not my. Not my.
David Blackmon [00:12:16] Home. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:12:17] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:12:18] What would that be? And I am an h NIMBY also.
Stuart Turley [00:12:23] David, you also. Those are some great points, and I want to give a shout out to Matt real quick that he is now on the Sandstone Media’s podcast family. He’s got like 15 episodes. We’re we’ve already put out two that he’s been on with you before on his channel.
Stuart Turley [00:12:40] You’re it’s just now starting to rumble through and being uploaded as we speak to the apple and just like all of our others are available all over the place, it’s just now starting to roll through the system. So shout out for Matt. He’s a new podcast host for Sandstone. So I hope that, oh yeah, we love Matt, Love us. Matt Hey David, what about them bricks things? You had mentioned something.
David Blackmon [00:13:06] Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Times of India reporting today and today we’re recording on April 26th that BRICS, the BRICS alliance, which concurrently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has now received applications to join from no fewer than 19 different countries, including Saudi Arabia, including Iran, including Argentina and Kazakhstan.
David Blackmon [00:13:36] And gosh, I’ve been I’ve drawn Egypt has applied to join all these big economies from around the world now seeking to join the BRICS alliance, which is already, by the way, just the five countries that are in it now, currently have a bigger gross domestic product collectively than the G7, which consists of the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom, in addition to the rest of the European Union.
David Blackmon [00:14:05] And so this alliance is about to become the most powerful economic and international trading force on the planet. And that’s going to happen later this year when they meet in August and September. And I mean just including Saudi Arabia. And that alliance would give it geopolitical leverage where energy is concerned, it would be unparalleled in world history.
David Blackmon [00:14:27] So you think our country is facing challenges domestically? Just wait until you have 25 members in the BRICS alliance instead of five. It’s going to be a tough deal to contend. David, I’ve got to ask this question and how can we stop it? What I mean, what can we do? Is there something we can do?
David Blackmon [00:14:48] Well, I mean, this is all happening. I guess I should add that this is all happening because of the Biden administration’s overt efforts to destroy our country’s long time, 75 year relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That’s why this is happening in these other countries. See Saudi Arabia about to join BRICS and add Saudi Arabia’s oil production to Russia’s oil production.
David Blackmon [00:15:12] And China’s buying power and India’s buying power and South Africa’s buying power. And now they see Saudi Arabia about to jump into that deal and they’re all like, oh, well, gosh, we need to be a part of this, too, because our country’s biggest customers are those coastal countries, and our country’s biggest oil supplier are Russia and Saudi Arabia. And it’s all happening because of Joe Biden, this bump with the prince last August. Well, it’s.
Stuart Turley [00:15:39] The fist bump that will live on in infamy of what I call it here. It’s also tied to the petro wand. And when you’re saying that China and it is the Biden administration’s sanctions on Russia frivolously going around the world and driving people away from the U.S. and the mismanagement of this current administration, period.
David Blackmon [00:16:05] It’s the Biden administration’s use of money as a weapon of war. And these countries are not responding to that. Well,.
Rey Trevino [00:16:13] No.
Stuart Turley [00:16:13] Nor should.
David Blackmon [00:16:14] And it’s going to cost us and our grandchildren enormously in the decades to come.
Stuart Turley [00:16:19] The American dream has gone already.
Rey Trevino [00:16:21] You know, I’m quiet, you know, because all I can do is ask questions on this one, because I know how serious BRICS is already with those five countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, etc.. And I know as a small independent operator, there is nothing that I can do to date. You know, I just hope the big boys are out there at least still talking to Saudi Arabia, going, hey, you still have, you know, my big boys.
Rey Trevino [00:16:49] This is all I can hope because this is what I would do is I would still be going up to Saudi Arabia going, I’m still your friend, I’m still here. Let’s figure this out. But I don’t know if that’s going to work. You know, I mean, I know sometimes if my dad this upset somebody out in the field, they’re not going to work with this or, you know, if that were to happen, you know, it’s like, hey, let me try to, you know,.
Rey Trevino [00:17:09] But really, a Joe Biden has really upset and upset a lot of other people in the world. And I don’t understand how 50% of this country can be okay with that they’re okay with the power of the dollar continuing to go down. Our security as a nation continues to go down. So I am worried and that’s why all I can do right now is ask questions and go, how can I help and what can we do?
Stuart Turley [00:17:33] You know, and that’s a critical thing when you sit back and think energy is the best place to be, we’re going to need the oil and gas no matter what happens and even no matter what political thing is going on, the oil and gas workers of the United States are critical. They’re going to be the 911 folks, you know, providing power, you’re going.
David Blackmon [00:17:57] To say have been so many times in the past.
Stuart Turley [00:18:00] Yes, exactly. And in the East Coast, I guarantee you, you know, you and I are t have laughed about oil, saved the whales the first time. And oil will have to save the whales the second time. Since there’s so many. Should 30 or 40 whales have been killed up in the east coast already because of the wind farm or. Yeah, the wind farms.
David Blackmon [00:18:22] It’s hard to keep count.
Rey Trevino [00:18:24] It’s hard obviously.
David Blackmon [00:18:25] It’s like there’s a new story every week.
Rey Trevino [00:18:26] I want to thank all our listeners for listening and I mean have a rational conversation with people that maybe do not agree. Let’s not get in their face and just point at them, but let’s just do our best to have a conversation, kind of like with David’s energy absurdity of the day today. With that Ed in California, you know, some people believe this is the right thing for the world, but the rest of the world is not doing this.
Rey Trevino [00:18:53] And unfortunately, in this instance, the United States is so small that we’re already doing everything we can to be green and be a great nation. But the rest of the world has to get behind this. And that’s not happening with countries like China opening, but opening up a new coal power plant every week, India continuing to buy more and more oil as a developing nation.
Rey Trevino [00:19:15] So, you know, just thank you to all our listeners, David. Really, this is this is almost a public service announcement. Is this what this deal that David just said and hopefully we can make a clip of its do and kind of maybe put it out there even earlier, kind of when he just started this. What about 19 other people want to join because this is serious. This is this is not a joke. And because if this happens, we are headed down a path that we can’t win without.
Stuart Turley [00:19:40] But we only got about three more minutes. No outstanding points. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but there was another article that just came out a little while ago that said that China had more gold in the last several years than any any other time, and the only way to get off of. The world’s standard for the U.S. dollar is gold back.
Stuart Turley [00:20:08] And so what you’re going to see is a gold back situation coming up around the corner in order to change it so people don’t understand how important David’s comments really are. I mean, it really, truly is validated in about 16 different ways. Anyway, with that one thing, let’s go have a beer and argue, you know.
David Blackmon [00:20:32] I need some whiskey. I think, man.
Stuart Turley [00:20:34] Ireland, I’m going to get a hammer. Let me find a hammer and absolutely hit my head. Artie, what do you got coming around the corner?
David Blackmon [00:20:43] And what are your last thoughts?
Rey Trevino [00:20:45] Well, again, let’s let’s just have open dialog with people. You know, the Constitution says we can disagree, but we got to still talk civil to everybody. I got this would be a few weeks out, maybe around the time this podcast is actually out. But I just interviewed Jeff Criminal.
Rey Trevino [00:21:02] For those of you on LinkedIn, he has been doing some great financial overviews from natural gas to service companies and wow, I learned a lot. I recommend all of us to definitely invite him on your podcast, on your shows. He’s he’s it was really exciting. Also, I’ll do another teaser as long as the schedules continue.
Rey Trevino [00:21:26] No, tomorrow I’m interviewing Christie Granite, also one of the railroad commissioners who we’re going to talk about how she’s defending us from the Biden administration and and everything that she’s done with the software of the Railroad Commission to really get us into the 21st century. So do you.
Stuart Turley [00:21:44] Have a schedule with your producer? Is that on our producer schedule?
Rey Trevino [00:21:50] I’ll get that one. Yeah, I’ve got that.
Stuart Turley [00:21:52] Okay.
David Blackmon [00:21:52] Fantastic man. Give her my regards. She’s she’s done fantastic work as a commissioner and, you know, and so, so is Jim. Right. And they’re just all, all doing a great job. Wayne Christian, of course.
Rey Trevino [00:22:04] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:22:04] And people don’t appreciate enough the sacrifices the state wide officials have to make to serve in those offices for not a lot of pride. And, you know, they they’ve really done so much at the Railroad Commission over the last five or six years to upgrade the services, upgrade the staff, and ensure that the oil and gas industry is properly regulated in this state. It’s a regulated industry and it needs to be and it’s something we don’t talk about enough and we should all really appreciate the job they’re doing.
Stuart Turley [00:22:36] You bet. Last words there, David.
David Blackmon [00:22:38] That’s my last words. God bless the Railroad Commission.
Stuart Turley [00:22:41] God bless. God bless Texas.
Rey Trevino [00:22:43] God bless Texas. Absolutely.
Stuart Turley [00:22:46] Hey, everybody, thank you all very much. Like subscribe. Tell your friends, tell your pastor. And we look forward to seeing you next week.