Highlights of the Podcast:
01:17 – The energy realities
05:39 – Panel discussion with Doug Sheridan
06:56 – Nape is one of the best events of the whole year.
07:48 – Governors of Texas and Oklahoma
08:42 – Natural gas is once again the great savior.
10:20 – Our fellow Texans in Winter Storm
12:17 – Texas and all that hot air wind would get their turbines rolling
12:45 – Gas is the perfect energy source for the next hundred years?
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, [email protected]
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Energy Transition Weekly Conversation
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If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We want to answer all questions, and if you have what it takes to be a podcast host and you want your show reach out.
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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 45 – Natural gas is once again the great savior.
Stuart Turley [00:00:13] Hello, everybody. You ever had that crazy uncle at a Christmas party where he says, hey, these three guys walk into a bar and everybody digs for carpet because they can’t absolutely be anywhere near that joke. I happen to know the other two guys here, and I’ve got the. David Blackmon I mean, this guy is a legend in my mind. I have to stock him for content. So he is I’m a content stalker. And so David is on the energy question. He is on energy realities. He is a hoot. He’s also on the Daily Caller. Forbes and his own Substack. David, welcome. And how are you today, Almighty one?
David Blackmon [00:01:00] Oh, I’m just. I’m okay. I’m okay. Things started falling out at our house yesterday evening, and. And pipes started, leaking. And so it’s been a challenge, but, we’re good. We’re good.
Stuart Turley [00:01:14] I’ll tell you what. I had an absolute with you on the energy realities yesterday. You were bundled up. You look like somebody out of the movie all over. And if your wife came in and gave you a bowl and said, I need more, I would have just absolutely been hilarious. And next, around the corner here, we got RT, and RT’s about to give me a backhand. RT. One of them big dogs over there at Pecos Operating. And, I mean, he is the podcast host of The Crude Truth. And, I mean, he is just one of them guys out in the field. He’s one of them guys delivering low cost energy to David because David needs it. He is. He has been really frosty. And I forgot another headphone set. So he and I are sharing one very short string and it’s driving both of us nutty. Welcome, RT.
Rey Treviño [00:02:11] Thank you. Thank you as always. And, man, what another great episode of three podcasters walk into a bar. David, I’m a little mad that you’re not back from excitement just yet. But I did get a chance to watch a little bit of, I guess it’s called energy realities.
Stuart Turley [00:02:26] Yep.
Rey Treviño [00:02:26] Okay, that one is. I got to watch. You got to watch yesterday. And now I guess I see why you were all bundled up. I guess you had no heat.
David Blackmon [00:02:34] Oh, man. Well, we had heat. I was doing my part to obey the Ercot conservation request. Terry and I are very conscientious customers of the Texans. And when Ercot, you know, on the 17 days a month, it issues a conservation request, we turn our thermostats down to 66. And I put on my New York City, Wyoming sweater and, you know, my gloves that I only wear in Alaska and bundle up and and tough it out, man, because I’m a Texan, I’m already I know how to how to live the hard line like my ancestors did when they came to the state in the 1820s. So, you know, it’s just another day in Texas with the Texas grid guys. What?
Rey Treviño [00:03:23] I love it. Well, I do kind of want. I do got a question? Well, I got a question, guys. Because I don’t know. What exactly is the energy realities? So I got to listen. Yesterday, I tuned in, it’s like 8:00 on Monday morning, so I tuned in for about, I don’t know, a few minutes. And you made a great point about how it would take 20 years in, like, over a million miles of transition, and emission lines just to actually do what they want to do. But let’s talk about energy realities real quick, because what happened to the new transition? Guys, I’m kind of confused on that.
David Blackmon [00:04:01] Well.
Stuart Turley [00:04:01] I’ll tell you what. Yeah. Armando, is the, he May or Armando name renamed it. And we also have Irina Slav, and we have the great Tammy Nemeth. And then we’re even going to open it up for guest. And Monday, our guest is the wonderful the National Treasure. Meredith Angwin. She wrote shorting the grid. And she is I, I would hug her in about 2.5 seconds.
Rey Treviño [00:04:30] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:04:30] So we’re going to do a group therapy hug on Monday.
Rey Treviño [00:04:33] Okay. So y’all y’all renamed it the Energy Real Realities.
Stuart Turley [00:04:37] Yes. And it’s episode number 94 or 95 coming out.
Rey Treviño [00:04:41] Well that’s exciting okay. I did not know that. So you already mentioned it.
David Blackmon [00:04:45] In fact, at the end of this month, that podcast has been going for two years.
Rey Treviño [00:04:53] Wow. David, I tell you what. You know, I always love how Stu, you know, introduces us every every episode. It’s always fun. But the fact that you are part of Forbes, you are a contributing author of Forbes, The Daily Caller. Your Substack continues to go off. And I mean, people, people stop and listen to you. And I think that’s really neat. And, well, I’m just very excited to have you at Nape this year for three days. I think Nape is missing out by not having you at least speak or be a moderator for one of those things. And, but, you know, but I but I’m excited.
Stuart Turley [00:05:27] That they said no bad dressers. No bad dressers. They gotta you gotta have a better dresser.
Rey Treviño [00:05:32] Yeah, but you made it down last year with all the crazy weather that we had last year.
David Blackmon [00:05:36] Yes, absolutely. And I was on that, panel discussion with Doug Sheridan, and it was great. And, you know, I, I don’t that it seemed pretty successful to me. I was hoping we might repeat it this year, but, but, you know, it’s all good. We’re going to be doing our podcast, and that’ll be great that, hopefully we catch, you know, several, I mean, several episodes of each of our podcasts during those days and, yeah. And, have a productive time there.
Stuart Turley [00:06:04] Yeah. We’re already lining up, executives, CEOs, and we’re going to be doing live deal evaluations, in the booth, David. And we’ve got, I think, about ten podcasts already lined up for folks. So it’s really active.
Rey Treviño [00:06:22] You know. Are you excited about listening to anybody? Have you? I don’t even know. You know, put your on the spot, David. You know, look at David or but, anybody talking or, I know you’ve been on assignment for like, the last two weeks or maybe, maybe too early to ask you that question.
Stuart Turley [00:06:37] She still got saltwater in his ears.
David Blackmon [00:06:39] Now, I spent so much time on my private yacht. You know, I haven’t had a chance to review the agenda. I’m kidding, of course. But I I’ve been negligent. I haven’t gone through the agenda yet, but, but I will, and, it’s always a high quality event. Nape is one of the best events of the whole year. Every year.
Stuart Turley [00:06:58] Oh it is.
Rey Treviño [00:07:00] Well, I got chastised yesterday that I’m not doing enough promoting all of our stuff yet, so I got a guest do a better job of getting.
Stuart Turley [00:07:06] Who.
Rey Treviño [00:07:07] People are, just like they need me to be getting this info out there more. So like, we’ve got a month away and and, and flights are booking up like flights are, flights are drying up, rooms are drying up. So, so I guess, you know, God willing, if maybe asked us to be back with another pavilion next year, we’ll need to start, I guess six months in advance or something. I don’t know, but. But I’m pretty sure Leanne and Drew that, you know, the moment it’s over, they start back up again for the following year. So, like you said, you know, it is an event to behold. And, it’s definitely something that every operator, every employee company at least circles on there.
Stuart Turley [00:07:45] And on that Wednesday, we’re we’re trying to get the, governors of Texas and Oklahoma, we’re still waiting on the negotiations on that, I may. I have to sacrifice myself and not do a podcast, because I’ll have to hold the camera for you too. So that might be a fun thing.
Rey Treviño [00:08:06] Could be fun. Well, you know, I mean, talk. Go ahead.
David Blackmon [00:08:14] You know, I apologize. There’s a delay here, but.
Stuart Turley [00:08:16] Are you okay?
David Blackmon [00:08:18] Yeah. I mean, have I frozen up or something? Then a freezer?
Rey Treviño [00:08:23] No, no. You’re good, you’re good over here. That’s it.
Stuart Turley [00:08:25] Yeah, that’s a good pun.
Rey Treviño [00:08:27] Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a good way to to get in to where we’re, you know, here, Ercot did their little deal saying, hey, can y’all can, sir? But, hey, we’ve done pretty good, right? You know, Ercot has handled the grid. Yeah. Natural gas is once again the great savior. We need more of it. But what are your thoughts on on how we’ve handled this, early winter storm? I’m sure we got one more in late February. March? But what do you think right now? Are you hopeful, David?
David Blackmon [00:08:56] Yeah. I mean, I think, the grid did just fine. And it’s, you know, because they have made all these improvements in the system since 2001, they’ve registered all those critical natural gas compressor stations and pipelines and production sites, and they winterize some of the power plants, but not enough of them. And so you didn’t have natural gas going off line like we did in February. And that was critical Tuesday, because you did lose wind on Tuesday, for the most part. And natural gas was popping in 65% of all generation on the grid, you know, it’s so and when you have that available, then, then you’re going to get through these really bad cold fronts like the one we just had. We need more dispatchable reserve capacity. This we have to realize this storm was was a fraction of what winter Storm Uri brought into Texas. And this was not that severe a weather event. We still are going to have to have quite a bit more thermal dispatchable capacity in reserve for those kinds of events. And I and I understand that those events only happen in Texas about once a decade. But we lost 300 of our fellow Texans in Winter Storm Uri. And, we should never Texas should never have an issue with electricity until, like, happened. And so, we got to get that done. But but yeah, the grid perform well this week.
Stuart Turley [00:10:41] Oh. You bet. I’ll tell you, the charts that went around from Ercot were amazing. When you take a look at, 0% power from wind and solar at certain points. And the megawatt, the available nameplate. Megawatt on the wind, what, nine, megawatt on wind. And it was producing one. Whatever the chart was, I’ll have it in the show notes here.
David Blackmon [00:11:07] The winner available was pretty amazing. The winter availability of wind is almost 39GW in Texas. And when I was struggling to produce ten. And in fact, on Tuesday morning when was putting out 4 or 5 and, you know, you just can’t rely on wind and Ercot and our state officials have lived in this fantasy land where they can just keep building windmills and everything’s going to be fine. And now they’re in a fantasy land where if they just keep building solar panels, everything’s going to be fine. Everything’s not going to be fine. And so someday they’re going to have to wake up to that, or we’re going to have more dead people in this state after week long blackouts again.
Stuart Turley [00:11:53] You know, RT is a EMP operator out there. Do you think, what can we do to get the regulatory issues solved to help you out? Because we’re going to need more natural gas. We’re going to need more oil. Is there any. What? Call your legislator. Hey, I got an idea. Let’s get a hold of all the politicians. And on a bad stormy day, let’s have him do a speech out in the middle of West Texas and all that hot air wind would get them turbines rolling. What do you think about that?
Rey Treviño [00:12:23] Yeah, I like that idea.
Stuart Turley [00:12:25] I think if we put Washington out, they could power. And some of them could even face the other way.
Rey Treviño [00:12:32] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:12:33] But I think the problem with that would be John Kerry would object to the carbon footprint from them, you know, blowing all that hot CO2 out. But now.
Stuart Turley [00:12:42] So did you know how much that.
Rey Treviño [00:12:45] Gas is the perfect energy source for the next hundred years? Not even oil. As much as I love making a dollar off oil. But right now we just need legislation that’s pro pro natural gas. And, and when I say we need to lower the regulations. David. I don’t think we really need to, you know, I’m not trying to say we need to, like, burn Mother Earth. We just need to have a, a friendly administration that’s willing to help produce a clean amount of energy here in America. What do you think, David?
Stuart Turley [00:13:17] All right. I’ll tell you what. For this episode of The Crude Truth, I’ll tell you what. We’re going to go ahead and call this one.
Rey Treviño [00:13:26] Well, just Crude Truth episode. Let’s go.
Stuart Turley [00:13:32] David, we sure appreciate you. We got so many more things to do. We’re going to have some great fun out here. David, we’re going to have your Substack. In the show notes. We’re going to have your Crude Truth, and I’m Stu Turley, president CEO of the sandstone Group. You got to come out to the bar with us, folks. We’ll see you soon.