The Crude Life Morning Show: Play Hard Work Hard Episode 100
Hour One Play Hard: Jason Spiess is joined by Alma Cook, Cook Compliance Solutions, to talk about how the industry has silos, how a female environmentally minded professional gravitated to industry, Climate Tax, oil’s image, safety and compliance and ESG
Hour Two Work Hard: U.S. Kevin Cramer on banking, cancel culture and pipelines and Tom Shepstone, NaturalGasNow, recaps and reacts to the Cabot Oil and Gas – Cimarex Energy
The Crude Life Daily Update For the Radio On The Podcast: Patrick Bertagnolli, SHRM-SCP, Rough Rider Center & Community Enhancement Director at City of Watford City
Rig Count Overview
HOUR ONE PLAY HARD: Jason Spiess is joined by Alma Cook, Cook Compliance Solutions, at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference talks about how the industry has silos and what they look like from an outside perspective.
They Play Hard Work Hard Morning Show dives into how Alma, a female environmentally minded professional gravitated to industry. She explains how her brother in Thailand was the catalyst for her journey in oil and gas.
Midland Mayor Patrick Payton’s work on the industry’s image is discussed in detail. Alma, who is also a member of the Permian Basin Pipeliners Association, shares some stories about her interaction with the Mayor and work in the Permian.
Alma also opines about how the industry needs to do more than sponsor events. They need to engage with people outside the industry.
Climate Tax, oil’s image, ESG, safety and compliance are also topics discussed in the Play Hard segment of the interview.
In HOUR TWO we WORK HARD with our Newsmaker Interview: Tom Shepstone, NaturalGasNow and Shepstone Management Company
Shepstone joins Work Hard portion of the program to discuss the recent merger between Cabot Oil and Gas and Cimarex Energy. The two discuss whether the merger is a takeover or an actual merger.
Shepstone, who is geographically located in the Marcellus, gives a boots on the ground update on the Marcellus activity and Pennsylvania politics.
Click here for the Shepstone’s Muth and Mouth story mentioned in the interview segment
In HOUR TWO we continue to WORK HARD with our SECOND Newsmaker Interview: U.S Senator Kevin Cramer
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee member, starts off the interview with breaking news that he will host Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan on a trip to Bismarck, North Dakota, next Thursday, June 3, for a stakeholder listening session.
From there the interview veers right into banking and energy. Specifically how the oil and gas industry is facing rank discrimination in the word of financing.
Over the past month, Senator Cramer has met with a number of high ranking financial leaders, including the CEOs of the Top 5 Banks in the United States.
The senator recapped the reason for the meetings and explained what he said to each one of the CEOs. The fossil fuel industry was the main reason for the discussion and the rank prejudice industry is experiencing.
Senator Cramer then pivoted to discussing policies by big banks which discriminate against legal, constitutionally-protected industries. The senator has been an advocate for equal access to financial services offered by big banks, specifically in reference to the energy industry. Senator Cramer is leading the Fair Access to Banking Act, a bill backed by over 30 senators and a wide array of stakeholders, which would prevent financial service providers from discriminating against constitutionally-protected industries and law-abiding, credit worthy businesses. It builds off of the Trump Administration’s Fair Access Rule and expands on legislation Senator Cramer introduced last Congress.
He cites Russia and China as importers of pollution to the United States. How the recent actions and policies from the Biden adminstration have created more issues with the environment while causing more chaos and uncertainty in the marketplace.
The two discuss whether it is by ignorance or intelligence, but either way the majority of business owners in America either took out a loan or reworked a loan with their banker to transition through COVID. Now, as the country starts to get back to work it appears policy will continue to control the marketplace creating a new level of risk management to many businesses and entrepreneurs.
Senator Cramer also talked about several other topics including Cancel Culture:
“Cancel culture is spiraling out of control in the United States. Once treasured and protected American rights and ideals like freedom of speech, religion, capitalism, and the free marketplace of ideas are increasingly under siege. In finance, it threatens the survival of lawfully operating businesses in the United States and even the ability of Americans to exercise constitutionally guaranteed rights.”
Senator Cramer comments on Nord Stream 2:
“Two weeks after Vladmir Putin’s friends in the Russian mafia shut down an American people line, Joe Biden rewards him by giving the green light to his pipeline. What’s crazy about that, David, is natural gas produced in Russia and shipped via pipeline to Europe – right into the heart of NATO by the way – has a 40% greater greenhouse gas emissions footprint than does liquefied gas from the United States.”
“At the same time, they’re negotiating with Iran about maybe lifting the sanctions on their oil exports. So they shut down our industry and build up Iran’s and Russia’s. They might as well have Venezuela oil come back and replace the oil sands from Canada. It’s all nonsensical. It is bad for the economy, it’s bad for national security, and it’s bad for the environment. Other than that, it’s a swell idea.”
As well as the Biden Economy:
“We’re hearing about a $6 trillion budget being presented by the president. Here is the issue, what would motivate him, I think, is the prospect of hyper-inflation. The fact [is] that the first $2 trillion they jammed down our throats created a move toward inflation and an increase in commodity prices. I can’t imagine why any president under his watch would, on purpose try to stoke the flames of inflation even greater. That will lead no doubt to increased interest rates, and he wants to increase taxes at the same time. I can’t think of a worst economic nightmare.”
“For those people that want to live in the bubble in the White House and pretend somehow the American public isn’t going to notice, they need to get out more. We hear it all the time. … This has real life consequences. They ought to start pay attention.”
“Anytime you raise taxes you reduce revenue. You might have a short-term spike in income, but clearly people respond to that, clearly investment responds to that. There is just no way. In fact, to your point, when we had the largest tax cut in American history we created the greatest economy in recent history.”
And infrastructure:
“This is the plea I would make, and I made this to Secretary Granholm last week. If you want to get well over a trillion dollars in infrastructure, unleash the private sector … You don’t need to spend federal taxpayer dollars on it. Just unleash the private sector. You will have all the infrastructure you need.”
“I don’t know how you can have bipartisan discussion with nonstarters. Nonstarters mean you don’t start a discussion. Exactly what we ought to do is repurpose existing appropriations.”
The U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer Tour included JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Wells Fargo President and CEO Charlie Scharf, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly, Jr., and Bank of America CEO Brian Moyniham.
The Crude Life Daily Update For the Radio On The Podcast: Patrick Bertagnolli, SHRM-SCP, Rough Rider Center & Community Enhancement Director at City of Watford City.
Patrick Bertagnolli, SHRM-SCP, Rough Rider Center & Community Enhancement Director at City of Watford City. Bertagnoli talks about how the oil and gas industry has created community opportunities.
Click here for full length interview
For sponsorship information on The Crude Life Morning Show Play Hard Work Hard, email studio@thecrudelife.com or click here.
Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes
Studio Sponsor: The Industrial Forest
The Industrial Forest is a network of environmentally minded and socially conscious businesses that are using industrial innovations to build a network of sustainable forests across the United States.
Weekly Sponsor: Korwell Energy
Korwell Energy is an industry leading designer, ASME code manufacturer, and remanufacturer of production equipment for oil and gas producers, throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.
They retain both an ASME U and R stamp. Their 28,000 sq ft of manufacturing shop with overhead cranes create a safe and productive environment for their team who collectively have over 75+ years of experience in manufacturing of ASME Oil and Gas production equipment.
Korwell prides themselves on outstanding customer service, expertise, and cutting-edge technology to partner with customers to maximize their individual production goals and help comply with ever changing regulations.
Weekly Sponsor: MineralTracker
MineralTracker is the only mineral management software that allows mineral owners to compare actual royalty payments to expected payments based on well performance and a proprietary, Bakken-specific reservoir model built by MineralTracker’s petroleum engineers.
MineralTracker was formed in Watford City, North Dakota, and is a subsidiary of First International Bank & Trust, a family-owned bank also based in Watford City.
Phone Line Sponsor: Swan Energy, Inc. 866.539.0860
Studio Email and Inbox Sponsor: To Be Announced
Featured Music: Moody River Band
For guest, band or show topic requests, email studio@thecrudelife.com
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