The Crude Life host Jason Spiess joins Genneca on The Country Twins radio network to talk about life, liberty and lubricants.
Spiess begins the segment giving an update on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalizing rules to update the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for the oil and natural gas industry
Many of the headlines and soundbytes talk about how this will open up opportunity for small to mid size companies, which it true according to the EPA and energy experts. Spiess reminds that if there market opens up for the small guys, usually the big guys have that same opportunity, along with more cash and access.
“As so much centralization and consolidation happens, you can take a look at almost any industry, from mobile homes to the funeral industry to fast food to whatever you want, and generally speaking it is just a handful of companies that control the majority of the marketplace,” Spiess said. “It’s nice to see when they take away some regulation or at least make it so the little guy or the mid-size guy have a shot. Now that doesn’t mean the big guy doesn’t have a shot too.”
Spiess transitioned into his disappointment with industry appointed leaders, elected leaders and the government for their lack of education and connecting with the youth.
“That’s the part that bothers me. Really the energy industry, and I would even say the government have done a terrible job of educating the youth about energy,” Spiess said. “The farmers must have gone through this in the 1970’s and 80’s when the grocery stores took over the farmers in terms of perception and where food comes from. Now so many people believe our energy comes from the light switch.”
Spiess continued comparing the instant energy flick of a switch and grocery store pick up.
“They don’t understand that, for example, say 70% of it comes from coal, 20% comes from natural gas and 10% comes from hydro, solar, wind, biomass and all the renewables. They don’t get that,” Spiess said. “What they get is that when they flick on their light switch there’s there energy. Just like when they go to the grocery store and pick up their ground beef.”
The conversation continued as the two discussed the disconnection in agriculture was devastating to farmers. Consolidation and centralization has decimated the industry from what it once was.
“It’s got to be frustrating for the people in the industry,” Spiess said. “Like I said the farmers have been through this and look what happened to them. Their industry just got annihilated, The poor dairy industry. Wow.”
Spiess wondered if the industry was going to start becoming more and more subsidized. In North Dakota the state is paying producers to plug wells. Although the service is needed, some worry this is a slippery slope of picking winners and losers and ushering in State Controlled Industry.
“We’ve talked about oil and gas becoming Ag 2.0 before on here and some people really got annoyed with me talking about this,” Spiess said. “If you take a look around, the government is getting into all kinds of businesses. Holy smokes.”
Spiess rattled off a bunch of government services and regulations that compete with private business while regulating them.
“When you take a look at where the government is getting into business – water business here, training services here. Heck they’ve been in the media business for a long time,” Spiess said. “I mean they got kids out selling advertising at schools. It’s nothing new here. The government just picks and chooses which industry they want to infiltrate.”
The weekly segment also discussed an increasing divide within the industry. Spiess predicted industry executives will soon be called out for reacting rather than leading.
The Crude Life Podcast can be heard every Monday through Thursday with a Week in Review on Friday.
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