Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone! In honor of Thursday, I give thanks you to, dear reader. You have inspired me to write for over 4 years and throughout the ups and downs of “being retired”, banned, weight gain and loss, covid, climate change, energy policy and everything in between, I appreciate the notes of support, challenge, introspection and just saying hi. So thank you to the readers.
This morning, the EU came out with it’s much anticipated “price cap” on Russian gas, capping prices at 275 euro/MWh IF the price stays there for 2 weeks. As Javier Blas tweeted…
So, like all things political these days… it’s all rhetoric and no actual impact. With another $4.5 billion being committed to Ukraine and the student debt repayments suspended until June 2023, the concept of approvals in the legislature to better society seems a LONG way off.
14 days ago, I heard the name Tony Fauci for the first time. Today, hopefully we heard it for the last time. I will say though that when it comes to misinformation, the NIH, CDC and White House have absolute legend status and so, in honor of Dr. Fauci’s retirement, I’ll remind all my unvaccinated readers… that no, this time for sure, it’s going to be a winter of death and misery for us.
The truth is that while we were in Dallas for hockey, every kid on every team had some issue with flu/RSV/COVID and whatever else is circulating. Against Anaheim, we were down 2 players and at least 5 others felt awful. The day after we played Washington, they were missing 5 players with a strange illness. Coughing, hacking, wheezing and… generally, what winters look like every year. It stands in grand contrast to 2020 and 2021 where if you were found to be within 6’ of someone who had tested positive for COVID with no symptoms, you were sent home from school for 14 days. There were 3 masks on the plane that I could see. I made friends with someone who had smuggled fireball on the plane and we shared the bottle. I shook hands with the person next to me. And thankfully, it felt a whole bunch like 2019. I know I’ve said this before but seriously, those health officials were F@&king morons and the biggest mistake Trump made in his presidency was not firing Fauci and Birx day 1. For someone who went with his gut and ignored advisors his whole presidency, that was a pretty large miss and in my opinion, is one of the strongest cases against him being the Republican nominee. I’m all about a DeSantis-Gabbard ticket and I hope it happens.
Finally on a personal note. I love the oil and gas industry and everything it produces by amazing people to make the world what it is. It’s why I was so blessed to make my hobby my career for almost 2 decades. Selling OneEnergy was the capstone to my career and in the 4 years since, I frequently get asked why I didn’t start another company. 3 reasons. First, all the people I wanted to work with are still at the successor. Second, I didn’t think I could buy an asset from 2019-2022 that could make investors money on anything more than the price run up and I’m already incredibly personally exposed to oil and gas through my royalties and private investments. And third, the reality is that the controversy that surrounded much of what I said online publicly (though many smile when they say “you were saying what I was thinking) made it hard to back me as a private equity backer or put me in a senior leadership position at a public company or board. Some days, this has been hard for me to accept but the truth is, I knew what I was doing when I penned the first HTOTD and I stand by every word I’ve ever typed. Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence and we remain living in a world where advertisers are afraid of using Twitter because of Elon Musk. If speaking your truth means being banished to the island of misfit toys for it, so be it. It’s where all my friends live, anyway.
I’ve grappled with what comes next. I’ve tried software sales. I’ve helped a life settlements business. I’ve applied for a few roles at oil and gas companies and the “thanks for applying but you aren’t a fit” responses always make me laugh. But the truth is, whatever comes next has to inspire me to learn and grow and laugh. So this week, I bid on a business. I have no idea if they will accept the offer and I have even less of an idea what comes next if they do. But it’s exciting to contemplate having purpose and hunger for a new challenge and it will sure make for an interesting book.
Fireball is the very definition of Good RX! Sadly, the specter of being male, pale, stale and, yes, SHALE, portends difficulty in trying to attract O and G investment. Glad you're on Substack. Man, your oldest boy looks BIG...hope Dallas went well.
I hope whatever you do, you will continue to be an advocate for our industry. Like it or not, you've broken out from the pack and acheived some notoriety. We need all the truth-speakers we can get. So don't let up. Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving!