Liquified Natural Groundhog: A Pragmatic Perspective on the Presidential Permitting Pause and the Power of Predictability
Have you heard so many repetitive references to the geopolitical, environmental, and economic benefits of LNG that you and Punxsutawney Phil are about ready to drive off a cliff?
If so, take a break from the tired talking points and enjoy this Groundhog Day episode of The Energy Detox.
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
Happy Groundhog Day. And welcome to the energy detox coming to you today from about 70 miles southwest of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where just a little bit ago, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow. And what that means, of course, is that we'll be having an early spring. And what that also means is that the children in the Senate household this morning, as they watched and got ready for school were disappointed at the fear that they might not have any more snow days or two hour delays, thanks to Phil's prediction. But nevertheless, with the prospect of an early spring, there's plenty of people who are happy about that, right, there's plenty of people who welcome the fact that we will not be having six more weeks of winter. Although here in western Pennsylvania, at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, right? Because we don't worry about how harsh the winter is or how long the winter is, in part, because we don't really have to worry about staying warm, we have plenty of affordable, reliable, natural gas. Now, of course, that's not necessarily the case in other parts of the world, including parts of the world overseas that don't have reliable, affordable natural gas as we do, including Germany, which we have to thank or blame and parts for this tradition of Groundhog Day here in America. But setting aside the origins of Groundhog Day and focusing on current events, let's talk about the elephant in the room, or at least the headlines in the room. And that is LNG. Because if you pay attention at all to the energy industry, if you scroll through your LinkedIn feed, or you get various emails and updates from different industry groups, or news aggregators, you no doubt have felt like Bill Murray over the last week, waking up every morning and seeing some sort of headline, some sort of talking point, some sort of response to the Biden administration's recent pause on LNG export approvals, or at least new LNG export approvals for countries that don't have a free trade agreement in place. Anyway, the moral of the story is
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why? Why is this decision so bad, at least, if you follow the talking points, and the headlines that, again, are coming in from all ends of the political spectrum, not just Republicans, and not just those who are well versed in industry matters? Well, again, you can speak to them probably if you're a watcher of the energy detox. And that is, of course, the environmental benefits, the economic benefits, the geopolitical benefits. But the goal today on the energy detox is not to rehash those same benefits over and over again, because again, there's plenty of entities that are doing a fine job of that. No, the goal today is to take those lessons from those talking points to take some lessons from Punxsutawney, Phil, and help you as a leader become better at distilling messages distilling various talking points into one headline that actually resonates with your stakeholders. And what does that what does that headline, what does that? What does that thing that's actually going to attract people's attention and not have them feeling like Bill Murray? Well, it's their yearning for predictability. Because in many ways, you can argue that all of those various arguments in favor of LNG boil down to an increase in predictability. By embracing LNG by making these investments, it can lead to more predictability in terms of pricing. Again, while there's fears on the other side that more LNG exports can lead to higher prices, the reality is it would lead to more stable prices, because of a more diversified market. What do people want, they want more predictability, natural gas prices will continue to be low here in the United States, we have far too much of it. And, and despite the attempts of some entities to stifle progress, the reality is we got a lot of gas. What we don't have, of course, is stability and pricing, in part because our market is relatively limited. And we are subject to the booms and busts that have plagued the oil and gas industry forever. So stability of pricing. Also, from an environmental standpoint, again, stability, embracing a known quantity, that is natural gas, and what it's done for the environment, and expanding that beyond the borders of the United States leads to environmental stability, certainty, predictability. And of course, from an economic standpoint, again, the proven success, the proven value of natural gas versus other forms of energy, is there it's known it is, in many ways, predictable. And so what does that mean for you and your team for you and your company for you and your stakeholders, whether their customers or your bosses or your suppliers or whatever? Well, it's an opportunity to ask yourself, How can you boil down all of your various discrete arguments in favor of why people should work for you or work with you? How do you boil that down and target what people really, really, really want? And that's predictability. And this applies not just in business, but in our personal lives, right? We want to know what's coming down the pike. We want to know what the weather is going to be today or in six weeks. We want to know what our financial picture is going to look like. We don't have that predictability all the time, which means that we yearn for it even more. So what can you do for your teams to address their fears of change head on their fears of m&a activity, their fears as exemplified by
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headlines a day or two ago regarding Enbridge and the elimination of 650 positions. I know that's a reality for our industry. We talk about change and uncertainty all the time here on the end of the detox. But how do you take all of your discrete responses and arguments and talking points, and boil them down into one headline that tugs at people's desires for predictability? How do you take all of those things and avoid wasting energy on arguing over finite economic
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matters and finite employment matters and finite commodity matters and finite political matters, and boil it down to say, hey, look, if you want some stability, if you want predictability, here's what you need to do. A, B and C, people are gonna pay attention more, they're not going to tune out because people are sick of talking points, even people that are again, well versed, and, and agree with all of the various talking points regarding LNG, they're looking for something different. And I say that as an individual, I am not a political adviser. I'm not a strategist in that sense. But I do work with people. I work with lots of people internally in companies, and the one thing that they're sick of, of course, is change. Because it's what it's de energizing. And I say that with a nod if not credit to Baker Hughes, who had their annual meeting in Florence a couple of days ago, I was not there. But again, you can view all of that information publicly on the internet there. And their theme was energizing change, which made me laugh a bit. Because if nothing else, change typically within companies is de energizing, it's a drain it makes people want to run away. So what can you do to say, hey, look, no this change these investments, if you will, all of this uncertainty can actually lead to a measure of predictability and certainty and confidence, which is what people want. So my challenge for you today here on Groundhog Day is to take a page from the inner circle there and Punxsutawney and Phil's handlers and, and Don, your Pittsburgh ease cap, not Pittsburgh, II sorry. Groundhog ease, although we can do another episode with Pittsburgh ease, but groundhog ease, interpret all of these talking points and translate them into a message that exhibits and conveys predictability. I'm telling you, that's what your stakeholders want. And again, if you find yourself in the weeds, if you find yourself repeating the same talking points over and over again, and sounding like you're on the defensive over and over again, you are going to be a less effective leader. Whereas if you reframe all of the concerns that your people have all the realities, and you reframe them in a way that actually speaks to an increase in predictability, an increase in certainty and increase in confidence, they're going to pay attention. So again, my challenge for you is translate all those things into one headline that speaks to one takeaway, one benefit that you have to offer as a leader that your company has to offer, similar to all of the benefits that LNG have to offer boil all of that down into one benefit that speaks to predictability.
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And so with that, I wish you a Happy Groundhog Day. I thank you as always for tuning in here to the energy detox and I hope you have a safe, warm, enjoyable rest of winter regardless of how long that happens to be.