Are You Throwing the Baby Out with the Frac Water?

Are you like Allegheny County Council, which decided to toss away the undeniable benefits of natural gas development in order to score political points?

Are you so set in your ways that you would rather shut down conversations about potential win-win scenarios than do your job by critically considering all future opportunities that could benefit your stakeholders?

Are you a member of the energy industry who shakes your head at the short-sightedness of many government officials...while missing out on opportunities to tell those officials what you think as an individual citizen?

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(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)

If you're interested in learning about the concept of thinking, Win win, and I recommend you pick up this book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, in which Covey and his habit number four talks about the importance of finding solutions that address all of the concerns and the hopes and the dreams and the desires of all parties involved. And asking yourself how you might arrive at a solution that is truly Win Win, instead of looking for solutions that have winners and losers, or in many cases, because of the lack of cooperation winding up with only losers. And if you're looking for an example of a solution that has only losers, then you could have turned and no further than last night's Allegheny County Council meeting which I had the privilege of attending and participating in. And a couple of minutes all share a recording of the remarks that I delivered last night during that meeting. And after that, as we always do on the energy detox will weave that energy topic and some of those headlines into relevant things for you as a leader to help you avoid some of the toxicity that was on display last night at the meeting that you face in your daily life internally at your companies and in your dealings with people. And we'll also talk through some of the takeaways that I had participating in this government process, if you will, observing some of the comments and the people that were there last night, and ultimately coming away with some thoughts on what you can do as part of the industry to help drive some of these Win Win solutions and conversations and avoid a lot of the things and a lot of the missed opportunities that were in place prior to last night's meeting. But first a bit of backstory for those of you who aren't familiar with the headlines and may who may not even know where Allegheny County is. So for starters, Allegheny County here in southwestern Pennsylvania is the home of Pittsburgh. And, of course, we are in the heart of Marcellus country, we have lots of Marcellus development around the city of Pittsburgh, not in the city of Pittsburgh, and there has been development in Allegheny County, including development underneath one of our county parks several years ago, by Range Resources. And that development, which drill underneath the park from adjacent properties, has resulted in lots of benefits for the county, perhaps one of the biggest being the $15 million, that the county generated thanks to bonus payments and royalties, some of that money going to improve that Park, which is a park that I enjoy with my children, and we frequent and again, we do it because it's great park. And because we've been able to preserve and enhance the beauty of that park, thanks in part to natural gas drilling. But about a year and a half ago, a bill was introduced into county council, and that bill seeks or sought to ban hydraulic fracturing and any development underneath the park. Again, nobody was arguing for any development on the surface of the park, of course, but this was to ban the extraction of natural gas from underneath the park, despite all of the benefits, despite the proven track record that Range Resources has been doing it safely. And so this bill has proceeded over the last year and a half. Two weeks ago, the Council voted to enact that ban by an 11 to 4 vote. And after that the chief executive of Allegheny County vetoed that ban which led to last night's meeting. And in that meeting, again, the primary topic was to determine whether the council should override the executives veto which they ultimately did. And again, we'll talk a little bit more about the sort of the implications of this, again, not just for the county and some of the ongoing things at the state level that we'll talk about, again after the this upcoming video here. But most importantly, again, if you stick around after the video, we'll talk about you and the things that you can do either as a leader or simply as a member of the oil and gas industry.

03:54

COMMENTS DELIVERED TO COUNTY COUNCIL:

My name is Joe Sinnott, and O'Hara Township resident and father of four children aged 10 Seven, four, and four. And as a parent, my job is to help my kids realize their full potential. Similarly, the job of you as a Council is to help Allegheny County realize its full potential. And whether we're talking about kids or counties, the recipe for achieving full potential requires three ingredients. One a safe and healthy environment to a spirit of innovation, as was just mentioned, two speakers ago and three and abundance of choices. And when it comes to that first ingredient, a safe and healthy environment by thank the council and my fellow residents who have made health and safety the center of all fracking related conversations.

04:44

But as I digest the potential impacts of the fracking ban, it's clear to me that the band is missing the other two ingredients innovation, and choice. Starting with innovation, I think we can all agree, especially you Councilman Duerr, who has a degree in innovation Isn't that the spirit of this frac ban is the complete opposite of the spirit of continuous innovation. That continuous innovation has defined western Pennsylvania. So instead, shouldn't we be asking how to best leverage our county's resources while also addressing the safety and health concerns of residents? No. Instead, this ban merely ends the conversation without giving your constituents what they want. And what do your constituents want? Well, they want the other missing ingredient choice. And yes, we have been told that in the 234 year history of Allegheny County, there's never been a governing body more pro choice than what is in front of us today. In fact, minutes after the frac ban was passed, Councilman Duerr introduced a right of choice bill, which claims to protect the choice of women regarding their health and safety. But ironically, if not hypocritically, the frack ban you passed limits the choices and options. Your constituents like the gentleman who just spoke have to negotiate the types of enhanced health and safety protections, they deserve the same type of protections recommended in Councilman Waltons alternate parks Bill 12357, a bill that attempts to preserve the spirit of innovation necessary for all of us to realize our full potential and not be a Flim-Flam as a previous speaker spoke regarding the bill, but via continuous innovation. That being said, I asked the council to avoid being pressured into making a convenient choice tonight, and I ask the council to recognize that sometimes the simplest choice is not the most sustainable choice. That being said, please do not choose to simply kill ongoing discussion, destroy the potential fruits of future public private partnerships, and throw the baby out with the fracwater if you will, instead, adopt a collaborative and innovative path by upholding a veto that preserves Allegheny County's right to choose what are you going to wrap it up and well being of all of your constituents? Thank you. Thank you.

07:05

What you just heard was a mere three minutes out of the three hour long meeting from last night. And if you're interested in listening to all three hours or watching all three hours, I'll throw a link in the show notes or on the energy detox.com, of course, but the point is my three minutes in conjunction with the other seven people that spoke out against the ban total was approximately 24 minutes, that 24 minutes pales in comparison to the hours of comments that people in favor of the ban have delivered over the last several weeks and months as this bill has been discussed. And not only that, there are a number of comments speaking out again, against the ban and in favor of natural gas development, a truly Win Win opportunity that has already been proven in Allegheny County. Those comments in favor of natural gas again, pale in comparison to the hundreds, if not 1000s of comments that have been received via email and phone calls and other means that was made abundantly clear last night. And so my first takeaway that I want to share with you is engage if nothing else, I was embarrassed last night hearing the council members repeatedly tell people to engage to engage to engage admonishing those who spoke out last night or showed up last night in favor of natural gas development and against the ban, because none of us had been there before. And yes, we have trade groups that are doing a good job of trying to educate council members and government about these things. But what those council members what government members need to see is people citizens like me, like you actually attending and showing up and demonstrating that you care. So if nothing else, that was my number one takeaway. And my number one recommendation for you as an individual and for the companies that you work for, you need to have people there speaking and not just reading bullet points and talking points and rehashing the same benefits about jobs and the benefits of natural gas, the science behind natural gas, the safety of natural gas, all of those things are good. But we need to move beyond talking points and speak like parents speak like me, who again, brings my children to the same park that Range Resources has developed from underneath safely, effectively, and again, to the benefit of the park system. We need more of that, because this conversation is not ending. In fact, at the statewide level, the state government, the legislature, the House and the Senate passed a bill that banned natural gas bans, if you will, that basically said that if a municipality says hey, you can no longer have a natural gas hookup and that new home you're building. The state governments said well, that doesn't make any sense that that seems to violate, again, you know, individual rights and freedoms. Why shouldn't residents be able to choose what energy source makes the most sense for them? And they sent that Bill To our governor, Governor Wolf, and what did he do, he vetoed it. Now unfortunately,

10:03

there is not enough support not enough people, mostly all the Republicans and a handful of Democrats that voted for the the ban on bans, if you will. So that will not be following the same track that we saw at the county level. But again, there are some parallels, right? It's about freedom, it's about choice, it's about being able to do what makes the most sense. And as you heard in my comments a couple minutes ago, there is tremendous hypocrisy from people like Governor Wolf and the majority of the council members who again purport to be pro choice when it comes to the issue of women and health and safety, but do the complete opposite when it comes to natural gas development, which again, can be done safely and effectively and has a net positive impact on the health and well being of our country, and quite frankly, our world. So the point I'm trying to make is, this conversation will continue, last night's meeting is certainly not the end of this discussion. And it's not the end of the attempts by the enemies of oil and gas, who refuse to see the big picture, which brings me to you, as an individual, as a leader, it is your job to look at the big picture, to look at the net benefits of things and to not look at things as black and white to look at things in a win win manner. So when you're asking your stakeholders, whether they're employees, whether they're peers of yours, whether your boss, what they want, make sure that you're truly getting to what it is they want. And then asking yourself, what all the ways to get there are instead of hearing what they're saying, and shutting them down, because it might not make sense. And Case in point, one of the council members who voted for the ban made it very clear that he was acting upon what his constituents shared with him what they wanted, they wanted a frack ban. But when you actually listen to what people want, they didn't want to frack ban. They wanted to know that they were health healthy and safe, and that their parks were accessible. There's a lot of ways to accomplish that other than a band, but all he heard was FRAC band. And that's what he voted on. Don't do that, as a manager truly understand what they ultimately want, not what people are saying they want. And so again, bring this back to what do you want, what really matters? What did the councilman spoke about what really matters for him and his constituents. And that is access to jobs, to food to security. That's what we need to focus on. We as an industry, and as individuals need to make very clear how our industry supports those opportunities. And if we're not sharing those messages, well, we're going to continue to see things like these bands that do not allow us to realize our full potential as a country, quite frankly. And it's all going to hurt everybody involved, regardless of what side of the aisle you are and what your opinions are on this matter. So with that being said, again, I thank you for engaging with me, I encourage you to share your feedback about either what I've shared over the last couple minutes both right now and last night's meeting. And if you're familiar with the topic at hand, again, engage, let me know shoot me a comment, do it publicly have a conversation. Nothing is better than one on one conversations to help, again, change the hearts and minds and if nothing else, inform people so that they're not ignorant to the math, the science, the benefits and the big picture and our ability to truly have a win win situation that combines natural gas development safely and effectively with the desire to preserve our safety, our health or well being and the environment. So with that again, thank you have a great rest of the week and take care

Leadership, Management, Coaching, Energy, Envronment, ESG, SustainabilityJoe SinnottJuly 20, 2022Leadership, CoachingComment

Are You Throwing the Baby Out with the Frac Water?

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