Episode Transcript
[00:00:23] Speaker A: How's everybody doing on day two? Day two, or is it day one?
[00:00:27] Speaker B: I don't know, man. This one's weird. Yeah, this one is weird.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Committee and board meetings were going on. Board meetings Sunday and Monday, but committee meetings have been going on and some folks got started. And we showed up yesterday, which was kind of nice.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: It was pretty good. You know, instead of a weekend travel, we showed up to the APGA 2024 conference. I got it all the way out.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: In Knoxville, Tennessee, the heartland of country.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Music, according to Gina.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: With basket or something.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Maybe it's the basket of country music.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: I don't know. There's something about that somebody needs to fact check.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Don't.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Anyways, it's great being here. So many good friends, so many good clients, so many good industry partners that are here. I mean, it's been incredible.
[00:01:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: And we have a new industry partner.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Do tell.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And we're going to talk more about that at some point. We'll just take that little part by itself, but I will say it is the apga. Yeah, no, we're really excited about that. So we'll be speaking about that tomorrow. Steve Allen and I are talking to, well, everybody, whoever wants to show up. We have a breakout. Talking about that partnership in regards to PSMs.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: That's wonderful topic, wonderful initiative, and it's going to be so great for all the. What is it? Nearly 800 members of the APGA can take advantage. Yeah. Take advantage of that. Which is really good for our them and the industry. Go ahead, James. You're gonna see where you see them.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Where were we this morning?
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Went to see our friends at kub.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: One of the members here at apga, Lindsey Baker and I, one of my favorites, absolute favorites at ewm. We're sitting at a table one day with Jocelyn from KUB in Traverse City.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Apga, the annual Manifested that man. We talked about coming out here and doing that very thing. And today was cool to be there and get to experience it and see it come to life. So it was really fun.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: We were on site. There was probably, I'm going to say roughly 25 Kub folks there, a handful of them took us around to show us a lot of their. They have a version, their own leak city, which is buildings with natural gas hooked up to them with 29 different scenarios through that that people will go through.
What's that thing? You're right. It was very.
[00:02:46] Speaker E: It was very informative.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: I enjoyed it. It was good. Then on the other side of the Road. They had a whole system set up on air, so when you're first learning on systems, you're working in a pressurized environment, but it's air. And it was 29 AOCs or whatever issues on the other side of the road. Not 30, not 28, 29.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: So we got one more day tomorrow we're going to be recording live, so plan to get a bunch of people on, but we're going to do something a little bit different. I know we're sitting in front of the mics.
These don't really do anything. They don't. We're mobile, so we can go anywhere. So we are, we're gonna go float around, see who we can talk to and change it up a little bit. So stay tuned, it's a good new look.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: All right.
[00:03:29] Speaker D: All right.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Hey, we'll be back.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: I mean, we were just catching up with the Heath guys. We find out that we have one moving up to Carmel, Indiana, one taking over down here.
[00:03:41] Speaker F: Fast paced, fast.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Paul.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Yeah, we got a couple new guys. You know, it's changing the guards, you know, the old geezers, you know, heading towards retirement. So we got the young bucks now. So just learning the business and where are you?
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Where do you fall in that range? Which, which part of that are you?
[00:03:56] Speaker C: I'm not the young bucks.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I thought.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: I'm the old geezer, the old guy. But still having fun, enjoying the industry, enjoying the people.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: That's what we were just talking about, you know, that we do enjoy this. So we have fun at these conferences, but we get a lot of things done. We have some great conversations. Like we were just talking about OQ's to one of your new employees that really didn't understand the OQ world. I mean, understood it, but wanted to get a little bit deeper. And it's great to have those conversations here because we're sharing the knowledge that we have. The, the more experienced people, I will call it, not old geezers, more experience. We will share that knowledge and really it's a, it's a blessing to share it, you know, because the next generation, what took us 10 years by mistakes, allegedly, now we can maybe pass on to them where they're getting, getting it right away.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: No, we all need to learn. I mean, this is a sharing industry. You know, we can't, you just got to pass the torch on and, and you know, you don't want people to relive mistakes that you and I live. If we can teach them, if we can offer some of that insight, then That's. It's a better. Better industry, better world.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I agree. What else is going on in your world?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: I'm traveling a lot lately. Oh, I know you have. Even overseas, too, I've seen a couple times. Then in London twice this year. A lot happening over there.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: With Heath.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: With Heath, yes.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: These aren' vacation, Jim. This is business.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Just wanted to make sure about that.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: And then most recently, I was in Egypt last week at the International Gas Union, which is the igu, which is kind of the World Gas association above the aga, which that culminates into the World Gas Conference, which starts every three years. And you were there in 2018. 2018, in Washington, D.C. washington, D.C. we did a joint with AGA and the World Gas Conference. And so the next one's in Beijing, China, and that's in May of 2025.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Are you part of that organization?
[00:05:48] Speaker C: I'm part of the organization. Heath is involved in the organization. I sit on the distribution committee. And then there's really only a couple of us, me and Dennis Jarnicki, you know, Dennis from gti and it used to be Christina Saim sat on there with the ag. Christina that just retired. Between Dennis and I, we've been handling a lot of that. So exciting.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Thank you for doing that. You know, it must be interesting to be able to share what we do here in the United States, across the world, as well as vice versa, what's going on in other parts of the world. You know, you learning that and bringing it back to us too. Thank you for doing that.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's fun. You know, it's. We're all in the gas business, so it's a world industry. And, you know, if we can spread technology, that what we do in the United States and push that else elsewhere, and we take some ideas internationally and there's a lot of growth areas in the country right now. You know, we always. Everybody's talking about, you know, all the fossil fuel haters that are running around that they don't like fossil fuels. And for whatever reason, we don't look at it that way, obviously. No, but there's other parts of the world. Asia, India, you know, Turkey, Egypt, where I was at there was, if you can imagine this last year, 700,000 new services they put in. In Cairo.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: No kidding.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: They can't put gas in the ground fast enough. I mean, that's just how it's. How it's growing. And so there's other parts of the country that are. Are rapidly growing in natural gas. So it's exciting stuff.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: That's great. Great. Hold on a second. I want to ask. Come here a second.
[00:07:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Bring this. The new buck. Bring one of the young bucks.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: We want to ask you a very important question. Jack, introduce yourself, please.
[00:07:20] Speaker G: Hey, my name is Jack. I'm the probably newest employee with Heath Consultants. I've got about eight weeks of experience.
[00:07:26] Speaker C: Fantastic.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: There you go. What areas are you covering again? I'm at the south, the Southeast region. So Florida, my home state. I'll run into you on the road. Okay.
We have a. We have a very important question for you. What does OQ stand for? Operator Qualifications.
You are a genius, brother.
[00:07:45] Speaker G: Not like I just said a couple minutes ago.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Oh, no, Allegedly. Thanks, Paul. Thanks.
[00:07:49] Speaker C: Appreciate it. Always, always, Always, brother.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Great to see you.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: Always great.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Brett, we're at apga. Oh, Jimmy's. Jimmy's already bombing us. He gets left out. He gets fomo. We're live at the apga, right here in the exhibit hall, and from someone I really respect. I don't know if you know how respected Gerald is. I'm talking top tier respect. Okay, so if you just said you got to talk to Rhett and. Because you're new to this, right?
[00:08:20] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: So how long have you been with rcp?
[00:08:23] Speaker G: Two weeks.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Two weeks. All right. So it's a great perspective. So what were you doing before?
[00:08:29] Speaker G: I was in sales for Quickbase.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: So, like, a tech company?
[00:08:33] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: All right.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Sweet. Sweet. So kind of adjacent, our industry. Working through maybe a partner or something. So what do you think so far?
[00:08:42] Speaker G: I love it. Everybody's so personable, and it's really exciting to be in this industry.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: APG is a great place. I'll tell you.
I came from tech before. I have a full tech background. I worked in tech, medical tech, before I came here. And I was always looking like, you know, where's my spot? And I realized how great the people were here, and it's easy to see yourself here and go, man, I can serve these folks. So I'm glad you're able to see it from this perspective. Have you been able to see any sessions or ban any of that yet?
[00:09:13] Speaker G: No sessions yet, but I look forward to it tomorrow.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Full day tomorrow.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: There's a really good one tomorrow. You should check it out. That's a big part of our industry. It's not just the networking here in the hall, but also the relationships you build in those sessions and breakouts. Hearing from folks is a big part of what we do, so I definitely recommend it.
[00:09:32] Speaker G: Awesome.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Awesome.
Any takeaways? Just from today.
[00:09:38] Speaker G: There's a lot of cool products and I like to see the hardware and I'm interested to talk more about the software piece to additional clients going forward.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Awesome, brother. It's good to see you.
[00:09:48] Speaker G: Thanks so much.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: We'll see you. Hey, we'll be back.
Ryan. I heard you guys have a lot of stuff going on.
[00:09:57] Speaker E: Yeah, really cool. We won PPI's project of the Year award this year with a project down at the Baton Rouge zoo with the PA12 product that we've talked to you guys about a few different times.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: So PA12. We heard originally about PA12 from Doug and Terry three, four years ago. I mean, it seems like it was a while.
[00:10:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:19] Speaker E: So it's really starting to catch legs with the federal grants for the municipalities and stuff that are going out. We've been doing more and more projects and finding a lot of additional good new pieces like it being 100% hydrogen ready. So everybody that's talking about the blending and stuff, it's really coming into play.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a hot topic in our industry. What else?
[00:10:43] Speaker E: You know, we've been continually getting new partners and more brand names that, you know, and already have spec'd in playing in.
We actually have a project running right now that, that we're fixing to go in in Pennsylvania, and this one's going to be done with some new contractors and stuff that we haven't worked with before. So we're about to do some training with them. Just constantly evolving it and being able to show more and more savings, especially as steel prices change.
So we're seeing some really cool stuff out of it. Showing some people some good savings and some good lifetime expansions.
[00:11:26] Speaker F: What do we want to talk about?
[00:11:27] Speaker B: James, man, we got something to talk about.
[00:11:30] Speaker F: We got a lot to talk about.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: You, sir, have been involved here at APGA how long?
[00:11:35] Speaker F: Six years. A little over six years.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: And I would say the math. I didn't know one of those years. Well, I kind of did, but not as closely as now.
[00:11:43] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: But the last five years, I know, have been dedicated really to the cause of PSMs. And we did a lot of work.
I say we as an ewn.
But you personally did a ton of work in regards to PSMs. You've got to be proud of kind of where we're at.
[00:12:01] Speaker F: I really am. I mean, this is kind of the culmination of kind of what I. I came to Energy WorldNet to do in the first place.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is.
[00:12:10] Speaker F: You know, and it, you know, and it is so important to the. To the industry. You know, PHMSA just recently did their study and reported to Congress the results of that study in that, you know, 86% of the distribution pipeline in the country is. Is managed by a pipeline operator that is committed to PSMs. 86%.
[00:12:40] Speaker H: That's great.
[00:12:41] Speaker F: But only represents 20, 22% of the total operators. All right, so you do the math. The other 78% is small. Small operators, and it's an issue. PSMS isn't that complicated, but it is. Can be overwhelming for somebody that is stretched pretty thin in the first place. You know, the. The idea is let's. Let's help. Let's help small operators have a. Have a tool, Have. Have a path forward in their PSMS journey, and that's what we're doing.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm glad we're the partner in that as well.
[00:13:15] Speaker F: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: It's great.
[00:13:19] Speaker D: Let's jump in with Jim and Steven Mayfield from city of Tallahassee.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: You know, we're all in the gas business, and it's very serious. But what keeps you up at night? Is it anything in particular in our industry that you, you know, just want to make sure it's right?
[00:13:38] Speaker I: I'm not going to say Keith Field night, because I'm pretty secure of the gas industry and what we do.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: I am, too. I am, too. Yep.
[00:13:45] Speaker I: But one thing I think about is just trying to get the true message out. And there's so much information out there that does not seem to meet the credibility that makes.
[00:13:56] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:57] Speaker I: And so, I mean, I just. I like that people like you, people like me, others get out there and just keep the good word going so that we can get the message out. That is, you know, what the people need to hear, that natural gas is here to stay. Natural gas is important for our future, and it is the thing that keeps us growing, keeps our company, our country running.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: I agree. Safe, reliable natural gas. Thank you. You know what? That's great. Thank you.
[00:14:25] Speaker D: And it's almost like we planned it. We bumped right into the kernel from Inejevity and we talked about rng.
[00:14:33] Speaker B: Look at the leaves falling. This is great, man. Knoxville is nice. You know, we were driving around today, and we were watching compost piles that were steaming everywhere. And we were watching, like, we saw the water treatment plant, we saw the landfill. I know it was a very scenic tour, but it made me think of you, and I mean that as a compliment because you're so passionate about rng.
[00:14:58] Speaker H: Well, here's the deal. We fight this fight, and we say the Word natural gas. And in our world, there's a portion of our world that are haters of natural gas. And I think we should just quit saying natural gas and just say renewable natural gas or rng. Every chance we have. Every chance we get. In fact, we have an environmental section right now that's focusing on RNG because it's the future. It really is the future. And it's the best, cleanest, bestest, purest of all the things. So big time best. You like that best.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: We're a long way from EWN Con.
[00:15:33] Speaker H: God, I had such a great time at that conference. I go to a lot of conferences, and I know I'm speaking to EWN people right now, but that's still the best one. It's just that that where we have it at, and the Texas live and you. I mean. I mean, when you get up on the stage there, it's. It's showtime. It's really cool. By the way, though, I have never been as prepped as I was for a conference because of you and your boss. Your boss killed me on that, too. I mean, he's the man. It was his something. He just had an anniversary or birthday or something here. Birthday, anniversary, anniversary. Sent it to him. So it was all good.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a great show. We're here in Knoxville. I know the APGA is important to you.
[00:16:15] Speaker H: Yep.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Past chair.
[00:16:16] Speaker H: Yeah.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: How is it being a past chair.
[00:16:18] Speaker H: Now that I have nothing to do? It's tough. I have to admit. It's tough. I like being in the middle of it. I kind of have to force my way in it now. They still receive it, but, you know, really get a vote anymore. But this is such a great group. I'm. I'm a big APGA guy, and I'm blessed that I got an opportunity to play in it.
[00:16:38] Speaker D: Look, here's the deal.
Sometimes we get excited when we're out there, right? So while we were in Knoxville, we got excited like, many a times and left without recording an outro. And this is a habit, and Ashley and Jim know this as well. We've done it time and time again. So then one of us has to come back and I volunteer as tribute and do the outro. And so that's why I'm here. But it's a good time to do it because, honestly, when we get back, we get to kind of process it all. So we did visit Knoxville Utility Board while we were out there. KUB are good friends there. Spent some time there. I think Jim mentioned it in one of the interviews. About 25, 30 people joined us out there. We got to see a whole lot of things that a lot of people don't get to. We got to experience the Gas City. Look at the. We stood at the controller board of the Gas City portion. KUB is doing some awesome stuff. So very thankful of Jocelyn and team out there for having us out there and Lindsey Baker on the EWN side as well as Stephanie Hubbard joining us out there. It was awesome. Also, we'd like to thank the APGA and SIF as well. We have decided to partner up together to offer an amazing tool to small operators to help with PSMs. And so we are in the throes of that at the moment, excited, hoping 2025 really makes a splash for PSMs. And so hang tight for that. And I think one thing that is unintentional, but it always kind of boils out of these shows. And we heard Steven Mayfield talk about it and we saw it in the excitement with Rhett and Gerald teeing him up. We saw it with Paul Wehner and Heath and. And the new folks coming in there. There is a lot of youth in our industry. There's a lot of changing of the guard. There's a lot of awesome folks that are working hard to get the message out about how awesome our industry is and how it can set you up for life. And we're seeing young folks getting involved there and realizing that themselves. But how do we spread that message? How do we do that? I think we're doing it, I think in interviews like we saw on this show and through the work we do in the advocacy, it's. It's working. Do we need to do more? Absolutely, absolutely. But until then, we'll keep advocating for the good things happening in natural gas. So until next time, I know I can say with confidence that me and Jim and Ashley, thank you for joining us and please, until next time, be safe.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Cheers.
