Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining us now is the CEO and founder of Diversified Energy,
based right here in Birmingham, Rusty Hudson. Back in, Rusty,
good morning, welcome in, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well for a guy that has built a company and
a very quite successful company now in thirteen different states
around our country in the gas and oil business natural gas.
I wanted to get your thoughts on what's been happening
recently with President Trump and the drill Baby drill as
we're getting ready to go offshore and jump into some
drilling off the coast of California and Florida as well.
I mean, this is good news. And you started with
(00:31):
this company in West Virginia, but you've moved here when
you had a previous job with Compass and then I
guess you started it here, So I guess you're from
rust Virginia where you started with the four Wells and
then it grew into thirteen different states now, so you've
got a great business going headquartered here in Birmingham, and
I appreciate to spending time with us, and I thought,
(00:52):
you know what, I want to get an update from
a guy that's actually in the business and what this
means coming from President Trump when he launches back into drill,
baby drill, and really supporting the coal business in the
industry that is so much of West Virginia, and how
the jobs were really in jeopardy under the Biden administration,
and how things are different now. Talk to me about
the wells that they're talking about drilling offshore and what
(01:13):
this means for us.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, there's a lot of oil offshore California. I mean,
if you go back and look at the history of California,
there's significant oil reserves there. And the Governor Newsom who's
there now, has been very, very difficult to work with.
He's really stymied any oil growth or oil development in
the state, both on shore and offshore, over the last
(01:36):
several years. Of course, he has his eyes on making
a run for the White House, so all of a
sudden he's kind of loosened up a little bit knowing
that it's a big issue on the national scene. But
President Trump has just been tremendous in driving down regulations
that have been in the huge impairment of us being
able to develop both oil and natural gas reserves. And
(01:59):
so what you're seeing now is a direct reflection of
just less regulation and the ability to go out and
to get permits and other things to get things moving,
because we need the energy and we need it now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well, you're so dependent on foreign oil. It seems to
me that if we could become more self reliant in
this arena, it would be better for everybody in the
United States. I don't understand. The pushback is the environmentalists
that seem to be the biggest problem for companies like yours.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, without a doubt. I mean, the environmentalists drive, They
want pure wind. They think wind is the answer, and
as I have you and I have talked about multiple times,
wind is the worst option. Nuclear is the best option,
but wind is the worst. California people don't realize this.
Seventy five percent of the oil that California uses as
(02:49):
a state is brought in from opek seventy five percent.
They only produce twenty five percent. They have no natural
pipelines oil pipelines that are brought from other states into
their state. So that's one of the main reasons why
they had the highest natural or gasoline prices in the country. Yeah,
and so it's just it's just you can't make it up,
(03:12):
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's ludicrous. They're sitting on a gold mine and they've
refused to tap into it because it's going to harm
and maybe hurt a little tiny fish swimming in a
creek somewhere. I don't get it either. And we've talked
about these big wind combines you see on the hills
in the mountains, and they're spinning away and birds are
getting chopped up, and sparks are flying off of them,
(03:34):
starting fires down below the power lines near them, And yeah,
I just don't get it either. So I also wanted
to get your thoughts on what the President has done
recently in this cafe. Explain what cafe is and how
it's going to help the automotive industry, you know, bring
prices down on automobiles.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it was a law actually that was imposed back
in nineteen seventy five, but it was really just meant
and if you you know, being somebody who grew up
in the seventies, it was meant to bring down, you know,
to to increase fuel efficiency and vehicles. And so under
the Biden administration is four years of terror. He increased
(04:16):
those fuel efficiency standards to pretty much unattainable limits, trying
to drive people away from gasoline popular vehicles to electric vehicles.
It was his that was his way of doing that.
Trump here in the last week has reduced those again
to to a level that makes it easy, uh, to
(04:41):
number one to hit the number two. Gives the American
people the option of what they want to drive. You know.
Previously he was Biden was trying to drive everybody to
electric vehicle. Now it's your choice. JT. If you want
to drive a gasoline, fine, If you want to drive
electric vehicle, fine. But this will bring down the cost
of manufacturing vehicles, which will make it easy on that.
(05:03):
I think the estimate's about one thousand dollars per vehicle.
The cost reduction, which will make it easier for the
American people to buy their vehicles and not get caused,
you know, and cause inflationary aspects around behind their car.
It will also make it even that much more important
for US oil producers to have lower regulations so we
(05:25):
can help meet this demand because this is going to
continue to increase demand of gasoline and gasoline firepower or engines. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I don't know if you've seen the new television program
the series Landman with Billy Bob Thornton. He plays a
landman that runs you know, the oil wells and all
the things down in Texas for the guy that actually
owns the oil company, and he talks to people that
are left and live on this show and talks to
him about how important it is that everything that you
have in touch and see and do and deal with
has petroleum, you know, in it somehow, some way. The
(05:56):
oil industry is part of that. And for people to
attack it and say we just need to cut it
off and stop doing it and go to this new
source of power and energy and try something different, it's
ludicrous when you get down and peel back the layers
everything and even running some of these evy charging stations,
and you know, the petroleum industry is involved in powering
(06:17):
these big generators and without it, you know, this country
is not going to be able to survive. It's just
it's crazy to even think that what Joe Biden was
proposing could come to fruition and be good for us.
So rusty. What are the biggest challenges for the gas
and oil industry in twenty twenty six that you see
that need addressed.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, one of the biggest things is and the President
is all over this as is Congress. I speak to
a lot of the Senators, a lot of the Congressional
members in DC. Is a bipartisan permitting reform. We have
a major problem in our country. We have desperate need
(06:58):
of energy and our generation, but we have a major
problem in getting anything built. Environmentalists have great success at
litigating and closing things down as fast because it just
becomes almost impossible to get anything built because of the
cost of continual litigation. And so Congress is now working
(07:21):
and it's now impacted both the Democrats and the Republicans
because Democrats want more grid built, they want more renewable energy.
What's affecting them just as much as it's affecting you
ole and gas industry. So that's the biggest thing on
the agenda. I believe as we move into twenty twenty six,
is a bipartisan permitting reform that will help us to
build pipelines, power generation, new grid. We need it all
(07:45):
because we do not want to lose and you and
I've talked about this over and over. We do not
want to lose the Ai War with China. We do
not want to lose it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, Rusty, I really appreciate you congrats on the success
of your business, Diversified Energy, a major player in this
center world, and I thank you for coming on with
me this morning.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Go Mountaineers, Yeah, let's go, buddy.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You're right about that too, Mountaineers, let's go.
Joining us now is the CEO and founder of Diversified Energy,
based right here in Birmingham, Rusty Hudson. Back in, Rusty,
good morning, welcome in, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well for a guy that has built a company and
a very quite successful company now in thirteen different states
around our country in the gas and oil business natural gas.
I wanted to get your thoughts on what's been happening
recently with President Trump and the drill Baby drill as
we're getting ready to go offshore and jump into some
drilling off the coast of California and Florida as well.
I mean, this is good news. And you started with
(00:31):
this company in West Virginia, but you've moved here when
you had a previous job with Compass and then I
guess you started it here, So I guess you're from
rust Virginia where you started with the four Wells and
then it grew into thirteen different states now, so you've
got a great business going headquartered here in Birmingham, and
I appreciate to spending time with us, and I thought,
(00:52):
you know what, I want to get an update from
a guy that's actually in the business and what this
means coming from President Trump when he launches back into drill,
baby drill, and really supporting the coal business in the
industry that is so much of West Virginia, and how
the jobs were really in jeopardy under the Biden administration,
and how things are different now. Talk to me about
the wells that they're talking about drilling offshore and what
(01:13):
this means for us.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, there's a lot of oil offshore California. I mean,
if you go back and look at the history of California,
there's significant oil reserves there. And the Governor Newsom who's
there now, has been very, very difficult to work with.
He's really stymied any oil growth or oil development in
the state, both on shore and offshore, over the last
(01:36):
several years. Of course, he has his eyes on making
a run for the White House, so all of a
sudden he's kind of loosened up a little bit knowing
that it's a big issue on the national scene. But
President Trump has just been tremendous in driving down regulations
that have been in the huge impairment of us being
able to develop both oil and natural gas reserves. And
(01:59):
so what you're seeing now is a direct reflection of
just less regulation and the ability to go out and
to get permits and other things to get things moving,
because we need the energy and we need it now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Well, you're so dependent on foreign oil. It seems to
me that if we could become more self reliant in
this arena, it would be better for everybody in the
United States. I don't understand. The pushback is the environmentalists
that seem to be the biggest problem for companies like yours.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh, without a doubt. I mean, the environmentalists drive, They
want pure wind. They think wind is the answer, and
as I have you and I have talked about multiple times,
wind is the worst option. Nuclear is the best option,
but wind is the worst. California people don't realize this.
Seventy five percent of the oil that California uses as
(02:49):
a state is brought in from opek seventy five percent.
They only produce twenty five percent. They have no natural
pipelines oil pipelines that are brought from other states into
their state. So that's one of the main reasons why
they had the highest natural or gasoline prices in the country. Yeah,
and so it's just it's just you can't make it up,
(03:12):
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's ludicrous. They're sitting on a gold mine and they've
refused to tap into it because it's going to harm
and maybe hurt a little tiny fish swimming in a
creek somewhere. I don't get it either. And we've talked
about these big wind combines you see on the hills
in the mountains, and they're spinning away and birds are
getting chopped up, and sparks are flying off of them,
(03:34):
starting fires down below the power lines near them, And yeah,
I just don't get it either. So I also wanted
to get your thoughts on what the President has done
recently in this cafe. Explain what cafe is and how
it's going to help the automotive industry, you know, bring
prices down on automobiles.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it was a law actually that was imposed back
in nineteen seventy five, but it was really just meant
and if you you know, being somebody who grew up
in the seventies, it was meant to bring down, you know,
to to increase fuel efficiency and vehicles. And so under
the Biden administration is four years of terror. He increased
(04:16):
those fuel efficiency standards to pretty much unattainable limits, trying
to drive people away from gasoline popular vehicles to electric vehicles.
It was his that was his way of doing that.
Trump here in the last week has reduced those again
to to a level that makes it easy, uh, to
(04:41):
number one to hit the number two. Gives the American
people the option of what they want to drive. You know.
Previously he was Biden was trying to drive everybody to
electric vehicle. Now it's your choice. JT. If you want
to drive a gasoline, fine, If you want to drive
electric vehicle, fine. But this will bring down the cost
of manufacturing vehicles, which will make it easy on that.
(05:03):
I think the estimate's about one thousand dollars per vehicle.
The cost reduction, which will make it easier for the
American people to buy their vehicles and not get caused,
you know, and cause inflationary aspects around behind their car.
It will also make it even that much more important
for US oil producers to have lower regulations so we
(05:25):
can help meet this demand because this is going to
continue to increase demand of gasoline and gasoline firepower or engines. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
I don't know if you've seen the new television program
the series Landman with Billy Bob Thornton. He plays a
landman that runs you know, the oil wells and all
the things down in Texas for the guy that actually
owns the oil company, and he talks to people that
are left and live on this show and talks to
him about how important it is that everything that you
have in touch and see and do and deal with
has petroleum, you know, in it somehow, some way. The
(05:56):
oil industry is part of that. And for people to
attack it and say we just need to cut it
off and stop doing it and go to this new
source of power and energy and try something different, it's
ludicrous when you get down and peel back the layers
everything and even running some of these evy charging stations,
and you know, the petroleum industry is involved in powering
(06:17):
these big generators and without it, you know, this country
is not going to be able to survive. It's just
it's crazy to even think that what Joe Biden was
proposing could come to fruition and be good for us.
So rusty. What are the biggest challenges for the gas
and oil industry in twenty twenty six that you see
that need addressed.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, one of the biggest things is and the President
is all over this as is Congress. I speak to
a lot of the Senators, a lot of the Congressional
members in DC. Is a bipartisan permitting reform. We have
a major problem in our country. We have desperate need
(06:58):
of energy and our generation, but we have a major
problem in getting anything built. Environmentalists have great success at
litigating and closing things down as fast because it just
becomes almost impossible to get anything built because of the
cost of continual litigation. And so Congress is now working
(07:21):
and it's now impacted both the Democrats and the Republicans
because Democrats want more grid built, they want more renewable energy.
What's affecting them just as much as it's affecting you
ole and gas industry. So that's the biggest thing on
the agenda. I believe as we move into twenty twenty six,
is a bipartisan permitting reform that will help us to
build pipelines, power generation, new grid. We need it all
(07:45):
because we do not want to lose and you and
I've talked about this over and over. We do not
want to lose the Ai War with China. We do
not want to lose it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Well, Rusty, I really appreciate you congrats on the success
of your business, Diversified Energy, a major player in this
center world, and I thank you for coming on with
me this morning.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Go Mountaineers, Yeah, let's go, buddy.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You're right about that too, Mountaineers, let's go.
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