Posts tagged Ken Salazar

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stopped by The Daily Show with John Stewart the other night.  Have a watch.

Now, it is my greatest desire in the world to completely avoid politics on this site. And anyone who reads the trade press or stops by the keynote speakers at our collective luncheons and conferences knows that Secretary Salazar does not work for an administration particularly favored by the non T. Boone Pickens of our industry. However, I found the following things interesting about this particular, if brief, intersection between between the industry and a the Katy Freeway of pop culture and I wanted to take a minute out to talk about messaging strategies:

1. Salazar, for all his colorful getup, was a surprisingly un-compelling guest.
2. This exchange is probably the greatest amount of information that the average viewer has ever had regarding Oil and Gas leases, how they work, and what the role of the MMS/BLM is in all that.

It’s the second point that got me musing, as I think it could represent one possible shift in populist messaging against the industry. If you’ll recall last year (and who doesn’t, wistfully), when folks were pumping record amounts into their tanks while, at the same time, many of us in the industry were pumping out record profits, there was a brief, if traction-less, call for windfall profits. But think about if the wider population was aware of the fact that some of that profit was coming from land that was being leased from them. What would happen if, while standing there pumping an angry Benjamin into the tank, Joe Public was thinking “I can’t believe I’m paying five bucks a gallon for something that belongs to me. I’m gonna call my congressman and give them a piece of my mind about this.” That’s a story that’s worth re-telling. And the internet is full of examples of stories worth re-telling, misguided, uninformed, well intentioned or indifferent, that catch fire faster than a gusher next to a gun range. It also has the virtue of being able to fit on a t-shirt or a bumper-sticker which, unfortunately, is still important in public discourse.

Now, on the one hand, IPAA and kin could use the argument “if you lowered the royalty rate, prices could come down.” But I don’t think that’s the message that would ultimately win out. The perspective in this piece is very much one of “the industry was getting sweetheart deals that didn’t pass the smell test,” and that pretty much perfectly lines us with the public perception of the industry, unfortunately (again and eternally). This is a message that interest groups should both be on the lookout for and have a straightforward, frank and honest response to.

Sloganeering won’t work here. Remember, the guy that chanted “Drill Baby, Drill” lost out to the guy who drove the hybrid Ford. Fuel for thought.