Longtime Association Execs Find Both Change And Constancy In Work Of Industry Advocates

By Bill Campbell

For better or worse, independent oil and gas companies must answer to more than boards of directors and stockholders. Whether privately owned or publicly traded, independents have a larger responsibility that stems from the fact the business of finding, developing and producing hydrocarbons impacts public policies ranging from national security to hot-button state and local issues such as taxation and land use.

Oil and gas long have been entwined with all manners of political and regulatory affairs, but the political environment in which independents must operate has changed dramatically over the past half century. The industry today finds itself the target of more antagonism and vitriolic attacks–frequently carefully directed and choreographed by a variety of special interest groups, many of which are well connected, financed and organized.

Yet the basic intents and purposes of the exploration, drilling and production business haven’t changed, and the same can be said of the trade associations that represent them in government arenas around the country. Associations have always–and still do–exist to enable their members to engage in the search for oil and gas without being burdened with excessive rates of taxation or overly restrictive environmental regulations, points out Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association.

He says, “The oil and gas associations always have been pretty assertive in energy politics, but I think they are getting better at engaging public policy. That is where they ought to be focused.”

Perhaps they are getting better because the objects of their focus have remained amazingly constant over the years, hints Barry Russell. Russell came to the staff of the Independent Petroleum Association of America in 1980 after having worked at Booz, Allan and Hamilton, and in the office of the general counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Today he serves IPAA as president and chief executive officer.

“One of the things I find amazing is that a lot of the basic issues haven’t changed over the years,” he comments. “We are still dealing with tax issues and taking money out of the industry that could be used for exploration and production. We are looking at access issues that were getting started in the 1980s as more and more areas were designated for ‘wilderness.’”

Environmental Circles
The same environmental issues keep recycling as well, Russell continues. In 1980, Congress was considering regulating drilling fluids as hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. His expertise in that area was one of the reasons IPAA hired him, Russell reveals.

Russell says he thought he would come in and work that issue and then move on. But gaining an exemption under RCRA led into Superfund, he recalls, and from there to the Safe Drinking Water Act, and Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

“We felt we were successful in the 1980s in showing that those statutes really were not fit for our industry–that oil and gas either was regulated at the state level or the issue really was not a problem in our industry,” Russell reflects. “Then the environmentalists tried to take another bite out of that apple in the ’90s, and we were successful again by looking at the specific state programs.”

But rather than laying the issue to rest, he points out that only a few months ago, at the end of October, Congressman Henry Waxman, D-Ca., was chairing a hearing in his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that was called to examine alleged loopholes for oil and gas in the same laundry list of federal environmental statutes. “So the issues are remarkably similar,” Russell concludes.

Stewart began working as OOGA executive vice president in September 1991, but his involvement in the oil and gas business went back to 1974, when he joined his father’s small Ohio drilling and production company. “One of the very first jobs I did when I went to work for dad was a pile of Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure forms he put in front of me and said, ‘Fill these out,’” Stewart remembers. “You would think things such as spill control would be so easy–you put a dike around (facilities) and don’t let oil get in the creek. Yet we are still fighting with the U.S. EPA about SPCC.”

Taxes And More Taxes
Donald P. Schnacke served as executive vice president of the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association from 1974 through 1997, the year the association celebrated its 60th anniversary. For the celebration at KIOGA’s annual meeting that year, Schnacke put together a booklet listing all the association’s presidents and the key issues with which they dealt. Those issues included a proposed ad valorem tax schedule and percentage depletion in the terms of E.B. Shawver and William E. Ainsworth in 1938-39 and 1940-41, respectively. They ended with a court decision related to ad valorem taxes and lobbying for tax relief under David L. Murfin in 1995-97.

“They were repeating all the time,” Schnacke recalls. “It was the same old story all the time.”

Even something as transforming as natural gas deregulation and the unbundling of the nation’s pipeline system, which several association executives count among the most dramatic changes they have seen in the past quarter century, has its vestiges in today’s advocacy efforts, according to Russell.

As they worked to decontrol natural gas, he recalls, associations preached the importance of allowing free markets to work. Today, he says, much time is spent trying to explain to legislators how those markets are reflected in the industry. “A lot of times our opponents see market aberrations and look for ways they think will correct those things, but they actually make them worse,” he muses. “I think that has been true for the past 30 years.”

Bonds And Permits
While there may be a component of déjà vu in the issues longtime association executives are working today compared with those that marked the early years of their careers, the issues themselves span a gamut as broad as the expanse of America’s oil and gas industry.

Back in the industry’s birthplace, the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1983 was struggling with what eventually became the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act: the first comprehensive regulatory framework imposed on the oil and gas industry in the state. The Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association was looking for someone with good connections to represent it, and Stephen W. Rhoads, who had spent two years lobbying for the state’s homebuilders after having worked as a legislative aide in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, fit the description.

That law, which was passed in 1984 and amended a few years later, has been a constant companion in Rhoads’ journey as POGAM’s chief executive. “There was a great deal of reluctance, especially among the small independent producers, who were the lion’s share of the Pennsylvania industry at the time, to come up with any form of financial assurance to guarantee plugging their wells,” he recalls.

Nevertheless, a broad bonding requirement was a part of the Oil and Gas Act, which Rhoads says “created serious problems for the association. There were a number of attempts over the years to amend it, and finally about 10 years later, there were some provisions put in the law that effectively grandfathered a lot of the old wells.”

Even that was not the end of it. Just last year the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection proposed revisions that Rhoads describes as “extremely draconian. It seems to have moved to the backburner,” he assesses, “although we don’t think that is over yet. We never expected bonding to become an issue again after everything was resolved in the mid-’90s; now it is potentially back and we may find ourselves dealing with it legislatively.

“Throughout the whole time we have been involved in a variety of environmental issues (relating to) our presence on the ground, moving onto a location, moving earth and drilling a well,” he adds.

Stormwater management comes under that umbrella. “Unlike most of the rest of the country, (Pennsylvania operators) always have had to deal with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting requirements,” Rhoads outlines. “It wasn’t until the rest of the oil and gas producing states became aware of it when the EPA published its Phase II rule (in February 2000) that the issue became significant enough nationwide to be addressed by Congress.”

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 subsequently clarified that the exemption from NPDES permitting for oil and gas operations granted in the Clean Water Act included predrilling earth disturbances. Rhoads says the Pennsylvania industry had managed to negotiate a reasonable permitting regime with the DEP for its state-level program, which was in place when it became a national issue.

“The 2005 energy bill basically eliminated the permit requirement from the federal NPDES program,” he narrates. “We, like every other state in the nation, benefited. However, given its history and the fact it had primacy over the program and its own enabling authority, our DEP was not satisfied to let us get away with an exemption. Shortly thereafter it proposed a new permitting requirement that essentially would restore the status quo before the congressional action.

“That new permit regime has been sitting around in draft form for more than a year and a half, and will be formally adopted very soon,” Rhoads notes. “So the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same here in Pennsylvania.”

Eyes On Washington
While POGAM dealt at the state level with what was essentially a national issue, Alex Mills was attempting to influence national events from an office in West Texas. Mills says he went to the West Central Texas Oil & Gas Association in Abilene in 1981 to understudy the legendary Glenn Michel, then became WeCTOGA’s executive vice president when Michel retired in 1983. He stayed in that position until joining the IPAA staff in Washington in 1986.

In 1994, Mills says, he returned to Texas as the executive vice president of the North Texas Oil & Gas Association in Wichita Falls. NTOGA and WeCTOGA merged in 2000 to form the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, which Mills serves as president and chief executive officer.

Of those early days at WeCTOGA, Mills recalls, “We had just been through a really rough period economically for the nation. Rising crude oil prices had a major impact on that. We had a very antagonistic Congress, and it was the beginning of all those environmental laws the industry really has had to struggle to stay up with: SDWA, CWA, CAA. Those things that brought about SPCC plans, and stormwater runoff and hydraulic fracturing issues all started in the 1970s.”

Although the impact of the ’70s federal environmental statutes was beginning to filter down to the oil patch in the early 1980s, Mills says he doesn’t remember WeCTOGA being overly concerned. More important, he says, were the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 and the effects of the new federal Windfall Profit Tax.

Perhaps the reason for that, he ponders, is that the EPA was not equipped to oversee all those massive programs, so it allowed states to take primacy for enforcement, so long as their rules were equivalent to the federal requirements. “The concept of regulating the industry in Texas was a lot different than it was in Washington,” Mills assures. “Texas regulators definitely wanted to protect the water and air, as did the industry, but they also considered the impact those regulations had on industry, where in many cases, the EPA would not take cost into consideration.”

But WeCTOGA’s eyes definitely were turned toward Washington in those days, Mills says. “It was 90 percent federal,” he estimates. “We would get complaints; somebody would call and say such-and-such inspector at the (Texas) Railroad Commission was not being reasonable, or something. But when you are talking about that compared with a windfall profits tax or some big environmental law coming down the pike, it was a no-brainer where you were going to focus your attention.”

There is one state-level issue from those years that Mills says stands out in his mind, however. In 1983, he relates, the RRC called association representatives to Austin to tell them the industry was going to have to take responsibility for unplugged orphan wells in the state, and that the agency intended to propose the state legislature adopt a $100 drilling permit fee, to be used for plugging wells.

“This was a whole new concept because the RRC was the regulatory agency that was supposed to oversee proper plugging of wells,” Mills expresses. “We had to gulp real hard on that one.”

It is a pill Texas producers still are choking on, Mills says, pointing out that through a variety of revenue sources the Texas Oil Field Cleanup Fund brought in more than $20 million in 2007. “Giving in to a $100 drilling permit fee back in 1983 has mushroomed into a $20 million-a-year multitude of issues for us,” he rues. “The point is, what may look harmless in the beginning can become a very big headache down the road.”

Natural Gas Deregulation
Up in Colorado, Ken Wonstolen worked on the staff of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States from 1983 through 1989, a little over half that time as executive director. He spent the next 10 years as in-house counsel and environmental officer for a succession of Denver oil companies before returning to association work in 2000 as senior vice president and general counsel for the Colorado Oil & Gas Association. Wonstolen stayed with COGA until joining the national law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski in January 2007, although he continues to serve COGA as legal counsel on a contract basis.

“The thing that stands out most in my mind from the IPAMS days was that we were in the throes of natural gas deregulation,” Wonstolen recalls, adding that IPAMS was a leading advocate of open access transportation. “IPAMS was very involved at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, all the way from its first Order 386 through the final Order 636.”

In fact, he says, the association prosecuted a pipeline discrimination case that formed the basis for FERC’s pipeline affiliate abuse rule. “That was a major effort to prosecute a case at the FERC, so we were heavily involved in the issue of getting the pipes open on a fair and equitable basis for producers,” Wonstolen avers.

An ancillary issue that percolated through those gas decontrol debates, Wonstolen continues, was Canadian gas imports and rate structures. At a time when gas supply exceeded demand, he says many domestic producers believed a “regulatory artifact” distorted the market by allowing importers to include a number of variable costs in the pipeline demand charge, whereas domestic producers had to recover those costs through their commodity charge. “Once you had paid the Canadian demand charge, you were going to take as much gas as you could because you had already paid a lot for your capacity,” Wonstolen remembers. “In the United States, a lot of those costs were loaded on the energy side so you had a disincentive to buy American gas. I remember testifying before Congress on that.”

Public lands issues also were big for IPAMS in the 1980s. In particular, Wonstolen points to the Department of Interior’s Notice to Lessees-Five, which would have required federal royalties to be based on NGPA ceiling prices. “Obviously, as we got into deregulation of wellhead pricing, people were not getting anything near the ceiling price for their gas, so they were paying an extremely high effective royalty rate,” Wonstolen says. “We ended having to get an act of Congress passed to get that resolved.”

And then there was the Federal Onshore Leasing Reform Act of 1987. “IPAMS played a leading role in shaping that to preserve the nomination system, oral auction and competitive bidding,” Wonstolen states. “We played a major role in preserving the ability of independents to maximize their chances at federal leasing.”

Groups And Taxes
Being a regional association for 11 Rocky Mountain states, Wonstolen says IPAMS tended to not get overly involved in state-level issues. One that does stick out in his mind, though, was an explosion at a La Salle, Co., lumberyard in spring 1984 that was blamed on natural gas migrating up the backside of casing that did not extend far enough into the aquifer, along the water table and into a water well. “I don’t know that it was ever proven, but that was the thought process,” Wonstolen says.

It was significant for a couple reasons, he allows. First, “It kicked off an era at the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission of much more detailed and increasing rules on the industry that has never stopped,” he says. Second, it led to the formation of the Denver-Julesburg Petroleum Association, which eventually evolved into the COGA that Wonstolen later went to work for.

Meanwhile, one state to the east, the issue KIOGA’s Schnacke says he remembers most vividly was Governor John Carlin’s quest to saddle the oil and gas industry with a severance tax.

Although talk of a statewide severance tax had surfaced at the Kansas Legislature at least as early as 1947, it was an idea KIOGA was able to quell for many years–until Carlin campaigned for governor in 1978 by promising to lower people’s utility bills by taxing oil and gas extraction. Even then it took him until 1983 and a looming budget deficit to push it through, Schnacke says.

“He promised this new tax money was going to reduce taxes, build highways and raise teacher salaries,” Schnacke reflects. “Of course none of that happened. That probably was the one big issue I participated in that was a loser for the industry. I felt bad we lost that.”

Home In Ohio
In Ohio, Stewart likewise remembers working on natural gas deregulation and trying to prevent production wastes from being regulated as hazardous under RCRA.

Making the RCRA reauthorization of the mid-’90s more personal for OOGA, he says, was that a congressman from Cleveland, Dennis Eckert, offered an amendment to move oil and gas regulation into a new Subtitle D under RCRA. “So obviously there was a focus on Ohio because the guy who was the biggest, most credible threat was one of our own,” Stewart comments.

Likewise, Stewart says, OOGA viewed natural gas decontrol from a somewhat unique perspective. “Ohio went through those pipeline travails a lot earlier than many other areas,” he states. “People forget natural gas marketing–the whole concept of self-help and transportation–was born in Ohio. There was a company named Yankee Gas that was one of the first natural gas marketers. Enron, the pipeline company, bought Yankee. That is how Enron got into gas marketing.”

Yet another issue of national importance had its genesis in Ohio, Stewart continues. “We had legislation in Ohio that essentially was meant to authorize primacy for state regulators over pipeline safety on behalf of the federal Department of Transportation,” he says. “That set up a battle line that exists today. That is when we got engaged in this whole issue of defining gathering, and what was regulated and what was not.”

Pace Of Advocacy
While there has been a lot of similarity–and constancy–over the years to the issues for which associations have lobbied on behalf of the oil and gas industry, the job itself has certainly seen a number of changes.

Schnacke, who had been kicking around the Kansas Statehouse for nearly 20 years before joining KIOGA, began by doing contract lobbying for the Commerce Clearinghouse of Chicago while he was attending law school in 1955 in Topeka, Ks. He remembers his early lobbying for KIOGA as more of a social event. He describes meetings between KIOGA members and legislators as “sort of a stag event. They would get together and just have a lot of fun,” he says.

Today, he says, KIOGA Executive Vice President Ed Cross maintains regular day-to-day and even hour-to-hour contact with legislators. “He has a whole army of guys who can come in and participate in things that are important,” Schnacke says. “We didn’t have that when I started.”

IPAA’s Russell agrees that the pace of advocacy was more leisurely in the 1980s. He tells the story of going to talk to U.S. Representative Jennings Randolph of West Virginia, who chaired the House Environment and Public Works Committee. The late Lloyd Unsell was then president of IPAA, and Russell says, “Lloyd, in his great style, asked if I needed his help. Of course I said yes. We went down and those two talked for two and a half hours about everything from the 1930s to World War II and all the way to the present. Then in the last few minutes they talked about this RCRA exemption and Randolph said he would help us, and that was that. We won by a vote.

“Today there is not enough time to do those kinds of things,” Russell ventures, adding that while personal relationships still are important, so too is the ability to flood a politician’s office with thousands of e-mails on a particular subject. “You can’t go in and just talk to one guy and hope that will be it,” he articulates. “It takes a much more layered approach.”

Shifting Attitudes
For many years, oil and gas was Texas’ dominant industry, Mills points out, and associations could anticipate support from rural lawmakers and at least neutrality from their urban counterparts. That is no longer the case, he imparts. Shifting population demographics have caused the change, he speculates.

“In the 1980s, a lot of people started moving to Texas, and our population has changed considerably,” Mills explains. “The influx of a lot of new people who haven’t been exposed to the economic benefits of the oil and gas industry puts more pressure on us. Texas is not as rural as it was 20-25 years ago. People are buying little ‘ranchettes’ with production on them and don’t realize the mineral estate is dominant. If they don’t own the minerals, the oil industry has the right of ingress.”

That frequently results in conflict and creates politicians who once could be counted on for support, but now have constituents with a beef, Mills says. Consequently, he says, a lobbyist now must attempt to identify legitimate complaints and see whether there is some way he can help the lawmaker solve the constituent’s problem. “Can we compromise and reach an agreement so that he wins and we don’t get hurt?” Mills poses, adding: “Fewer and fewer people see it your way right off the bat.”

In Colorado, that situation is exacerbated by term limits, Wonstolen attests. “A lot of times the first contact you are going to have with legislators is some freshman with a satchel full of oil and gas legislation and no background at all,” he says. “You really do have to get over that first hurdle of: ‘Are these problems real? Can we do something to fix them? And along the way, can we educate you a little about the industry?’”

Environmentalist Opposition
The growth of radical environmentalism also makes working with lawmakers more difficult, association executives say. That is especially acute in the mountain states, Wonstolen maintains. “There are literally people who believe in their guts that somehow oil and gas are evil and ought to be driven away,” he says.

“Every area has its ‘friends of’ or ‘citizens for,’ and they are all getting funding from East and West coast foundations,” he adds.

That does a couple things, the execs say. “You have to deal with a lot of emotional testimony on virtually any bill,” says Wonstolen. “You have people crying and legislators feeling they need to do something. It makes it very difficult.”

It also creates a built-in bias with which industry lobbyists must contend. “When I used to go talk with people on Capitol Hill about these environmental issues, a lot of senators and congressmen weren’t that familiar with what I was talking about, so they would listen and it made sense, and we would get it done,” Russell recalls.

But that was before radical environmentalists made halting oil and gas development in many parts of the country their top priority, he goes on. “When you have these groups saying things that are not true, and then you start talking about the facts on some issue, it is not like you are talking about some little-known thing. It would be the equivalent of talking about the Iraq War,” he analogizes. “Everybody has a position on it. Everybody sees it as emotionally charged, and they don’t just listen to the logic and say, ‘That makes a lot of sense, let’s do it.’”

Grass-Roots Network
It doesn’t help the situation, POGAM’s Rhoads offers, that legislatures often run on impressions. “It has become even more insidious with the advent of the Internet,” he poses. “Information can be disseminated a great deal more rapidly and a great deal farther; so can disinformation,” he allows.

That is where personal relationships become very important, Rhoads says. Noting that while 31 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties have oil or gas production, two-thirds of the state’s people live in the 36 counties that do not. “As a result, two-thirds of the political power has no historical, cultural or economic ties to the oil and gas industry,” he says.

Rhoads says POGAM has worked hard to build a grass-roots network in those western Pennsylvania counties where the industry has a presence, and has been fortunate that a significant portion of the legislative leadership has come from that area. “That helps considerably when we need to take a very aggressive role in the general assembly,” he attests. “We have a natural constituency that understands the value of our industry to the communities they represent.”

For his part, OOGA’s Stewart says he sees it as part of his job to help officeholders solve problems for constituents, if those problems are credible and solvable. “On the other hand,” he continues, “I don’t have any burning desire to make people love us.”

His philosophy, Stewart explains, “We are advocates for a specific interest. We don’t try to make legislators our buddies; we simply want them to be aware of our issues and make prudent decisions.

“The way we have approached legislators is not so much trying to schmooze or coddle them, as to present credible information and demand a response,” he expounds. “OOGA has tried to raise its profile to the point where we are serious in public policy and deserve a place at the table, even if you are opposed or not naturally inclined to support the energy industry. I think that has served us well.”

Industry Divisions
Changes in the oil and gas business itself also have changed the way associations advocate. One of the most obvious is the dramatic rise in the importance of natural gas.

When he was hired in 1974, Schnacke says he noticed the word “gas” in KIOGA’s name. “I asked who was in charge of the gas end of this program, and there wasn’t anybody,” he laughs. “They didn’t have a gas committee or even think about natural gas. Well, think about natural gas today. I have a client that won the contract to build a pipeline to bring Alaskan gas from the North Slope to Calgary. It is going to cost $26 billion. That is how important natural gas has become.”

With that growth has come the complete transformation of how natural gas is moved to market, points out Mills. When he began association work, Mills says, most Texas producers sold their gas to an integrated utility that gathered, transported and delivered it to an end user. People would complain about the utility, he recalls, but not to the point they couldn’t do business.

“All that has changed in that now you have a segment that gathers the gas. You have a segment that is an intrastate pipeline that may sell to the utility in Texas, but it also may sell to an automotive plant in Detroit,” Mills elaborates. “The whole industry has changed. I am not saying that is good or bad, but it has become a lot more combative. When you have those sectors competing with each other, it spills over from the business part of the world into the regulatory and legislative world.”

The other big difference Mills says he sees, is that as the major oil companies have withdrawn from lower-48 upstream operations, their appetite for taking on regulatory and legislative issues that now have relatively less impact on their overall profitability has lessened, although their presence in capitol hallways has not.

“There are many more disagreements within the industry,” Mills concludes. “We used to sit down with the majors and there was hardly any disagreement on issues. Now you are fighting with the majors on just about everything. If you are not fighting with the majors, you are fighting with the pipelines or some other industry group about an issue. The industry has become much more fragmented.”

Wonstolen watched the major oil companies almost totally disappear from the Rocky Mountains during the downturn of the 1980s, and then saw many of them return as natural gas exploration boomed in the new century. He says he can sympathize with a major oil company not wanting to fight what to it are insignificant rule changes. “No one is going to give ExxonMobil any sympathy if it has to put up a $5,000 bond. Why should its brand image be associated with fighting penny-ante regulations?” he expresses.

But he says his experience has been the opposite of Mills’. IPAMS was formed as a counterweight to the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Association in the mid-1970s, and Wonstolen says there was a definite tension between independents and majors. But today, he says, he sees more convergence.

“I think because we are under such attack, you naturally pull together,” Wonstolen surmises. “The majors have figured out that they are facing the same access problems as everybody else, and they really do have to deal with these public relations issues. So I would say the industry as a whole understands we are in these things together and need to stick together as much as possible.”

Sophisticated Independents
The industry change Wonstolen says he believes has most changed his advocacy work is the emergence of so-called superindependents through acquisitions and mergers. In his days at IPAMS, and even when he began with COGA in 2000, Wonstolen explains, association members were primarily local companies. His board of directors was made up of their CEOs.

But then came the merger mania of the past several years. “I think we have had $25 billion in acquisitions of assets and companies in Denver,” Wonstolen observes. “Now you have virtually no CEOs on the COGA Board. You have the Denver office vice president of the Rocky Mountain or Colorado division, or in some cases you may even have the vice president of government relations. You don’t have that direct pipeline to the top of the decision chain anymore.”

The other dynamic, he continues, is that as those companies grew, they began to hire their own lobbyists–partly at the urging of the association, Wonstolen acknowledges–to help deal with the explosion of legislative and regulatory issues. Those individuals, of course, report to their clients before checking in with the COGA staff.

“I don’t think it is either good or bad, but certainly it has changed the dynamics of how you interact with your members,” Wonstolen assesses. “It probably has made it more difficult to reach consensus and get decisions made.”

Russell, too, says he has watched many smaller, “mom-and-pop” companies give way to the rise of public companies. “We have about 300 public companies in IPAA now,” he remarks. “We have private equity financing and a much more sophisticated industry than when I started, so it has changed the structure and how we deal with things.”

Although both claim they still have a lot of small-company members, Rhoads and Stewart in Appalachia acknowledge that today’s operators have grown much more sophisticated.

“When I came, the industry was populated by quite a few ‘good old boys,’” Rhoads says. “People who run companies these days are savvy, they are connected, and they have a much better sense of themselves and their relationships to their natural, political, economic and cultural environments. That makes my job a lot easier because I can draw on some very good talent and information to make our case.”

Stewart comments that when his father was in the business, it was not hard to find oil and gas in the Clinton Sand. “It was relatively easy to get a good well after fracturing,” he says. “Prices weren’t so good, but he found a lot of oil and gas without being a very sophisticated explorationist.

“Today you have to be pretty sophisticated,” Stewart holds. “You have to have a lot of good education and expertise to not only find oil and gas, but also to drill and operate in such a way that you protect human health and safety, and the environment. So I think the makeup of the industry has changed.”

There is one thing that has not changed, however, insists Wonstolen: the character of the people themselves. “It has been a constant through the years that the people in this industry are great to work with,” he declares. “They are very knowledgeable, capable, smart and personable people, although that certainly isn’t the public’s image of the industry.”

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