Episode 134 is brought to you by Center Rock Manufacturing. Center Rock manufactures a full line of air rock drilling tools and accessories, including down-the-hole hammers, bits from 3½ inches to 48 inches, overburdened drilling systems, and LP canister drills from 18 inches to 144 inches. They offer mobile workshops for drilling companies, custom manufactured drill strings, and they do this with an experienced staff and factory service technicians who can support all of these offerings and many more. Thank you, Center Rock. We really appreciate it.

We've had a lot to cover since October 31. I hope you enjoyed our Halloween episode. It sounds like management really had a great time with my boy Bron, and they're keeping him on the payroll for special events, so stay tuned. We start this week’s newscast with an update on the November 1 meetings of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology with their special groundwater working group. Next, we head to COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they're discussing the importance of the world’s commitment to greenhouse gas reductions. Our feature this week is how do we keep that drilling team solidarity during the fourth-quarter red zone? How do we keep our people safe? How do we punch through for that touchdown? When do we know to be on the defense? And that's, of course, why I'm supporting my boys—the Lions. Dan Campbell's doing a heck of a job. We learned how to kick field goals this year.

Mental Health Safety from Now to New Year

 For this week in safety, we've got to check in on everybody’s mental health. Are they physically on job sites or mentally gone? There are so many pieces of this happening right here. We have a lot of changes all at once, from a major sugar buzz on Halloween to the change in daylight savings to an election that is split through the country to the holidays coming up. Do they have a place to be for Thanksgiving? Do they have enough money to provide for the Christmas holidays or the holidays you celebrate at the end of the year? It's a lot of pieces, and a big one is seasonal affective disorder, which very much has to do with the shortened days—not enough sunshine. It wears on our people and it can look like other types of depression.

We need to understand that in our industry, 49 out of every 100,000 workers—remember, there are only 8.25 million workers in the construction industry—49 out of 100,000 take their lives every year, and we need to be looking at the signs, from fatigue to overeating to substance abuse to irritability to just not enjoying what they're doing. We have got to check in on 'em.

The holidays weigh on us. Elections with the country split weigh on us. The Lions beating your team weigh on you. We're kneecapping everybody right now. We need to make sure they have help. We are a team that is successful and gets to the goal line together because we have each other's backs. We can't be blindsided by depression when we can be there. So, you recognize something—get them help!

They can text 988. They can call 988, the suicide hotline. You can go online, you can look at OSHA, you can look at the Department of Labor. There are many places, even the CDC, to get help for people dealing with depression. You can text 988. You can call it and get the right resources to take care of somebody. And if it's you, you can call me, you can text me. We are a great industry and we're here to help you. We just have to recognize we need help when we need it, and sometimes, dang it, we're not thinking about everything that's impacting somebody, from their family members to their friends, to the uncertainty of what 2025 has to offer, from being a diversified business heavily into geothermal to not knowing if that's going to be there or PFOS investigation and where we could go there to water wells. There's so many pieces here. Let's get our people the help they need. Go out, be safe.

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for Groundwater Security

On November 1, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, known as PCAST, presented a draft report on groundwater security in the United States. The most recent report is from many months—over a year and a half of research—and this report is not complete. This was just the preliminary presentation. However, it sparked outrage from stakeholders, states, water associations, and anyone who believes research leads to regulation. I’m going to throw the yellow flag on the field and call holding on the offense.

We do not maintain groundwater quality and understand the strategic water reserves and what’s happening in our country’s water supplies without research. This was not overreaching or some liberal agenda. Groundwater, environmental policy, clean air, and clean energy are bipartisan. I don’t need to tackle you to make you understand this.

In reality, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology isn’t a newfangled left idea. It’s been around for 91 years and in that time it has conducted research with plenty of opportunities for stakeholder states, subject matter experts, and associations to give public comment and collaborate. Just as our National Groundwater Association pulled together a team of experts along with the board review, they jumped right in and submitted five pages to show the industry what we are for groundwater experts. I think this is important for us to understand that having a working group committee of experts from around the world is not brand new. The PCAST teams have evolved over the last 91 years and now include science experts in astrophysics, ecology, ecological engineering, cybersecurity, social science, neuroscience, nanotechnology, and collaboration from Nobel laureates and MacArthur Fellows. I want you to consider that when FDR was in office, we didn’t understand plate tectonics yet.

PCAST teams have been assembled to solve problems that have been impacting our country and our ability to operate or go to war. President Trump’s first administration had a very robust PCAST team actively working. He stated, “We look at tomorrow and we see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our greatest journeys are not yet made.” During President Trump’s first term, his PCAST team focused on COVID-19 research and the vaccine. That’s correct. His people pushed the research through to develop the vaccine that we have. They also worked on artificial intelligence, which helped bring the COVID-19 vaccine to fruition. His team also researched climate change and how it impacts water. In 2019, through PCAST, he signed the National Integrated Drought Information Reauthorization Act, which was to ensure revitalizing America’s weather programs to protect lives and property.

Its research created legislation and invested in weather research to help predict extreme weather, drought, excessive rains, and all the things. He created the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC), which worked with the academic research community to develop new emerging technologies to protect water supplies, properties, and human life. He went on to use this research to join the World Economic Forum’s initiative to plant 1 trillion trees, which he said was an ambitious goal but was obtainable to grow and conserve 1 trillion trees worldwide by 2030. Why? Because his PCAST team did the research and showed that healthy forests support natural stream systems and watersheds, filtering drinking water for 180 million Americans.

During President Obama’s administration, they launched the Safety of America’s Drinking Water PCAST right after the Flint water crisis started. Now let’s jump to the not-so-unordinary idea of a council of scientists, academics, and engineers solving problems, which was December 2023, when they first announced the groundwater working group. I want you to think about what was going on in 2023: Navajo Nation vs. the United States and Arizona over water, the Department of Interior evaluating groundwater supplies throughout the country. That was federal regulation, not a working group collaboration. This administration’s PCAST working group for groundwater had experts from the medical tech industry along with academics in groundwater science and ecology from the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, Florida State University, Virginia, Ohio State University, and the University of Arizona. First thing on this report — you can go watch the YouTube video or pull up the PowerPoint yourself — it states and recognizes that the federal government has limited authority to regulate groundwater.

It continues with states having primary responsibility for creating and enforcing their own laws, policies, and regulations. They go on to say groundwater systems are heterogeneous across the nation, which means they change in terms of geology, climate, economics, culture, and politics. The problem with that is decentralized systems allow states to address specific challenges and opportunities within their jurisdiction but impact the groundwater basins as a whole. Look at the Ogallala Aquifer. They reported on groundwater facts that stated drinking water from groundwater supplies half of the U.S. population. Agricultural irrigation relies on 70% of its water coming from groundwater. They state groundwater security and stability are critical for security, health, and economic sustainability. They asked for findings from federal and state agencies, professionals, water associations, academics, and subject matter experts.

They wanted to know from a state and local level what they could do, and they stated that when we get to the small level, the local level efforts are limited by available funds, limited accessibility to groundwater models and predictions, lack of standardized data protocols and metrics, which hamper sharing data and best practices. I want you to consider all of the posturing throughout the country right now with states on this. Groundwater is mine, not yours, and we see this from California to Oregon to Georgia to Florida. Most recently, New Mexico and Texas, where Texas won. That was a federal decision right there at the Supreme Court. They also state there is a shortage of skilled workforce in groundwater industries, including science management, stakeholders, and engagement.

They go on to say that we need to focus on the science and technology. They asked questions on how the federal government can help state and local water managers. How can we help, not how can we regulate? This is very important for us to understand as we go into 2025 and how we represent ourselves as groundwater professionals. What research is needed now to safeguard water security and sustainability for the future? What potential incentives could the federal government provide to promote sustainable quantity, quality, and efficiency? Back in July, the National Groundwater Association (NGWA), of which I’m a member, submitted a five-page response. I appreciate that I am a member and that my funds go to support this camaraderie. Coming up in Las Vegas, I appreciate that The Driller Newscast can provide some insight that excites folks. I loved this line.

I’m going to tell you right now, you need to check out this PCAST and go to ngwa.org to read their five-page report. This statement is so important to me: Bill and his team led with, “safeguarding groundwater is a global challenge, but the primary sustainable management solutions are found at the local aquifer or groundwater basin level.” Think about that. That’s the groundwater we are pulling out of the watershed that we need to be looking at. It continues, “Groundwater occurs in aquifers that are highly variable across the country in size, geology, climate, overlying land use, and water demands. Aquifers are natural infrastructures providing groundwater storage, subsurface conveyance, and surface water flow, and often are sinks receiving waste fluids. They require individualized attention at the state and local levels. States develop and implement regulations and laws to ensure best practices for management and monitoring and have the regulatory authority to step in where groundwater management is ineffective.”

These frameworks address many local needs, and NGWA gives the White House the information they need to know that 40 million Americans have private water wells and 93 million Americans rely on public water supplies fed by 38,000 groundwater systems. That is significant, and we need to give a massive thank you for showing the country and the world the groundwater experts that we are. Dr. Bill Alley, NGWA’s director of science and technology; Chuck Job, NGWA’s manager of regulatory affairs; and Tim Parker, professional geologist and NGWA board director and government affairs committee member, did an incredible job responding and guiding the White House on what the working group should focus on and helping us understand the importance of America’s groundwater.

Conference of Parties – Global Efforts to Advance the Paris Agreement

Let’s talk about COP 29. Executive Secretary Simon Stiell’s opening speech at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP 29, included these statements: “Do you want your grocery and energy bills to go up even more? Do you want your country to become economically uncompetitive? Do you really want even further global instability costing precious lives? This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another. We mustn’t let the 1.5 degrees Celsius slip out of our reach, and even as temperatures rise, the implementation of our agreements must claw them back. Clean energy and infrastructure investment will reach $2 trillion in 2024, which is almost twice the investment that we have in fossil fuels. The shift to clean energy and climate resilience will not be stopped. Our job is to accelerate this and make sure its huge benefits are shared by all countries and all people.”

What’s happening at COP 29? What has just transpired for our coaching change for the United States does not let us allow for that outside linebacker that is extreme weather and that 1.5-degree Celsius shift to come in and sack us. We’re not that far into this, and 2025 to 2030 is such a pivotal point for us. Just eight years ago at COP 21 in Paris, France, the offering of parties, which was 196 countries, began using the Paris Agreement as its primary framework for climate action. This came from Climate Week. We have to understand. One year later, their agreement became legally binding on Nov. 4, 2016, after enough countries ratified it. The United States, one of the top seven emitters in the world, was a key signatory to the Paris Agreement and entered it to show the world what was possible.

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. Just happens to be we’re the biggest kid in the world, and if we decide to stomp our feet and leave the sandbox, nobody’s going to chase us and pull us back in. Its goal is to hold the increase in global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with true efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. 1.5 degrees is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. We’ve been talking about this so long I can interchange these at this point. This is all because science on climate change indicates that crossing that 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit threshold — which we did at the end of 2023 and 2024, but we can still come back — will create far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heat waves, and rainfalls. 2024 is our hottest on record for the world and the United States.

We’ve seen impacts from extreme heat to devastation from excessive rainfall to major hurricanes through Florida up to North Carolina. Heck, in Christmas 2022, people froze to death in the greatest country in the world on Christmas Day in Buffalo, New York. That was the worst storm they’d seen in 50 years. So, at COP 29, the whole world is watching, and again, we find ourselves in the red zone. This is a red zone, two-minute drill. Can’t ask Yates to kick a field goal. We need to step in and punch it through and then go for the two points. We’re six weeks away from 2025, and multiple reports show global temperatures beyond our 1.5-degree threshold this year and last year.

Some big call to action: The United States is the only country that has entered this agreement and stomped its feet out of the sandbox like a 4-year-old not understanding what they’re ruining at everybody else’s picnic. We did this in an announcement with President Trump nine months after we had entered it in the Rose Garden in June 2017. Maybe we’re going to make that into a cactus garden. Maybe they flower. No, we have to understand. He stated, “The bottom line is the Paris Accord is very unfair at its highest levels to the United States.” Mind you, we are the second biggest producer of carbon in the world.

He goes on to say that agreement would cost the United States $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million jobs. This is exactly what we’re talking about. We need a better economy and more jobs. He continues, “It undermines the economy.” Some strings that it undermines are workers that were effectively decapitated, including the coal industry. The coal industry is 80,000 people, and between safety and health implications, it wasn’t having a great recruitment strategy. But I need everybody to understand that in the decade and a half as we’ve transitioned away from coal, we’ve had endless workforce development programs and subsidies to ensure these people working in the coal industry can transition into family-sustaining jobs.

It’s also important that experts from the 2016 administration stated that the Green Climate Fund was a scheme to redistribute the wealth from the rich countries to the poor countries. A week ago, two weeks ago, we talked about the separation between the haves and the have-nots and what is really on all of our minds, so I need to put this into perspective. There are over 8 billion people on the planet. Six and a half million people from the United States equals 0.081% of that 8 billion. The entire population of the United States is just over 4% of the world’s population. We are the second most greenhouse gas emitter. Number one is China with 1.4 billion people or 17% of the world’s population, and they produce 26% of the global greenhouse gas. The United States is right behind them at 13.4%. Last year at COP 28, we all made a commitment, all 196 countries, to fully start a smart, smooth transition away from fossil fuels.

There are seven emitters in the world responsible for two-thirds of all global greenhouse gas emissions. As we talk about the rich versus the poor, I want to lay it out for you: China, the United States, the entire European Union, India, Russia, Japan, and Brazil. Think about that. To put it into perspective, if we combined the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire European Union and India, it’s almost 13%. We are a world leader and an innovator, and we have things like the PCAST that can help us build what we need.

That’s why in January 2021, the United States reentered the Paris Agreement. We do not need to continue this revolving door. I have full confidence in the administration coming in right now, with all the brilliant minds stepping in to make our economy and our country better, that we can stay in a net-zero, productive, goal-oriented mindset. That is our offense because the defense sucks. If we do not hit our 2030 goals, 2050 is going to be really hard to survive. I think about this because I have a six- and an eight-year-old, and we’re talking about the second generation or the third generation and the new generation of workforces for drilling. It’s very important for us to all think about how we are diversifying our business right now and we have to be engaged in this. This is no different than in 1999. The Clinton administration, regardless of all the other issues, released a study stating how important geothermal was for our energy independence and reducing greenhouse gases to hit goals that we could have hit in 2010. At the same time, the UK pulled out of their “woke greenness,” as they called it at the time, and it caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage that we can’t get back. We need to be on top of this.

I know we’ve had a priority shift here and we’ve lost focus on these goals to an economy, and I agree there are times where we need that ability to “drill, baby, drill,” and we’re not just going to shut off everything. But as you look at projects like the Geode project and what the oil and gas industry are doing to use technologies to get us the hot-rock geothermal for power generation to ground-source geothermal, how is your business diversifying with what’s happening right now? Because we need our teams to think about this. And that leads right into my feature question to you: How are we going to survive? Because we’re on the same team when it comes to clean water and air and the environment.

Right now, fewer than 15 states have 2050 goals for net zero, with California and New York leading the way. Thirty-eight states have priorities for renewable energy portfolio standards, which require the increased production of energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. We’re going to have another PCAST that is focusing on all of this, but as we start screaming “drill, baby, drill” and open back up the pipelines, how does that impact your drilling business? Are you part of the pipefitters union? Are you part of the operators union laying those pipelines? Are you part of the drilling? The opportunity to diversify and make a stronger groundwater industry right now is ground source geothermal loops, doing supply wells for these enhanced geothermal systems. Look at what’s happening with Darcy and the dynamic geothermal wells that can be drilled. There are so many pieces for clean energy and your drilling business that that’s how you’re going to diversify.

As we think about this and our business and our sustainability for a stronger team, this election was won or lost on the ability for our people, as I heard it from one young man, “Brock, All I want is Costco money. I want to be able to go with my wife and kids, get something outrageous, get all the groceries we need, come home, laugh, and feel secure.” And I get it. Family-sustaining wages require diversifying your business into green energy, and that needs to be driven at a local, state, and federal level. This is not liberal, this is not conservative. This is the way we make the greatest impact on our planet.

If that isn’t enough of a halftime speech for my drilling industry football team to get back out there and kick some ass through 2025 into 2026, into 2030 and 2050, regardless of red zone or blue zone, it’s up to you. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for joining us for episode 134 of the Driller Newscast. I really appreciate Center Rock Manufacturing for being the team that brought us the news this week. So many important pieces. Get involved with ground source geothermal, get involved with drilling on all levels that you can. That’s how we grow our business. That’s how we make our people better. We’ve got Dave Schulenberg coming up, and we’re going to talk about being thankful next week and we’re going to hit on some NGWA because we’re going to blink and it’s going to be Christmas time. Go out, check on your people. Be safe. Thanks, Driller staff, for everything you’re doing. And you know what? We’re all Americans and we’re going to do this together. And if we’re talking about being all Americans right now, the Lions are the American team. It’s definitely not those boys down in Texas. Cheers, everybody.