In 1954, Roger Bannister ran a sub-four-minute mile, a feat many thought impossible. A man named John Landy then ran faster than that six and a half weeks later. In 1999, Tony Hawk landed the first-ever 900 (two and a half rotations) in competition in half pipe skateboarding. Now, a dozen people claim that accomplishment, and a skater named Gui Khury has even added a half rotation to the record by landing a 1080 in 2020. What further breakthroughs await in the world of running or skateboarding? Billie Eilish is 23 years old. What new songs will she create? How will she continue to change the landscape of pop music? What will our young oil and gas engineers, geologists and other professionals come up with as they continue their professional journey? As for “Bad Guy,” sometimes I’m superstitious even mentioning this, but does it feel to anyone else like the cultural tide is turning just a little bit? Oil and gas has always been a useful punching bag and ad hoc villain for (notably) the “keep it in the ground” folks and a subset of elected officials. But after years of demonization and attempts at a forced energy transition, it seems that more and more everyday Americans are waking up to the benefits of a healthy and prosperous domestic oil and gas industry. We can look at Europe, which has pivoted from being reliant on Russian products to heat their homes and fuel their cars, to American LNG. We can look at the protection of consumer choice in things like gas stoves and the types of vehicles Americans want to drive. And we can see the positive impacts here in our own community with events like our annual food drive, our involvement in STEMFest and our immense contributions to Utah’s economy in terms of jobs, wages and tax revenues. Some in our society tried to force the issue and phase out fossil fuels entirely. We collectively got a taste of that and realized just how impractical and ill-advised such a transition was. Maybe oil and gas isn’t the bad guy it’s been made out to be. To quote Billie Eilish one last time: “Duh.” =) Enjoy the issue. 7 UPDATE
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