The Crude Truth Ep. 117 Anne Bradbury Live at the NAPE Expo 2025

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] The American Exploration and Production Council. They are fighting for every operate in America as we continue in 2025. Here we are live at Nape 2025. My next guest I cannot wait on this episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:00:14] In 1901, at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont. The future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions and America was on the move. Thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas, now, more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric, but let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:00:58] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be to. Nape Expo, Where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions when everything is on the line. Air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance. Pecos Country Operating. Fueling our future.

Rey Treviño [00:01:31] Future. And thank you, as always, for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. We are live here at the Nape Expo 2025, and sitting next to me, as you can already see, is a individual that is just literally fighting for us tooth and nail in the oil and gas industry. As an operator, Pecos Country Operating cannot be more happy with what’s going on. Our guest today is a president of the American Exploration and Production Council. Anne Bradbury. Anne how are you?

Anne Bradbury [00:02:00] I’m great. Right. Thanks for having me today.

Rey Treviño [00:02:02] Oh my gosh, thank you. And you have been on a whirlwind tour here at Nape. I mean, it’s been crazy. This is at least your second year in a row where you’ve just been back to back to back to back?

Anne Bradbury [00:02:12] Yeah, it’s a lot. It’s always exciting to be here at Nape, you know, with all these companies and industry. And so it’s a it’s a pleasure.

Rey Treviño [00:02:18] Oh my gosh. Well you saw me brag geek out and fan out because what you’re doing and and what you represent is the livelihoods of millions of Americans in the oil and gas industry. And really more than just oil and gas. Yeah. And so I just cannot thank you enough for a few minutes. You know, you reside there in Washington, D.C., so you’re feeling the energy here at Nape. You know, what’s Washington, D.C. like right now?

Anne Bradbury [00:02:44] Yeah, there’s a lot of energy, no pun intended. In in D.C. right now. I was talking to a group and was like, can you believe that? We’re 17 days into the Trump administration. Like, it feels like it’s been much longer than that because things have just been happening fast and furious.

Rey Treviño [00:02:59] Literally, it takes that fast and furious a whole new level from the movie to what happened during that other administration. And, you know, you talk about that. So many things are going on. A good friend of mine yesterday coined the term because, like so many things are happening. Guys, who would have ever thought he said, all right, if you can’t be nice and you can’t be nice. Mom and dad are going to take away the toy and he’s going to, you know, Trump’s going to say, guys, I heard a crazy conspiracy theory real quick. Possibly building a canal, then getting all our oil coming up. Whoa. Conspiracy theory anyway. But but no explanation. Production council. What are you guys up to?

Anne Bradbury [00:03:35] Well, so we are looking to really build on the momentum that the Trump administration has created to create durable, long term, pro-American energy policy in Washington. And, you know, this is not the work of a couple of days or a couple of weeks, but months and years. And we’ve been building the groundwork and the foundation for this for years. And we’re really excited about the opportunity and happy to talk more about kind of what some of those durable pro energy policies might look like.

Rey Treviño [00:04:02] Yes. And there’s several. As we were kind of talking in our quick pre pre-production meeting. And really I want to start with the obvious in the room. Drill baby drill.

Anne Bradbury [00:04:10] Drill baby drill.

Rey Treviño [00:04:11] I mean God that just sounds amazing does it not. But when people ask me they’re like well are you excited about drill, baby Drill absolutely. But I think it means something completely different than putting more holes on the ground means.

Anne Bradbury [00:04:22] Different things to different people. That’s right. And I think the way I interpret drill, baby drill is actually I think the way and Chris Wright said this at his hearing is let’s build baby build, right. Because we don’t necessarily need to your point to be, you know, putting a lot more holes in the ground. What we really need to unleash American energy dominance is to build out the infrastructure that we need to most efficiently get the products that y’all are producing to the end user, where it’s most needed in the most efficient manner and manner. So we need more pipelines. We need more, you know, like power plants. We need more LNG export facilities. So, you know, what we really need is the infrastructure to take this incredible product that you are producing at its incredible clip to get it where we need it most.

Rey Treviño [00:05:09] Right. You know, because when you look at all the infrastructure and everybody always talks about going electric, right, or wind or solar, it’s like we have, first of all, what a hundred years worth of infrastructure has been built on the oil and gas, the coal and the nuclear. But it’s not enough. Not enough. And, you know, I know that’s something that you guys are really working on. And what do you all see in policy wise on that side of things?

Anne Bradbury [00:05:29] Yeah. So first I’ll say, you know, I think we need to recognize that demand is going up. Domestic demand is going up across the board, but global demand is going up even more. There are billions of people in the world that don’t have access to reliable energy. And American energy is a great source for that, both to help lift people out of poverty. But it’s an incredible source for global stability. You know, energy security is national security. And so as we produce this abundant, incredible resource, we can also export it to our, you know, allies around the globe, and it’s just such a powerful force for good in the world.

Rey Treviño [00:06:03] But you talk about the powerful good of the force for the good and liquid natural gas, you know. Texas alone is considered the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

Anne Bradbury [00:06:11] I think Pennsylvania might have something to say about that. I’ll let y’all know. I’ll let y’all work that out.

Rey Treviño [00:06:15] But you talk about that, and let’s talk about where Pennsylvania is in the northeast and how we don’t have pipelines that literally can go, you know, basically from Houston to Dallas, like, right. Because, you know, it’s all just highly tense over there with all the states and we don’t have the pipeline or infrastructure to get that done. They’re literally burning diesel or fuel. It’s wild and it’s hurting our atmosphere. Doing all the things or the rumor I’m hearing is they’re even getting it from Russia.

Anne Bradbury [00:06:42] Yeah, they have they certainly have it, you know, very recently. And yeah, it’s expensive. Yes. And it’s worse for the atmosphere. And so yeah, we need infrastructure. We need to build baby build in order to truly unleash American energy dominance both at home and around the world.

Rey Treviño [00:06:56] You know, with with everything that y’all are working on right now. You know, I want you to. If you don’t mind, just tell me exactly how it is that you guys, you know, for a few people that don’t know, how are y’all helping out the operators and oil and gas companies? And more importantly, for anybody, not energy sector. How are you helping out? Just everyday person by fighting for oil and gas.

Anne Bradbury [00:07:16] Absolutely. So you know, first you know, we work with policymakers on both sides of the aisle because our goal is a pro energy majority. And we see real opportunities for better energy policy over the next two years. And we want to really capitalize on that momentum. One of the issues that we’re working on as a huge priority is the elimination of the methane tax or the natural gas tax, like, we think that there’s a great moment in time where we can repeal this, you know, sort of misguided natural gas tax because that money can be better put towards operational purposes or emissions, you know, technology. So I think that that’s a huge priority for us. We also want durable policy. We want to make sure that, you know, y’all aren’t subject to these political whims where policy changes every four years and there’s a huge pendulum swing. So when we look at other regulations, we want to take a more strategic approach and say, you know what? These can be fixed, but let’s not go crazy. Let’s make sure that we’re we’re putting in place durable regulations that industry can live with in order to to avoid these huge like wild swings in policy every four years.

Rey Treviño [00:08:25] I’m so glad you like that durable. I’m going to start using that durable policies because executive orders got to go. I mean, like you said, it goes from one person to the other. Okay, let’s do this okay. Let’s not do this. And and it. Harber. It hurts us as operators to really plan long term. We had a good conversation yesterday with the governor of Wyoming, who they have a lot of a Bureau of Land Management, meaning the Department of Interior manages all the minerals underground to where they do things. And I just said, I know you know that. But for our listeners, that first. Yeah. And you can’t plan long term, because what if all of a sudden you’ve got a plan to develop a field over ten years and it’s going to take 2 to 3 years just to get certain things lined up. And if the administration changes and boom, with the power of a pin, it shuts it down at the end of it. And so that’s why I said we got to get rid of the executive order.

Anne Bradbury [00:09:16] Yeah, it’s going to it creates a lot of risk and uncertainty and risk and uncertainty is not helpful for business planning and investment. And, you know, you as an operator in Texas, you know, sort of really benefit from the fact that most Texas production is on private land. You’ve got, you know, it’s regulated by the state in a really friendly, you know, pro energy regulatory framework. But if you’re producing on federal lands and you’re, you know, required to get federal permits for, you know, everything from your lease to your APD to drill in certain parts of the country, it takes over a year to get an APD. Yeah. It’s crazy. And federal leasing has been negligible over the last four years. And that really hurts that pipeline that operators count on to sort of efficiently develop our natural resources. So we we are looking for more, more certainty with the process for developing on federal lands and ensuring that, you know, these, these these crazy swings every four years where, you know, you’ve got really robust federal leasing for four years like that doesn’t help and that doesn’t work for the industry. So we need to turn that around as well.

Rey Treviño [00:10:24] You know, when when thinking of ways to turn that around, do you have any thoughts or suggestions or things that maybe us as operators can do to help out in getting this point across, other than just asking you, hey, let the railroad commission take over the United States?

Anne Bradbury [00:10:37] Well, yeah. Yeah, unfortunately I don’t. It’s as much as many, you know, operators would love that. You know, it doesn’t seem like that’s in the near future, but I think, you know, y’all telling your story and talking to your elected officials is so incredibly important. You know, both you know, what you all do to both provide direct jobs is so important in all the communities that you operate, but you touch every single American family in business and you provide affordable, reliable energy not just to people in Texas, but to everyone in this country from California to Massachusetts, whether they want to admit it or not. Yes, ma’am. And that is that is so important. And that’s something that, you know, we try to also remind policymakers that, you know, you may or may not have a drill rig in your district, but you use our products, and energy policy matters to you and your constituents.

Rey Treviño [00:11:26] You may not have a drill rig in your district, but you use our products every day. Yep, I love that. That is awesome. And you are absolutely right. I mean, you’re just talking about so many things there in how it touches. And I said this just the other day. Yeah, you got me going. Oil and gas does not discriminate when it comes out of the ground. I’m not discriminating anywhere on where it goes that everybody’s going to use it. There is none of this hierarchy or anything. And unfortunately, I feel like sometimes the policies that some people put in place for other places around the world like you mentioned. It hurts them. It’s like, hey, let them develop their countries using natural gas, oil, coal. We did it. Why are we going to force other people not to do it?

Anne Bradbury [00:12:07] That’s a great point. And we are blessed with the fact that we have those resources, and not every country does, but every country does want to economically develop. And so the question is, are they going to get, you know, if they’re not producing it themselves, are they going to get their energy from the United States of America or from Russia or Iran or Venezuela? And I think, you know, the answer to that is pretty straightforward. They should be right. These are global commodities. And we need to make sure that, you know, more American energy in the world is just, again, such a powerful, effective source for good.

Rey Treviño [00:12:39] Oh my gosh. More. That’s twice more American energy in the world is in power for good. And and that is I love that because you’re talking about like, you know, you mentioned just now like all these other countries and they’re not getting it or there’s policies that other people made in America that were like, you need wind and solar and what’s the equity in that like? Kind of like, you know, you could almost turn this into something that we’re not. But it’s like, why are we hurting these other countries when you want everybody in America to have equity

Anne Bradbury [00:13:07] Exactly, People need to understand their own development needs and the limitations that come with various sources.

Rey Treviño [00:13:14] Okay, I will get off of that because I know that’s not what y’all do, but I want to talk methane with you. You know, as a small operator, you know, we talk about it all the time. It’s like, hey, Exxon of the world, they’re going to be able to go spend the money to go capture this methane. That’s really very minute. Yeah. You know, what are you guys doing there? And what are you hearing to hopefully help small operators. You don’t not have to go pay these astronomical fees. Yeah. For something that’s really not even affecting our atmosphere.

Anne Bradbury [00:13:41] Yeah, that’s a really good question. So, you know, the past administration took a number of actions to address methane emissions. And so you got to kind of unpack them one at a time. The methane tax of one of the things that was passed in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. That’s really a very punitive tax on producers. And it’s penalizes oil weighted companies based on how they interpreted the formula. So we need to get rid of that, that it’s a punitive tax. It’s unfairly implemented and it should be repealed. And we want to repeal it. So that’s one. Then there’s like the broader methane regulations on new and existing sources. And for that we think a more strategic approach is appropriate. One of the things it should be, though is cost effective, because to your point, not every operator is Exxon, and not every operator, you know, has the ability to, you know, to to utilize certain technologies at scale. And the regulations need to recognize that and need to provides for some flexibility and compliance so that it works and is cost effective for big operators and small operators.

Rey Treviño [00:14:44] Oh, wow. I love that so much. You know, we kind of briefly talked about the Trump administration. But you know, what are you seeing. And the other day you did another good interview and they asked you about the scalpel approach of the sledgehammer. You know, what do you see in so far? And, you know, let’s all kind of talk about that approach and which way you think he’s really handling it.

Anne Bradbury [00:15:02] Yeah, I think some of it remains to be seen. I think you’ve seen a pretty aggressive like start right out of the gate, right? Yes. But what we’re really seeing right now is more of a signal to agencies on what direction they want them to go. So we saw a very quick lifting of the LNG export approval. But pause. But you know, they’re taking a moment to like, figure out how we how do we want to process approvals moving forward, which is smart because that gets to that durability question, right. We want to make sure that the actions that they take in final form are legally durable and stand up in court. And so I think they’re taking a moment to look at the landscape of federal regulatory policy and executive actions, and to see which one needs to be sort of ripped out and rescinded and which need to some revisions and what’s going to be legally durable in court.

Rey Treviño [00:15:52] You know, you definitely have the ear of a lot of people there in Washington, D.C., in a good way, on both sides of the aisle, because, again, I like what you said. Just because you don’t have a rig in your district does not mean you’re not using art. So I think that is awesome. What are you excited about? You know, and what are some of the things that are upcoming for the American Exploration Production Council?

Anne Bradbury [00:16:11] Yeah. I’m excited. I’m really excited for the next four years, and I think there’s an incredible amount of opportunity. Congress, you know, is going to be challenged by very small majorities in the House and the Senate. And so that that is always presents a challenge to congressional outcomes. And it’s but it’s also going to require the need for some, you know, bipartisan legislating, which makes for durable policy. And so when we look at something like permitting reform that we really want to do on a bipartisan basis, you really only can be done on a bipartisan basis just because of certain, like, you know, arcane requirements in Congress. But doing it on a bipartisan basis means it’s going to withstand the test of time. And that’s really important. I’m also really excited for what can be done on a more partizan basis. I think we’re going to be able to extend some important tax provisions. I think we’re going to be able to make some important tax fixes for, for example, we want to make sure that companies that are subject to the corporate alternative minimum tax can continue to deduct their intangible drilling costs. Yeah. Because right now they can. And that’s a huge like, you know, financial burden on companies that that face that tax. Yes. Because we need them to be able to deploy those resources.

Rey Treviño [00:17:23] I mean that pretty. So that’s part of the reason why we got into the industry years ago were for those tax deductions, that drilling that provided. It’s important. And then it just turned into like, hey, maybe we should produce oil too. Yeah. And then we get both, you know, and it’s been a beautiful thing, you know, with what you all are doing there. You had a hand in you were definitely very helpful in Chris. Right. And and Doug Burger and I always butcher his name. But you know, when Rick Perry, you know, I’m not trying to sound favorable when he got the job back when Trump was like, well, he’s we got somebody from Texas that deals with oil and gas companies. It made sense. Now we got Chris Wright in there, and we got Dr. Burgum. And I do believe that, you know, with the Department of Interior, it’s just like here in Texas, the Department of the Land Commissioner job, they deal with all the minerals. I already know probably the I think the former land commissioner here of Texas has been talking to those guys as well, helping them out. What are you excited about for Burgum. And right as they go in these job?

Anne Bradbury [00:18:19] First I can say that our industry should be ecstatic about the nominees that President Trump chose to run these energy related industries. You just couldn’t find two more knowledgeable, substantive, you know, sensible individuals that are going to really be able to drive energy policy from a place of deep knowledge and understanding of the industry. And so, like, that’s that’s really exciting for us. And it’s really important to, to to, you know, have those guys in the room as these decisions are being made, as you said, you know, Department of Interior oversees all federal lands. It’s a huge remit. There’s a ton of production on federal lands that has been stymied over the last four years, and so being able to turn that around is really important from the perspective of Chris Wright. You know, it’s a really broad remit and a lot of ways the Secretary of Energy is our energy ambassador in the world. It’s the office that approves LNG export, you know, approvals. And it does a lot of really important R&D. You know, to sort of help develop the next generation of technology. And so and he’s just sort of a general spokesman for the energy industry and, and steers a lot of energy policy. So having those guys at in those places is really exciting.

Rey Treviño [00:19:34] Well it is an exciting time. The other quick one that’s doing great is a Lee Zeldin with the EPA. Yeah. The EPA has done great things in our time, but it has been weaponized against the oil and gas industry over the last several years.

Anne Bradbury [00:19:46] That’s exactly right. And Lee Zeldin, probably not as familiar to your listeners as the other two. He’s a congressman from New York. I served with him when I worked in the House. He is a really sensible, smart guy. He’s a former JAG lawyer and is is going to just bring the right perspective of. I want smart regulatory policy. I want to uphold the EPA’s mission of protecting human health. Right. That’s an important mission. Yeah, but let’s not weaponize that mission and let’s not, you know, you know, overkill business with regulations that don’t make sense and put people out of business. So he’s going to kind of look, take a look at the regulatory policy of the last four years and try to right size it in a way that, again, gets at that durability and cost effectiveness that we’ve talked about.

Rey Treviño [00:20:36] Holly, you know, and again, I cannot thank you enough for coming. You were here last year at Nape. It looks like there’s already more people here than there was last year. Can you tell the difference between last year and this year? The energy, you know. What are your thoughts? And you know what is a good thing that you’ve always enjoyed about the Nape Expo?

Anne Bradbury [00:20:53] Think that name is just it’s always a fun place to be. It’s always a fun place to be with so many energy people in one place. And there is a really like tangible energy here that people are really excited about. You know what, you know, the next few years will bring, and that’s been really fun to be a part of.

Rey Treviño [00:21:07] Oh my gosh. Well, and again, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the Crude Truth. Yeah. Of just just everything that you’re doing from a industry standpoint, from a policy standpoint, you and your team are knocking it out of the park. You know, for those out there that want to, you know, get in contact with the American Exploration and Production Council, I can’t get Ahold of.

Anne Bradbury [00:21:26] Yeah, I would say easiest way to do is go to our website, aspc.org. You can also sign up for email updates that we send out periodically as part of, as part of our network of advocates. And, you know, that’s probably the best way to follow what we do. And I want to thank you for having me, and I want to thank all your listeners for all the work that they do to support American families just in their everyday lives.

Rey Treviño [00:21:49] Oh, well, and I can’t thank you enough. And to all our listeners out there, Aspc.com.

Anne Bradbury [00:21:55] Aspc dot org.

Rey Treviño [00:21:57] Aspc dot org and live from the Nape floor. This is the crude truth. We’ll see you again. Thank you so much again.

Narrator [00:22:03] The Crude Truth would like to thank today’s sponsors LFS chemistry, Nape Expo, Air Compressor Solutions, Sandstone Group, Exec Crue, Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, and Real News Communication Network.

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