508: Toby Rice—Got Gas?

Mike Rowe (0:04)

Hey, guys, it's Mike Rowe, this is The Way I Heard It, and it's always a pleasure to talk to people on this podcast whose resume makes me set up a little straighter, you know what I mean? People who have paid their dues, who have been there and done that. Well, that is Toby Rice. Toby started his career as a chimney sweep, interestingly, which was the first dirty job I ever filmed outside of Indianapolis. And man, if you're looking for a vocation where you can pay your dues, let me just say, chimneys still need to be swept and doing it is dirty and difficult and exhausting and important. That's where Toby started. Today, he's the CEO of EQT, which has very little to do with sweeping chimneys, but an awful lot to do with keeping us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. EQT is the largest producer of natural gas in the United States.

The fact that he's running it, I just love it because after the whole chimney sweeping thing, he and his brothers got into the energy business. This was at the height of the shale revolution. He's working on rigs, roughnecking, roustabouts, all that stuff, still paying his dues. Then there was almost a tragic accident, followed by another near miss.

Toby started thinking differently about his industry and what he wanted to do in it.

Long story short, he and his brothers take every penny they have. They throw it into the building of an energy company from the ground up. That's EQT. They did a lot of stuff right. They talked constantly about the importance of energy independence. Even more importantly than that, energy abundance. He's a guy today who looks at our current landscape and doesn't see a reason to scarcity mindset our way into poverty. He has very strong opinions about the best way to use American innovation and skilled trades and practical engineering to lift billions of people all over the world out of poverty and secure a decent future for everybody. He's a straight shooter. He's a hard worker. He's a former chimney sweep. And he's a guy who is actively reshaping the entire planet's energy landscape. And I was thrilled to sit down and talk with him. Also I neglected to thank him in this conversation for his generosity last night. We're at Brush Creek, by the way, for a summit. This is a ranch up in Saratoga, Wyoming, where I've had a chance to interview a number of luminaries who are just walking around here, taking it all in. Seeing Toby again last night, inviting him to chat was an obvious thing to do. But I did not expect him to purchase a significant chunk of a 68-year-old bottle of Macallum. 68 years old. We had a chance to sit down and enjoy it.

And it was delicious and very generous of Toby Rice to do that. He's also been very generous with his time and with his opinions, both of which he will share with you right after this.

So as some of you may have heard, I went to Congress 16 years ago to testify before a House subcommittee. And then again, a year later to testify before a Senate. Subcommittee about the need to reinfigurate the skilled trades with some kind of national effort that would make a more persuasive case for a lot of good jobs out there that didn't require a four year degree. Well, 15 years later, I finally heard back from the government and I am delighted to tell you about a program called buildfreedom.us.

This is the national PR campaign that MicroWorks has been talking about. For a decade and a half now and it is focused on three or four hundred thousand excellent jobs in the defense industrial base. These are the electricians and the plumbers and the steam finners and the pipe fitters and the CNC operators and the ship builders and so forth. But in this case, all of those trades are focused on building out our national infrastructure through the defense industrial base. So people who are building our autonomous weapons, our planes, our ships, it's only a matter of national security. And it's a very big deal. And on a personal level, it's really been very gratifying. Build Freedom donated ten million dollars to MicroWorks. The money is available right now for you. If you want to pursue a skill that's in demand and work in the defense industrial base. I think it's an opportunity of a lifetime. Go to buildfreedom.us, see what's available, and then apply for a scholarship from MicroWorks. The money is there. Burning a hole in my pocket. Go get some. buildfreedom.us.