1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Chesapeake Energy says it is filing for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection. Chesapeake, 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:08,280 Speaker 1: of course the energy giant based out of Oklahoma City, 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: one of the fracking pioneers. The company, once employing about 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,560 Speaker 1: thirteen thousand people across all its businesses, now down to 5 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred, with thirteen hundred working here at Oklahoma. 6 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 2: Chesapeake Energy, the first big US fracking company, has filed bankruptcy. 7 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:37,519 Speaker 2: Chesapeake was a pioneer in the US fracking industry, helping 8 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 2: to turn the country into an exporterer for the first 9 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,520 Speaker 2: time in decades. In those early days, Chesapeake was run 10 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:48,520 Speaker 2: by its larger than life co founder, Aubrey McLendon. Here 11 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,279 Speaker 2: he is addressing Harvard students at the height of the 12 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 2: shale boom. 13 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 3: Over the last one hundred and fifty years, you've known 14 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 3: natural gas is good, but you haven't been sure about 15 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 3: its abundance. And in fact, from from my perspective, when 16 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 3: I started this company in nineteen eighty nine, I was 17 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 3: thirty years old. I didn't know where the future of 18 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 3: the industry was going. Certainly didn't know where natural gas 19 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 3: was headed. But we founded our company on the idea 20 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 3: that if we were to find our way in the world. 21 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,200 Speaker 3: We had to look at geology and engineering from a 22 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,280 Speaker 3: different perspective than what the bigger companies were doing. We 23 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 3: had to go look for unconventional reservoirs. The conventional reservoirs 24 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 3: were basically locked up by the exxons of the world 25 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 3: and the larger independent companies. And so my partner and I, 26 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,039 Speaker 3: who we had been partner since I was twenty three, 27 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,399 Speaker 3: on a private basis, we decided to go found this 28 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 3: company with fifty thousand dollars and we had ten employees 29 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 3: at the time, and the idea was, let's go look 30 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 3: for natural gas in unconventional reservoirs, and at the time 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 3: that was mainly fractured carbonates. Today that's shale. 32 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 2: He sounds pretty tame there, but mcclinton's rep was that 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,359 Speaker 2: he could sell shale to anyone. 34 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 4: My name is Clark Williams Dairy, and I'm an analyst 35 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 4: with AIFA, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. 36 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,840 Speaker 4: So Aubrey mcclindon was kind of, you know, the quintessential 37 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 4: shale booster. He was somebody who whether to force a 38 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 4: personality or because he was just a true believer, or 39 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 4: he was just an incredibly good salesman. He got people 40 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 4: to invest in his company. 41 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 2: Shale wasn't an easy sell or, it turns out a 42 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:46,799 Speaker 2: goodbye for anyone. That was true long before coronavirus hit 43 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 2: or oil and gas prices tanked. We've been covering COVID 44 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 2: related environmental rollbacks and bailout for fossil fuel companies with 45 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 2: our COVID Climate Tracker, and one sector that scored a 46 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:02,119 Speaker 2: lot of government gifts is the shale industry. A couple 47 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 2: months ago, we talked about tax breaks, loans and credit 48 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 2: extended to shale companies as throwing good money after bad 49 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,000 Speaker 2: And now here we are with Chesapeake, a company that 50 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:17,120 Speaker 2: has benefited from COVID related royalty cuts and tax breaks, 51 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 2: declaring bankruptcy anyway, in a lot of ways, the story 52 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 2: of Chesapeake is the story of American shale gas. We're 53 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 2: going to get into that story right after this message 54 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 2: from today's sponsor. I Mimi Westervelt, and this is drilled. 55 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 4: He got people to invest in his company when he 56 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 4: was never ever able to produce positive free cash flow. 57 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 4: He's never actually able to squeeze money out of the wells. 58 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 4: He's very good at producing gas, but not but terrible 59 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:58,200 Speaker 4: at producing profits. And that's something that I think has 60 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:00,800 Speaker 4: actually been emblematic with the shale stry as a whole, 61 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 4: that it's an industry that's been phenomenally successful at producing 62 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 4: oil and gas, but has been terrible at producing cash. 63 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 2: That's Clark William's dairy again. He's run all kinds of 64 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 2: numbers on Chesapeake, none of them good. 65 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,720 Speaker 4: The company essentially burned through about forty one billion dollars 66 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 4: of cash, that is to produced negative free cash flows 67 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 4: of forty one billion dollars. And what that means is 68 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 4: that this is a company that spent forty one billion 69 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 4: dollars more on drilling, on getting access to underground gas reserves, 70 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,480 Speaker 4: and you know, all the things of going to running 71 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 4: a shell business. It's spent forty one billion dollars more 72 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 4: than it. 73 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 5: Actually generated by selling gas and oil. 74 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,480 Speaker 4: It is racked up nine billion dollars worth of debt 75 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 4: at the end of twenty twenty, that had about nine 76 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 4: billion dollars worth of long term debt that was you know, 77 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 4: was supposed to get paid off soon. But the problem 78 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 4: for a company like this is how do you pay 79 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 4: off your debt when you're unable to produce positive free 80 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 4: cash flow. 81 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 5: It's just not possible. 82 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 4: You can't do it. And if you are consistently year 83 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 4: after year after year producing negative free cash flow, there's 84 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:16,360 Speaker 4: no way for you to pay down your debt. In 85 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 4: some cases, there's no way for you to service your debt, 86 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 4: that is paid your interest payments. But in the case 87 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 4: of Chesapeake, I mean, what has become abundantly clear over 88 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 4: the past few years is that this is a company 89 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 4: that has no viable prospect for producing free cash flow 90 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 4: and as a result, has no viable prospect for actually 91 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 4: paying down its debt. And that's what really forces a bankruptcy. 92 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 2: Right before it went bankrupt, of course, chess Peak gave 93 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 2: out more than twenty million dollars to its executives in bonuses. Again, 94 00:05:47,360 --> 00:05:50,120 Speaker 2: this is a company that benefited from COVID relief. Just 95 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 2: a couple of months ago. The company's current CEO, Robert 96 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 2: Douglas Lawler, blamed his predecessor for overspending. He claims that 97 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,359 Speaker 2: that caused the bulk of Chesapeake stet. On top of 98 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 2: buying up every lanlease he could get his hands on, 99 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 2: McLendon did have a secret wine cave. He refused to 100 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,280 Speaker 2: agree to budgets and apparently he had everyone flying around 101 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 2: on chartered jets. But we don't really know if that 102 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:19,280 Speaker 2: was the entire problem because McLendon isn't around to defend himself. 103 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:22,200 Speaker 4: I want to report that earlier today, at nine to 104 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,919 Speaker 4: twelve am, the Oklhom City Police Department responded to a 105 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 4: fatality accident involving mister Aubrey McLendon. 106 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen, shortly after he was ousted from Chesapeake 107 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,960 Speaker 2: and the morning after he was indicted for allegedly rigging 108 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 2: oil and gas leases, McLendon drove his car into a wall, 109 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,160 Speaker 2: speeding along an Oklahoma highway. By that point, Chesapeake had 110 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 2: also brought a civil case against its founder, accusing McLendon 111 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 2: of stealing trade secrets to go start his next venture, 112 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 2: American Energy Partners. Also around this time came out that 113 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 2: Chesapeake had given some twenty million dollars plus to the 114 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 2: Sea Club, which had helped it to perpetuate the bridge 115 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 2: fuel narrative around natural gas, the idea that to install 116 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 2: renewable energy at scale, you need something like natural gas 117 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 2: to help with the intermittency of renewables. It helped that 118 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 2: natural gas is a much lower carbon fuel and no 119 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 2: one wanted to talk about methane emissions at the time. 120 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 6: There were people who don't agree with the policy because 121 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 6: they think the Sierra Club's role should just be to 122 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 6: oppose anything that has any environmental consequences. They don't think 123 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 6: our role should be to say, Okay, here's where we 124 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 6: think we should get our energy. We see it, there's 125 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:40,679 Speaker 6: the cleanest of the fossil fuels. 126 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 2: That story is still very much with us today. You 127 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 2: might remember hearing some of the Democratic primary candidates talking 128 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 2: about it in the recent debates. All these scandals surrounding 129 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 2: McLendon make him an easy scapegoat for Chesapeake's financial lows. 130 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 2: But Greg Rogers, who specializes in climate change and other 131 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:04,000 Speaker 2: lay ablity accounting for the energy industry, says Chesapeake's financial 132 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 2: situation is pretty typical for the shale industry as a whole. 133 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 7: The franking industry has not produced a return on capital 134 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 7: and excessive the cost of capital since its inception. 135 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 2: That makes it a bad pick for an industry to 136 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 2: bail out, at least financially. Rogers says, there are other 137 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 2: factors at play. 138 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 7: I would imagine that there would be a lot of 139 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 7: political pressure and some inclination by US politicians to support 140 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:37,960 Speaker 7: the domestic coil and gas industry, and especially when you 141 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 7: tie that back into concerns about national security. So I 142 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:47,440 Speaker 7: think the proposition that the Saudis and the Russians are 143 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 7: going to provide the oil energy needed by the world 144 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,480 Speaker 7: as we phase out this industry is not very appealing 145 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 7: to US politicians. And so again reasons to bail out 146 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 7: the industry is can they afford it? 147 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 2: The answer, amid an ongoing pandemic and an economic downturn 148 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 2: sure to worsen, is no. Not really. It's hard to 149 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:11,960 Speaker 2: think of any other industry that's been bailed out in 150 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 2: spite of performing badly, aside from maybe the banks. In 151 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,720 Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, Clark Williams Darry explains that in 152 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 2: a way, that's kind of what's happening here too. 153 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 4: So bankruptcy is not a process where a company just 154 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:27,599 Speaker 4: blows up and dissolves. Bankruptcy is a process for telling creditors. 155 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 5: That they're not going to get paid. 156 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:32,679 Speaker 4: It's essentially like a process where the phoenix dies. It's 157 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 4: creditors are told that they're not going to get their 158 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 4: money back. The shareholders are completely wiped out, but the 159 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 4: company rises from the ashes and still has access to 160 00:09:43,280 --> 00:09:47,479 Speaker 4: its assets and so forth. It just is really reborn 161 00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,479 Speaker 4: with a new capital structure, and all the old investors 162 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 4: are sad, but the company itself. 163 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 5: At some level it sort of survives. 164 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 4: It sort of re emerges from bankruptcy as a new 165 00:09:58,040 --> 00:09:59,600 Speaker 4: company with a cleaner balance sheet. 166 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 2: Even with that restructuring, William Sterry says, the company may 167 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 2: or may not make money. 168 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 8: Okay, So I want to ask you about the fact that, 169 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 8: you know, chest Peak is one of several shale like 170 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:16,440 Speaker 8: deeply indebted shale companies that did receive some funding through 171 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 8: the Cares Act, and whether or not, like I don't know. 172 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 8: To me, it sort of seems like one of of 173 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 8: what I think will be several examples of the government 174 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:30,840 Speaker 8: sort of throwing good money after bad to try to 175 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 8: save companies that are so deeply problematic financially and like 176 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:40,719 Speaker 8: a one time loan is not going to fix it. So, yeah, 177 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 8: I'm curious to hear your take on that. 178 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:48,120 Speaker 4: Yeah, well, that's that's exactly right. I mean, so, like 179 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,960 Speaker 4: just the concept of a bailout, and when people talk 180 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,480 Speaker 4: about bailouts, I used to, you know, when I was younger, 181 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:57,080 Speaker 4: I did a lot of canoeing, and a bailout is 182 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 4: you know, it's literally you've got a that is fine, 183 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,880 Speaker 4: that is solid, that doesn't have any problems with with 184 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:08,080 Speaker 4: the you know, you know, there's there's no there's no crack, 185 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:13,000 Speaker 4: there's no leak, and you just need to toss water 186 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:14,559 Speaker 4: out of the boat and the boat's able to sort 187 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:18,040 Speaker 4: of you go on sailing on, right. So it's like 188 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 4: your bailout is literally like you're the boat is fine, 189 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:27,079 Speaker 4: and you're just taking water out of the canoe and 190 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 4: to allow the company the boat to sort of to 191 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:34,920 Speaker 4: sort of continue to operate. But the problem with the 192 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 4: shale industry is that there's a there's a hole in 193 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 4: the hull. This is not a boat that just needs 194 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,080 Speaker 4: a little bailout. It's a boat that is maybe already sunk. 195 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:46,120 Speaker 4: And so when you're bailing out a boat that's already sunk, 196 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 4: you're not actually going to you know, create a boat 197 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 4: that can still continue to operate. It's it's it's it's founder, 198 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 4: it's done right. So so a lot of the talk 199 00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 4: about sort of the government bailout, well, what really is 200 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 4: going on is not so much technically, it doesn't feel 201 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:04,360 Speaker 4: to me, like it's a bailout. What it is, it's 202 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 4: a handout to the investors. So it's something that maybe 203 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 4: allows the investors to recoup a little bit and this 204 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:15,040 Speaker 4: is mostly the creditors to recoup a little bit of 205 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 4: the money that. 206 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:17,079 Speaker 5: These companies owe to them. 207 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:20,760 Speaker 4: So like if you give let's say you give a 208 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:23,120 Speaker 4: hundred million dollars to a company like Chesapeake, I don't 209 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 4: know act how how much it actually got either Chesapeake 210 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 4: continues to burn through that money because this business model 211 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,520 Speaker 4: is fundamentally broken, or else it saves some of that 212 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:36,800 Speaker 4: money and that money can get can go back to 213 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,920 Speaker 4: the hedge funds and other people who swooped in and 214 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:48,880 Speaker 4: bought Chesapeake debt. So it's you know, the structure of 215 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 4: some of the bailouts that have been proposed for the 216 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 4: oil and gas industry, and some of them have actually 217 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,240 Speaker 4: happened for oil and gas companies. The structure is really 218 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 4: designed to benefit invest not so much to fix the 219 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 4: broken shale industry business model. It's just to reward investors 220 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:09,439 Speaker 4: who made bad bets. 221 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 5: On shale companies and allow them. 222 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 4: To get a little bit more of their money back 223 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:15,439 Speaker 4: in the bankruptcy process. 224 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 5: Really what this is. 225 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,199 Speaker 4: It winds up being sort of a passed through from 226 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 4: the US Treasury straight to the hedge funds or other 227 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 4: investors who own chesameake Dad. 228 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 2: So instead of supporting working Americans or investing in an 229 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 2: energy transition because that would be political, the government is 230 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,959 Speaker 2: bailing out failing companies to get some money into the 231 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:43,960 Speaker 2: pockets of hedge fund the guys. Chesapeake will continue operating 232 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:46,760 Speaker 2: with seven million dollars of its debt wiped clean by 233 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:51,560 Speaker 2: Franklin Resources, a holding company. We'll see how long that lasts. 234 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,800 Speaker 2: That's it for this time. Thanks for tuning in. We 235 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,160 Speaker 2: will have another episode for you this Friday, and then 236 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,320 Speaker 2: I swear we really are going to take a little 237 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 2: bit of a break to produce the next investigative season. 238 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:22,040 Speaker 2: Look out for that in July and in the meantime, 239 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 2: you can keep tabs with us at drillednews dot com 240 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,240 Speaker 2: and via our Patreon. If you're not a member yet, 241 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,960 Speaker 2: please consider signing up. We will be dropping episodes of 242 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,200 Speaker 2: the next season there early and ad free, as well 243 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 2: as some bonus content over the next couple months. We'll 244 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:41,440 Speaker 2: drop a link to that in the show notes. Thanks 245 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 2: again for listening, and we'll see you next time.