Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 12/17/24 Retail Growth, Refinery Sparks, and EV Innovation with John Cox About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, December 17th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: John Cox, Business Editor for the Bakersfield Californian website: www. Bakersfield.com
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 From the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:09 Speaker 01 I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?
0:29 Speaker 02 Securities offered through SCF Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through SCF Investment Advisors, Inc. SCF Securities, Inc. and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
0:40 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the Money Wise Show.
0:42 Speaker 03 Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. I'm Sharad Waite, and sitting here with me today is...
1:04 Speaker 04 Frank Lee.
1:04 Speaker 03 Frank Lee. Happy day. Happy Tuesday. We got some great messages as we usually do, and I want to start the show right off, and let's address these messages, and then we're going to get to our guest.
1:16 Speaker 04 Let's do it.
1:17 Speaker 03 Excited about it. So, can you read the first one?
1:19 Speaker 04 Yeah. So, first message of the day is, "How do I change a beneficiary in a living trust? It's my father's who is in hospice and just found out that he has my mother listed, but she passed away a few years ago and never made the change."
1:34 Speaker 03 All right, so, great question here, Frank. Let's play attorneys for a second, even though we're not attorneys. We're not playing attorneys. But, this is a question that comes up regularly, because we talk about the importance of estate plans, how important these documents are for people, not only while they're alive, but also for when they pass on. This usually involves a living trust. So, this question is, "How do you change a beneficiary on a living trust?" Well, here's the great thing about a living trust, is that it's a living document. That means it lives on even after you, or whoever founded the trust, becomes incapacitated or dies. It just continues on. Like, that's the... It's a real simple...
2:20 Speaker 03 Tool, but super powerful because now you have this living entity, or let's call it a living trust, that will go on and live and fulfill your wishes that you had while you were still fully aware and competent and healthy. So that means, assuming that this trust was set up how it was supposed to be set up, which is usually the case, you have a husband and wife, so mom and dad are the grantors and they are the trustees. They're managing the trust, anything that the trust owns and they're funding it, things are going in and out. Maybe they're changing even the beneficiaries. What would happen if something happens to the trustees? Who's the successor trustee? Who's the person that's
3:02 Speaker 03 going to step in then and be in charge of everything that the trust owns and then make sure that it's distributed according to what the trust says? So the trust, I've never seen a trust that didn't have somebody who was designated as a successor trustee, which is that person that's in charge to make sure that the trust is managed as the way it was set up to be. That's why, the short answer, I guess, is this trust should have that already set up, which means it doesn't really, it shouldn't matter that your mother has passed away, because there's already built into it who is next in line. And if your father, for example, is still able, even though he's on hospice, he might still completely be
3:43 Speaker 03 aware and competent. So he can still act as a trustee. The trust likely will have wording in it that says if he is unable, and if your mom is also unable, then it goes to the successor trustee or who's in charge there. And so that's how those are usually set up.
4:04 Speaker 04 Like you said, if the trust is structured correctly, then you should be listed in the trust, for the listener, of course, who sent that message, to take over. But if you're not, then obviously that's something to where you should, you know, talk to an attorney and revise and see exactly what it is you can do about it.
4:27 Speaker 03 Exactly. We'd highly recommend if you have Some questions. Usually it's the best thing to go to the attorney that set it up for you. And if that attorney is no longer available, find an estate planning attorney. We have a few here that we can recommend. There's some good attorneys in town that can help you with that. So, great question. Appreciate it. We've got another message here and I'll go ahead and read it. It says, "Now that Bitcoin is traded via ETF, will another cryptocurrency be next? If so, which ones do you think will lead the pack?" Thank you. All right, Frank, what is it? What is it? It sucks.
5:00 Speaker 04 I don't know.
5:01 Speaker 03 I mean, how many crypto, how many different tokens are there?
5:05 Speaker 04 There's a lot. There's a lot. It's so hard to keep track of everything.
5:09 Speaker 03 This is what kind of gets me crazy about the fact that there are ETFs that are selling mutual fund, not selling, but represent cryptocurrencies. That is that it gives the appearance of a endorsement or credibility of the underlying investment. And that's just not the case. What happens is if something becomes publicly listed or publicly traded, like a registered security that the Securities and Exchange Commission is now regulating,
5:43 Speaker 03 or FINRA is part of, that is regulating, then what happens is they ensure that the rules of engagement are all followed, which means that you have to have certain public reportings and you have to follow certain rules. And once you meet those requirements, then it becomes publicly listed or publicly available or registered security, like an ETF or a mutual fund or a stock, a publicly traded stock. Now, just because the company goes through that process or the investment product goes through that process, does it mean that it's, doesn't mean that it's a valuable investment?
6:28 Speaker 03 It doesn't mean that the investment holds any value whatsoever. The SEC isn't saying, "This is a good investment and you should do it because they've approved it for an ETF." They're saying, "This has met our requirements for registration and now be aware you could lose money." Right? Everybody should be aware when you go into an investment like this, it fluctuates up and down in value and you could lose everything. That's just kind of a known thing when you go into the markets. So, I want to say that there's almost- There's don't, don't connect the, the reality with, of, of cryptocurrencies being now able to be exchanged and legitimate,
7:11 Speaker 03 in more legitimate registered ways as it being an actual legitimate investment that holds fundamental value.
7:19 Speaker 04 Right.
7:19 Speaker 03 Right. The value continues to be in terms of cryptocurrency, only what another person feels or interprets that, the value is of that, of the intrinsic value. What's backing up that currency? Well, the only thing backing up that cryptocurrency is that there are other people that have the idea that it's also worth some money. Now you may say, well, that's the same thing as a $20 bill in my, in my wallet, except that you would accept that Frank from me. And you would accept that because you know, if you had to give it to somebody else, they would go, yeah, it's worth 20 bucks. I'm going to take it. And you also know that if you couldn't find another person on the planet to, to accept that,
8:00 Speaker 03 there would be a bank that would accept it. And the bank has to accept it because the bank is tied into the Federal Reserve, which is tied into the, the, the taxpayer's ability to back up that currency. The government has the ability to sort of tax its citizens to say, no, we have value in this dollar, in this currency. And not only that, but they can enforce it by law and they can enforce, you know, people to accept it. And say, no, this is a legitimate, you know, currency. Now, okay, well, at the end of the day, you may say, well, then what's telling those people that it's worth value? You mean like the, the Federal Reserve or, or government employees or bank employees?
8:40 Speaker 03 What's telling them that it's value? Well, yeah, I mean, it's just this structure of economics and, you know, democracy and free market capitalism that we built around us that, that tells us that. But that's better than.
8:54 Speaker 03 A cryptocurrency which is, well, there's just a few other million people on the planet that think that there's some value in this and it's going to continue to go up for whatever reason.
9:02 Speaker 04 Right. It's not a perfect system that we have, but it's a system that ties into what is currently circulating in the economy that has that value versus what you're saying is cryptocurrency is just based off whatever this person values as is and you can trade it for.
9:18 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:19 Speaker 04 Versus with the dollar currency, that's the dollar.
9:21 Speaker 03 Right. It's a little, it's like if I had this, if I had this pouch and inside this pouch were some magic tokens and I told you that you could take this pouch and inside this magic tokens, it's, it's, these tokens are worth a hundred thousand dollars each and you, and you'd look at the pouch and it's just, they just look like, you know, a random plastic tokens. But I said, no, I trust me, I promise it's worth a hundred thousand dollars. These tokens worth a hundred thousand dollars. How do I know that? Well, because there's a market out there of a bunch of other people are paying a hundred thousand dollars for this token. Okay, great. That's, that means there's some value there because there's a lot of other people that think that this is valuable too.
10:02 Speaker 03 But at the end of the day, if you had to use that token for something, what is the value it tied to? And, and it's not tied to, right now it's not tied to anything. I think the hope is that it will be, in the future, crypto would be tied to a central bank. And then it would, now we have some legitimacy because we have a central bank that's going to back this up. And there are some experiments happening around the world with some countries where they're saying, okay, look, we're gonna, we're gonna use crypto as a, as a, as a potential substitute. So, and, but that's, we have a long, long ways to go before we see major adoption or even some regulatory changes that go towards that direction.
10:41 Speaker 03 And when we do have those regulatory changes, who's to say which, which token is going to be left that governments are going to now attach themselves to? And why would they do that? It would make more sense for them to just create their own.
10:56 Speaker 04 Their own crypto. Their own stable coin.
10:59 Speaker 03 Their own stable coin, right? That they're doing.
11:01 Speaker 04 That's what they're in discussion, right? The U. US stablecoin.
11:05 Speaker 03 Yeah.
11:05 Speaker 04 To to compete with like China and their views on cryptocurrency.
11:11 Speaker 03 Right.
11:11 Speaker 04 Right.
11:12 Speaker 03 It's it's they're they're just they're starting to do the work in a very, very small market. That to the general public appears to be a huge market. We're talking about a $3 trillion total market value of all cryptocurrency across the globe. That's nothing, just the global equity market is over 130 trillion or 120 trillion. So it's this, we're talking about a very, very small percentage of the overall investment world. Now we're talking about bonds, you throw bonds in there, now it's triple.
11:42 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:43 Speaker 03 That value, so hopefully that helps explain a little bit about our view, at least on Bitcoin or Doge or whatever crypto is out there. We saw a continued decline in the markets. I believe it's nine days in a row, Frank, that the Dow is down. That has not happened since 1978.
12:01 Speaker 04 Is it?
12:02 Speaker 03 That's how far back I had to go back to 1970. Now, I could be wrong, but essentially it's been a long time since we've seen a nine day decline in the in the in the Dow. Basically, since the first week of December, we've seen kind of a steady decline in the Dow. What do you see in today's headlines? Anything interesting?
12:21 Speaker 04 I mean, as far as economic, on the economic calendar, we have the Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow on Wednesday, discussing about the rate cuts. They're expecting analysts are expecting a 25 basis cut going into December. But I think there is a strong sentiment of some influence on future monetary policy changes, especially with the new president coming in.
12:48 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:48 Speaker 04 And seeing how that plays out.
12:50 Speaker 03 This is the final rate cut announcement that the Fed will make tomorrow. It's pretty much expected it's going to be a quarter point. Everybody's not expecting anything different. 98% of those poll, they're expecting a quarter point tomorrow, which will be the last one of the year. And and maybe, you know, the markets are trying to or they're anticipating, I don't know, possibly something different tomorrow. I don't know.
13:14 Speaker 04 Yep.
13:14 Speaker 03 But we still have markets up generally about 20%, major indices about 20% on the year.
13:21 Speaker 04 Yes, it's still, yeah, it's still up.
13:23 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:23 Speaker 04 Substantially over the year.
13:25 Speaker 03 And we, I think we talked about this on yesterday's show that we, there's not a great track record of two years in a row of 20-plus type returns of what happens that third year.
13:36 Speaker 04 Exactly.
13:36 Speaker 03 Generally is not good, you know, past performance is no indication of what could happen in the future, but we've had a couple of really good runs in the stock market at least. I want to mention this before we take our break, there is a free, there's an option for Californians, if you, if you are within a certain income bracket in California, there is a program that is giving away up to $2,000 free for e-bike. This starts tomorrow, by the way.
14:10 Speaker 04 What?
14:10 Speaker 03 If you're interested, this is, this is a classic California program. Other states have done this too, but essentially it's a program to try to incentivize people to use e-bikes to get around, which I have an e-bike myself, which I love. I mean, it's just, you can get around very easily on these, on these bikes. So it's a $2,000 rebate or, I guess voucher that citizens of California can receive. You have tomorrow is when it opens up and it's on a first come, first served basis. And it's all based off of the, the poverty line, the federal poverty line.
14:51 Speaker 03 The cutoff is 300% of the federal poverty line, which also varies depending on the number of people that are in your household. So applicants who make less than 225% of the federal poverty line are still able to receive a benefit, but they just don't get the full benefit, that full 2,000. So if you're curious about the household size, if you are a household of three, that 300% federal poverty line is 77,000.
15:24 Speaker 03 $10,000 annual income for household income. If you are a family of four and you have under $93,000 of income, then guess what? You qualify free e-bike up to $2,000.
15:41 Speaker 04 How much do those things run for?
15:43 Speaker 03 Up to $2,000. I mean, you can get a decent e-bike for, you can get a nice e-bike for $2,000.
15:52 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:52 Speaker 03 And they've come down in price quite a bit. And so I think that's kind of cool. I mean, why not, right?
16:00 Speaker 04 Yeah, why not? Get yourself a good e-bike.
16:02 Speaker 03 Get yourself a good e-bike. Get around. Get around. It's a great way, great way to get around. All right, we're going to take our first break of the day. When we come back, we're going to be joined by John Cox from the Bakersfield Californian. So many stories that John's written about. We're going to talk and cover where Money Wise will be right back.
16:17 Speaker 00 Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast and catch up on all past shows whenever and wherever you want.
16:28 Speaker 05 John Cox. He's a man of a million words. John Cox. He's the king of the business nerds. He looks like Jimmy Elson from Superman, but a little bit taller and a bit of a tan. John Cox. He's from Bakersfield Californian. John Cox. Makes stories on credit unions. It's a good thing that he's only on the radio air, or else you'd be distracted by his dark flowing hair. John Cox.
16:57 Speaker 03 That's right. John Cox is joining us here at Money Wise on the Money Wise Show. I'm Sharad Waite here with Frank Lee. John, that song Never Gets Old. You know what else never gets old? And I could see it from my office overlooking the Kern River here on Stockdale Highway is the refinery on Roseville Highway. And the drama that seems to follow that refinery. I noticed that just a few weeks ago, the candlestick burning up there.
17:24 Speaker 06 Right. There were two of them for a little while.
17:26 Speaker 03 Two of them. Yeah. And, and right, right on cue, the Bakersfield Californian, you reported on what was going on. Can you give us an update?
17:36 Speaker 06 Yes, those candlesticks can be interpreted as very good news for a project that has had a lot of delays, a lot of complications in recent years. The company that owns it, Global Clean Energy Holdings, picked it up for $40 million in 2020 from the former owners, an Israeli-based company called Alon, which had an interesting way of sort of reusing this former oil refinery. They were bringing in byproducts from Southern California and it was just sort of this complicated thing. Never really did all that well. They only operated it for 12 consecutive months, like once, I think. And so they sold it. And this
18:18 Speaker 06 company that picked it up, based in Long Beach, it has had a lot of trouble. Just really, it all comes down to design and engineering. That was the problem. They've gone through a couple of different firms that were going to get it going. Most recently, you know, kind of again continuing this drama that's gone on there, they let go of the company, internationally-based Taiwanese company that was bringing it to the finish line. The company has had this disagreement with, and I mean that the Taiwanese company has had a disagreement with the owners of the refinery about how much exactly was owed as part of this job. And they finally just sort of parted ways. It looks like that's going to be resolved
19:03 Speaker 06 in the courts.
19:04 Speaker 03 And they said, you reported that they said, "This won't affect our timeline, whatever." And it's like, "Well, this is your engineer company."
19:12 Speaker 06 It is very close to the end. I mean, on paper, they should be done with this soon. And they, they've, you know, been a little bit more quiet lately. You know, the stock price is very low. It will be great news when they announce that we are entering commercial production. So they're in the final stages, really. And they do expect that, you know, the most, the vast majority of the work's been done. They just need to get the startup finished and then they can start producing renewable diesel for the California market. Recall that a few years ago, California was importing
19:52 Speaker 06 Almost all of its renewable diesel, which is part of our climate action in California, was coming from Singapore. And so they saw a very big market for this product. In the meantime, however, during all these delays, other refineries have stepped in and begun supplying the California market. And so now there's, you know, it's a little bit less lucrative to suddenly come in here. So the plan is to produce 15,000 barrels a day of renewable diesel, which can be substituted one for one to regular diesel. And initially, it will be made from rendered animal fats and used cooking oil and sort of locally sourced and from Southern California.
20:36 Speaker 06 But ultimately, there's a grain called Camelina that they expect to use as a feedstock. And so they're, you know, they've come a long way on that, but the engineering problems have just really slowed down the project, made it a lot more costly, created these problems. ExxonMobil was going to be, had an agreement to buy all of the renewable diesel there and then has backed out.
20:56 Speaker 03 Pulled out of that deal.
20:57 Speaker 06 But they got a new one, Vitor or Vitor, I can't remember how it's pronounced. They have stepped in. There is some speculation that, you know, if all else fails, that company could just take over the refinery. Because that, you know, with so many things that have gone wrong, people are thinking, what is the ultimate outcome? What is it going to be the disposition of the ownership here? But we'll see.
21:16 Speaker 03 Right.
21:17 Speaker 06 So the company has been quiet, as I said, about exactly where they are. They expect soon they're going to be opening that plant, commercial production. That'll be great. They've had some, you know, what, I don't know, more than 100 jobs, I think, or somewhere around 100 jobs at the plant. Good jobs, really symbolic of Kern County's efforts to, you know, in renewable energy, including bioenergy. And this is just such a hopeful project. It's a shame that they've had these problems, but it looks like they're in the home stretch now.
21:47 Speaker 03 This would be interesting. It's an interesting technology because growing, using biofuels, in my mind, has like a bad reputation because it's like, why are you, you know, there's so much of the ethanol debacle, the corn that came from. Corn, which it turned out to just be not really great for the environment, not great for any, a lot of people.
22:08 Speaker 06 Yeah, and taking food out of the
22:09 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:10 Speaker 06 The food chain.
22:11 Speaker 03 But the cam- camellia is different. It's, it's, it is a, um, it's something that's used in rot- it doesn't have to be grown on crops where, land where crops are generally grown. You don't need to use fertilizers, very low water. It's just, you know, it's like rotator. It's good for the, you know, the environment to grow this stuff. Um, and so it's cool that it can make biofuel. The question is, you know, can it be sustainable? Can they actually get this thing going and working?
22:34 Speaker 06 Well, that's now a secondary question. You know, the third primary question is how soon are you going to open the thing?
22:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:40 Speaker 06 And so, uh, it's, it's, it's hopeful now. Uh, it looks, those, those candlestick flares really are a good sign that things are moving along. Yes, they, they first did that in 2021 and we got all excited then. It didn't happen, but, um, the fact that they're doing that really, uh, would suggest that, that things are moving along.
22:59 Speaker 03 So I'm looking at the history of the refinery on Rosedale Highway. It opened in 1932. It was the Mohawk refinery and initial production was about 1,500 barrels a day. We're talking about now 15,000 that will come in biofuels if they get this thing going. In 1941, the government took control of the refinery until 1946, the war, uh, the, the fuel was needed for the war. During the 1950s and 70s, ownership transitioned to a few different companies, including Norwalk, Bankline, Signal Oil, and Tosco, until 1986, when Texaco, Inc. acquired the refinery, integrating it with the, um, Alon USA, uh, Bakersfield refinery. That was in 1986.
23:45 Speaker 03 And then in 2005, Shell, which was, you know, Tex- Texaco turned into, to, became Shell, sold the refinery to Flying J, which is a Salt Lake-based firm that operates truck stops and refineries. And Flying J had it until 2009. I remember you reported on the bankruptcy of Flying J in 2000, or the bankruptcy of the, of the refinery, shut it down until 2004.
24:11 Speaker 03 14 when Alon USA Energy owned the refinery. It just basically kept it idle until 2020, like you said, where Global Clean Energy Holdings now owns it. So they've had it for the last four years. And you mentioned, this is a publicly traded company. They're, it's over the counter, their, their stock is, and it's a penny stock. It's trading at 92 cents right now. And it looks like it's been trading at under $5 pretty much for a few years. The company was founded in 2007. The share price did see a little bump up in the beginning of 2020 for, for a little bit. And the share price
24:54 Speaker 03 got up to three, over $5 a share, peaking in, in 2021. And now has, you know, then we saw a big drop off. And now it's just basically a, yeah, less than a buck. It's a penny stock.
25:08 Speaker 06 I did notice when my story came out, I looked a few days later and they got like a 3% bump out of the headline.
25:13 Speaker 03 Oh, bad.
25:14 Speaker 06 It was like refinery might, you know, might, might open soon. It was a little bit of a bump. And I've heard from some of the investors. I've heard from some of the workers there, much more than I've heard from the executives of the company itself. But they're very excited to see what happens. And, you know, work continues and everybody just wants to know an update. And, and I await the update. We're still looking for this. I think that we're going to hear something either later this month or January. And, and, you know, hopefully they're, they're going to have this going. You know, it was originally, it was three different refineries that came together and it made so much sense, that property there, because we produce oil here and they were, you know, refining the heavy oil that comes from Kern County. And, but it just wasn't working. You know, when Shell had it, they
25:58 Speaker 06 were gonna, they were gonna close it. And Barbara Boxer, I think, former state senator, she, she came in and there was an inquiry and, yeah, Shell was put in a corner with that whole project. And so there's a really interesting history right there. And you know, even now that, that Global owns it.
26:21 Speaker 06 They own the whole thing. There's a lot of assets right there, but they're only going to use a relatively small portion of the plant. And someone I've been speaking with saying, there's a lot of assets there. If nothing else, you know, you'd be able to, to sell off, you know, what's called the hydro cracker there and other things. I'm not sure if they're using that part now, but there's a lot of valuable machinery. Are they going to ultimately make use of that?
26:44 Speaker 03 I see.
26:44 Speaker 06 Is another question, sort of after they've done this, once they've got this going.
26:48 Speaker 03 It's now in the heart of Bakersfield, too, which is like, I mean, it's up between Rosedale and Stockdale Highway.
26:55 Speaker 06 Yeah. You used to be on the periphery of Bakersfield. Now we've sort of grown around it.
26:59 Speaker 03 Yeah. And the West Side Parkway flies right by us. And now like, you know, it's sort of, I don't know, it's kind of an eyesore.
27:04 Speaker 06 I don't know. To me, it's just Bakersfield.
27:06 Speaker 04 Yeah, we were scared because Jack and I were leaving from east, west of West Side to downtown for dinner. And then in the distance, we just saw like this glowing orange light. We're like, what is that? And then as soon as we like get closer and closer and closer, we just see this huge fire like on the candle.
27:27 Speaker 03 The candle, the candle.
27:28 Speaker 04 We're like, what is going on there? And so like now, now it's like, it's crazy to hear it full story.
27:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
27:33 Speaker 04 Like what it is, because I'd never knew about it.
27:35 Speaker 06 Yeah, it's waste gas that they're burning off there. It's part of a process as they're, you know, they're testing, they're seeing if it all works. And, you know, it's like, cross your fingers, hope they get to go together. But it could, we could know very soon.
27:46 Speaker 03 Yeah.
27:46 Speaker 06 What's going, the future is going to be there.
27:48 Speaker 03 Well, that's great. Thanks for keeping this up to date on that. John Cox from the Bakersfield, California. We're going to take a break. We come back, much more to talk about.
27:55 Speaker 06 Are you curious to learn more about how you can be money wise? Check out the Money Wise website at moneywiseguys.com to get more info about what we do and how we can help you.
28:10 Speaker 03 Welcome back. We're Money Wise. Thanks for tuning in. 661-396-1000 is the number you can call or text. Send in your questions or comments. I'm Sharad Waite. Frank Lee is here and we're joined by John Cox from the Bakersfield, California. And John, you wrote about, oh, it's like we got a question. It says, with all the delays and cost overruns, what proof has global clean energy given that they'll meet this new timeline? Thank you, John, for all your hard work. I think you kind of answered this, you know, but.
28:38 Speaker 06 I don't think there's any guarantees. And in fact, if you read their, their, their annual reports, it says over and over, there are no guarantees on that. You know, just that they're, they're, they're trying to be hard. Boy, have they taken on a lot of debt on this thing. Their investors continue to put in. I mean, their investors are putting in money.
28:56 Speaker 03 Approximately?
28:56 Speaker 06 Hundreds of millions of dollars, what, what?
28:58 Speaker 03 That's it?
28:59 Speaker 06 Five hundred million dollars.
29:00 Speaker 03 That's crazy. Cause their market, their market capitalization is 45 million. Of course, they have a negative earnings per share, but it's still like their total value of the company is, at least according to their share price today is only 45 million. So they've, talk about, I mean, this company's leveraging a lot into one project. You know, as the citizens here in the valley, we, we just want it to be something that's working and that's functional. And it's not just this big, huge, how big is the property?
29:30 Speaker 06 Oh, no.
29:31 Speaker 03 So many acres.
29:31 Speaker 06 I don't recall.
29:32 Speaker 03 It's a lot. It's several acres.
29:34 Speaker 06 At least several.
29:35 Speaker 03 I would say several.
29:38 Speaker 03 So kind of keeping on this thing, you also wrote about the new 7-Eleven EV charging station planned for LaBeck.
29:47 Speaker 06 Yeah.
29:47 Speaker 03 Up by Frasier Park.
29:48 Speaker 06 Right. Yeah. I drive right by it because we have that house up there.
29:51 Speaker 03 Yeah.
29:52 Speaker 06 And I hadn't seen it. And if you look at it right now, because I was skeptical that it even existed. Cause I'd say, wait, this isn't, I just drove by there and I saw nothing. Well, there's this fencing that's up around it. It's by the, the Flying J or Pilot Travel Station right there.
30:07 Speaker 03 Right next door to it? The one that's currently there?
30:10 Speaker 06 Just exactly east of there.
30:12 Speaker 03 Oh, wow.
30:12 Speaker 06 On the other side of Ralph's Ranch Road.
30:14 Speaker 03 Yeah.
30:15 Speaker 06 And so there's not a whole lot there, but they're going to make it much larger. But here's an interesting point. So that would be if, if the timetable holds, then that will be the largest EV charging station in the state. But then right afterward, one is supposed to open in Lost Hills and become the largest in the state.
30:37 Speaker 03 In Lost Hills?
30:38 Speaker 06 Lost Hills.
30:38 Speaker 03 Oh, like I-5 and oh.
30:40 Speaker 06 I-5 and the 46, isn't it?
30:41 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
30:43 Speaker 06 I could see that happening.
30:44 Speaker 03 That's a busy.
30:45 Speaker 06 Yeah. Yeah. Very busy.
30:46 Speaker 03 Yeah. But. So that is, is it a different company than ones billing in Lebec?
30:50 Speaker 06 Yeah, different company.
30:51 Speaker 03 You also reported about the EV station out here on Stockdale Highway, Stockdale and I-5.
30:57 Speaker 06 I-5, right.
30:58 Speaker 03 It's a Tesla semi EV.
31:01 Speaker 06 Yeah, yeah, it's interesting to see this, this, this oil county, I mean, the capital of petroleum production in the West Coast quickly becoming the center of renewable energy and use of renewable energy, you know, for different reasons that we've seen that happen.
31:19 Speaker 03 This is, this one, this one new EV charging station up in Lebec will have 38 charger, oh, let's see, oh, right now it has 38 chargers, it looks like, available just off Frasier Park Mountain Road, but the, the, they're expected to have 112 Tesla supercharger DC fast charger stalls on site by early July, in addition to a new format 7-Eleven convenience store.
31:49 Speaker 06 That's the interesting bit right there. Yes. And there is going to be like this new type of 7-Eleven that they don't have, it's going to have two entrances and they, they weren't explicit about where the different, the reason for them, but there's going to be conventional, you know, filling station gasoline and everything, plus EV and, and there's, you know, when you charge your, your EV, you've got to, you've got to wait, you know, you know, it's not like you go in, you pump it up, you're out.
32:16 Speaker 03 That's right.
32:16 Speaker 06 So they're gonna, they're, they're gonna have this special lounge and, and sofas and special hospitality and it sounds like it's going to be like this, like this VIP room is the feeling that I got from, from, from hearing about this and I wouldn't be surprised if there's like people who come and serve you, you know, they'll come to your, your couch and say, would you like another slurpee?
32:44 Speaker 06 It's your big gulp, sir.
32:48 Speaker 03 Yeah, this is really great. I mean, it's good news for, I guess, Lebec, this might not be in Kern County.
32:54 Speaker 06 I checked, it is. I thought it was not. My understanding, having lived there, is that LA County sort of starts at the Lebec. But no, this is an LA County.
33:03 Speaker 03 It is LA County, not Kern County?
33:05 Speaker 06 I'm sorry. Kern County, it is Kern County, yeah. Yeah, I checked into it. It is good, right? Not like when the governor came to town, he said he was in Kern County, but he was like, just barely. When he was in Gorman, or near Gorman.
33:18 Speaker 03 Oh, that's right.
33:19 Speaker 00 That's not Kern County, is it?
33:21 Speaker 06 Apparently, it just, part of it was, like, part of the back of the warehouse.
33:26 Speaker 03 His left foot.
33:27 Speaker 00 His left foot was in Kern County.
33:28 Speaker 06 Right, right. Well, then, when he knows what his reputation is in Kern County.
33:33 Speaker 03 Stay on the edge. Stay on the border. Were you there? Did you go to know your report on it?
33:38 Speaker 06 We had a guy there, though.
33:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:40 Speaker 06 And he, like, waited more than an hour or something. You know, the press just gets treated so bad at these things. And it's like, you guys want to be here, so you're gonna wait?
33:48 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:49 Speaker 06 But no, I wasn't there, but it was a big deal. And he, our guy got in some good questions. And at that, when the governor was there, I'm sorry to change topics on you, but just to close that loop.
33:59 Speaker 03 Yeah.
34:00 Speaker 06 The governor responded to a question by our guy Peter Siegel, and said that he's been working with CRC, a local oil producer, and others about getting permitting moving. Now, that's very unpopular for the governor and some of his key supporters, you know, on the left, environmental groups that really want to aggressively phase out oil production in the state. And he is basically saying, I get it, we're seeing what we can do. Now, I haven't seen the results of this, but CRC was apparently pretty enthusiastic about the governor.
34:31 Speaker 03 About those words.
34:32 Speaker 06 About, well, about having a meeting. They met with him, with Newsom. And he indicated that he's going to see what he can do on permitting. So we'll see. You know, that's been one of the big questions. What is going to happen with permitting? Kern County tried to take over, got stopped in court. The governor, whenever he gives a single drilling permit, he gets slammed by the environmental groups and so you know worry how is he gonna get out of this kind of little mess that he's
35:00 Speaker 03 it is a mess and I think Shannon Grove has done a good job in in pointing out that mess by and I don't know if you reported on this or not I think you did right where she
35:09 Speaker 06 the bill
35:10 Speaker 03 yeah right which is to bringing attention to where California is getting its fuel where are we getting our carbon fuels right now and what is their what is their track record on human rights
35:20 Speaker 06 and bring bring greater transparency to what goes on when we bring it when we import oil where does it come from what are the labor rights what is what are the implications of not producing in-state and instead bringing it over how does that affect the price what are the human rights records what are the environmental records you know one of the points that are is often made is that I think something like a quarter of the oil that California imports from other countries comes from the Amazon rainforest you know they're deforesting so you know there's there's reasons to wanna know you know what's the trade-off we're making
35:55 Speaker 03 yeah
35:55 Speaker 04 on both sides
35:56 Speaker 03 right
35:57 Speaker 04 not just yeah
35:57 Speaker 03 yes and it's not I I the governor has a reputation of just taking one side as the far-left environmentalist side which is we just have to stop all carbon fuels at all costs as soon as possible with and then setting a target for carbon neutrality in the state 2045 and then we've got this huge gap in between which I think the hope is that we'll have the technologies in place to be able to transition us there but I can I can really sympathize for especially our local oil and gas producers because they're going what are you talking about like we're you're we're gonna still need to produce some
36:37 Speaker 03 of this stuff here in the state for many many decades and you can't just shut it off completely or we might be cutting our nose off to spite our face
36:47 Speaker 06 and I asked him about that his answer you know why why are we doing the why are we clamping down on oil production at a time that we're importing so much oil why not produce in-state his answer was To accelerate the transition. He believes that the harder we are on oil, the quicker we're going to transfer, uh, transition to electric vehicles.
37:06 Speaker 03 Well, I mean, to his point, if we just cut off all, it's not possible, but in imaginary world where you could cut off all fossil fuels right now, you better believe we're going to figure out a real transition real quick. We'll have no choice, but how many lives are lost? You know, how much, how much of the economy is destroyed? How many people, you know, there's all kinds of, you know, of manufacturing that would have to stop. There's, it's just, it's just not, not feasible. But I'm a fan of all these technologies like this modern 7-Eleven that's coming to the back. You know, that's pretty cool.
37:37 Speaker 04 I think they announced it in one of their meetings, like shareholder meeting, that they're revamping the whole store to fit exactly what we were just talking about.
37:46 Speaker 03 7-Eleven is?
37:47 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. More what they call like fast, uh, fast food forward thinking. So having lounges, people sit in, eat, uh, and then, uh, building those EV chargers.
38:00 Speaker 03 Well, if you think about if, you know, EVs do continue to go the direction that they're going, it changes the way that we stop and fuel. It does, it's a little bit more time versus gas. As batteries improve, I think that that will no longer be an issue, but we'll have five or 10 years where it takes, my wife has a Tesla. It takes us 20 minutes at least to sit and stop and, which is about 15 minutes more than just gassing up. So what do you do with that 15 minutes? You go buy a Slurpee.
38:28 Speaker 04 It is nice. I've, I've gone, I've gotten accustomed to, you know, waiting 15, 20, 30 minutes and then just getting out, stretching my legs, walking around rather than just like pumping then go.
38:40 Speaker 03 I agree.
38:41 Speaker 04 My hips are so, they're tight, my back is hurting. So, you know, I like that time to just walk around.
38:46 Speaker 03 I do too. I've got, I've gotten used to it and I like it.
38:49 Speaker 00 Instead of just opening the app on the, on inside and watching, you know, Netflix or the video games that are built into the Tesla?
38:57 Speaker 04 Yeah, you can, you know, have, you have it both ways. But yeah, I, I think I've grown accustomed to it and I can see why they're making that push and they're not going to solve the whole recharging issue like from 30 minutes to like two, five minutes is like, no way.
39:13 Speaker 06 Apparently this site here, the proposed LaBec 7-Eleven is said to be the first charging station that has been purpose-built where you can go and do something while you're waiting. Otherwise, it's sort of, you know, you add the charger stations to an existing center. This is being built specifically for that purpose where you've got your captive audience right there. I mean, how can you not make money at that? But this is the first one that's actually doing it. So another first for Kern County.
39:40 Speaker 03 You said they've broken ground already? Like you can see it's fenced in, but they have some groundwork done?
39:45 Speaker 06 They've got some fencing around the perimeter of the property. They've got those charging centers. There's 40 that were built. Two of them were not working. 38 were running and a lot more proposed. But they've got a lot of development to do. When I go by there, I see no cranes. I see no construction work. You know, maybe it's going on behind the fences. But they've got a ways to go.
40:05 Speaker 03 Well, they say early July. By early July.
40:08 Speaker 06 Yeah, I hope so.
40:09 Speaker 03 Get moving. All right, we got a listener question and comments. We're going to get to that when we come back after the break. We're Money Wise. Don't go anywhere.
40:15 Speaker 00 Are you an employee with a company-sponsored retirement plan? Do you fully understand how you're invested and whether or not you are maximizing your retirement plan's options? For more information on a free assessment, contact Money Wise's 401(k) Specialist, Justin Leland, at 661-847-1000. That's 661-847-1000.
40:41 Speaker 03 Thanks for tuning in. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sharad Way, joined by Frank Lee and John Cox, one of our favorite guests from the Big Show Californians, the editor, business editor. So many stories, John. Thanks for being here. I have a listener question here. It says, are the Tesla Superchargers faster than other EV charging stations? I'll answer that. I'll say, yes, it depends. It depends. Actually, there are some, there are some fast chargers that are not Tesla chargers, that are not, you know, Tesla branded, that are also fast. But, but the Tesla Superchargers are very fast.
41:17 Speaker 04 I think the fastest one's on the market. Yeah.
41:19 Speaker 03 Yeah. Another listener message here. It says, Are the Tesla semi trucks available yet? I haven't seen any on the road. My father was a truck driver for 20 plus years and I'm excited to see them on the roads. Will they have the auto drive option? So yeah, these are auto, these are auto drive semi trucks. I did look into it because it's been a while since I've heard an update on the Tesla semi.
41:43 Speaker 04 I'm trying to remember back when he announced it in like 2018?
41:48 Speaker 03 He announced.
41:49 Speaker 04 Something like that?
41:49 Speaker 03 Well, yeah, it was 2020, or 2017, I believe is when Elon Musk first unveiled the Class 8 truck, semi truck, all electric semi.
42:00 Speaker 04 It was with the Model 3 and then it was also the Roadster that he talked about.
42:06 Speaker 03 Which still hasn't come out. But Tesla did begin production of the Tesla semi truck in October of 2022. It was several years behind schedule. Obviously it was announced in 2017. Tesla made their first deliveries of the semi truck to PepsiCo in December of 2022. They delivered almost, close to 100 of the semi trucks to Pepsi. They've only manufactured a total year to, actually as of July of this year of 140 of these Tesla semi trucks. And currently there's less than 100 of them that are hauling freight.
42:46 Speaker 03 A lot of the, the hauls that Tesla does are between their production facility up in Northern California. It's Fremont facility, I think is where they, where it is. And, and so full production, full volume production is not expected with the Tesla semi until March of 2026. So there is still some full production manufacturing work going on with Tesla. But they're getting there, getting closer and closer to that being the case. John Cox, the, you wrote this week or last week about the, some development that's happening. And you said that this was.
43:32 Speaker 03 On the northwest corner of Gosford and Panama Lane, which is right over by Sam's Club.
43:39 Speaker 06 Right, Gosford Village is just north of this site. Between Harris Road and Panama.
43:44 Speaker 03 I see.
43:44 Speaker 06 On the west side of Gosford. And we became aware that there was some construction activity going on there. Site preparation, like some sewer pipe, is that the question?
43:54 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, so what's happening?
43:55 Speaker 06 Well, so this is a very large project, one of many large retail projects that are proposed. And this one is actually happening. And it's got a long history. You can trace this back to like 2007 or earlier. But it's Castle and Cook, but a lot, there's been a lot of homes in this, in this town. And they, you know, kind of the benefit of bringing in new homes is that then you have a retail opportunity that, that is on the tail of that. And Castle and Cook had the wisdom to hold on to some of that property and develop it into retail. And so now that it has begun work there, it's something like 300,000.
44:35 Speaker 03 303,000 square feet.
44:37 Speaker 06 Stores, just stores. And then 8,000 square feet of restaurants. And you've got one, about half of the 300,000 is going to be just this one anchor space toward the southwest corner there. Looks like it might be a, you know, maybe a Target. A Target had been proposed there, a Super Target. I don't know exactly what's going on there now. And then a number of smaller sites and then the pads on the periphery. So there's going to be, you know, there's going to be some big box stores. There's going to be some fast food places around there. But what's also exciting is that because they've got a lot of housing that's been built around there, it's not just that one corner there, but there are, there's development proposed on the other three corners of that same intersection.
45:20 Speaker 06 On the, you know, southwest, northeast, southeast.
45:25 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:26 Speaker 06 And all of them are looking for leasing right now, so they.
45:29 Speaker 03 It's all retail development.
45:30 Speaker 06 Yeah, all retail development, indeed. It could be that the. First thing to be built there is going to be an AMPM.
45:37 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
45:38 Speaker 06 So, not quite as exciting as the new Super Target or whatever.
45:43 Speaker 03 Yeah.
45:43 Speaker 06 But that may be the first thing and, and you know, if, if you are a retailer and you're interested in moving into a, you know, an up and coming neighborhood, that's an option for you because there's a lot happening.
45:57 Speaker 03 So much happening out there. I remember when they, when the Sam's Club was first built out there, it was kind of out on the sticks.
46:04 Speaker 06 Not anymore though.
46:05 Speaker 03 Edge of town, no. No, it's just incredible how much the town continues to grow and develop out there. That's just a lot of retail space, which is good news for Bakersfield. These retailers don't come in here, they're not dummies. They, they know the math, they know the demographics. So the fact that they're coming in here is a good sign. It's some economic, economic activity in the positive direction. Well, John, thanks so much for coming on. We really appreciate it.
46:28 Speaker 06 Thank you.
46:28 Speaker 03 Want to encourage anybody out there, go subscribe to Bakersfield Californian. It's our local newspaper. We want to remind our listeners too, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.
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