Toby Rice, the president and CEO of EQT Corp., presented his energetic views for the energy industry in a recent interview with the West Hills Gazette.
At EQT’s Carnegie headquarters, Rice talked about the effects of energy poverty around the world, the potential of technology and what will be needed to meet the demands of the coming modern era of energy.
Rice, who is currently the CEO of one of the largest natural gas producers in the U.S., explained how his uncommon career path started outside of the workplace.
While growing up in Massachusetts, Rice had desires of playing professional baseball, but he said his plans changed “because I didn’t have enough talent.”
Rice said that after an unusual rooftop run-in with a raccoon while working as a chimney sweep, he began questioning his options.
“I got in a fight with a raccoon and almost got knocked off the roof,” he said jokingly. “And I was like, man, what am I doing?”
After attending Rollins College to study chemistry, Rice changed his major to petroleum engineering. Then in the middle of the 2000s, he co-founded Rice Energy with his father’s $10 million investment.
“I said, no, Dad, I can’t believe you have $10 million,” Rice said.
That investment led to the creation of one of the country’s leading natural gas producers, which ended up being bought by EQT in 2017.
“Combining the right technology with opportunity allowed us to grow fast,” Rice said. “Today, EQT produces the energy equivalent of about 1 million barrels of oil per day — all in the form of natural gas.”
According to its website, EQT owns or leases more than 1,000,000 net acres in Pennsylvania, with most of that in the southwestern portion of the state. The majority of that acreage is in Greene and Washington counties. EQT also owns or leases about 600,000 net acres in West Virginia.
Rice pointed out the significance of the Appalachian Basin. According to EQT’s most recent company overview, the area produces more than one-third of the nation’s natural gas.
“This is the biggest gas field in the world,” Rice said. “It’s an absolute treasure for this country.”
But not everyone agrees with the way that EQT is utilizing that treasure. Gillian Graber, executive director of Protect PT — a grassroots community-based nonprofit group working to protect communities in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties from what it believes are harmful environmental impacts of fossil fuel activity — is one of them.
Graber said workers in the industry are often not properly trained or informed about the toxicity of the waste they handle.
“And studies on the health effects of living near unconventional (well) drilling have been largely ignored,” she said during the webinar “5 Years Later: A Progress Report on PA’s 43rd Grand Jury Report on Fracking.”
EQT, however, touts its commitment to safety and transparency on the company’s website, stating that it’s one of the first in Appalachia to voluntarily disclose hydraulic fracturing contents. It also notes that detailed chemical data is available on the state’s Department of Environmental Protection website and that it participates in an entity known as FracFocus.org to provide public access to information on additives used in natural gas development.
Rice also talked about his dissatisfaction with the regulation of pipeline development.
“Political force has overwhelmed market forces,” he said. “People have been blocking pipelines to get this low-cost energy to other parts of the country.”
Rice pointed to his own family as an example. “My mom in Boston is paying $13 today for her natural gas. She’ll be paying $20 in the winter,” he said. “And I’m selling that same gas just a few states away in Pennsylvania for $4.”
Rice argued that affordable, plentiful energy could have an important effect not only in the United States, but around the world.
“If you want to make this world a better place, find a way to bring more energy into it,” Rice said. “I believe poverty is the biggest issue the world is facing today.”
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), about 770 million people worldwide still lack access to electricity. Rice stated that closing that gap is important for getting nations out of poverty.
“Giving people access to energy is the fastest way to get them out of poverty,” he said. “The more energy people use, the wealthier they become.”
Rice described his long-term goal, which he refers to as the “50 and 50” vision: bringing every nation in the world to 50 megawatt-hours of energy used per capita and $50,000 GDP per capita within the next 50 years.
“We can unleash the potential of over 6 billion people,” Rice said. “I guarantee you we’re going to find another Elon Musk in that group.”
Rice thinks that technology, especially artificial intelligence, will help unlock some of that potential.
“Technology is a differentiator,” he said. “You don’t need to invent a lot of new things. Being successful is about applying the technology we already have in new environments.”
Rice added that AI will not replace workers, but those who understand how to use it will have an edge over others.
“AI is not going to take your job,” he said. “But the person who learns how to use AI will.”
He also encouraged students and young professionals to become technically knowledgeable.
“Whatever your passion is, get a minor in computer science,” he said. “People with technical understanding and the ability to write code will have a huge edge.”
Rice warned that the AI revolution will require huge amounts of energy. “We’ll need to build enough power infrastructure to supply the equivalent of 10 to 15 New York Cities,” he said, citing EQT’s energy demand forecasts.
But some, including Lauren Posey, an environmental policy advocate with Protect PT, are concerned about the amount of energy needed to power such operations as data centers.
“AI is responsible for a large portion of the projected increase in data center and energy demand, which can use on-site gas-powered turbines that are heavily polluting the local community,” she said during the webinar “Is Pennsylvania Ready for Data Centers? It’s a Lot to Compute!”
Rice, though, emphasized the importance of energy security, linking the issue to national security. “When the bombs dropped in Ukraine, people understood that energy security matters,” Rice said. “Meeting the power needs of this AI revolution is going to be an even bigger challenge. This is not just an economic opportunity — it’s a national security issue.”
Throughout the interview, Rice pointed out his company’s mission: to increase access to energy and improve people’s lives.
“We want to increase the amount of energy we produce in this world, improve the quality of life, and then get to a place where we can start focusing on the bigger problems taking place in this world,” Rice said.
His journey, from sweeping chimneys to leading a company, shows his core belief: energy is the heart of opportunity.
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