Is Big Tech An Energy Transition Roadblock? – Energy Realities Live Podcast

Irina Slav International Author writing about energy, mining, and geopolitical issues. BulgariaDavid Blackmon Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Tammy NemethEnergy Consulting SpecialistStuart TurleyPresident, and CEO, Sandstone Group, Podcast Host

David Blackmon [00:00:00] And way we go. Good morning everyone. I hope everyone in the United States had a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend like I did. My air conditioner only broke down once, which is really nice. The grid stayed alive, so that’s good. We’re safe here in Texas, at least now from any Ercot incompetence. Hi everyone. Thank you for joining our show and with us today. With me today, I’m David Blackmon. I’m very slow this morning. I’ve been dealing with that air conditioner all morning. Anyway, it’s fixed now. It’s nice and cool. With me today,

Stuart Turley [00:00:45] I didn’t Know we had Biden on the unveiling today. Thank you, President Biden, for stopping by.

David Blackmon [00:00:51] With me today. As you can see, is Stuart Turley, president CEO of the Sandstone Group and the honcho behind Energy Newsbeat, Tammy Nemeth, who is in the UK today. Right. That’s your UK location?

Tammy Nemeth [00:01:07] Yeah.

David Blackmon [00:01:08] Yep.

Tammy Nemeth [00:01:08] Yeah.

David Blackmon [00:01:09] She alternates between Canada and the UK. So she’s been right there in the middle of those recent elections. I’m sure we’ll talk about at some point today. And Irina Slav. From Bulgaria. How are you?

Irina Slav [00:01:22] Hot?

David Blackmon [00:01:23] Yes, hot. It’s like Texas over there. And,.

Irina Slav [00:01:27] Yeah

David Blackmon [00:01:28] I compare everything to Texas. I can’t help it. Sorry. Anyway. Thank you. Thanks, everybody, for being here. I understand over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be missing one member or another for each of the next two shows. But the whole gang’s here today, and we’re going to talk about whether or not our topic today is, is big tech an energy transition roadblock? Okay. Not a facilitator, not a feature, but a glitch in the energy transition. It’s an interesting question that I don’t know the answer to exactly, but I know that my three fellow panel members will have a lot of good insights on. So let’s start with arena slopped, since I believe our arena you used suggested this topic, right? Or was it Tammy?

Irina Slav [00:02:14] Yeah. Kind of.

Tammy Nemeth [00:02:16] No, it’s Irina.

David Blackmon [00:02:19] Irina, So Irina is big tech a, feature or a glitch of the energy transition?

Irina Slav [00:02:28] It’s it’s a it’s a huge one, potentially huge one because big tech companies have been, you know, these champions of the energy transition. They have been so actively promoting net zero and they have been advertising their efforts. In stupid, boring language. By the way, I think I suffered reading through all the statements regarding the net zero efforts so-called and the level of corporatist language was amazing. So many words saying nothing. But the thing is, big tech, even without AI, is a huge energy drain. They need a lot of electricity to to function. And to my mind, this is why they’re so actively promoting those so-called efforts to to go clean by buying carbon offsets and renewable energy credits, mostly because there is no way. No physical way that they can secure all the electricity they need to function from wind and solar. Even with all the batteries in the world. But they still claim that they are going 100% green by whatever year. Google just admitted that its emissions. By 50% in. Was it five years or something? Despite all those efforts, all that buying of renewable energy credits. Well, gives.

David Blackmon [00:04:19] It’s a good question, isn’t it? Tammy, what do you think?

Tammy Nemeth [00:04:23] Well, I sent a couple articles around, this morning. And what I find so interesting is the contradictions, right? It’s it’s when we had Tom Kirkman on, I mentioned this as well, where it’s like. We have to have all of this AI and whatever to monitor how much energy we use, because we have to conserve energy because the grid is unreliable. Because we’ve used all this wind and solar on the grid and all this other stuff. But now we need AI to manage it all to make sure that it it it can be shifted from one region to another with the interconnects and all these different kinds of things, and to control consumer behavior and just everyday citizens, how they use their energy. So we need AI to control all that. But I takes up all the energy. So it’s it’s this bizarre circular thing where it’s like they’ve created a problem and the solution is always more control over what people do. And one of them has that’s been put out there, and I guess Vermont is trying it, and California is doing a study on it. And I think Colorado also is studying it is virtual power plants, which is the most ludicrous idea ever. And they use this euphemistic language about, oh, well, you know what? In the UK they called it load control and efficiency of the grid and everything, but what it really means. oh yeah. And to nudge consumer usage, which is a euphemism for rationing. So, you know, and everything that they do is ends up being for you and me and, and the mom down the street in the. And the retired person in their flat is they have to scale back their energy use so that I can tell them what it is they have to do to scale back or to do it for them, right, when you’ve just going to be cut off. And so Big Tech is is partnering with a lot of the different grids and whatnot in order to do all this, which of course then destabilizes the grid even more. And, perhaps a little bit later, we can talk about some of the proposed solutions besides rationing that they want to do.

David Blackmon [00:06:37] Oh God. Solutions man, I always it’s such a fearful topic with these people because, you know, their solution is always going to be more control over the rest of us. Stu, what do you think?

Irina Slav [00:06:50] Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:06:51] What were you saying, Irina?

Irina Slav [00:06:53] Endless energy.

David Blackmon [00:06:55] And less energy. Yeah.

Irina Slav [00:06:56] All this energy.

Stuart Turley [00:06:57] And more expensive energy and more. I think that we are in a critical point in humanity’s time period. And I and I don’t mean this in a flippant way. I think that, I has the potential of not only being racist. I think I has the potential, of, widening energy poverty like you wouldn’t believe. And I think what we’re going to see out of this is two separate grids. You’re going to have a private grid, those that can afford the energy, and then you’re going to have a public grid, which is managed kind of like the Biden administration in their, $7.1 billion for zero chargers. And I see you’re going to have a public grid that is actually looking like it’s got one tooth and, you know, trying to eat a corncob, and then you’re going to have a private one that only the rich can afford. And I really believe that we are going to be in a those that have money can afford health care. Those that have money can afford energy. And we’re approaching it and it’s going to be worse.

David Blackmon [00:08:16] You know, I tend to agree with that. Actually, I think we were already seeing it. A lot of these, AI server farms. Yes. Stu I agree with you?

Stuart Turley [00:08:25] Oh, sorry, David.

David Blackmon [00:08:29] No, but we already see at least some of the big server farms and I installations, are already saying they’re going to build their own power generation to supply their needs. Right? And they’re not going to be on the grid. And so what does that do? It eats up resources that can potentially be spent on additional generation capacity to go on the public grid. But now it’s going to be a privately held thing. And and they’re going to be able to manage whatever power generation they build for their own specific purposes. They’re also going to be able to if they can figure out how to make it work, sell power from the generation they build to other high tech companies, you know, or whatever. Companies want to buy electricity from them rather than connect to the public grid, but ordered in order to buy, proprietary electricity from from a company rather than hook up to the grid, you’ve got to have the financial wherewithal to be able to afford to do that. And that’s exactly the kind of bifurcated situation I think Stu is talking about. And so it’s already happening in the United States, and I assume it’s probably happening in Europe as well.

Stuart Turley [00:09:44] Patrick brings up an excellent point and a follow along on some of this research I’m working on here. Will they use coal, natural gas, wind and solar? And Patrick’s Point is extremely right on the money because is it going to be government in the public grid? Are they going to use coal, natural gas, wind and solar, or are they going to limit themselves to renewables only? And then is the private sector going to use natural gas and nuclear and try to meet the net zero goal? So that was a great point. Except you’re going to be pointed at, the political. Nimrods. Since there’s no more nimrods around the world, I can say Nimrod. The nimrods around the world are going to be having bad energy policies.

David Blackmon [00:10:39] And everything that gets built, regardless of who’s building it, still has to be permitted. Pride still has to be able to obtain the government licenses that are required to build the capacity. So the easiest thing for a company or corporation to do is be, well, I’m going to I’m only going to use wind, solar and batteries. And then they’re gonna find out that doesn’t work. Then they’re going to have to go back to the government and say, you know, I really need a permit to build a natural gas or a modular nuclear or whatever it is to power my facility in, and then it’ll be just become it’s two points out, a matter of public policy, whether or not you can get anything else permitted eventually. And, that’s that’s where we are. I mean, Tammy, Irina.

Tammy Nemeth [00:11:24] Well, I wonder if the permitting would be different, because if you’re just doing it for, like, the use of a of an industrial facility, and I, I’m assuming that one of these server farms or whatever is considered an industrial thing. They’re not actually saying we need all these transmission lines and all these right of ways and all these other things that are required to hook something on to the grid. We’re just going to use it for ourselves. And so therefore we can use the natural gas right off the pipeline. And I’ve seen an uptick in certain jurisdictions where, where some of this is happening, they just do it right off the pipeline, set up a little small natural gas sort of generating facility in order to power that. So they don’t have to hook up to the grid. And so I’m wondering then, if the approvals and the environmental assessments are, less onerous than if you’re doing, a larger scale project that requires all the different right of ways? Yeah. And all those other things. But that that two tiered idea, I think is extremely important. And even though there’s a lot of industries out there that do their own power generation, whether it’s, combined heat and power or, you know, something like that, what they’re I think what’s being proposed here is on a much larger scale, and I wonder if the argument will be, well, we need this even though it will have emissions because we need reliability. And we’re not just going to do natural gas until we get the summer up and running, and we need it because we don’t use as much energy as maybe the average public. That is very emissions intensive. And I could see this kind of rationalization coming out of it, which of course would be a contradiction.

David Blackmon [00:13:18] That could happen. I mean, you’d have to get it. You’d have to get those exceptions put either into regulation or law, which I don’t I’m not aware of any that exist right now in the United States. But, certainly I think those arguments are it’s inevitable. All that’s going to, you know, be argued and the government’s going to have to decide how it wants to regulate it.

Irina Slav [00:13:39] Yeah, but someone would have to protest against this because otherwise they’ll just ignore it because they’re have not. So, so many of the drawbacks of wind and solar and batteries and all that.

David Blackmon [00:13:52] That’s right.

Irina Slav [00:13:53] If you know it doesn’t exist.

Stuart Turley [00:13:55] This great, great Substack author wrote this morning, market always wins. It’s an absolute wonderful Substack. And go out to IrinaSlav.substack.com and subscribe. You gotta read that one every time it gets published.

Irina Slav [00:14:17] And it’s just so simple and so obvious. And this is well, I’ve noticed that a lot of obvious things are being ignored on purpose, but that doesn’t really make them disappear.

Tammy Nemeth [00:14:33] Yeah,.

Irina Slav [00:14:34] It’s exactly the case that whatever other industry that claims it’s very rare is going to get even greener, even though it is physically impossible.

David Blackmon [00:14:44] The problem is we have we have regulators and politicians who have no knowledge of how markets work or the power.

Irina Slav [00:14:52] And they dont care.

David Blackmon [00:14:53] All these decisions.

Irina Slav [00:14:54] No they don’t. Yeah, they they think they can beat the market.

David Blackmon [00:14:58] Right.

Irina Slav [00:14:59] With the regulation.

David Blackmon [00:15:02] Chapter 4 Travels not a roadblock at all, just the opposite. It’s a wake up to the fact that so-called renewables will never be able to power up our own way of life. That’s nuclear. Can do that? Yeah, eventually. I mean, that’s where we’re going to have to go. It’s, you know, it becomes more obvious every day that the only if you really want a net zero grid, net zero society, you’re going to have to fill it up with nuclear. It’s just that there’s no other viable alternative at the moment.

Irina Slav [00:15:33] Yeah. If we really want to be fully electrified.

Stuart Turley [00:15:36] I want to ask our

Tammy Nemeth [00:15:37] Right. But how about how long does that take?

Stuart Turley [00:15:40] Exactly, I want to ask her. I want to ask our folks that are listening as well. If you have any comments or ideas, on this, because we’re getting some fantastic, comments in here. What can we do to make nuclear better or achievable? Or, besides blow up the entire excuse me, redo the entire, regulatory process because we’ve got to have.

Irina Slav [00:16:12] This reframed content.

Stuart Turley [00:16:14] For our podcast listeners, will miniature nuclear reactors cover an office, campus or city block, distribute distribution radiation, radiate potential in such homogeneous manner that wars will have to be fought in new ways? Imagine bombing a building and releasing radiation supplying the building. Terrorism would have it be a lot easier. How much security can a 50,000 many nuclear generators? It’s interesting question, but

David Blackmon [00:16:46] It’s Interesting question and.

Stuart Turley [00:16:47] I think.

David Blackmon [00:16:47] Anybody has the answer.

Stuart Turley [00:16:49] We don’t. And I think we’re coming into the time period where, that’s not going to even be an issue because we have so much potential terrorism, available with swords and knives that I don’t know that they’re even going to get to the nuclear reactor with some things coming around the corner.

David Blackmon [00:17:10] And our grid is already incredibly, incredibly, subsets subject vulnerable to those kinds of attacks already. You know, every switching station in America, there’s tens of thousands of you knock one of those out, you knock power out, community for weeks, and.

Stuart Turley [00:17:28] I don’t want to side rails, but the grid security in all countries is a real issue. And in the United States, the current Biden administration put executive orders in that put over 30, 32 major connections. It could take an estimated 15% of the grid down remotely now by the Chinese, 100% on the Biden administration. I’ll shut up now.

David Blackmon [00:17:54] Irina, you got to interrupt. Sorry I interrupted you. I apologize for that.

Irina Slav [00:17:58] Oh, no, I was just just going to say that this is one of the reasons, while small, why a small modular reactors will probably not be in wide use anytime soon, in addition to apparently very steep costs that just, you know, derailed some projects in the US. But as Mihai says more

David Blackmon [00:18:20] easiest to build lives there.

Irina Slav [00:18:22] Yeah, yeah, yeah, because we already have knowledge. We know how to build them. Just build more.

David Blackmon [00:18:28] Yeah.

Irina Slav [00:18:29] I don’t know how

David Blackmon [00:18:30] They can do that but again. Go ahead

Tammy Nemeth [00:18:34] Sorry David. Go ahead. No. Go ahead.

David Blackmon [00:18:36] No, no, I interrupted you.

Tammy Nemeth [00:18:39] I I’m just thinking, you know, they talk about large, but it’s like they want all of these different micro places so that it’s more controllable for that particular small area. And I and again, it’s at this contradiction because on the one hand there’s lots of talk about how we need all these interconnections so that you don’t have to have these, generating abilities in one particular place. But you could have wind, solar, our battery spread out, and then you could with AI or whatever, be able to manage it on a continental level, which I think is crazy, especially from a security perspective. But then on the other hand, there’s this push for smears so that you could have much more local localized generation that would preclude the need for interconnections. So it’s like, okay, which one is it? You’re putting money into both of these. What’s, you know, what’s a what’s it going to be? And why can’t we just keep the regular grid. Because I think one of the other things that I think we need to discuss with respect to the AI issue and, and big tech and whatever, what about their emissions? Isn’t this all supposed to be about lowering emissions?

David Blackmon [00:19:54] It’s supposed to be until until the the the people with the deepest pockets, with members of Congress, of a certain party start having a need to increase their emissions. Then it’s all about something else, right? Which is again, why we have the wrong people making all these decisions in the first place.

Stuart Turley [00:20:13] You know, David, that’s exactly what I do every time I look at it, a debate or, you know, something political. This is me watching, stupid energy policies.

David Blackmon [00:20:32] Whoops. Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:20:33] We missed on the start. That’s over here. Yep. There we go. Just watching a political thing. Notice my giant neck? I am like. Unfortunately, human resource has been called in on me several times now.

David Blackmon [00:20:57] Yeah, I worked in a space just like that for coastal states in 1980. Oh my God, what a horrible existence.

Tammy Nemeth [00:21:04] I’m impressed that his keyboard didn’t snap when he hit it on the monitor.

Stuart Turley [00:21:08] Well, that was that was that has been around for a million years. I can’t believe I.

Irina Slav [00:21:15] We still have a keyboard that’s about it’s definitely more than 20 years old and it works.

David Blackmon [00:21:22] Yeah, yeah. Keyboards go on forever.

Stuart Turley [00:21:28] Yeah. I’m sorry.

David Blackmon [00:21:30] Go ahead Stu.

Stuart Turley [00:21:30] You know, we had a bunch of, comments in there that started rolling through it.

David Blackmon [00:21:35] Let’s see here. Well, this is so my opinion. Small reactor’s better suited to high energy sinks like I for I’m sure. Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, I mean, there’s a lot of advantages to SMRs if you can ever, you know, get the policy right behind them because you think of all the hundreds of billions of dollars we’re going to have to spend on transmission. And we’ve been spending on transmission for wind and solar arrays hundreds of miles away from the market centers. In Texas alone, we spent $7 billion on lines from West Texas to the Houston and DFW markets in the first decade of this century, $7 billion to build those transmission lines. And they’re the most inefficient way possible to bring that electricity to market. It’s it’s a completely inefficient model. And yet we’re still doing it. Our our our regulators in Austin are still permitting these things. And even despite the knowledge, they know it’s the wrong model. Anyway.

Stuart Turley [00:22:39] Robert, parochial national labs are doing this right now working on building tens of thousands of nuclear reactors. I’d like to find out more about that. Yeah, I, I I’ve interviewed the, CEO of, Copenhagen, Thomas Thomas Jam, a year ago. I need I’ve reached out to him to talk to them again. Thorium reactors. They were on track to build a, SMR the size of a semi. You roll it in and you drop it right on in. On a coal fired plant, you use waste from the old reactors. Wow, this is cool. You know, let’s go get this kind of stuff and get it automated and not pay for these transmission lines. And then put the money in where you need to and drop these things in the coal plants anyway. Sorry.

David Blackmon [00:23:35] It’s a good point. Let’s see, how to power a Patrick Devine. How to power high energy sinks is one thing, but who’s thinking of solution when this and SMR have to come off line for maintenance? Where will the backup power come from? Good question again, just.

Stuart Turley [00:23:54] Patrick. This morning. And when I want, I wonder if he’s having a.

David Blackmon [00:23:57] Diesel generator.

Stuart Turley [00:23:58] Or, he’s not having cocaine or whatever, but.

David Blackmon [00:24:03] The energy transition will take 100 years globally. I think it’s going to take more than that, because what we’ve been doing so far is also wrong headed. It’s all going to have to be done over again. And so you’re you’re looking I mean it’s been going this transition supposedly has been going on for 20 years. I and it’s going to go on for at least 100 years after that.

Irina Slav [00:24:23] It has to happen. It has to happen organically. Naturally. Yes. If it’s going to happen at all.

David Blackmon [00:24:29] Right. I can’t be driven by governments

Stuart Turley [00:24:32] Irina. The market always wins.

David Blackmon [00:24:34] market always win.

Irina Slav [00:24:36] Market. It’s human nature. You can only focus so much you can’t foresee all the way and all the time.

Tammy Nemeth [00:24:45] Especially its Not a better replacement.

Irina Slav [00:24:47] Exactly.

David Blackmon [00:24:48] Yeah. I mean, isn’t the best example of that today. That in 2023 the earth burned more wood for energy than ever at any time in history. Okay, the transition from wood to coal started in the 15th century in England. And here we are, 600 years later or 500 years later. Burning record amounts of wood for energy. Hey, so it’s me. It’s just. This is people who think we’re going to get entirely off of fossil fuels and go to something else, or completely wrong. They’re just idiots. Or they’re lying one or the other. They’re wrong. That’s never.

Stuart Turley [00:25:27] Going politics.

Irina Slav [00:25:28] Now again, they come to realize that we can’t have a revolution. It has to be evolution if it is to work, right. Because that’s how the Industrial Revolution happened. But I don’t really think the revolutionary path was, you know, the set of inventions, the internal combustion engine, the steam engine. We’re calling it revolution because, well, because of these inventions. But if you think about it, as you said, that the transition from wood to coal and all the rest of it started 500 years ago.

David Blackmon [00:26:01] Yes.

Irina Slav [00:26:02] That’s evolution. That’s not revolution, right? There were revolutionary moments. And now we have sort of like revolutionary, revolutionary moments. If we’re talking about small modular reactors, when they would be able to build them economically.

Tammy Nemeth [00:26:21] Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:26:23] I’m not sure, David, I’m not sure who this is. Apparently, Austin, Texas is using the Guide to Insanity for dummies.

David Blackmon [00:26:30] that’s always been the guide in Austin, hasn’t it?

Stuart Turley [00:26:32] I think so, or it’s the Biden administration. Yeah. Holy smokes.

David Blackmon [00:26:38] Oh, it’s Travis Lynn. Okay.

Stuart Turley [00:26:40] Okay.

David Blackmon [00:26:40] Thank you. Travis. Europe helped. Elon helped after LNG lines were blown up and nuke plants shut down. More wood was burned in 2023.

Irina Slav [00:26:52] And while telling you lines there were gas pipelines.

David Blackmon [00:26:56] Oh, right. The Russian, Yeah. Yeah. Well, Nord Stream one and two. Yeah. Gosh, who blew up those pipelines? It’s just. I mean, it’s kind of.

Irina Slav [00:27:04] We’ll never know.

David Blackmon [00:27:05] What to imagine who might.

Stuart Turley [00:27:06] Well, we’ll never know, but Biden bragged about it.

David Blackmon [00:27:09] Yes. Let’s see here. Look up pipe dream labs from Robert de Domenico.

Stuart Turley [00:27:20] Okay.

David Blackmon [00:27:21] I’ll do that. Okay, so let’s, I guess we’ve beaten, many market victories. Or rather Pyrrhic. Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. So are many policy victories. So let’s, we’ve beaten this horse to death, I think. So why don’t we.

Tammy Nemeth [00:27:38] Can I add something?

David Blackmon [00:27:39] Okay.

Tammy Nemeth [00:27:39] Please, before we go forward. Sorry.

Stuart Turley [00:27:41] Why are you so polite Tammy. everybody we’re not polite people. You heard too polite

Tammy Nemeth [00:27:50] I just wanted to bring in the UK election, which happened, last on Monday or Thursday. I can’t remember what day it was because it’s Thursday, and, so they they promised that they weren’t going to overdeveloped the green spaces. They said, no, no, no, we’re not going to do that. And today the labor minister announced that the green spaces are up for development. So the green spaces in the UK were set aside so that there would be space for nature or near urban areas and whatnot. And, you know, it’s all part of climate change. We have to have these nice green spaces. And now labor says, no, we have to fill them up with houses and development. And they’re removing the ability of councils to be able to, make decisions regarding the sighting of onshore wind turbines and solar installations. The labor government has said this is now a national issue, and it cannot be left up to councils any longer. So, I mean, one of the things is that the British really pride themselves on is having these beautiful green spaces and really nice natural areas. And so now, true to form, labor says, yeah, we don’t need that now. We’re just we’re going to develop it.

Irina Slav [00:29:12] So will they allow this is this is the most pressing question. Will they allow Jeremy Clarkson to have his restaurant on his own land in an ER?

Tammy Nemeth [00:29:22] No, he. Bought a pub. He bought a pub instead.

Irina Slav [00:29:26] Of a pub.

David Blackmon [00:29:27] Well, he’s going to buy a wind farm next. He’s going to just lease it all to the wind industry.

Irina Slav [00:29:32] No

David Blackmon [00:29:33] In season four.

Irina Slav [00:29:34] This never happens.

David Blackmon [00:29:35] I love that show.

Tammy Nemeth [00:29:36] Season four will be his about his pub that he bought.

David Blackmon [00:29:39] Yeah. ,yeah

Tammy Nemeth [00:29:40] it’s a it’s a few miles away and I think that’s where he wants to put the produce and the whatever from his farm operations that they’ll use it at the pub instead of having

David Blackmon [00:29:52] Local councilors allowing that the local council allowed that.

Irina Slav [00:29:57] Well,.

Tammy Nemeth [00:29:57] He bought it.

Irina Slav [00:29:58] Buying pub.

Tammy Nemeth [00:29:59] Yeah. They can’t stop him from buying a pub. Right.

Irina Slav [00:30:02] This is clever.

Tammy Nemeth [00:30:03] But now other pub owners are complaining saying oh, he, he thinks it’s going to be so easy and why is he doing that? It’s just the usual kind of complaint.

David Blackmon [00:30:16] Okay. Well, you know, so just my comment on the UK elections, Labor Party is, is a Communist party, just like the Communist Party. That one in France.

Tammy Nemeth [00:30:28] In France.

David Blackmon [00:30:28] Even though even though the quote, right wing party got the most votes, the Communist Party in France ended up with the most seats in parliament. Communists are always going to go as radical as they can go as soon as they seize office. And that’s what the Labor Party’s doing. This is I mean, this and I said this on this show two weeks ago, that’s exactly what they would do. And it’s it’s. I don’t know how many times we have to learn the same lesson over and over again. In this world, it’s not just the United States, folks. It’s it’s in Europe too.

Irina Slav [00:31:06] So, you know, it’s a it’s a new lesson because I’ll never tire of repeating that the old communists, the Eastern Europeans, the Soviet bloc communists knew that they need to keep live cheap.

David Blackmon [00:31:20] Oh, true. Yes.

Irina Slav [00:31:21] Yes, cheap. They go. That’s right. These idiots don’t think about that because they do not represent the poor people. So in that sense, they are not communists. They’re idiots.

David Blackmon [00:31:34] They’re corporate communists. They’re corporate communists.

Irina Slav [00:31:37] The corporate communists. I like that all the complex variance, they want total control, but they do not try to, you know, sweeten the pill.

David Blackmon [00:31:50] Correct.

Tammy Nemeth [00:31:50] I like the Jacobins.

Irina Slav [00:31:52] Better as it can be, and this will ultimately be the demise, by the way. They never learn. You know, like the old totalitarians, the communists, the actual communists. Yeah. They did.

David Blackmon [00:32:07] Thanks, Irina. Yeah. Thank you. Patrick.

Tammy Nemeth [00:32:09] It’s it’s like. They’re going to do better this time. That’s the that’s the doing the mantra, right?

Irina Slav [00:32:17] Yeah, yeah,

Tammy Nemeth [00:32:18] We’ll do it right this time.

Irina Slav [00:32:19] Yeah. Do it right this time.

David Blackmon [00:32:21] Well, the problem for the voters in the UK is that what was their choice? They I mean, the Tories had made such a mess of everything. Everything that they

Tammy Nemeth [00:32:32] it was a protest vote and. Yes. And if you look at what the, the popular vote percentages are, you know, he’s got, Starmer has 32% of the vote, the Labor Party and and he’s claiming he’s got this massive mandate. Right. Just because he has a lot of seats. So that to me, this reminds me of the Alberta election in 2015, which was really a protest vote against what the conservatives were doing there. And the people just got angry and voted the socialists in because that was the other alternative. Right. And yeah, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next five years.

Irina Slav [00:33:10] Protest vote don’t really work.

Tammy Nemeth [00:33:13] No, no.

Stuart Turley [00:33:14] Yeah. Before we go on to the stories, can I throw this out as a as a real question, for France and for the UK and I in Bulgaria and the EU because, the. Illegal immigration is, encouraged by the Pope is a real problem. And, when we see, I think that with the there’s over 400 churches in France have been destroyed in the last four years, Christian churches. And with the, the, anti-Muslim fervor now standing up in people are wanting to see. And you saw, I believe it was Spain having a family, parade saying, hey, have babies, be a nuclear family, stay, you know, have home values and stuff. I think it’s going to be, more social clash going on. Oh.

David Blackmon [00:34:23] And there’s our final viewer comment. Choice between a douche bag and a shit sandwich. Yes, you’re right.

Irina Slav [00:34:30] That is okay. Yeah, comment is very good along these lines. Sorry Stu

David Blackmon [00:34:35] almost all go to protest votes these days? Yes, elections aren’t won. They are lost by somebody else.

Irina Slav [00:34:40] Yes, absolutely. They vote against.

Tammy Nemeth [00:34:44] Against, which is not a good scene. And then Tom has this really great argument here, or a point where he says that he’s been in the energy efficiency demand response. DER Space since the mid 80s. He left that part of the energy industry in 2022 because of the madness. If you want to talk energy realities, you need to address the reality of adding millions of EVs to an already strained grid. And he has some stats here. 1,000,007.2kW level two EV chargers is 7200MW. That’s 7200 megawatt alone is the equivalent of 57,600 acres of solar panels that produce zero megawatts at night. There are more than 15 million vehicles just in California. So that is a super important point, because on the one hand, we’re told we have to electrify our transportation. So EVs, including busses and trucks and all that kind of stuff. And and then we have the AI doing all of their stuff, folding from the grid. So yeah, what what’s the energy reality here? And I think is if we circle back to what we talked about earlier, it, you know, it becomes a matter of the only solution there is nuclear. But nuclear, as much as I like it, also has certain problems with it, especially with respect to terrorism and, and, and whatnot. So, you know, with it with anything there’s trade offs. And I think as Stuart mentioned earlier, the, the biggest casualty here is the general public. And because it’ll bring energy poverty and inability to move around and everything. So

Stuart Turley [00:36:32] Can I add one slide Tammy. And to support this what is net zero okay. We have the energy transition. What is net zero when you have there are current. These are the current volcanoes erupting around the world right now. No matter what we do with trying to do anything, it’s about the pollution. When you take a look at the numbers, I had the stats and I’ve lost it on one of my ten screens. But there’s a lot of pollution, a lot of CO2 going out there, and we’re still low on the CO2.

David Blackmon [00:37:06] Yeah. And by the way, this is not a very active period right now for volcanic eruptions. It’s actually the ring of fire is in a down cycle.

Irina Slav [00:37:15] And so you know don’t don’t say sorry. Sorry David. Don’t say pollution and CO2 in one sentence. The difference.

David Blackmon [00:37:23] Yeah. They’re not the same thing okay.

Irina Slav [00:37:25] No eruptions. But hey this kind of pollution cools the planet, you know?

Tammy Nemeth [00:37:31] That’s right.

Irina Slav [00:37:32] And cooling the planet. Sorry. No.

David Blackmon [00:37:37] No, no. That’s good, I was finished, I was finished. Okay. Should we go to articles now? I mean, we’re still getting a lot of comments, but Stu’s frozen up. No, no, he’s not great. So let’s go to headlines.

Tammy Nemeth [00:37:52] Oh my gosh that’s me.

David Blackmon [00:37:54] that’s you.

Tammy Nemeth [00:37:55] Woo. All right. So the first article there was in the Financial Post and it was written by Joe Oliver. And the title is Scientific Method Counters Climate Alarmism. And this was a really great, discussion about how the scientific method hasn’t really been utilized by those who are professing to be scientists with climate alarm. And he cited this, this paper that was presented as being an expert witness in a court case in The Hague, and it was written by Bill Happer. I think Richard Linson and I can’t remember who the third person was, but they made a really compelling argument in a fairly short space, about the use of the scientific method. And, and this is what the reality is versus what all the models are saying. And I highly recommend people checking out this article because it’s it’s a really great, representation of the sort of larger debate that, that we’re experiencing these days with respect to climate alarmism and, reducing emissions and all this kind of thing. And then the second article there is from your active where, Hamburg Group has signed a deal for Chinese wind turbines in German waters. So on the one hand, we have this new massive tariff to prevent Chinese EVs from entering the European Union because they want to protect the German auto industry. One of the big pitches for the energy transition, especially in Germany, but in Europe, has been we’re making the wind turbines. This this means that we’re creating jobs and, we can export them and it’ll be really great. But they’re expensive now because of energy costs and other things. So now they’re going to have China make the wind turbines, at least on this project in Germany. So yet another example of unintended consequences, maybe and economic realities, especially with respect to expensive energy.

Stuart Turley [00:40:17] Continued Deindustrialization is what that is.

Tammy Nemeth [00:40:18] Yeah.

Irina Slav [00:40:20] They’re really trying.

Tammy Nemeth [00:40:21] Yeah

David Blackmon [00:40:22] Yeah they are. They’re they’re taking out all the stops. Okay. Who’s next? Irina.

Irina Slav [00:40:33] That’s me. Yeah. Yeah. So,.

Stuart Turley [00:40:37] David.

Irina Slav [00:40:38] Journal article. A conservative farm town went green without really trying. It’s such a hard melting story about a small town, a farming community in Minnesota that that already has a. I forgot its name. It started with Morris. Yeah, the Morris model. You see that? We’re told that building wind and solar would actually reduce electricity costs and they will have energy. It’s a wonderful story, you know, so that they build wind turbines, they build solar. They have, I think, a biogas, energy production facility. It’s all very green, very, very wonderful. No mention of the constraints of any of these forms of energy. No. They’re trying to replicate the model in other communities. And one of the sources cited in the story, which is by by a guy who’s, who’s a journalism, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and nonfiction writer, he’s not a climate activist, at least not, you know, outwardly, overtly. But, one of the sources interviewed for this story was cited saying that it’s about framing the narrative. If you say it’s about saving the planet, people won’t pay attention to you. If you say that it’s about, you know, saving money on energy, then people might listen. Apparently, this is what happened in the small Minnesota, community. But correct me if I’m wrong, I think Minnesota has some really serious winters.

Tammy Nemeth [00:42:20] Yeah.

David Blackmon [00:42:21] Oh. Big.

Irina Slav [00:42:21] I’m talking about with John Nelson. I think they do get a lot of snow. There is no word in the article about what happens to the solar panels during the winter, which is also tend, which also tends to be windless. Not a word about any of this. Now, I, enjoy a good story, but when it’s supposed to be a journalistic story, I expect some kind of, you know, at least some mention about some limits to wind and solar. There is no mention of this. It’s a fantasy land that’s well done. But it will be great if this community has cheaper energy, which I doubt given the costs of having solar. But yeah, so we have this beautiful story. But an even more beautiful story is that Germany sets of a whole subsidy regime for renewable energy. How do you think they’re going to have. In case you haven’t read my Substack today. Okay. So they going from guaranteed electricity prices over 20 years to a lump sum upfront. You want to build a solar farm. Here’s this I don’t know €1 million. Do what you want with it. Build your farm with. We’re not guaranteeing minimum prices for your electricity. Why would that paid, you think?

David Blackmon [00:43:46] I don’t know. I don’t understand this.

Irina Slav [00:43:49] You know, it’s a mystery. Yeah. So apparently the money is running out in Germany.

David Blackmon [00:43:55] Yeah, of course it is.

Irina Slav [00:43:56] And they’re saying, yeah, they’re doing this because they’re hoping. No, they are planning to see wind and solar. Stand on their own to or however many feet. They think wind and solar can survive without subsidies in the not too distant future, which is why they changing their subsidy regime. I think it’s it’s a beautiful story of.

Tammy Nemeth [00:44:20] It’s always a not so distant future. Yeah.

David Blackmon [00:44:23] Always

Tammy Nemeth [00:44:24] a rolling Ten years

Irina Slav [00:44:25] I was I didn’t say that.

David Blackmon [00:44:28] It’s it’s like Greta Thunberg deadline. It’s like the Greta Thunberg deadline for for the world going up in flames. It’s always ten years from now.

Irina Slav [00:44:37] Dealing with.

Tammy Nemeth [00:44:38] And same with al Gore, right?

Irina Slav [00:44:43] Don’t out you.

David Blackmon [00:44:46] 1815, the Year without a summer, I can’t remember. There was a Pinatubo that erupted that year. I can’t remember the name. Yeah. Okay. This is me. U.S. Crude Oil post fourth straight weekly gain on solid demand outlook. Imagine that. It looks like OPEC’s going to be right again on global demand increase. Here we have we. So we got the IEA predicting 900,000 barrel increase in demand for the year for the full year for crude oil globally. We have the IEA now at what is it 1.1 million barrels a day. I think their latest update they updated every month because they know they really undersold it. Last hit the first of the year with 800,000 barrels. And then we have OPEC sitting there holding firm at 2.25 million barrel increase for the year. And, here we are weekly gain solid demand outlook. Just as most of the real experts predicted in January, the second half of the year is going to be a lot stronger than the first half of the year was. I think we’ve had about a 600,000 barrels per day increase in global demand so far this year. We’re going to have at least double that during the second half of the year, and we’re going to end up close to 2 million barrels per day increase in global demand for crude. And so OPEC’s going to be more right than anybody else one more time, which seems to happen every year. Second the federal judge pause Jennifer Granholm LNG pause, which is you know, she’s the Department of Energy, that’s the, relevant department that that’s being administered from. So what happens next? Yes, Jennifer Granholm, who has tried as hard as she possibly can to justify this pause in LNG permitting, with all these irrational, stupid, false explanations for a stupid, irrational policy got shot down by a judge in Louisiana. And in the process of his decision, he termed the policy part of the, regulatory idiocracy. I just want everyone to notice that word, because I do a weekly podcast with a radio station out of, Alabama, that is titled tales from the Idiocracy. So this federal judge has apparently been watching my weekly podcast, and I really appreciate the reference. Anyway, it’s absolutely accurate. The whole suite of energy policies coming from the Biden government is, is a complete idiocracy, and it’s going to lead us to a lot of disasters down the road. And that one. Very entertaining, but it’s all I got.

Stuart Turley [00:47:42] Well, the the Jennifer, this this lawsuit was, I believe the second or third, after the Chevron, deference, Supreme Court.

David Blackmon [00:47:54] Yeah. She had a bad week last week.

Stuart Turley [00:47:56] Oh, yeah.

David Blackmon [00:47:57] So I was told by someone who knows that, about 80% of the employees at the headquarters of the EPA took the day off Monday so that they could mourn the Supreme Court decision reversing Chevron.

Tammy Nemeth [00:48:11] Yeah, I’m surprised it’s not. That’s that’s about right.

David Blackmon [00:48:15] And they called in sick. Yes. Because they were emotionally upset because of the decision.

Irina Slav [00:48:20] Oh my goodness.

David Blackmon [00:48:22] I mean, you gotta love that you can’t buy entertainment like that.

Stuart Turley [00:48:25] No you really can’t. That was really for that. Thank you. David. These two. I got to give Tammy Nemeth a shout out for the article here on, energy notes from the edge. This one is from Terry Etam. He is an author. I love Terry Etam. I affectionately call him Terry Grumpy Etam. He is an author up there. Energy notes from the, edge. AI latest energy beast is fully unleashed. And when a bee gets an A, an insect skill set could benefit humans in an incredible way. This article really kind of goes through what we’ve talked about in in a real way. And this really kind of gets me, got me thinking about some of the, counter sets that to, I are going to be out there and that is the two sets of grid, those that have money and those that don’t. And, and so the the article Iran to purchase 10 Billion Cubic Meters of Turkmenistan natural gas is so critical because this is a example of what’s going to happen to countries not like the UK that want to have interconnects. They’re going to be it. Countries that can afford natural gas and put in pipelines are going to survive and will have industrialization. So when you watch Iran being successful and Turkmenistan going through the Caspian Sea can then tie into the EU pipelines, oh, guess where the EU is going to be getting some of their gas. Oh, Turkmenistan. And when you start looking at geopolitical and, success for humanity, you’re going to equate it with natural gas and those that have pipelines and those that move forward.

Irina Slav [00:50:24] Yeah it’s true.

David Blackmon [00:50:26] Yep.

Tammy Nemeth [00:50:28] So can you clarify? Iran is purchasing the natural gas, but I thought Iran had a lot of natural gas. So why are they purchasing it from Turkmenistan?

Stuart Turley [00:50:38] Because they’re going to be using it as a broker.

Tammy Nemeth [00:50:42] I see.

Stuart Turley [00:50:43] And guess who buys it?

David Blackmon [00:50:46] China.

Stuart Turley [00:50:48] EU.

David Blackmon [00:50:50] EU.

Stuart Turley [00:50:50] Okay. I mean, it’s going to go all over the place. So you sit back and it’s Iran because of the Biden administration’s failure to do what, you know, I, I absolutely love Irina’s t shirt. Sanctions don’t work as intended. And and I absolutely. The Biden administration, Iran has, monetized their sanctions. They taught Putin in Russia how to be successful under sanctions, and sanctions don’t matter anymore. So now you’re looking at Iran being a broker.

Tammy Nemeth [00:51:33] Well. So the Associated Press says that that deal was so that, Turkmenistan will run the gas through Iran to supply Iraq.

Stuart Turley [00:51:46] Not necessarily. Where does it go in the pipelines? I can call up a pipeline map and it’s where it goes. And then you export it on LNG. It goes anywhere. So now that there is a dark fleet, it’s going to go to. It’s going to.

Irina Slav [00:52:03] Fight in Iran.

Stuart Turley [00:52:05] That’s right. And it’s also to Pakistan and several others that need it very badly. And so it is becoming a gas hub.

Tammy Nemeth [00:52:14] Yeah,.

Irina Slav [00:52:15] Yeah. Pakistan, had read today that Pakistan is getting 3 billion in local investment, government investment together to develop gas.

Stuart Turley [00:52:25] That is correct.

Irina Slav [00:52:26] So yeah. Yeah. Countries are developing gas reserves, closing gas deals. They know what power is in the economy.

Stuart Turley [00:52:34] That’s right.

David Blackmon [00:52:35] So let’s just.

Tammy Nemeth [00:52:36] Well Pakistan with. Pakistan was hurt really badly when the EU started out competing them. You know, Qatar broke. Was it Qatar or UAE broke there? I thought it was Qatar broke the agreement with Pakistan saying, yeah, we’ll pay the fine because the European Union’s paying us like double.

Irina Slav [00:52:54] What’s really working, a lot of it.

Tammy Nemeth [00:52:56] Yeah,

David Blackmon [00:52:57] US cargoes got redirected to. Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:53:00] And 18 years ago there was that story.

Irina Slav [00:53:03] to hold it on the spot.

Stuart Turley [00:53:03] For 18 months ago, there was that story of the poor kids in, in Pakistan carrying natural gas in plastic bags home so that they can do, so they could cook. People need reliable, cheap energy and they’re going to find a way. Energy and love finds a way. I believe Iryna came up with that.

Irina Slav [00:53:27] Yeah, yeah, that’s a that’s actually a T-shirt design idea I’ve had.

David Blackmon [00:53:32] That’s a great that’s a great one. I’ll buy one.

Stuart Turley [00:53:35] That’s right.

Irina Slav [00:53:36] I’ve always thought.

Stuart Turley [00:53:40] That I answer that one. Tammy.

Tammy Nemeth [00:53:43] Yeah. I like this. This comment from Patrick. .

David Blackmon [00:53:48] No energy

Tammy Nemeth [00:53:49] In winter is free energy.

Irina Slav [00:53:51] Makes perfect sense. You can’t argue that.

David Blackmon [00:53:54] You can’t. You cannot. Well, guys, I think we’ve had a good show today despite my leadership. Great podcast lead. Patrick Devine agrees with me. Yeah, you y’all have a great rest of your day. Is the rest of his, his, comment to Patrick’s comment. And, I wish the same to you all and to everyone who chimed in with questions and comments. Really appreciate it and we will see everyone next week.

Tammy Nemeth [00:54:22] Thanks, everybody.

Irina Slav [00:54:24] See you Have a great time.

David Blackmon [00:54:26] Have, have.