Three podcasts, three articles, Juice accepted at Chagrin Fest
Happy Friday to (as we say here in Austin) all y’all:
The past three weeks have been something of a blur. I’ve been writing a ton, doing lots of interviews for the podcast, and enduring the last brutally hot days of summer with no swimming at Barton Springs. (The city of Austin has closed the pool indefinitely due to the virus. You can go to the liquor store, the grocery store, and to restaurants. But being outside, in a spring-fed swimming pool, is forbidden. Go figure.) In any case, I have been derelict in my marketing efforts. Herewith, an update.
Three new podcasts
Three new articles
Juice accepted at Chagrin Fest
Three new podcasts
The Power Hungry Podcast continues to be challenging, rewarding, and great fun. Better yet, it still ranks among the Top 40 science podcasts in the US and in the Top 50 science podcasts in the world.
In the August 25 episode, I talked to Lee Cordner, a former Pacific Gas & Electric engineer and long-time energy consultant, about the California blackouts. Lee’s analysis was blunt. He said the blackouts happened “because the sun goes down.” In other words, the state has spent too much time focusing on renewable sources like solar, and not enough on assuring supplies of reliable electricity generation. More ominous, though, were Lee’s projections about what it will cost California ratepayers if the state attempts to reach its goal of 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2045. “I would imagine it will be hundreds of billions of dollars in grid upgrades by the time you get to, you know, 50 to 75% renewables,” he said. “This next step is going to be tremendously expensive.”
In the September 1 episode, I spoke to Scott Tinker, the chairman of the Switch Energy Alliance and the director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, about his new documentary, Switch On. The film takes viewers to Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Vietnam, and Nepal, to show how people all over the world are struggling to overcome energy poverty. I had to work through some connectivity issues during our recording, which affected the flow of the episode, but Scott still delivered some key messages. A favorite part is his discussion of the triangle of energy, economy, and the environment.
You can't circumvent or leave one of those parts out. It just doesn't work... of the 65 countries I've been in, without exception, the worst environments are where it's poor... They can't afford to think about, even much less do, the kinds of environmental things that wealthy countries do. So energy, the economy, the environment, that's a very powerful waltz. And you can start to see them, it's a virtuous cycle. You start to see the cleanup going on as you get energy and wealth. It's really powerful.
The September 8 episode features Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a Democrat from Elk Grove, California. Last month, Cooper penned an open letter to California’s biggest environmental groups that pulled no punches. Cooper said that groups like the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council promote policies that “systematically drive racial economic inequities and fuel environmental racism.” Cooper is particularly angry about electric-vehicle subsidies. In his letter, he said that “one wealthy Senate district received more than $29 million in EV rebates, while six of California’s poorest Senate districts combined received less than that one coastal district.” In our discussion, Cooper said that Californians now “pay 55% higher energy costs than the rest of the country.” Despite that fact, California regulators are still pushing policies that increase costs. "It's really the haves and have nots, and they've exacerbated this,” he said.
Please give all three episodes a listen. And stay tuned. I have some great guests coming on the show in the next few weeks. Also, please subscribe to the Power Hungry Podcast and encourage your friends and family to do the same. If you have a suggestion for a guest on the podcast, please let me know.
Three new articles on Forbes
On August 23, I published a piece titled, “After 48 Years, Democrats Endorse Nuclear Energy in Platform.” The piece has had over 80,000 views, making it the most popular article I’ve done for Forbes thus far. I note that the Democrats are now supporting all zero-carbon technologies including “existing and advanced nuclear.” I explain that the party's statement:
...marks the first time since 1972 that the Democratic Party has said anything positive in its platform about nuclear energy. The change in policy is good — and long overdue — news for the American nuclear-energy sector and for everyone concerned about climate change.
I followed that piece with another nuclear-focused piece on August 31. Last month, Exelon announced that it plans to close two money-losing nuclear plants in Illinois and that that the Democrats’ new platform, and the party’s commitment to preserve existing nuclear plants “is already facing its first big test.” I continued, saying “The potential closure of the two plants provides yet another example of the decline of the American nuclear-energy sector and how that decline is resulting in increased reliance on natural gas-fired electricity production.” The looming closure of the two plants also provides another lesson in scale and why renewable energy alone cannot meet our energy and power needs. I explained that the combined output of the two plants, Byron and Dresden, is
about 34.5 terawatt-hours of juice per year. For comparison, last year, wind-energy production in Illinois was 13.8 terawatt-hours and solar production was 0.3 terawatt-hours. That means that Byron and Dresden are producing more than twice as much zero-carbon electricity as all the wind turbines and solar panels in Illinois. Those facts alone should be enough to convince policymakers to keep the two plants operating.
On September 6, I published “The Trillion-Dollar Reason Why Joe Biden Won’t Ban Fracking” in Forbes. I explain that Biden’s recent visit to Pittsburgh, and his declaration that he won’t ban hydraulic fracturing, is “a recognition of practical politics, the critical role that natural gas now plays in the U.S. electric grid, and how the shale revolution has saved consumers more than $1 trillion over the past decade or so.” If Biden wants to win the White House, he has to win Pennsylvania, a state that now produces more natural gas than China, and nearly as much as Iran.
Juice will be featured at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival
We got some welcome news about Juice: How Electricity Explains the World. Next month, the film, which was directed by my colleague Tyson Culver, will be featured at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. The festival, which is “dedicated to educating audiences and empower talented filmmakers to tell their stories,” is held every year in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. It starts on October 6. Here’s the page for Juice. You can see the full festival lineup and buy a pass to stream all of the movies featured at Chagrin by going here.
Show Stossel Some Love
John Stossel recently did a four-minute piece on Juice: How Electricity Explains the World on his YouTube channel and also dedicated a syndicated column to it. In addition, he posted the segment on his Facebook page, where it got more than 325,000 views. I thanked John for doing the piece. He replied that I can return the favor by persuading “your wealthy connections to donate” to his efforts. So consider yourselves persuaded. Here’s the link to his Center for Independent Thought. The donate link is at the top of the page.
Okay. That's enough for a Friday.
All y'all have a great weekend.
What can you do?
1. Subscribe to the Power Hungry Podcast.
2. Rent or buy Juice on iTunes or Amazon Prime.
3. Buy my new book, A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations.
4. Follow me and Juice on Twitter.
5. Forward this note to your friends/family/colleagues so I can add them to the email list.
Thanks!