The Power Hungry Podcast

Tiffany D. Thomas has represented District F on the Houston City Council since 2020. In this episode, Thomas discusses “why the west side is the best side” of the Bayou City, housing -- including the difficulties around “heir properties” the term for homes occupied by descendants of a family member but who don’t have clear title to the property -- the problems faced by the “permanent rental class,” and for a lagniappe, a few of her favorite restaurants in Houston. (Recorded June 16, 2022.)

Carl Wurtz is the president of Californians for Green Nuclear Power, a group “dedicated to promoting the peaceful use of safe, carbon-free nuclear power, and to keeping Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant” operating. In this episode, Wurtz explains why it’s unclear if Diablo Canyon will be kept open, why California often has to pay neighboring states to take its electricity, why a “vote for solar and wind is a vote for gas” and why “batteries are useless” for grid-scale electricity storage. (Recorded May 24, 2022.)

Toby Rice is the CEO of EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. In this episode, Rice talks about how American natural gas can help drive global decarbonization, the lack of sufficient pipeline capacity in the Northeast and why the inability to move methane is costing consumers, the continuing evolution of well drilling and completion, and why hydraulic fracturing is a “miracle technology.” (Recorded June 3, 2022.)

Julie Kuntz is a “fifth-generation Iowa farm girl” who has become one of the most vocal opponents of wind-energy development in her home state. In this episode, Kuntz, a member of Concerned Residents of Worth and Winnebago Counties, Iowa, who lives in Grafton, talks about the lawsuit that Chicago-based Invenergy filed against Worth County, the company’s “nefarious tactics,” the media’s “horrid” coverage of the land-use conflicts around renewables, and why “an informed citizen is the wind industry’s worst nightmare.” (Recorded with June 3, 2022).

Bret Kugelmass is managing director of the Energy Impact Center and host of the Titans of Nuclear podcast. In this episode, Kugelmass discusses energy security in Europe, why “uranium is everywhere,” mining, enrichment, reactor technologies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and why the nuclear industry “has to succeed elsewhere” before it will see a resurgence in the United States. (Recorded April 5, 2022).

Emmet Penney is an essayist as well as the editor of Grid Brief, and host of the Nuclear Barbarians podcast. In his second appearance on the podcast (his first was July 13, 2021) Penney talks about the May 20 closure of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, his recent essay, “Who killed nuclear energy and how to revive it,” the effort by NGOs, policymakers, and climate activists to push “degrowth,” a move he calls “energy Lysenkoism,” and why we cannot take the electric grid for granted.

Doomberg is the nom de plume of one of the most successful new publications on Substack. In this episode, Doomberg’s famed green chicken icon explains the power of anonymity in a time of cancel culture, why politicians prefer platitudes over physics on energy, China, supply chains, the many problems with cryptocurrency, the “profound wave of onshoring” about to occur, and why “there’s going to be a lot of suffering” around the world in the coming months.

On May 5, commissioners in Crawford County, Ohio voted to ban wind project development in all unincorporated areas of the county and puts the kibosh on a proposed 300-megawatt project being promoted by Apex Clean Energy. The move marks the 330th time that wind energy has been rejected or restricted in the U.S. since 2015. The vote matters because Big Wind is currently lobbying in Washington for another extension of the production tax credit, the most-expensive energy-related provision in the federal tax code. I also read parts of an article published in the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum about the vote and why one opponent said “We’re a farming community and we want to promote farming, not wind turbines.”

Alex Epstein is the founder of the Center for Industrial Progress and the author of two books, including his latest, Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas – Not Less, which will be released on May 24. In this episode, Epstein explains why hydrocarbons cannot be replaced anytime soon, why so many “designated experts” on energy and climate are wrong, the false belief in the earth as a “delicate nurturer,” and why we need more intellectual openness and energy humanism in the policy debate.

Ian Bremmer is the president of the Eurasia Group and the author of 11 books, including his latest, The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats – And Our Response – Will Change the World, which will be released on May 17. In this episode, Bremmer talks about the three threats – pandemics, climate change, and new technologies – that are now facing global leaders, as well as China’s ongoing lockdowns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, disrupted supply chains, and why he is optimistic that the crises now facing the world can be overcome.

Vaclav Smil is a polymath who has written more than 40 books and some 500 papers on numerous topics including energy, power, population, food production, and the history of innovation. Smil declined to appear on the podcast, so in this episode, I discuss my favorite books of his (I have 13 of them), his distaste for publicity and politics, and read some excerpts from a recent interview Smil did with the New York Times.

Dustin Mulvaney is the author of Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice and an associate professor of environmental studies at San Jose State University. In this episode, Mulvaney talks about the “green halo” that exists around solar energy, the millions of tons of solar panels that will be discarded over the coming decades, the threat solar poses to desert wildlife, and why the industry is largely “flying blind on PV supply chains” because it is so heavily dependent on China.

Mark Nelson managing director of the Radiant Energy Fund, joins the podcast for the fourth time. In this episode, he talks about the “clown rodeo” in  Europe’s nuclear-energy sector in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the looming closure of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, and why there has been a “revolution in sentiment” in the Democratic Party about nuclear energy in America.

Chris Keefer is a medical doctor and president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy who testified before the Canadian Parliament on April 25, 2022. In his third appearance on the podcast, (previous appearances were November 2021 and May 2021) Keefer (who is also the host of the Decouple podcast) talks about the growing bipartisan interest in nuclear energy in Canada, why the “CANDU reactors are immortal,” the dangers of America’s powerful anti-nuclear “NGO-industrial complex,” Canada’s uranium wealth, and why investing in renewable energy has been “an enormous waste.”

Lisa Linowes is the New Hampshire-based founder and executive director of the WindAction Group which has been educating the public and documenting the backlash -- both in the U.S. and around the world -- against the wind industry since 2006. In this episode, Linowes discusses the recent prosecution of NextEra Energy for killing Bald and Golden Eagles, how “green” groups are getting funding from entities that want to put thousands of megawatts of wind turbines in the middle of North Atlantic right whale habitat, the surging backlash in rural America against solar energy, and why Congress must shut off the wind industry’s lavish tax credits once and for all.

James Kennedy is the president of ThREE Consulting, a St. Louis-based firm that specializes in rare earth elements and critical minerals. In this episode, Kennedy explains how the U.S. ceded its rare earths industry to China, how China is using its dominance over technology metals “as geostrategic tools, or weapons,” high-strength magnet production, what China’s dominance means for the U.S. auto, solar, and wind sectors, and what the U.S. should be doing to increase its production of critical metals and minerals.

Jason Fordney, a longtime energy journalist, is the editor of California Energy Markets. In this episode, he explains why increasing numbers of Californians are “outraged” by their utility bills, why it would be “a miracle” if the state manages to prevent the closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, and why he believes there is too much emphasis in the state on “carbon molecules and not enough focus on reliability” and affordability.

John Hanekamp, a St. Louis-based consultant, has spent his career in the commodities business. In his second appearance on the podcast (his first was on November 17), Hanekamp talks about global coal demand, railroad bottlenecks, why “the real elephant in the room is not energy, it’s food,” Ukraine’s grain exports, fertilizer demand, and why some parts of the world may soon be facing famine.