The Power Hungry Podcast

Doug Sandridge has spent his entire career in the oil and gas sector, but about three  years ago, he became a staunch advocate for nuclear energy. In this episode, Sandridge explains why more than 100 hydrocarbon executives have signed onto a declaration in support of nuclear energy, the challenges facing nuclear deployment around the world, spent nuclear fuel, and why the domestic nuclear sector will need strong government backing to succeed. (Recorded February 22, 2024.)

Michelle Bloodworth is the CEO of America’s Power, a trade association representing the companies that supply fuel to and operate coal-fired power plants. In this episode, Bloodworth discusses the war on coal, the federal regulations that could shutter most of the remaining coal plants in the country, and why regulators at the state and federal levels need to be more focused on electricity reliability. (Recorded February 8, 2024.)

In his second appearance on the podcast (the first was December 6, 2022), Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical strategist and the author of four books, including most recently, The End of the World is Just the Beginning, talks about deglobalization, demographics, and why he still believes “the American system will thrive.” In addition, he discusses the catastrophic decline of Germany’s industrial sector, the “exorbitant privilege” the U.S. dollar has as the world’s reserve currency, and why, in his view, China is facing “national oblivion.” (Recorded February 22, 2024.)

In his second appearance on the podcast (the first was in February 2022,) Brent Bennett, policy director for Life:Powered, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, talks about his recent report on electric vehicles and the challenges facing the Texas electric grid, three years after Winter Storm Uri. Bennett explains why climate activists have an almost religious attachment to EVs, why wind and solar are “holy fuels,” the problems with batteries, and why policymakers should think of electricity not as a commodity, but a service. (Recorded January 30, 2024.)

Edgardo Sepulveda is a Toronto-based economist who studies telecommunications and electricity markets. In this episode, Edgardo explains why the U.S. nuclear sector is shrinking in states with deregulated electricity markets, the need to align “patient capital” with societal goods, why nuclear energy needs strong government support,  and why Ontario is leading the world in the nuclear renaissance. (Recorded February 2, 2024.) 

In his third appearance on the podcast (his most recent was May 31, 2022), Emmet Penney, the editor of Grid Brief, and host of the Nuclear Barbarians podcast, talks about “environmental apocalypticism,” the staggering complexity of America’s electric grid, and why writing about electricity and energy has been intellectually humbling. (Recorded January 17, 2024.) 

In her sixth appearance on the podcast (her last appearance was January 13, 2023), I welcome back Meredith Angwin, the author of the 2020 book Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid. In this episode, Meredith discusses the physical and the policy grids, why no one is responsible for electricity reliability, and why facts are finally “intruding on the narrative” about decarbonization and the electric grid. (This episode was recorded on January 16, 2024.) 

Isaac Orr researches and writes about environmental issues, mining, and energy for the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based think tank. In his fourth appearance on the podcast (his last was on March 7, 2023), Orr talks about the staggering cost of decarbonization mandates, why the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule could result in blackouts across middle America, the impact of higher interest rates are having on renewable-energy projects, and the widening divide between urban and rural voters. (Recorded on December 4, 2023.) 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw is a Republican who represents Texas’ 2nd Congressional District. In this episode, Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, talks about the divisions in Congress, the soaring federal deficit, military spending, and why what gives him hope is that “it’s really hard to screw up America. People have been trying, lots of idiots have been trying, for 250 years, but we have a remarkably stable constitution.” (Recorded December 12, 2023.)

Ruy Teixeira is the author or co-author of ten books and a prolific writer on politics in America. In this episode, Teixeira, who identifies as a Democrat, talks about Joe Manchin’s retirement from the U.S. Senate, the 2024 presidential election, why he thinks Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, how his party got captured by climate change activists and “cultural radicalism,” and what the party needs to do to restore its appeal to working-class voters. (Recorded November 10, 2023.) 

Everett Waller is a member of the Osage Nation and chairman of the Osage Minerals Council, which on December 20, 2023, won a federal lawsuit that requires Enel to remove 84 wind turbines it built in Osage County at an expected cost of $300 million. In this episode, Waller explains why the tribe continued the legal fight against Enel for 12 years, its plan to collect compensatory damages from the company, why he is “ecstatic” about the ruling, and why he believes it will “be a landmark case, spoken about long after I'm dead.” (Recorded December 29, 2023.)   

A retired commander in the nuclear navy, Rod Adams has spent most of his life working on and around nuclear energy. In his second appearance on the podcast (the first was in December 2020), Rod explains how high interest rates are hurting nuclear startups like NuScale Power, why Georgia Power had such huge cost overruns on the new reactors at Plant Vogtle, why he’s skeptical about fusion, and why, “if you have energy, you can do anything.” (Recorded November 21, 2023.) 

H.W. (Bill) Brands is a historian who has written more than 30 books including one of his most recent ones, The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo, and the War For America. In this episode. Brands talks about his ongoing desire to find out “what makes humans tick,” how he got “inside Geronimo’s head,” partisan politics, and the future of the American dollar. (Recorded June 8, 2023.)

In 1990, Richard Lindzen, who is now 83, published an article in which he said claims about catastrophic climate change “leave me unconvinced, and leave me concerned whether unanimity on such an issue is healthy for meteorology.” In this episode, Lindzen, an emeritus professor at MIT and one of the world’s most-noted skeptics about climate change, says when the public believes the “science is settled, they no longer believe in science because science is never settled,” that policymakers should focus on “making society as prosperous as possible,” so it can handle extreme weather events, and that the West is being “encouraged by energy policy to commit suicide.” (Recorded December 11, 2023.)

Grace Stanke, is a nuclear engineer and the 95th winner of the Miss America competition. In this episode, she talks about why nuclear is a “brilliant, brilliant gift that we turned our back on,” why we need “bold leadership” to reignite the domestic nuclear sector, and why she is working hard to change the public’s perception about fission. (Recorded November 20, 2023.)

George Yates is a third-generation oilman and the CEO of Heyco Energy Group, a Dallas-based oil and gas company. In this episode, Yates talks about his company’s investments in conventional and unconventional plays in Europe, how Russia’s misinformation campaigns about hydraulic fracturing increased Europe’s dependence on imported energy, and why he is optimistic that his company and others will soon be able to produce more hydrocarbons in the U.K. and Europe. (Recorded November 1, 2023.)

Kathryn Porter is the founder of Watt-Logic, an energy consulting firm based in the U.K. In this podcast, Porter talks about a new report she wrote for the Global Warming Policy Foundation titled “Prospects For Nuclear Energy In the U.K.,” why Britain’s approach to nuclear has been “too slow and too timid,” how the electricity market has been “overloaded with interventions,” and why energy security has become a top issue in Britain. (Recorded November 17, 2023.)

Tony Abbott served as prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 as a member of the Liberal Party. In this episode, recorded during the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London, Abbott talks about the geopolitics of energy, the qualities of a good politician, and why he believes the world is more dangerous than ever. (Recorded October 31, 2023.)

Travis Fisher has worked at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy and is now the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In this episode, Fisher explains why the energy-related provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act could ultimately cost taxpayers close to $3 trillion, the “Californication” of our electric grid, the mess in Congress, and why federal subsidies for wind and solar, combined with the EPA’s proposed rules are undermining the reliability of our electricity system. (Recorded October 25, 2023.)

Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old pro-democracy leader and publisher of Apple Daily, has been in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison since 2020 on trumped-up charges lodged against him by the Chinese government. In this episode, Jimmy’s son, Sebastien, who lives in Taiwan and is leading the campaign to have his father freed from prison, talks about the Umbrella Revolution that swept through Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020, his father’s remarkable life and career, why he was motivated to promote democracy after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and why China continues to see Jimmy Lai as a threat. (Recorded October 23, 2023.)