Latest / Brian Thomas / Donovan O'Neil - AFP

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Donovan O'Neil - AFP · Brian Thomas

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He's not going anywhere, neither is Americans for Prosperity Action
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: in Ohio. He's Donovan O'Neill, and he's back, State Director
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the aforementioned. Welcome back, Donovan O'Neill. Pick yourself up,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: brush yourself off, and start all over again, right?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: It's been one week, and the country hasn't burned down yet, Brian.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Operative word, yet. Give it time, Donovan. Donovan's moving. Oh,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: all right, all right. I'm sorry, a little too cheery
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: this morning.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: That's all right. It's Veterans Day, and salute to the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: American veteran. I've been trying to bring that up all morning,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and I do appreciate the veterans. They're still fighting for
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: us and our freedoms and liberties, and Americans for Prosperity
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: is still fighting. Apparently, we're going to get America building again.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: What is the B-A-A-J-A, which has the bipartisan word in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: front of it? This is something both Republicans and Democrats want, Donovan?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: It is. So Baja, as it's called, because Congress just
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: can't help themselves with clever names.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: It is the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. And
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: it is a piece of legislation that actually crossed a
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: major milestone just a day or two ago with, I think,
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: about 73 votes in the Senate. It It's sort of
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: been off the radar probably for most of your listeners
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: and most folks.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Because it.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Moved out of committee, I think, September 30th. So just
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: before we were all in the fever pitch of the election,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Congress actually or the Senate actually did some stuff.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: And now it's finally getting brought up.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: But it brings together a bunch of different ideas, stuff
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: we've talked about, like from the Speed Act and other legislation.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: To reform things.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Permitting and many of the federal rules and regulations that
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: are keeping America from getting energy produced.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Energy produced.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: And my understanding is, and I think it's funny that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: they actually put the word bipartisan in the name of
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the bill, Donovan.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: But, you know, going back to my point earlier, our
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: energy demands continue to increase, right? Artificial intelligence is only
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: one reason our energy demands continue to increase. Infrastructure, transmission lines,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all of that needs to be built. So if you
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: stand in the way of it, we're not going to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: be at our own energy needs. So the Democrats are
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: behind this because they want this to speed up permitting
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: for all of their green get rid of plant food
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: efforts through legislation. The Republicans want to do this because
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: they want to grease the skids to get effective, reliable
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: energy out of the ground and transmission lines built. So
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: we've got it's an all of the above approach is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the way I understand this, Donovan, or do I have
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: it wrong?
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: No, I think it's right because I think, you know, finally,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: and it takes a while for Congress to do anything,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: but I think, you know, the men and women who represent.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Us in Washington, D.C.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Across party lines recognized America's falling behind, right? And you
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: mentioned it, AI and data centers, that stuff is putting
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: a strain on the grid, but it also has global
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: national security issues. You know, our friends at Concerned Veterans
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: for America, CVA, they've joined the show with you before,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I know, and It's something they've been hammering on for
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of years, right? If for nothing else, let's
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: get the energy permitting processes in this country resolved and
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: moving because we have global threats out there that if
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: we can't produce the armaments we need, if we can't
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: manufacture and grow our economy with cheap, reliable, affordable energy,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: we're going to fall behind. And so, you know, from
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: a national defense perspective to the, you know, getting the,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: you know, what makes the green energy folks happy with
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: getting their projects off the ground to, you know, the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: baseload energy that all of us, the youth from nuclear
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: to coal to natural gas and everything in between care about.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: This is the kind of legislation we got to do
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: to get it done for a number of reasons. And finally,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: folks around the table and actually moving on something that
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: could happen before the end of the year.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Well, the N word was in there. You mentioned Baja
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: contains or may address our demands, our nuclear demands, which
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: will literally satisfy all the problems we face in order
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: to bring about this artificial intelligence needs to exist, but
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it needs to pay for its own power. I think
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the only solid, reliable answer is the small modular reactor,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: which they can bring with them. The only thing standing
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: in the way of that is federal government regulations over
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: nuclear power. So to deliver on the challenge or to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: make good on the bring your own power challenge, that's
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: where we need the permitting reform. Does the Baja actually
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: specifically mention nuclear in terms of reducing the regulatory challenges
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that anybody faces when they want to even consider nuclear?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I think it does begin to address some of that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: The challenges with nuclear are always the national defense perspective,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: but I was actually in a meeting in Columbus back
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: on Monday where With Cato Institute and a handful of
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: other folks talking about some opportunities for reform and nuclear
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: came up, Brian. And one of the things that were
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: pointed out there was could would with some of this
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: legislation and some things that are happening at the state level,
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: the opportunity exists. You know, we're not going to build
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: maybe a big, you know, seven mile island type nuclear facility.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: But like you're pointing out, these small these SMR small
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: modular reactors are. they might be able to work under
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: the onerous regulations that exist at the federal level so
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: that we can get these projects online, get that energy
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: onto the grid. Part of the solution, too, that is
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: getting talked about more and more is going with microgrids
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: where we have um, you know, a data center or
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: a number of manufacturers come together and finance and off the,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: you know, um, uh, behind the meter energy generation, you
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: could do that with SMRs. And I think that's part of,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: I hate to say loophole, cause it sounds like somebody's
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: circumventing something for nefarious reasons.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: But part of what I believe would be at loophole
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: from the federal regulators that have just, it just don't
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: move and just don't do the, the, the, the due.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Diligence to get these projects off the ground. Right. They
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: just wait the people out and, we the people suffer.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I don't know what it does in terms
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of noise, but I know GE manufacturers, you know, jet
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: engines that they convert into power plants. And they're small
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: as well. I mean, that's an easy solution. And again,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: how many of these you would need to generate the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: power you need in an AI center, I don't know.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: But I know those exist. I had a friend of
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: mine that would go around the world installing them in
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: various third world countries where they didn't have any electricity.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And most notably, he mentioned even the drug cartels would
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: buy these things to power their needs and also provide
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: local communities with electricity. making everyone happy. So options exist, Donovan.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Well, they sure do.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: You know, another thing I want to make sure I
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: point to while we're on here talking about this today
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: is shot clocks. We did this with House Bill 15
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: here in Ohio. That was the legislation that undid the
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: nuclear bailout legislation and affirmed a free market approach to
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: energy in the state. But shot clocks, you know, how
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: many times do you hear about these stories, right, where
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: the federal agency just keeps asking for more or starts
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the paperwork.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And then some other third party shows up and they
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: have to restart the paperwork.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Yep. 60 day shot clock, Brian. 60 days.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: The federal government has to have an answer. And there's
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: some other timelines that get applied here.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: But in general, one of the biggest things that we've
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I've heard in sitting with legislators and talking to folks
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: in the energy sector and ivory tower think tank types is.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: People just don't know when they're going to get it.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: They put an application into the federal government, and they
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: don't know when they're going to get an answer.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And they don't have to get an answer. How do
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: you get investment that way, right?
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: How do you get people to pony up cash to
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: invest in an energy project if you don't know when
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: you're ever going, if you will ever see that money
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: have a return?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Let me just throw out XL Pipeline.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Yep. God almighty. It's on. It's off. It's on. It's off.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: It's on. It's off. Throw in your towel.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I'm done with this. We'll continue. It's happening here in Ohio.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Give Ohioans more say over costly rules. Donovan Neal on
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: rains in the talk station. 741 here, 55KRCD talk station.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Brian Thomas with Donovan Neal, Americans for Prosperity. All right,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: pivoting away from Washington and back to Columbus. Rains is
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a lamed up priority for everyone, I think, in my
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: listening audience. It is for Americans for Prosperity. Remind my
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: listeners what's going on here in the state of Ohio
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and is there any chance of this actually moving forward
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: while the Republicans maintain a supermajority.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so REINS, another clever acronym from the politicians, is
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the regulations from the executive in need of scrutiny. And
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: what this legislation would do is proactively curb red tape
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: rules and regulations, especially focused on the ones that have
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: a costly impact to the economy. And so, in short,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: the way this legislation works is, you know, the The
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: executive office, right, the governor will issue, you know, their
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: office will issue some rules and regulations, and they have
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: to go before a committee called JCAR.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: It's made up of the legislature. That body reviews every
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: one of those rules and regulations.
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  Speaker 3: But Raines would add another provision that would say if
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  Speaker 3: a rule or regulation has a certain economic impact threshold,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: it actually has to.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Go to the whole legislature, right? for uh approval.
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  Speaker 3: Because what happens here brian wright is we pass these
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: laws you know 30 40 50 years ago they don't
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: get updated and the bureaucrats right a clever bureaucrat who
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: um maybe they can't get a bill passed through the
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: you know conservative legislature but they sort of interpret the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: law a little more broadly than it was maybe originally envisioned, right?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like the Clean Water Act, which is supposed to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: deal with navigable waters, and the next thing you know,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: they're regulating a tablespoon of water on your private property
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: under that. Yeah, a little legislative creep there, a regulatory creep.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Exactly. That regulatory creep. Well, you've got to take that. If,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: if rains were to be enacted, you'd have to take
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: that back to the full legislature. And, you know, if
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: they agree and say, yeah, that, you know, the, the,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: the environmental benefits, right. Or the public benefits outweigh the economic.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Impact we approve. That's all this bill does. Right.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: This this idea, this rains act idea does is make
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: sure that the legislature, the people we elect to represent
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: us in Columbus, you know, have a say in these
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: types of things. And so it's an important check on
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: the executive branch when you have these rules and regulations proliferate.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: So with Governor Amy, I still struggle with that, Donovan,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Governor Amy Acton. Boy, that hurts in the back of
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: my throat like bile back there when I say it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so if she decides she wants to shut
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: down the state of Ohio because of, oh, I don't know,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the flu, then they'll be able to stand in her way.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Just trying to shoehorn this into an Amy lockdown acting scenario, Donovan,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: excuse me.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's the area that is absolutely, you know,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: one of the ideas here of.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Making sure that does not happen again. I think beyond that, though, right,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: there there are.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: You know, they literally enact, you know, hundreds, if not
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: thousands of rules and regulations every year. By the way, Republicans,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: and we'll presume Democrats, will follow suit if not supercharge that.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: This REINS Act kind of, you know, keeps those, even
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: those less maybe visible rules and regulations, right, from ever
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: going into effect, or at least putting a stopgap on
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: them to make sure that the people and their representatives
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: have an opportunity to make, to have a say on it. So,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: You know, one thing I want to point out here, too,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: because this has come up in the national narrative, is that,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: you know, Republican legislatures are trying to, you know, curb
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: executive offices. You know, this was something that was in
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the state budget last year. We wanted to put this
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the Republican legislature wanted to put this check in place over.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Republican governor. Right. Yeah.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: So this isn't something to just curb Democrats or, you know,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: thwart executive power. Well, it is to curb executive power,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: both for Republicans and Democrats. It's good public policy and
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: something we're going to be pushing for over the next
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: few weeks during the Ohio lame duck session.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: It's good public policy also, because with the rains act
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: in effect, it will force our elected officials to draft
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: more contemplative future thinking legislation.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: We need to draft this tightly so it can't be
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: expanded through regulatory creep in the background, or we need
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to articulate the specific reasons for any given piece of
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: legislation so it can't be used to shoehorn in broader
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: regulatory reaches because it's so loosely written. This would force
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: them to do their job better, wouldn't it?
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: Well, and interestingly enough, that's one of the reasons I've
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: been told, we've been told, and this isn't just in Ohio,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: it's around the country where AFP works on this legislation—
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: There are legislators who say, well, isn't that going to
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: make us have to consider more bills or do more work?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yes, Mr. Representative, you will do your job. Damn
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: right it is.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: That's what we need you to do is have that oversight,
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: be that check and balance.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It's part of their job description. Yes, you need to
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: work and draft proper legislation so it can't be misinterpreted.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: God bless America, Donovan, the nerve of some people to
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: say something like that out loud. I mean, maybe me
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: thinking it. Which is why I brought up the concept,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: but clearly that's on their agenda and they don't want
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: to do it.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Pathetic. Donovan, what do we need to do? They don't
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: want to be on the record. No, they don't want
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to be on the record. Anyway, typical politicians don't expect
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: much from them. They're not going to deliver. State Director
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: AFP Action and Hive Donovan O'Neill, what are our action items?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Getting in touch with our elected officials while they're still there.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Get in touch with your elected officials, and you can
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: always go to BuckeyeBlueprint.com.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: We're going to be working hard.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: We're going to be traveling around the state in December,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: firing folks up and helping set a course forward for
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the next Congress, the next administration, and we want you
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: to join us.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: BuckeyeBlueprint.com.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: BuckeyeBlueprint.com, or just look up your elected officials' contact information.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Get in touch with them. This is an important issue.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I'd like to have it enshrined in law before well...
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: It hits the fan after January. Donovan O'Neill, thank you
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: for all the work that you do on behalf of Ohioans,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: even though some of them don't appreciate it. I know
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: you're there and you got our collective best interest at heart.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And I'll look forward to having you back on the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: program next Wednesday, my friend.