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Transcript

Reagan Has a Bad Idea · Crosstabs

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Now we're recording something for the people to listen to on their summer vacations
0:05
SPEAKER_00: or whatever they're doing.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: It's still July.
0:09
SPEAKER_02: It sure is.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not time for us to think about work yet.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: August is coming, then we can think about working.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: And then September happens and we actually do have to work.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, true that.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Well, ledge stays and stuff I think will change.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: Kind of that mentality there going through elections will be pretty insane.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: Let's not leave the data center thing because it's on my mind.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: You started getting me heated and fired up.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: I'll start with this.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I'll say my position is, and I will come out and say this, bad, bad, bad public policy.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: This is terrible public policy I'm about to propose.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: However- I think it gets us out of the political quagmire, not just the right, by the way.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I think this covers,
0:51
SPEAKER_00: because data centers,
0:53
SPEAKER_00: I saw a tweet this morning that said,
0:54
SPEAKER_00: if you put a gun-toting cowboy and a they-them with a septum pursing in
1:00
SPEAKER_00: the same room,
1:00
SPEAKER_00: the only thing they agree on is banning data centers,
1:03
SPEAKER_00: that they hate data centers, okay?
1:05
SPEAKER_00: So that means that the political, and I didn't write that.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I just want to make that clear.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: That's just what I read.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: But the political impact of data centers is massive.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: There were local races that got completely flipped upside down where incumbents lost
1:22
SPEAKER_00: because they were the pro data center candidate or had just approved a data center.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: City councils are scared out of their minds.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: They're voting down projects left and right.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Hillsborough just did a 120-day ban on them, right?
1:36
SPEAKER_00: People are losing their minds on this stuff.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: So how do you stop it?
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, unfortunately, I think you do a one-year moratorium on data centers.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: It's terrible because we're going to lose,
1:47
SPEAKER_00: as you're going to point out, we're going to lose a ton of economic development.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And but I also don't know how else you tamp down the hysteria for any other kind
1:59
SPEAKER_00: of economic development that you want to do.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Because as soon as somebody starts getting land ready for an industrial purpose,
2:06
SPEAKER_00: everyone's going to go, oh, it could be a data center.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: It's under an NDA.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: There's no way to know.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Stop it.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: And so there just won't be any economic development.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: And I don't see how that's this.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: But I don't have a better option.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: And I wish there wasn't.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: Well, one, you're right.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: That's horrible public policy.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Terrible.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: It's really bad.
2:31
SPEAKER_02: I want to make
2:31
SPEAKER_00: that clear.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: I know it.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: It's very bad.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: I mean, anytime you put a...
2:37
SPEAKER_02: When you put a moratorium on something, right?
2:41
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's this or offshore wind energy...
2:46
SPEAKER_02: Or whatever, you're usually doing it for the sole purpose of politics.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: You're not doing it for the purpose of what's in the best interest for
2:57
SPEAKER_02: the state moving forward,
2:59
SPEAKER_02: what's in the best interest for this, that, and other things.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: So taking data centers, I'm very intimately engaged in data centers.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: I know a lot of what's going on with data centers.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: And right now,
3:11
SPEAKER_02: the biggest problem with data centers is Is the fact that it's just a bunch of lies
3:18
SPEAKER_02: and you're dealing with this like complete layer of misinformation driven by
3:25
SPEAKER_02: a hard left narrative first.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: And now it's caught on to the ired, like you said, like most people.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: I was looking at some polling that does not look very good for data centers,
3:38
SPEAKER_02: but given the right information,
3:42
SPEAKER_02: People do come back around to data centers because jobs matter,
3:47
SPEAKER_02: economic development matter.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: And so the water stuff is insane.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Do you know it takes more water to wash solar panels than it does to run a data center?
3:56
SPEAKER_01: You know how much water we use on solar fields to wash the top
4:02
SPEAKER_01: of those stupid fucking panels over using data centers?
4:07
SPEAKER_01: We use massive amounts of water for your clean energy crap out there to wash the top
4:13
SPEAKER_01: of solar panels,
4:14
SPEAKER_01: which are now,
4:15
SPEAKER_01: especially out in Eastern Oregon, a bunch of ash and suits sitting on top of them.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: And you have to constantly wash those solar panels.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: You know how much water it takes to wash one almond?
4:28
SPEAKER_01: One almond.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: How much water it takes to water to heal a golf course?
4:34
SPEAKER_01: A data center uses about as much water as a hotel.
4:37
SPEAKER_01: But the misinformation is so intense and the idea that it's using millions of gallons.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Like, well, we use millions of gallons of water for everything.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: Water is obviously an important part of our infrastructure for whatever it is that you're doing.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And I think just to ban it because you want to make up noise stuff,
5:06
SPEAKER_01: you want to make up water stuff that just isn't true.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you should ban golf courses before you ban data centers if your goal is to keep water.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be clear, there are some people who think we should ban golf courses,
5:22
SPEAKER_00: and those people are wrong.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And I think I'm wrong.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: But the other thing is,
5:28
SPEAKER_00: how do you get to a space where you actually get to present that data and do
5:32
SPEAKER_00: the pushing back?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: You can use my laptop.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And and that's that's the only way that I think, like,
5:39
SPEAKER_00: you get your space to make your argument,
5:42
SPEAKER_00: because otherwise the crazy arguments are going to win the battle for a long,
5:48
SPEAKER_00: a long time.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And I think if you freeze it, it might give you a chance to go.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: All right, here's our public.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're going to do all around the state.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: You know, the governor has a Task Force on data centers and stuff.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think in the environment that we're in,
6:03
SPEAKER_00: whatever it produces is going to be very helpful.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be because it can't look like the politicians designed the process
6:10
SPEAKER_00: to get their desired outcome.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: That's just going to add to the hysteria.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: They're going to say, oh, look,
6:15
SPEAKER_00: see, they went out and they hired their scientists to prove it's not killing us.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like the chemtrails.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: They've been lying to us for years about the chemtrails.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: And so you have to figure out a way.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh my word, we get so many cloud sitting emails.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: I have a hard time not running back and just telling people they're insane, but I don't.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: Here's my thought.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: And I'm okay with where you've gone.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: You do make a valid point that maybe pausing
6:51
SPEAKER_02: to allow for the real information,
6:54
SPEAKER_02: to allow for debate to happen...
6:56
SPEAKER_02: Like real debate needs to happen about it.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Like real information needs to come out.
7:01
SPEAKER_02: And obviously we got a long session coming up to where hopefully that'll come out.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: But you're just going to have some people that have gotten to office by just being
7:11
SPEAKER_02: on the anti-data center thing.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: And they're just going to,
7:14
SPEAKER_02: like you said,
7:15
SPEAKER_02: with every Landy's decision,
7:16
SPEAKER_02: they're just going to bring up data center, data center, data center.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: Janine Salma's bill literally specifically stated no data centers.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: And yet she was still thrown out of office.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's still...
7:27
SPEAKER_02: So but here's but here's the question that I would
7:31
SPEAKER_02: that I think we're not we're not asking the right questions.
7:34
SPEAKER_02: And this is what I want to ask people that are against data centers.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: And I think they're also the same people that are against everything bananas.
7:43
SPEAKER_02: So I think they're I think they're against everything.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: And so I would say, OK, what business, what industry would you like to recruit to Oregon?
7:56
SPEAKER_02: Can you give me one industry in which you wouldn't oppose that we could recruit
8:04
SPEAKER_02: to Oregon that's going to create jobs,
8:05
SPEAKER_02: economic development,
8:07
SPEAKER_02: and pay the taxes
8:09
SPEAKER_01: that go for all the social bullshit that you want to pay for?
8:13
SPEAKER_01: So I would ask, what's that industry?
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I suspect the answer you get is there's no answer.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: Why isn't Drazen that?
8:24
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask Drazen that question.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask Kotek that question.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: You tell me you want to be the chief prosperity officer.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: What's the industry you're going after?
8:33
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's asking the right question, Reagan.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: That's the part that drives me crazy.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: Ask the right question.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: You won't let us log.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: You barely let us farm.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: You don't want us to have cows because you don't like CAFOs and all the other stuff
8:46
SPEAKER_01: that go in there.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: You don't like data centers.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: You don't like Intel because Intel needs data centers.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: You can't do that.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: You don't like Nike and Columbia can't do anything because they're going
8:56
SPEAKER_01: to just send their manufacturing overseas because of the policies you put
8:59
SPEAKER_01: into place.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: That's not going to allow anybody to manufacture in the United States of America.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: So what industry is it?
9:06
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm bracking my head when people say, oh, we want to do industry.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what industry?
9:12
SPEAKER_01: What industry?
9:14
SPEAKER_01: You don't let LNG come in here.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: You don't want mining.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: You don't want us doing any fracking.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to do there's nothing that you're going to allow.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: That's going to create economic development activity on any scale that pays for
9:28
SPEAKER_01: the stuff that you want as a state government.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the answer.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: That's the problem that I'm just struggling with as an individual,
9:38
SPEAKER_01: you know, going, OK, what industry is it like?
9:44
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: You tell me.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: Oil, natural gas.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: It's also not hospitality either because they're going to allow Mount Bachelor
9:55
SPEAKER_00: and all these other places to close because they can't cover their liability.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: You already have high cost of employing people because we have
10:01
SPEAKER_00: a very high minimum wage and the cost of having employees.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Also, the not direct wage costs,
10:09
SPEAKER_00: but all the other costs that go into having it are higher in Oregon than in a lot
10:12
SPEAKER_00: of other states.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: So they're just – I totally agree with you, Brian.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: I think the answer is we're going to talk about small businesses.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about farming and ag.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about tourism.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk – but we're not going to do the things necessary
10:29
SPEAKER_00: to make us attractive to any of those industries.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: I – Very insightful, Brian, honestly.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: I think you're absolutely right about that.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing, too.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: This is why I think the moratorium does kind of work is because
10:43
SPEAKER_00: then you can't just run on being anti-data centers because there's no data centers
10:48
SPEAKER_00: for a year or, you know, right?
10:50
SPEAKER_00: So then...
10:51
SPEAKER_00: I think it takes away the issue from the candidate that's running
10:54
SPEAKER_00: on data centers only and exposes them for being weak and trying to capitalize on
11:00
SPEAKER_00: a one-time issue.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the other side political-ish benefit,
11:04
SPEAKER_00: I think,
11:05
SPEAKER_00: from the moratorium is if you do it,
11:07
SPEAKER_00: you basically say,
11:09
SPEAKER_00: you know,
11:09
SPEAKER_00: now you as the opponent,
11:11
SPEAKER_00: if you're the incumbent or being challenged by a data center candidate,
11:14
SPEAKER_00: you go, okay, we Have a year of no data centers.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, what do you want?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Two years?
11:19
SPEAKER_00: You want 10 years?
11:20
SPEAKER_00: It sort of gives you that space to poke back at the candidate and find out
11:24
SPEAKER_00: that they're really a house of cards.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: My theory anyway.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: In practice, it may not work.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: In practice, it may devastate us economically.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: In practice, it may make us, you know, we might be the 51st worst state.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: We're so bad that 50th isn't even, there's nobody in 50th and we're 51st.
11:42
SPEAKER_02: We can go below Guam.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: We can be almost like a territory.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: People are gonna start labeling me the anti-prosperity officer.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: It's really bad.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Again, and I could totally be wrong, and luckily I don't get to make the policy in this state.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't do that.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: So people can debate,
12:01
SPEAKER_00: and it'll be interesting to see what We just have to get past the election, right?
12:25
SPEAKER_00: So anyway,
12:26
SPEAKER_00: I sort of am of the opinion that whichever candidate between Drazen
12:30
SPEAKER_00: and Kotech comes out first against data centers wins the undecided vote.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe that's not enough to flip the whole election,
12:38
SPEAKER_00: but if you've got a large undecided vote and they're making a decision based on
12:42
SPEAKER_00: a key issue that everybody's talking about,
12:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't see why that wouldn't be data centers.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: I think that they'll both come out against data centers
12:50
SPEAKER_02: because it'd be politically stupid for either of them to be like,
12:54
SPEAKER_02: yeah, I'm all for data centers, right?
12:55
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, they're not gonna...
12:57
SPEAKER_02: I think what Drazen will do is probably couch it in a little bit more
13:03
SPEAKER_02: of rural communities need jobs and these things create jobs
13:08
SPEAKER_02: and there's good union paying jobs.
13:10
SPEAKER_02: And she'll kind of like preface it,
13:12
SPEAKER_02: but it's important to take a pause so we understand the impact.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: She'll say some shit like that, right?
13:18
SPEAKER_02: I could probably write it in two minutes what her statement is.
13:22
SPEAKER_02: And then Kotick will take a little bit of a harder line because she needs
13:25
SPEAKER_02: to not lose her base, right?
13:27
SPEAKER_02: And then she'll just say,
13:29
SPEAKER_02: I think taking a moratorium approach or a pause is important so we understand
13:33
SPEAKER_02: the impacts of everything as stuff across the country,
13:37
SPEAKER_02: but In her
13:38
SPEAKER_01: mind,
13:39
SPEAKER_01: they're all kind
13:39
SPEAKER_02: of – I think they're both angling for is there anybody at play here
13:45
SPEAKER_02: that would give money to their campaigns?
13:50
SPEAKER_02: I think everything goes back to money, Reagan.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: That's my theory in politics.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: But because money shapes things, so is –
13:59
SPEAKER_02: Is Amazon going to come in and help shape public policy for data centers?
14:05
SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
14:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean, are they going to give money?
14:06
SPEAKER_02: They traditionally haven't.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: That's the weirdest thing about the data center thing.
14:11
SPEAKER_02: If you look at it nationally,
14:14
SPEAKER_02: the big seven that are in the data center world,
14:16
SPEAKER_02: they don't Until the Trump election,
14:19
SPEAKER_02: really, you never saw Zuckerberg involved in a campaign.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: You just didn't, right?
14:25
SPEAKER_02: So the tech world just traditionally always bent it a little left because
14:30
SPEAKER_02: of their employee base was always bent a little left.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: And then but what they found is that the freedom of speech stuff,
14:37
SPEAKER_02: the the,
14:38
SPEAKER_02: you know,
14:38
SPEAKER_02: not going after them for,
14:40
SPEAKER_02: you know,
14:41
SPEAKER_02: the newspaper bill that that was brought up last time, like,
14:44
SPEAKER_02: you know,
14:44
SPEAKER_02: holding hostage Google for 100 million dollars to pay left wing reporters
14:48
SPEAKER_02: to write bad stories about Republicans.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: So I just think that I think that that group is is moving a little right of center.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: But they're still not actively engaged in politics like they just haven't been.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: And then the data center stuff like there was even an article
15:04
SPEAKER_02: that Oregon Capital Chronicle pushed out like, oh, no,
15:07
SPEAKER_02: there's a there's a nonprofit C4 putting out a coordinated information
15:13
SPEAKER_02: on data centers is out there.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, well, what do you expect them to do?
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Sit around and do nothing like why wouldn't they coordinate a campaign
15:22
SPEAKER_01: to start telling people what they believe is the truth?
15:26
SPEAKER_01: Through their lens.
15:27
SPEAKER_02: And I just think that this won't really affect the governor's race is kind of my theory.
15:32
SPEAKER_02: It might affect some local races where data centers are
15:37
SPEAKER_02: or have been impacting like House District 52, something like that, right?
15:41
SPEAKER_02: Where the Dalles and Google and Um,
15:44
SPEAKER_02: cause you got it,
15:45
SPEAKER_02: you know,
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Hank who's total anti data center and you got Scott Hagee who,
15:49
SPEAKER_02: you know, approved the data centers as a county commissioner.
15:51
SPEAKER_02: So that's where this will play out.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: I think the governors,
15:55
SPEAKER_02: both the candidates will be able to craft their message enough to keep the base,
16:00
SPEAKER_02: but you're right.
16:01
SPEAKER_02: Where does that 4% fall?
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know if they're,
16:04
SPEAKER_00: you know, the governor has a, uh, the Oregon data center advisory committee.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: She formed this in January, I think.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And their final meetings, they have three more.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: They have additional considerations and deliberations,
16:20
SPEAKER_00: which is the July 31st meeting,
16:23
SPEAKER_00: August 4th committee discussion and deliberation of the draft report.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: I think that August 4th meeting is basically going to contain their recommendations,
16:31
SPEAKER_00: the draft version, right?
16:32
SPEAKER_00: We'll see if it makes prosperity council jokes.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: And then they have a final public listening session,
16:40
SPEAKER_00: like Two months after that, September 26th.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: So the draft report on August 4th,
16:44
SPEAKER_00: I think whatever's in there,
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I think Kotech for the most part is just going to adopt that because she's very much
16:51
SPEAKER_00: a make a decision based on the highest and best information.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: She put this group together so she doesn't take the recommendations.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: It's also weird.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: So I think you'll see Kotech's opinion will be in the August 4th draft report
17:07
SPEAKER_00: because certainly – Some of those folks on that commission are going to go back
17:11
SPEAKER_00: to her and say, here's what we're thinking.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And she's going to go, yeah, you're thinking great.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Or I think you think something different.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: And they go, yes, Madam Governor, we think something different.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: And they'll change, right?
17:21
SPEAKER_00: They'll have whatever.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And so that'll be what she bases her opinion off of.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: She'll say the experts decided and this is what I and I agree.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: So Drazen has a small window right now to beat her to the punch on whatever it is.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think being...
17:36
SPEAKER_00: You get maybe a week and a half news cycle out of that,
17:40
SPEAKER_00: and then you can use it the rest of the campaign.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: So if data centers matter, the window is closing.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's the opportunity for her to come out and just say,
17:47
SPEAKER_00: you know, look, I think a one-year ban is great.
17:52
SPEAKER_02: Did you look at who's on that council, though?
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And that'll be the executive.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading it.
17:58
SPEAKER_02: So first of all, industry is not really represented.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: So Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Which is, that's a climate change.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: That's just a climate.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: That's a climate change person.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: She was the energy person for Kids Hopper and Kate Brown.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Like how, I mean.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And then you have Dan Doran, the chair of the Umatilla County Commission.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: I do like Dan.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Two folks, two professors from U of O and University of Portland.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what we need.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Oregon Business for Climate, which is an anti-business group.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: I kid you not.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And then I got,
18:37
SPEAKER_00: and then Gene Wilson from Sandbrook Capital is probably the only like voice
18:42
SPEAKER_00: of reason for like,
18:43
SPEAKER_00: hey guys,
18:44
SPEAKER_00: we're going to destroy all investment in the state of Oregon if we do crazy stuff.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: So I feel bad for her.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
18:49
SPEAKER_00: this is,
18:50
SPEAKER_00: and it's more of,
18:51
SPEAKER_00: it's interesting because it's,
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I guess it makes sense that she would stack it with environmentalist people.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she is still, at the end of the day, pro-environmentist.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Despite the
19:02
SPEAKER_01: fact that Lane
19:03
SPEAKER_00: County Land Watch says she is the greatest
19:05
SPEAKER_00: and number one threat to land use in Oregon.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Land Watch.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: That Gene Wilson lady.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Which I found hilarious.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: That Jean Wilson lady's nothing but
19:19
SPEAKER_02: a solar energy only first crazy ass green energy thing
19:25
SPEAKER_02: where I bet they meant like she probably works for a hedge fund and makes tons
19:28
SPEAKER_02: of money off of getting federal tax breaks to put up fucking solar panels.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, what is going to come down?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: So she might not be even be a voice.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: No, there's Dan is the only one that's even worth a shit on an entire panel.
19:42
SPEAKER_02: Just because he's at least in Umatilla County dealt with Data centers, right?
19:47
SPEAKER_02: So, I mean,
19:47
SPEAKER_02: that's the only one that comes with any sort of like actual experience
19:53
SPEAKER_02: in knowing what the data centers are doing on the ground.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: The rest of those people, especially a professor from Portland State and U of O.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
20:02
SPEAKER_02: Like they let Charlie
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Conrad be a professor.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: Was the U of O professor?
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, because they're not smart enough, they had to like add a second one.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: That's the weird part to me is it's like, why more than one professor?
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Do one professor.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I didn't put the council together.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, advisory committee together.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: It's not a council.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: That's different,
20:22
SPEAKER_00: which is different than a task force, which is also different than a work group.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: All right.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I know.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: I know.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: I digress.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm with you.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: I get caught in the weeds a little bit on this stuff,
20:34
SPEAKER_02: but I just think the argument really comes down
20:38
SPEAKER_02: to what does Oregon's future look like economically?
20:45
SPEAKER_02: What are the companies that you want?
20:47
SPEAKER_02: You've ran Dutch Brothers out of out of town.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: You've run all of these.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: You know, we see company after company leaving Oregon.
20:55
SPEAKER_02: And I just go back to fine.
20:57
SPEAKER_02: If you don't want data centers here,
20:58
SPEAKER_02: I think there's plenty of, you know, America is a big country.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: And if we don't want to have data centers in Oregon,
21:05
SPEAKER_02: if that's a choice that we're making as a state, then, you know, so be it.
21:09
SPEAKER_02: Like, that's fine.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: I know what data centers have done for my community.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: And I know the value of those data centers to my community and I'll hold
21:20
SPEAKER_02: and I'll hold that value.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: And I'm more than happy to share that value,
21:23
SPEAKER_02: which I have clearly on this podcast and, you know, in other areas.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: But maybe but that is also only my experience with Facebook and Apple.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, there could be.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: Other data centers that are horrible.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: The hyperscalers are a little interesting to me.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: Now it's become a money grab.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: When you start getting hyperscalers, you get the hedge funds.
21:45
SPEAKER_02: You get billionaires in there that are literally just building them and renting them
21:50
SPEAKER_02: to the companies.
21:51
SPEAKER_02: I like having real companies over having hyperscalers
21:56
SPEAKER_02: where they're just building these data centers and leasing them to
21:59
SPEAKER_02: the tech companies.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: I think the tech companies,
22:02
SPEAKER_02: if they're here locally,
22:04
SPEAKER_02: I think they have more skin in the game versus like, oh, we're just a leaseholder.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: So I think there's some value to that.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: I would look at that.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: And if I don't see that sort of stuff coming out of this report with these guys,
22:19
SPEAKER_02: then I'll probably discount the whole report.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Because if you're not going to break it down,
22:25
SPEAKER_02: you know,
22:25
SPEAKER_02: a little bit more and talk about,
22:28
SPEAKER_02: you know,
22:28
SPEAKER_02: redundancy, not being on the grid, like things like that is what needs to happen.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, within these data centers to make them work.
22:38
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately,
22:38
SPEAKER_02: like some friends that told me, I mean,
22:40
SPEAKER_02: Elon Musk will probably solve the whole problem and put data centers in space.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I hope so, because that would be awesome.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: Run by robots, which would be super cool, you know.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: It is a great idea.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: You know what isn't a great idea, Brian?
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Creating more house committees.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: We have so many already.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And yet now we have more.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: So this is something that kind of flew under the radar.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even see Dirk or any of the others kind of write about it.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's actually...
23:11
SPEAKER_00: That's huge in terms of what's going on.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: So House Democrats, they're a bit of a struggle bus.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Some people won't even get on the bus.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Some people won't be on the bus with other people.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a problem.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: They apparently, they had to hire, they hired a mediator.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: They have a meditation session, which they will not talk about to the press.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: They have to talk about the fact that they paid for it,
23:36
SPEAKER_00: but they're not doing, they're not talking about what happened.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: So we don't know how it went.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that will leak at some point.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: But the day before,
23:47
SPEAKER_00: I think it was the week before, right,
23:50
SPEAKER_00: the week before it was scheduled to happen,
23:52
SPEAKER_00: the Speaker made some changes on committees.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of these make a lot of sense.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: She discharged Ken Helm as the co-chair of Ag,
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water and appointed Sarah Finger McDonald.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: So Helm not coming back.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Finger McDonald expected to win re-election in a safe seat.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: And so she's making it clear who's the next up to run stuff through the following.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: So Finger McDonald would be expected to hold that chairmanship.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: So if you're working on those issues, you just start working with her now in the interim.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: Smart move.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Lively, also retiring.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: They appointed Gamba Chair of Climate, Energy, and Environment Committee.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Holy smokes, you guys.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: That committee is going to produce a lot of garbage legislatively.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Representative Gamba is going to run out some stuff, and it's going to suck.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it's going to die in ways and means,
24:47
SPEAKER_00: unfortunately,
24:47
SPEAKER_00: instead of dying in committee,
24:50
SPEAKER_00: where Lively held it down, and some of these other folks have held it down.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: So that'll be interesting to watch.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: But whoa.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: And then there's three new committees.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Three new committees.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, Early Childhood and Human Services used to be one committee chaired by Hartman.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: It's now split into two.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Early Childhood is chaired by Representative Jules Walters.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Human Services chaired by Representative Travis Nelson.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: It'll be interesting to see what these guys pick up, how often they meet.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Do they even have enough bills?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: What's the workload look like?
25:22
SPEAKER_00: And then higher education,
25:24
SPEAKER_00: which is basically,
25:25
SPEAKER_00: I think they were doing higher ed in the regular house education committee,
25:29
SPEAKER_00: and they've just broken it off now.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: And Representative Fragala is the chair of that.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: So you've got these, so new chairmanships, right?
25:39
SPEAKER_00: They took one chairmanship or two chairmanships and turned it into four chairmanships.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: So, and I think as you see with the climate committee moving forward,
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Ag, I don't say,
25:51
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't necessarily say it's moving left, although I think it's possible it does.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the interesting things I'm working on is I have some data,
26:01
SPEAKER_00: but I think basically ag did almost no land use spills last time.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have time to do them.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: There's too much ag and natural resource and water issues.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: So there's a really good case now that Rep Helm,
26:12
SPEAKER_00: who So I think that would be another change that would be really helpful here.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: More committees.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: We have got a fully open capital now, so there's more committee rooms, right?
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Got to have more committees to fill the more committee rooms.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Fill the space.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: But you got, but now you've got chairs, Nelson, Fragla, Walters, Gamba.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is more, that's more lefty than we've been here in some of these areas.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: So I think.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that the question becomes.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: Was the speaker buying off some votes there?
27:06
SPEAKER_00: I do have a question about if the struggle session they were planning
27:11
SPEAKER_00: to have was related to the speakership and the performance,
27:16
SPEAKER_00: and if these new chairmanships help soften or make it so that everybody's happier.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: The question, I don't really know.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not like Fahey is a big moderate.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's out there saying that she's a right-wing Democrat, that she's John Fetterman.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: No one thinks that.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: If anything,
27:39
SPEAKER_00: what happens is we have to,
27:42
SPEAKER_00: after Kotech and Courtney,
27:44
SPEAKER_00: who were very much in control of their chambers,
27:46
SPEAKER_00: very much telling chairs,
27:48
SPEAKER_00: we can't have this bill, you're going to kill it, that kind of stuff.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: You have these much weaker presiding officers.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: And so who they pick as chairs matters even more now.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And so when they pick more lefty...
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Lefty folks,
28:02
SPEAKER_00: it changes what comes out of the building and it changes what comes out
28:05
SPEAKER_00: of those committees.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens is Ways and Means has to be the voice of reason
28:09
SPEAKER_00: unless they can find a way to not spend any money when they're passing these bills.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: So you're seeing more of this stuff that used to die in committee now die in Ways
28:17
SPEAKER_00: and Means, and that's just purely due to budget constraints.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Because I think even the co-chairs would tell you,
28:23
SPEAKER_00: well, if we had the money, yeah, I'd totally support it.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, whether that's true or not.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: No way to know, but that's the line they go with, I would guess, 99% of the time.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for shrinking budgets.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: I do think it's related.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: I think these things happen close together.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're right.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: You're right.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: I think it's going to be well in the Senate had to do the same, too.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: They expanded the committees last cycle as well.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: And it's and I think it's because, one,
28:52
SPEAKER_02: you have increasing number,
28:54
SPEAKER_02: to your point, personalities that are, you know, not requiring a gavel.
29:03
SPEAKER_02: And if they don't get there, then they, what did Gamma call people?
29:08
SPEAKER_02: Petulant children?
29:09
SPEAKER_02: I think you get it.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: Him himself, you know, I don't think had a gavel before this one.
29:17
SPEAKER_02: So I think...
29:19
SPEAKER_02: And he's been there a couple of terms now.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: So he's probably saying, listen, I get to have a gavel.
29:26
SPEAKER_02: And if I don't get a gavel, then I'm just gonna get pissed and more pissed.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: And then eventually what happens is they get pissed at the one person they can
29:35
SPEAKER_02: and that's the person in charge.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: So the speaker has to deal with the petulant children of her caucus constantly.
29:43
SPEAKER_02: I don't care if you're a minority leader or a majority leader,
29:45
SPEAKER_02: you're constantly dealing with the emotions Of the elected officials that,
29:51
SPEAKER_02: you know, you're their lead.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: And it's a constant challenge.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: I just wonder,
29:56
SPEAKER_02: you and I aren't in the Democrat caucus,
29:58
SPEAKER_02: so I would be curious to see, like, is that gotten louder?
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Speak for yourself, Brian.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm still a Republican.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
30:11
SPEAKER_02: I just think we have to kind of – I think you're probably – Go down the right path on that.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: These things kind of all kind of work together, but the reality, there has been some change.
30:20
SPEAKER_02: I mean, losing a couple of long-term members on the House D side that were,
30:26
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't go so far to call Ken Helm a moderate,
30:33
SPEAKER_02: but pragmatic, respectful, understands the right positioning,
30:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, versus, you know, and clearly no desire to climb the political ladder.
30:47
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's also why I think what makes a difference in,
30:53
SPEAKER_02: I believe,
30:53
SPEAKER_02: a good lawmaker and a bad lawmaker is what their political aspirations are.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: Because if you don't care about climbing the political ladder, you tend to be a better lawmaker.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: And then meaning making meaningful change in the law that makes the lives better of people.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, you're just looking for headlines.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it consumes your time.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Climbing the ladder consumes the time that you would spend lawmaking,
31:17
SPEAKER_02: basically.
31:21
SPEAKER_02: Interesting stuff.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: I think regardless of all those,
31:24
SPEAKER_02: the climate change stuff,
31:25
SPEAKER_02: I wonder what You know,
31:28
SPEAKER_02: like the wildfire stuff that's kind of happening now, like,
31:31
SPEAKER_02: does that go into,
31:32
SPEAKER_02: because I've seen already the BS,
31:35
SPEAKER_02: you know,
31:36
SPEAKER_02: staffers for White and Merkley putting out the crap,
31:39
SPEAKER_02: you know, this climate crisis and this and that.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, there's so much wrong with wildfire.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: I think we'll have to save that when we can have Representative Vicki Brice-Iverson
31:50
SPEAKER_02: on,
31:50
SPEAKER_02: and she can talk about the real ins and outs of it because she's been deep
31:56
SPEAKER_02: in it every single day with the wildfires that's happening
32:02
SPEAKER_02: and really understanding not only the money side.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Senator McLean's been really good as well,
32:08
SPEAKER_02: I got to say,
32:09
SPEAKER_02: about talking about The money side of the equation,
32:13
SPEAKER_02: like what it's costing us and stuff.
32:14
SPEAKER_02: And he has a good understanding of that.
32:17
SPEAKER_02: So I think that that's neither here nor there.
32:21
SPEAKER_02: I think there's some issues with the money side,
32:23
SPEAKER_02: but I think it's really the policy that we have to look at
32:27
SPEAKER_02: that what policies have gotten us here?
32:31
SPEAKER_02: What things happen?
32:31
SPEAKER_02: What does the landscape look like?
32:33
SPEAKER_02: So you're not only getting into a climate side,
32:35
SPEAKER_02: you're getting into management, but you're also...
32:38
SPEAKER_02: You know,
32:39
SPEAKER_02: the landscape has changed, too,
32:41
SPEAKER_02: and it's not fair for us as Republicans to just lambast,
32:46
SPEAKER_02: well, if we were still logging, there wouldn't be wildfire.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: That's not, that's just, that's about as dumb a statement as saying this is climate change.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: Like, it's really like, to my friends on the right, that's just a dumb statement.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: You can't make this- It's a massive oversimplification, I think.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I think there is,
33:03
SPEAKER_00: there's a contributing factor,
33:05
SPEAKER_00: obviously,
33:05
SPEAKER_00: of not logging,
33:06
SPEAKER_00: but it's also, it's hard for anyone to believe that there's a silver bullet to this.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: There is not.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: No, it's just, you know, like I was talking with Senator Nash for a while.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: We were talking about how back in the day- You would run your cattle
33:23
SPEAKER_02: and you would deep graze,
33:26
SPEAKER_02: you know, fields and others and pockets of grazing you would go after.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: And then when the cattle were done,
33:31
SPEAKER_02: you would send the sheep in because they'll eat everything else, right?
33:35
SPEAKER_02: Like you send the cattle first and then the cattle get bored of eating
33:38
SPEAKER_02: the crappy weeds and then you send the sheep in and they'll eat the rest of
33:41
SPEAKER_02: the weeds down.
33:43
SPEAKER_02: And and there was a lot of that that management of not the forest,
33:47
SPEAKER_02: but really like all of that underbrush,
33:51
SPEAKER_02: all of that sort of stuff that happened dramatically
33:53
SPEAKER_02: across not only just private ground and federal ground,
33:57
SPEAKER_02: but state ground everywhere you could think of.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: There was a lot of that.
34:01
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't make sense for cattle ranchers and sheep herders.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: You know,
34:07
SPEAKER_02: we used to have bands and bands of sheep in eastern Oregon and we don't have
34:11
SPEAKER_02: that much sheep anymore.
34:12
SPEAKER_02: You know,
34:12
SPEAKER_02: Vicki's grandpa used to run, I mean,
34:15
SPEAKER_02: or our dad used to say,
34:16
SPEAKER_02: or grandpa used to always run around and say,
34:20
SPEAKER_02: we have the cattle to be respectful, we have the sheep to make money.
34:24
SPEAKER_02: You know, so that was it was a thing, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so there's there's all these moving parts that go into wildfire.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And then also the other side of it is, is we don't have there's no real fire breaks anymore.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Senator Nash and I were talking about.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Like you don't really have we shut down roads, we We just don't
34:48
SPEAKER_02: use the land.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: And this isn't a federal thing or even private guys.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: We don't have natural firebreaks.
34:56
SPEAKER_02: And then you couple that with juniper trees that have gone haywire over the last 30 or 40 years.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: Landscapes that used to just be grasses and sagebrush are now littered with juniper trees.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: And we have no firebreaks with those juniper trees.
35:14
SPEAKER_02: So if you look at...
35:15
SPEAKER_02: You look at, take a city, I mean, or a town and that's burning up right now.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: Take Madras, good example.
35:23
SPEAKER_02: So you have the city of Madras and then beyond the city of Madras,
35:26
SPEAKER_02: you have, you know, pretty much all your farmers, right?
35:30
SPEAKER_01: They live outside the city and you have farmland and all that sort of stuff.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: And then you have the hill, then you start getting into the hills.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, those hills used to be kind of sagebrush and, you know, crappy weeds and stuff like that.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: Well,
35:44
SPEAKER_01: now they're
35:45
SPEAKER_02: littered with juniper trees as they work their way down the mountain
35:50
SPEAKER_02: before you ever got to the forest,
35:51
SPEAKER_02: though, to a national forest where your real lumber is, right?
35:55
SPEAKER_02: Where your loggers would be because loggers don't log juniper trees.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: So what happens is if you get a wildfire strike on a juniper tree in
36:04
SPEAKER_01: that in-between land, The juniper trees, the limbs go straight to the ground.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Pine trees, they don't start until you're 20,
36:11
SPEAKER_02: 30 feet in the air.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: So a fire can brush through a pine forest and you wouldn't even notice it was there.
36:17
SPEAKER_02: But the juniper trees blow up like fireworks
36:21
SPEAKER_01: on the 4th of July because
36:22
SPEAKER_01: that undergrass hasn't been mowed down, but their limbs go to the freaking ground.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: And they just burn hot and fast and they throw embers for miles.
36:33
SPEAKER_01: And so...
36:35
SPEAKER_01: The convoluting of all those sort of things just make it impossible to cut
36:40
SPEAKER_01: a fire line around something and create an anchor spot.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: Like what we need is
36:45
SPEAKER_02: almost like those,
36:46
SPEAKER_02: you know,
36:46
SPEAKER_02: when you look at our landscape and you see the electricity wires,
36:50
SPEAKER_02: like the high five, what are they?
36:52
SPEAKER_02: 510, 510 volt things to go.
36:54
SPEAKER_02: And they cut these wide swaths like right through the landscape to make sure
36:58
SPEAKER_02: if those Electric wires aren't swinging back and forth.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: They don't hit a tree limb or something like that.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: We kind of need stuff like that around
37:05
SPEAKER_02: these communities
37:06
SPEAKER_02: where we just have these huge swath fire breaks that are until we can get our hands
37:13
SPEAKER_02: on the other things.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: It's like you said with the moratorium with
37:16
SPEAKER_01: data centers,
37:16
SPEAKER_01: it's almost like, hey,
37:17
SPEAKER_01: the first thing we could do this winter is let's go around sisters and just create
37:21
SPEAKER_01: a 200 foot fire line.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: You know,
37:24
SPEAKER_01: and just say if there's a fire over the course of the next couple of years
37:27
SPEAKER_01: while we figure out how to manage all of this stuff,
37:31
SPEAKER_01: at least we know
37:32
SPEAKER_02: we have a fire break, right?
37:33
SPEAKER_02: Like we can stop a fire that's going to threaten all those homes and everything in that area.
37:39
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, something like that kind of needs to happen.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: There's got to be a lot of conversation about that.
37:43
SPEAKER_02: We can get into the weeds on and we'll do that with Vicki at some point talking
37:46
SPEAKER_02: about How we're managing these fires,
37:50
SPEAKER_02: but the reality is a million and a half acres burned as of now,
37:54
SPEAKER_02: as of today,
37:57
SPEAKER_02: is already going to,
37:59
SPEAKER_02: and we're not even August 1st yet,
38:01
SPEAKER_02: it's going to put us as the record for wildfires,
38:05
SPEAKER_02: but that also means it's going to be the record for what it's costing.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: And if an ounce of prevention is,
38:12
SPEAKER_02: if that's not worth a pound of flesh,
38:15
SPEAKER_02: then I don't know what the hell to tell anybody.
38:18
SPEAKER_02: So we got to spend a little bit more on prevention and we'd save ourselves
38:22
SPEAKER_02: so much money in fighting these damn things.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: That's my...
38:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm submitting a moratorium on junipers.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: Moratorium on junipers.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sending it to LC right now.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: They're going to laugh.
38:37
SPEAKER_02: Hit send.
38:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you tell the juniper trees that they have a moratorium,
38:43
SPEAKER_02: but we have a process in
38:45
SPEAKER_00: the state of Oregon that the junipers will not grow.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
38:49
SPEAKER_02: we have a process in place like with the soil and water conservation districts,
38:53
SPEAKER_02: which are all throughout the state.
38:56
SPEAKER_02: And, you know,
38:56
SPEAKER_02: there's been some grant money that's gone towards,
38:59
SPEAKER_02: you know, removing juniper trees, but it's mostly been in these watersheds.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: And right, we're trying to create more water in those watersheds, which makes a lot of sense.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: But, you know,
39:09
SPEAKER_02: when you only give a million dollars to a Crook County,
39:11
SPEAKER_02: for instance, you know, they'll eat that up in like four projects.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: Because the problem with watersheds is they take,
39:19
SPEAKER_02: it takes a lot of work because that's manual effort.
39:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, my boys and I,
39:24
SPEAKER_02: we were out there cutting junipers yesterday and we're three hours in,
39:29
SPEAKER_02: you know,
39:29
SPEAKER_02: I'm about ready to fall over dead,
39:31
SPEAKER_02: you know, from three hours of chainsaw and juniper trees, right?
39:34
SPEAKER_02: So,
39:36
SPEAKER_02: because it's steep and hilly and rocky and so you can't get machinery in there and
39:43
SPEAKER_02: But you get on the flatlands,
39:44
SPEAKER_02: you get on some of those moderate kind of flatlands that are just riddled
39:49
SPEAKER_02: with juniper trees, man,
39:51
SPEAKER_02: we can put those guys that have those log trucks, I mean, they can whack out acres.
39:58
SPEAKER_02: Of juniper trees in no time,
39:59
SPEAKER_02: you know,
40:00
SPEAKER_02: and then we could have maybe biomass plants that process that stuff
40:03
SPEAKER_02: that creates energy.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: And I know,
40:06
SPEAKER_02: I know the Democrats hate combustion,
40:08
SPEAKER_02: but it's, you know, it's, it's gotta be better than data centers.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's the industry.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's our industry.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: Reagan is removing juniper trees, but I guess we got to pay
40:23
SPEAKER_02: people to do it.
40:24
SPEAKER_02: That helps.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: We can put the prisoners on it, right?
40:29
SPEAKER_00: The felons, the adults.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: What do they call them?
40:32
SPEAKER_00: Adults in custody?
40:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:34
SPEAKER_02: That is just a net group.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: Remove a thousand juniper trees and remove a year off your sentence, I guess.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
40:41
SPEAKER_02: I love it when they make that statement because I think I tweeted that.
40:44
SPEAKER_02: It was kind of funny because I was like, no,
40:46
SPEAKER_02: they're actually criminals convicted by their peers to go to prison for
40:53
SPEAKER_02: a crime they were convicted of.
40:54
SPEAKER_02: So they're not adults in custody.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: And I was laughing with Senator Anderson.
40:59
SPEAKER_02: We're actually going to put it in a legislative draft on this one.
41:03
SPEAKER_02: And I said, you know what's adults in custody is being on jury duty.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: That is adults in custody.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Because you're forced to be there.
41:13
SPEAKER_01: They pay you $10 a day.
41:17
SPEAKER_01: But they will give you mileage if you'd like to take it.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: And then you feel like an asshole if you take the mileage
41:22
SPEAKER_02: reimbursement to go down there.
41:25
SPEAKER_02: So you know what we're going to do?
41:25
SPEAKER_02: We're going to put in an L.C.,
41:27
SPEAKER_02: That if you're on jury duty,
41:29
SPEAKER_02: you get paid per diem exactly what all of the boards and commissions get
41:35
SPEAKER_02: to volunteer their time across the state.
41:40
SPEAKER_02: I think it should be the same pay.
41:44
SPEAKER_02: And we'll pay for it by taking the money out of Measure 110.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Solid.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Preview.
41:55
SPEAKER_02: LC draft preview.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we should do an episode on LC draft previews at some point.
42:01
SPEAKER_02: That'd be good.
42:02
SPEAKER_02: We could have some people come in and talk about LC drafts.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: We'll save that for November, I guess.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a great idea.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there should be some good stuff coming.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: And then after the election, everyone goes, oh, here's what I really actually wanted to do.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's why they said the deadline before.
42:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, we'll have to only bring in safe Republican seats and safety seats.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Right.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: What's your best?
42:28
SPEAKER_00: What's your best bill?
42:29
SPEAKER_00: What's your worst bill?
42:30
SPEAKER_00: What's the bill you know is bad that you're still introducing anyway?
42:33
SPEAKER_02: That would be a great question.
42:34
SPEAKER_02: What's the bill you know the other side is going to hate?
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: I think it should be fun.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: All right.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's good to catch up with you, Brian.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: We'll see if there's any other news and we can have an emergency episode
42:47
SPEAKER_00: or something and then Get back to it as we get closer to the election.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: But right now, it's just it's it's dead out there.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I do want to shout out to everybody who's working on campaigns.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
43:01
SPEAKER_00: you guys know the legislature isn't really working,
43:04
SPEAKER_00: but I'm sure the campaign folks are working 100 days left.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: You start to freak out a little.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: You start to go, oh, snap, I really need to kick it into high gear.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: So good luck, everybody working the campaigns.
43:18
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
43:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, get to work, go make some phone calls, knock doors, raise money.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: Nothing else to do in the summer.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: And stop answering your Facebook comments.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not winning you any voters.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: See
43:31
SPEAKER_02: you, buddy.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: See ya.