Latest / Brian Thomas / Brigham McCown -- 11/25/25

Transcript

Brigham McCown -- 11/25/25 · Brian Thomas

0:04
Speaker 1: Two at fifty five ker CD talk station. I look
0:08
Speaker 1: up and see Brigha mccowon in studio from the Hudson's
0:10
Speaker 1: to Hudson dot Org. Also happens to be a professor
0:13
Speaker 1: at Miami University, and he is quite the expert on
0:17
Speaker 1: energy policy. His podcast Charged Conversations as well worthy listen
0:23
Speaker 1: for you. So just go where you get your podcasts
0:24
Speaker 1: and check out brighamccowns Charge Conversations, produced by Joe Strecker.
0:29
Speaker 1: Brigham mccow, It's great to have you in studio. Oh
0:32
Speaker 1: you got that one? Okay?
0:33
Speaker 2: Now, Hello, good to see you.
0:35
Speaker 1: We got like twelve microphones in here. He's just trying
0:37
Speaker 1: to figure out which one. I gess I should have
0:39
Speaker 1: cleared that up with him before we started.
0:40
Speaker 2: It looks like NASA in here, Brian.
0:43
Speaker 1: It does. Yeah. I like the old studios much better.
0:46
Speaker 1: Brigham forecast for Global Energy demand. What I keep seeing
0:51
Speaker 1: is that the world is short on energy and that
0:53
Speaker 1: a windmill and a solar panel ain't gonna cut it.
0:56
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just boiling it down to his basic turns. Brigham.
0:58
Speaker 1: Not that I'm gonna get an argument from you, but
1:00
Speaker 1: you know, I've been advocating for small modular reactors forever.
1:02
Speaker 1: And it seems now that artificial intelligence companies and the
1:04
Speaker 1: billionaires that run them need that much kind of energy generation.
1:08
Speaker 1: Looks like we're finally going to get something that will
1:09
Speaker 1: deliver on you know, consistent, affordable, reliable and safe energy.
1:15
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you know, And that's something I talk about right
1:18
Speaker 2: out of the gate everywhere I go, I go. You realize,
1:20
Speaker 2: the world has never used less energy ever, ever, ever,
1:24
Speaker 2: And we've never had an energy transition, and we've had
1:27
Speaker 2: several of them over the years, from well, well yeah,
1:32
Speaker 2: you know, and so forth to nuclear, but we've never
1:34
Speaker 2: transitioned to a fuel source that provides less energy, i e.
1:38
Speaker 2: Less dense. We've always transitioned into a new fuel that
1:42
Speaker 2: gives us more power, not less.
1:44
Speaker 1: Until now global warming showed up, until global warming or whatever.
1:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know, the mot of mine is the agency,
1:51
Speaker 2: international agency that the US set up in the seventies
1:54
Speaker 2: to scope out energy needs has come out with a
1:57
Speaker 2: revised forecast and it shows zero signs of peak oil,
2:02
Speaker 2: meaning when we start using less oil than we used,
2:05
Speaker 2: or peak hydrocarbons. For this very reason, it's gone that
2:10
Speaker 2: was on the forecast.
2:11
Speaker 1: I remember back in the seventies at it being at
2:13
Speaker 1: a science museum and they showed that when the oil
2:16
Speaker 1: was going to run out, countdown calendar.
2:18
Speaker 2: Yes, And you know, just like with the stock market,
2:22
Speaker 2: a lot of the economists, a lot of stuff we
2:24
Speaker 2: look at are rear facing information, and sometimes it's not
2:28
Speaker 2: one hundred percent accurate. But as of right now, Brian,
2:31
Speaker 2: we have no signs of using less energy in our
2:35
Speaker 2: world because four billion people who live in energy poverty
2:38
Speaker 2: want what you and I have when we get up
2:40
Speaker 2: in the morning and flick on the light switch.
2:42
Speaker 1: Amen to that. Society does not evolved without energy. I'll
2:47
Speaker 1: bring them before we take a break here. I think
2:49
Speaker 1: I've observed, I've said it on the program so many times.
2:51
Speaker 1: This isn't this global climate change stuff is not about
2:57
Speaker 1: climate change. I think it's about restricting our consumption. Abundant
3:03
Speaker 1: energy equals productivity and consumption, and that really is to
3:08
Speaker 1: me the target. They don't want us to have houses,
3:10
Speaker 1: they don't want us to consume we're all going to
3:13
Speaker 1: kill the planet. So how do we get at that. Well,
3:15
Speaker 1: we restrict the people's ability to well move about and
3:18
Speaker 1: engage in productivity because of energy.
3:20
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of truth to that, and
3:22
Speaker 2: it's a mindset. It's a different mindset, right. You know,
3:26
Speaker 2: you you shouldn't be wealthy, you should be poor, you
3:30
Speaker 2: should live in the collective. We all need to do
3:33
Speaker 2: our part for the common good. And you know that's
3:36
Speaker 2: one viewpoint, but that's not how America was built. That's
3:39
Speaker 2: not how we got to where we were. We're a
3:41
Speaker 2: nation of doers, builders and making it happen.
3:43
Speaker 1: And that makes us evil in the hearts and minds
3:45
Speaker 1: of the leftist, communist, Marxist et cetera of the world.
3:48
Speaker 1: Seven thirty six more with bring McCown from the Hudson Institute.
3:51
Speaker 1: After these brief words, be right back.
3:53
Speaker 2: This is fifty five KRC an iHeartRadio station.
3:58
Speaker 1: See Charge Conversations. That's the name of the podcast for
4:02
Speaker 1: my guest here in studio, Brigham Account. We've had it
4:05
Speaker 1: many times. Always enjoy hearing from Brigham ont Energy policy isues.
4:08
Speaker 1: Of course, he's member of the Hudson Institute. You can find
4:10
Speaker 1: him online at Hudson dot org. Really great website there,
4:13
Speaker 1: Brigha account. Cop thirty We had like five gajillion people
4:17
Speaker 1: from all every nation of the planet flying into the
4:21
Speaker 1: rainforests of Brazil and cutting down six hundred thousand acres
4:24
Speaker 1: of rainforest so they can have their Global Climate Change
4:27
Speaker 1: convention with their private jets. Blah. So what do they accomplished?
4:32
Speaker 1: You know what? Fly read pretty much nothing? I understand
4:34
Speaker 1: CO two was almost of their boat and topic.
4:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they really didn't get anywhere with the United
4:39
Speaker 2: States absent. We didn't send any official delegations, although a
4:43
Speaker 2: few folks went and much to my head scratching, like
4:46
Speaker 2: the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce went, oh, maybe
4:51
Speaker 2: maybe the hell of a party, brigadew you know, I
4:53
Speaker 2: mean it's not been It's like getting invited to one
4:56
Speaker 2: of those elite events. I mean you just go for
4:58
Speaker 2: the sake of eating great food, hob nobbing with the
5:01
Speaker 2: bleeding hearts or something, you know it. I read a
5:04
Speaker 2: statistic that said it is the largest single emitter of
5:10
Speaker 2: CO two for any event in the world that goes
5:13
Speaker 2: on democracy, over four thousand journalists there. And you know,
5:17
Speaker 2: I read an article from somebody I know at a
5:19
Speaker 2: think tank and Poland this morning that said, oh, with
5:22
Speaker 2: the US gone, China stepped up and their display and
5:25
Speaker 2: their booth shows that they're taking climate leadership. And I'm thinking,
5:31
Speaker 2: is that what it takes just a fancy booth.
5:33
Speaker 1: That's marketing missions. They own the world when it comes
5:38
Speaker 1: to windmills and solar panels, and they want to sell
5:41
Speaker 1: that stuff to every ignorant company or country out there
5:43
Speaker 1: that's willing to cut its throat the name of eliminating
5:46
Speaker 1: CO two.
5:47
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, and we were talking offline. I had
5:49
Speaker 2: a conversation with a deputy minister, like a deputy cabinet
5:53
Speaker 2: secretary from a very big nation last week who is
5:56
Speaker 2: reemphasizing their commitment to the accelerated deployment of renewables. And
6:02
Speaker 2: I said, you know, China doesn't give a you know
6:05
Speaker 2: what about any of this, none of it. And I
6:08
Speaker 2: got a blank stare back. But I said, I'd give
6:09
Speaker 2: them an a plus for energy security because they are
6:13
Speaker 2: doing exactly that what the definition of energy security is,
6:18
Speaker 2: which makes you prosperous, you know, having unlimited energy at
6:24
Speaker 2: an affordable price that is reliable and when and where
6:27
Speaker 2: you need it.
6:28
Speaker 1: It's all of the above strategy. Yeah, they do it all.
6:31
Speaker 1: Build a couple of coal plants every few weeks, and
6:33
Speaker 1: they build nukes, and they have they use hydropower, I
6:36
Speaker 1: will acknowledge. I'm sure they even use some of their
6:38
Speaker 1: own solar panels and windmills, but they do. They don't
6:41
Speaker 1: shy away from anything that produces carbon dioxide. No, they
6:44
Speaker 1: don't at all. In fact, you know, the emissions of
6:47
Speaker 1: China and India have increased two and a half times
6:52
Speaker 1: what Western Europe and the US have reduced. Germany, well
6:57
Speaker 1: it's not you can't build anything in Germany.
7:02
Speaker 2: And you know, on the car front, the Germans also
7:05
Speaker 2: don't understand that byd a German Man or a Chinese
7:09
Speaker 2: manufacturer which makes evs pretty cheaply.
7:12
Speaker 1: They do.
7:13
Speaker 2: They have a factory that is almost larger than San Francisco.
7:17
Speaker 2: But don't worry out EVW, BMW Mercedes. They got this now.
7:22
Speaker 1: They don't bigger than the city of San Francisco.
7:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, wow, the main part, you know, the main
7:28
Speaker 2: part right there. Yeah. So, no, these guys are scaling
7:31
Speaker 2: up in China. They see this as a lever for
7:35
Speaker 2: economic productivity and frankly canceling the rest of the world's
7:40
Speaker 2: industrial capacity, which is what they do. They go into
7:43
Speaker 2: a new market, they dump steel, they drive locals out
7:45
Speaker 2: of business. Then they raise the rates this is not
7:48
Speaker 2: new for anybody.
7:50
Speaker 1: Why don't we get ahead of that? I mean, this
7:52
Speaker 1: religious component that is climate change is so fully brainwashed
7:57
Speaker 1: people that like the blank stare you got from the
8:00
Speaker 1: the leader from that very large country talking about pursuing
8:04
Speaker 1: the CO two emissions and limiting it to zero. And
8:06
Speaker 1: when you point something like that out, you just get
8:08
Speaker 1: looked at. They don't want to engage in that discussion.
8:11
Speaker 1: I mean, this whole Cop thirty, you got people from
8:13
Speaker 1: all over the planet. Nobody's raising their hands saying, wait
8:15
Speaker 1: a second, what about China and India. Australia reduced its
8:19
Speaker 1: carbon emissions down to virtually nothing, but what they negated
8:23
Speaker 1: from the atmosphere China emits. I think I read ten days, yes,
8:27
Speaker 1: ten days for the entire annual effort of an entire
8:31
Speaker 1: continent Australia.
8:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Well, I think it's a mixed bag. I
8:35
Speaker 2: think there are some people who know the truth, but
8:39
Speaker 2: they don't want to speak up for getting labeled a denier.
8:44
Speaker 2: There are other people that, you know, really do believe this,
8:48
Speaker 2: And look, I get it. We all want to be
8:50
Speaker 2: good stewards the environment.
8:52
Speaker 1: But carbon dioxide's plant food brig them. Yeah, yeah, it's
8:55
Speaker 1: a fraction of the environment. It's not mercury, it's not lead,
8:58
Speaker 1: it's not something that is car andogenic. It exists naturally
9:02
Speaker 1: in the environment. It's plant food.
9:05
Speaker 2: If we want to be serious about fighting pollution, there
9:08
Speaker 2: are other types of pollution that cause asthma, respiratory disease.
9:13
Speaker 2: And you know, here's the other thing, though, is we
9:15
Speaker 2: have some of the cleanest actually the cleanest water on record,
9:20
Speaker 2: the cleanest air on record since the EPA was founded
9:24
Speaker 2: in the early seventies by the Nixon administration. People forget
9:28
Speaker 2: that point. Republicans did that just like the Department of
9:33
Speaker 2: the Interior is cleaned up. I mean, we're doing better
9:38
Speaker 2: than we've done without question.
9:40
Speaker 1: I mean in my lifetime. And you know, say what
9:41
Speaker 1: you want about Circle and the cleanups and all that
9:44
Speaker 1: that resulted in a cleaner environment. And Brigham, how do
9:47
Speaker 1: you get to a cleaner environment? Does it not take wealth?
9:52
Speaker 1: Lots of wealth. You don't have clean until you get
9:55
Speaker 1: to the point where you're comfortable and you have a
9:57
Speaker 1: growing economy that can afford to deal with the pollution
10:00
Speaker 1: that is a result of that growing economy.
10:02
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And if you only look at we import you know,
10:07
Speaker 2: solar panels and windmills from China. But yet we don't
10:11
Speaker 2: consider the pollution that is made by producing those. We've
10:15
Speaker 2: off shored all of our climate concerns to somebody else, and.
10:19
Speaker 1: The European Union buying Russian gas and oil. Okay, as
10:23
Speaker 1: long as we're not producing it, we can burn it.
10:25
Speaker 1: We we just we have clean hands because we're not
10:28
Speaker 1: the source of it. That's just it's crazy questioning the
10:33
Speaker 1: dogma that goes along with this. Come on, I'll be
10:35
Speaker 1: the first person to question this morning. They'll come back
10:38
Speaker 1: with any plausible explanation for why they cling to the
10:41
Speaker 1: dogma and the doctor and seven forty six more with
10:43
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11:42
Speaker 1: Fifty five KRC Hi, it's Brian Thomas with Chris tool
11:49
Speaker 1: seven fifty here. I fifty got KRC talk station. We'll
11:51
Speaker 1: expense the trafficks weather in order to get the thoughts
11:53
Speaker 1: and comments at Briglan Cown Hudson Institute Energy Policy Expert
11:57
Speaker 1: Charged Conversations as the podcast you need to check out
12:00
Speaker 1: and h bring them. You said you have another comment
12:02
Speaker 1: about COP thirty before we move on. Obviously thirty meaning
12:05
Speaker 1: they've been at this for thirty years.
12:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I guess that's the point. The Conference
12:10
Speaker 2: of the Parties as it's now not necessarily governments, but delegations,
12:14
Speaker 2: parties in a fairly loose term cop the religious loyal Yeah,
12:19
Speaker 2: we we've been doing this three decades, thirty plus years,
12:23
Speaker 2: and we're no closer to resolution, frankly, because you know,
12:31
Speaker 2: each one of these tries to pay over different paper,
12:34
Speaker 2: over differences between countries, and in some cases you have
12:38
Speaker 2: countries wanting to fleece those who do have money. Oh
12:42
Speaker 2: they're on record, Yeah you got you gotta pay me,
12:45
Speaker 2: you gotta pay me.
12:46
Speaker 1: They want to triple the amount for climate transition issues
12:50
Speaker 1: in their respective third world countries. That means building stuff
12:54
Speaker 1: and things that they can't afford because they're miserable economies.
12:56
Speaker 1: They want us to show to the burden of it.
12:57
Speaker 1: Nothing has anything to do with global warming or climate
13:00
Speaker 1: change or sea level rises, which apparently aren't really happening.
13:03
Speaker 1: It's just they've used this vehicle as a mechanism to
13:06
Speaker 1: guilt us into paying for stuff. There absolutely well free
13:10
Speaker 1: distribution mechanism.
13:12
Speaker 2: It is a wealth redistribution for sure, and you know
13:16
Speaker 2: it'll do nothing to reduce hydrocarbon demand. Yet you know,
13:20
Speaker 2: everyone lines up every year for the big party. As
13:23
Speaker 2: you've pointed, out and with the developing country saying, hey,
13:29
Speaker 2: we'd like more emphasis this year on getting off coal. Sorry,
13:33
Speaker 2: and news flash, twenty twenty five, we will have used
13:36
Speaker 2: more coal this year than any other year in record,
13:41
Speaker 2: even though we're not using as much of it other
13:44
Speaker 2: people are.
13:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, at least the folks in eastern Kentucky can
13:46
Speaker 1: have a livelihood by selling it to other countries who
13:49
Speaker 1: aren't stupid. Yeah.
13:51
Speaker 2: And by the way, we have a really neat new
13:55
Speaker 2: technology that removes most of the pollutants coal. Ohio State
14:00
Speaker 2: it's developing something that emits zero emissions from coal.
14:03
Speaker 1: No kidding. Yeah, it comes at a large expense though
14:06
Speaker 1: for the core death operators. That's the downside risk it does. Indeed,
14:09
Speaker 1: so I'd rather have the small modular reactor if you
14:12
Speaker 1: deal with the regulatory reform and we get these streamline.
14:15
Speaker 1: These things are one size fits all, like putting legos together.
14:17
Speaker 1: Once you get a design that works, you can PLoP
14:20
Speaker 1: it down and they're small footprint. Yeah they are.
14:22
Speaker 2: And you know we've talked about this before that no
14:24
Speaker 2: two reactors across the United States are identical, which obviously
14:27
Speaker 2: makes no sense. Right, you come up with a copy
14:29
Speaker 2: that works and then you replicate it and the SMRs
14:32
Speaker 2: can be plugged in together. So if you need, you know,
14:36
Speaker 2: twenty gigawats, forty gigawatts, one hundred gigawatts, you just plug
14:40
Speaker 2: them all in. And so this takes care of the
14:41
Speaker 2: permitting everything else. And by the way, the US government
14:45
Speaker 2: just issued a loan guarantee of one billion dollars to
14:49
Speaker 2: restart three Mile Island.
14:51
Speaker 1: Now does that make sense to you?
14:53
Speaker 2: You know, it's the fastest thing that's available because it's there,
14:58
Speaker 2: and the reactors themselves they are going to have to
15:00
Speaker 2: be recreated. But no, I would rather build a brand
15:03
Speaker 2: new advanced generation reactor which requires far lower enriched uranium.
15:09
Speaker 2: The byproducts that are recyclable, so we get rid of
15:12
Speaker 2: the storage issue for contaminated stuff. But you know it's
15:16
Speaker 2: going to take five to eight years to get online,
15:20
Speaker 2: So it's.
15:21
Speaker 1: Reband opening three miles going to take five eight years.
15:24
Speaker 2: Oh no, sorry, building something new, building something new, right.
15:27
Speaker 1: I thought Westinghouse already had these things ready to go,
15:30
Speaker 1: just like off the shelf.
15:31
Speaker 2: Well they do, but frankly, we need permitting reform.
15:35
Speaker 1: That's see, that's the problem. It's not the availability of
15:38
Speaker 1: the technology of the ability to build it. It's the
15:40
Speaker 1: permitting reform, it's the environmental lawsuits, it gets sloped down
15:44
Speaker 1: in front of it. It's just a multitude of self
15:48
Speaker 1: created impediments and roadblocks to the efficient building these reactors.
15:56
Speaker 1: It absolutely is.
15:57
Speaker 2: And you know, you have both sides of the aisle
16:00
Speaker 2: in DC say we need permitting reform. But the truth
16:03
Speaker 2: is the left doesn't want what the right wants to build,
16:06
Speaker 2: and the right doesn't want what the left wants to build,
16:09
Speaker 2: and so we don't build anything, which is just completely backwards, right.
16:14
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, well, China keeps moving forward.
16:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't have a permitting reform probably either does
16:19
Speaker 2: Russia or India.
16:20
Speaker 1: No, they don't, They just do it. Yeah, it's maybe
16:22
Speaker 1: a reflection of the failed system of government we have here, Brigham.
16:25
Speaker 1: I hate to cast dispersions on Congress and the fact
16:28
Speaker 1: that we have separation of powers and Congress should be
16:30
Speaker 1: sitting down for the benefit of all American people and
16:33
Speaker 1: get a better, more efficient energy production and distribution web
16:37
Speaker 1: here in the United States. But no, not, they'd rather
16:39
Speaker 1: fight amongst themselves.
16:40
Speaker 2: Well, and if I may real quickly, I did a
16:42
Speaker 2: Charge Conversations episode. A couple of weeks ago during the
16:45
Speaker 2: government shutdown that said who's to blame? And it went
16:48
Speaker 2: into the detail of what Congress's job is and why
16:52
Speaker 2: they're not doing it and what needs to be done.
16:54
Speaker 1: Well, there's another reason to find Brigha McGown Charged Conversations
16:58
Speaker 1: where you get your podcasts, And again props to just
17:01
Speaker 1: Tracker for producing that one Brigham account. I wish we
17:03
Speaker 1: had hours to talk about. Sadly we're out of time
17:06
Speaker 1: in this segment, but I sure appreciate your willingness to
17:07
Speaker 1: come in and talk about these important issues, a little
17:10
Speaker 1: truth in the face of the religion that we're up against.
17:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Brian, and happy Thanksgiving right.
17:15
Speaker 1: Back at you, man. I hope you really enjoy understand
17:17
Speaker 1: you got family in the house and I'm gonna be
17:19
Speaker 1: spending some time with you on Thanksgiving. That's great, That's
17:21
Speaker 1: what the time of year is all about. Absolutely, take
17:23
Speaker 1: care of my brother. We'll see you real soon and
17:26
Speaker 1: don't call away. Folks. After the top of their news,
17:28
Speaker 1: it's time for the inside scoop and bright Bart News
17:30
Speaker 1: tech editor Colin Maydine, and there's a great new feature
17:35
Speaker 1: on X We're gonna talk about that as well as
17:37
Speaker 1: meta not wanting to find out the truth about the
17:40
Speaker 1: dangers of social media, cutting off its own research that's
17:44
Speaker 1: coming up next, so you can stick around