Latest / Brian Thomas / 55KRC Thursday Morning Show with Brian Thomas - 4/9/2026

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55KRC Thursday Morning Show with Brian Thomas - 4/9/2026 · Brian Thomas

0:01
Speaker 1: Eight o five, a fifty five KOCD talk station and
0:03
Speaker 1: try to have a decent Thursday, Friday, Eve Tomorrow Check
0:06
Speaker 1: Friday with Dave had In the meantime, we're talking energy
0:08
Speaker 1: policy in studio briinghm Account from Hudson Ins too, and
0:11
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring this back to a local issue that
0:13
Speaker 1: I struggled with Brigham Account. Told you about it over
0:15
Speaker 1: the break. I gave you the actual figures, but let
0:17
Speaker 1: it suffice to say that up until January of this year,
0:21
Speaker 1: I had never paid more than let's say X amount
0:23
Speaker 1: for my energy bill. The highest bill I had was X. Well,
0:30
Speaker 1: in January, my bill was X plus one hundred plus dollars,
0:35
Speaker 1: and then I got a comparable bill in February. My
0:39
Speaker 1: energy use did not change. And the vast majority of
0:43
Speaker 1: my bill is electric because I have a geothermal system.
0:45
Speaker 1: The only thing gas in my house, and they usually
0:47
Speaker 1: have a static two digit figure for gas every month
0:51
Speaker 1: and it doesn't fluctuate by more than ten bucks, so
0:53
Speaker 1: I could take that out. So everything in my bill
0:56
Speaker 1: that had increased was electricity related, and yet I didn't
1:00
Speaker 1: use more. How in the hell did it go up
1:02
Speaker 1: from the highest bill plus one hundred dollars in one month.
1:05
Speaker 1: And this doesn't have anything to do with iron, No.
1:08
Speaker 2: It doesn't.
1:09
Speaker 3: There you go, folks, Yeah, well, and your price reflects,
1:12
Speaker 3: you know, not only the fuel costs, but outages, transmission, congestion, weather,
1:16
Speaker 3: regional scarcity and so forth and so on transmission. Here's
1:21
Speaker 3: the real piece is that part of what you're paying
1:24
Speaker 3: for is future electric generation, but part of what you're
1:27
Speaker 3: paying for a big part of it is that we
1:30
Speaker 3: don't have enough energy.
1:32
Speaker 1: Okay, here's, folks, the giant red flag that you need
1:34
Speaker 1: to be listening to, because tonight there's an empower you
1:36
Speaker 1: summonar about the dangers of artificial intelligence and the growth
1:39
Speaker 1: of data centers. One of the problems of that is
1:41
Speaker 1: the massive amount of energy they consume. So with that
1:44
Speaker 1: sort of fun fact in the back of my mind
1:46
Speaker 1: and your mind's demand demand growth and ability to meet
1:51
Speaker 1: the demand, Yeah, supply is not keeping up with demand.
1:56
Speaker 1: So when we get tight, we have to go on
1:59
Speaker 1: to the spot market to try to source additional electricity
2:02
Speaker 1: because we're not making en off what we call baseload energy.
2:06
Speaker 1: And that is not we the consumer, that's the person
2:08
Speaker 1: or the entity from whom we get our electricity. Yes,
2:12
Speaker 1: so that's PJM PGM. They have a finite amount of
2:15
Speaker 1: generatortion ability, right they do. And if they get too
2:19
Speaker 1: much demand, they got to go out into the market
2:20
Speaker 1: and buy excess electricity from someone else. They do, and
2:24
Speaker 1: they pass that along to us. But we don't know
2:26
Speaker 1: that's going on until we get our energy bill, which
2:28
Speaker 1: is one hundred plus dollars more than it was the
2:29
Speaker 1: prior month out of nowhere.
2:31
Speaker 3: Correct, So that last five percent might cost fifty percent
2:33
Speaker 3: more because we didn't allocate up. So pg think of
2:36
Speaker 3: PGM as the air traffic controller for electricity throughout the
2:42
Speaker 3: It's the largest actually throughout the Midwest and the North,
2:45
Speaker 3: including lovely places like Delaware and Illinois and West Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania.
2:52
Speaker 3: We're all in this together, and it's actually one of
2:55
Speaker 3: the worst run regional electricity sound and worse than that,
3:03
Speaker 3: this is where all these data centers are going, right,
3:05
Speaker 3: this is where everything is going in and so that
3:09
Speaker 3: is a huge problem. And then add on to that,
3:12
Speaker 3: we don't have proper interconnections with other grid operators where
3:17
Speaker 3: the next guy over could go, hey, I got some
3:19
Speaker 3: extra would you make some you can't get.
3:21
Speaker 1: It some sane state where they have maybe nuclear power
3:24
Speaker 1: generation or sufficient access to because they can produce it
3:28
Speaker 1: on demand at will.
3:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:31
Speaker 3: So we failed to upgrade our energy grid throughout the
3:33
Speaker 3: last twenty thirties. And here's the scary thing, Brian with
3:36
Speaker 3: unless we get permitting reform, which I don't think we're
3:38
Speaker 3: going to get. The grid we have today is the
3:40
Speaker 3: grid we're going to have in twenty thirty six, because
3:43
Speaker 3: it takes ten years to get anything permitted.
3:45
Speaker 1: And you're only seeing demand and consumption of electricity and
3:49
Speaker 1: energy go up. We have two hundred plus data centers
3:52
Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio right now. It's only going
3:54
Speaker 1: to be more down the road.
3:55
Speaker 2: It's only going to be more.
3:56
Speaker 1: There's going to be more population down the road.
3:58
Speaker 3: And I remember we've had everybody getting pushed to a
4:00
Speaker 3: electrify drive vvs that made sense gas water, heatter get
4:03
Speaker 3: an electric one.
4:04
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
4:04
Speaker 1: No, don't do that. So permitting reform is a solution.
4:08
Speaker 1: And then your and my I will suggest you can
4:11
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong that this isn't your favorite idea.
4:14
Speaker 1: We can't walk away from the concept of artificial intelligence.
4:18
Speaker 1: It's here someone's going to be doing it, whether it's
4:21
Speaker 1: in my backyard or your backyard or over in some
4:23
Speaker 1: other state. We're in competition globally with the Chinese Communist
4:26
Speaker 1: Party and other countries for AI dominance because apparently it's
4:30
Speaker 1: the wave of the future and it's going to be
4:32
Speaker 1: all important for our national defense and interest. So it's coming. Meaning,
4:36
Speaker 1: if you're building an AI data center, bring your own power,
4:41
Speaker 1: which suggests small modular reactors.
4:45
Speaker 3: Absolutely does, unless you're happen to be next to a
4:47
Speaker 3: giant pipeline full of natural gas or a waterfall or
4:50
Speaker 3: a waterfall. Fair, Yeah, bring your own SMR. And that's
4:55
Speaker 3: what's going to happen, because again, you can't build these
4:58
Speaker 3: data centers in the next ten years and expect there
5:00
Speaker 3: to be more power because it's just not available.
5:03
Speaker 1: Okay, So we go back to permitting reform as a
5:05
Speaker 1: major stumbling block to actually achieving that just wonderful concept.
5:10
Speaker 3: Well, and here's the problem. You go to DC and
5:12
Speaker 3: you talk to the Democrats. Yep, we need permitting reform.
5:15
Speaker 3: Talk to the Republicans, Yes, we need permitting reform. This
5:17
Speaker 3: is ridiculous. We're a nation to builders. We can't build
5:19
Speaker 3: anything great right, so let's do it. No, well why not?
5:22
Speaker 3: Well I want my stuff build. I don't want that
5:24
Speaker 3: guy stuff built. It's the same law, people, If you
5:27
Speaker 3: pass permitting reform, it's for everybody.
5:30
Speaker 2: And nobody wants to do that right now.
5:32
Speaker 1: That's just that's insane. And then the other component of
5:34
Speaker 1: permitting reform you mentioned the grid. The same grid we're
5:37
Speaker 1: we have now is the one that we're going to
5:38
Speaker 1: have twenty plus years from now. If they started trying to,
5:41
Speaker 1: you know, improve the grid, get some interconnectivity, improve connections
5:45
Speaker 1: line even within any given state that there's this massive
5:49
Speaker 1: hurdles in front of.
5:50
Speaker 3: It, there are huge hurdles. Yeah, so at least ten
5:53
Speaker 3: years now. Have things been permitted in less time? Yes,
5:58
Speaker 3: if you get really lucky and don't federal land, you
6:01
Speaker 3: don't have endangered species, you don't have wetlands, you don't
6:03
Speaker 3: cross navigable waterways, and so forth and so on. But yeah,
6:07
Speaker 3: we have to have permitting reform in this country. The
6:10
Speaker 3: parties are going to have to work together and figure
6:12
Speaker 3: this out. And right now, I just came from DC
6:16
Speaker 3: late last week. It's not pretty up there right now.
6:19
Speaker 1: Well, and those who are not thrilled with the United
6:22
Speaker 1: States as a concept, as a country, as a sort
6:25
Speaker 1: of capitalistic, successful entity. They're working collectively, all these different
6:30
Speaker 1: groups out there, I think, for the purposes of undermining
6:33
Speaker 1: US by fighting tooth and nail every single effort to
6:38
Speaker 1: either build more infrastructure, to build a different plan, to
6:41
Speaker 1: build a refinery, to build an LNG export facility. They're
6:44
Speaker 1: there at every turn with lawyers to run into court
6:47
Speaker 1: to stop it from happening, which adds massive costs to it,
6:50
Speaker 1: but it helps them achieve their goal.
6:52
Speaker 2: It does, it does, and it me capping us well.
6:55
Speaker 3: And that's the problem when I say permitting reform with
6:57
Speaker 3: some of the environmental litigation, and when they get stopped,
7:02
Speaker 3: they just find another avenue. Right now, the Supreme Court
7:04
Speaker 3: will be taking up whether states and local governments can
7:08
Speaker 3: can sue energy companies for the effects of climate change.
7:12
Speaker 1: Oh, that's just an utter load of excrement, I agree.
7:18
Speaker 1: I mean to establish a factual predicate that the climate
7:23
Speaker 1: is in fact changing based upon something. I assure you
7:27
Speaker 1: that how could you win with carbon dioxide? You and
7:29
Speaker 1: I've had we we joked about this constantly. It's plant food.
7:32
Speaker 1: It's part of the naturally occurring atmosphere. It's part of
7:34
Speaker 1: what we breathe and plants needed to survive. It's not
7:36
Speaker 1: a pollutant. So that what we there hanging their hand
7:39
Speaker 1: because they produced they ended up producing more carbon. I mean,
7:42
Speaker 1: we can't function as a society without patrolling. There wouldn't
7:45
Speaker 1: be plastics. Just go on and on and on. The
7:48
Speaker 1: absurdity of trying to hold them accountable for climate change
7:51
Speaker 1: is ridiculous.
7:52
Speaker 3: Well, you know what I find interesting about it is
7:54
Speaker 3: these cities and states they're suing. I'm like, well, what
7:58
Speaker 3: powers your police cars? And right, what are you guys
8:01
Speaker 3: buying on it today?
8:02
Speaker 2: What are you going to buy today? Right?
8:04
Speaker 1: How much energy does your your environmental law firm consume
8:08
Speaker 1: every year? Fighting the good fight? Well, you're the one
8:11
Speaker 1: that's causing the problem as well because you're exhaling. Well,
8:14
Speaker 1: stop living and breathing. Help the globe die. I know
8:17
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, but still.
8:19
Speaker 2: No, you're absolutely right, that's what they're saying to the.
8:21
Speaker 1: Oil industry, right, yes, help the globe stop your industry
8:24
Speaker 1: from happening. And can just try to imagine the world
8:28
Speaker 1: if you immediately shut off patrolling right now, what would happen?
8:32
Speaker 1: Europe's figuring it out on their own, aren't they.
8:34
Speaker 2: They are.
8:34
Speaker 3: They're doing a great job too, aren't they.
8:37
Speaker 1: As long as some other country produces the oil that
8:40
Speaker 1: we are buying from them, we virtue signal because we
8:43
Speaker 1: didn't pull it out of the ground they did. We
8:46
Speaker 1: just need it, so we bought it. And by the way,
8:48
Speaker 1: it funds the war that we're against, because they're the
8:50
Speaker 1: ones that are waging war against the country we want
8:52
Speaker 1: to defend Ukraine. So just don't pay attention to that
8:55
Speaker 1: economic reality. Either. We're being green.
8:58
Speaker 2: There is a lot of green. It's called money.
9:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, lots and lots. Brigh McCown Hudson dot org is
9:03
Speaker 1: where you find Brigham throughout the year and week, and
9:06
Speaker 1: maybe bookmark the site and see what the Hudson Institute's
9:08
Speaker 1: all about. Briga mckonan, always appreciate your comments on energy policy.
9:11
Speaker 1: I know you're heading out and wish you safe travels
9:14
Speaker 1: and we'll get back together again real soon.
9:15
Speaker 2: I hope that sounds great, Brian, Thank you so much
9:17
Speaker 2: for having me on.
9:17
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure, man, it really is. I see
9:19
Speaker 1: Jay's on the phone, if you don't mind holding there
9:21
Speaker 1: for a moment. Jay taking in the next break, and
9:24
Speaker 1: others may feel free to call in as well. Five
9:25
Speaker 1: one three, seven, four, nine fifty five hundred, eight hundred
9:28
Speaker 1: eight two three Talk Pound five fifty on AT and
9:30
Speaker 1: T phones. Got one more segment before we get to
9:32
Speaker 1: Iheartmediaabah expert Jay rat left six twenty here or eight
9:37
Speaker 1: twenty fifty five car City Talk station. I'm glad I
9:40
Speaker 1: was wrong. I've lost two hours. Five one three, seven,
9:44
Speaker 1: four nine fifty five hundred, eight hundred and eight to
9:47
Speaker 1: two three Talk pun Fi fifty on AT.
9:48
Speaker 2: And T phones.
9:49
Speaker 1: Let us go to the Phone's got Jay on the line.
9:51
Speaker 1: Jay's been on hold. Thanks for holding, Jay, Welcome to
9:53
Speaker 1: the show.
9:54
Speaker 4: Hey, Brian, good, good to talk with you again. You
9:56
Speaker 4: mentioned my name earlier. Seg What was the with the
10:01
Speaker 4: Representative Davidson. Hey, I'm doing some data work right now
10:06
Speaker 4: with state government, and it's really interesting to watch how
10:12
Speaker 4: the Big Beautiful Bill has affected welfare benefits and how
10:17
Speaker 4: they're dispersed and things like that. There's a big division
10:22
Speaker 4: between the Red states and the Blue states. The Blue
10:25
Speaker 4: states don't want to stop giving out money, and they
10:28
Speaker 4: don't want to catch the fraud in the waste that
10:31
Speaker 4: want to make sure everybody can possibly get the money
10:34
Speaker 4: gets it economy interest.
10:36
Speaker 1: They built an economy on that because the money that
10:39
Speaker 1: goes in, even if it goes into those that aren't working,
10:41
Speaker 1: the poorest of the poor, those people spend money and
10:44
Speaker 1: they live in the neighborhood. So it's sort of its
10:46
Speaker 1: own microeconomy surviving on taxpayer transfers of dollars.
10:52
Speaker 4: And I've had these these just mind numbing conversations with
10:56
Speaker 4: some of the people in charge around let's le stop
11:01
Speaker 4: the third party fraud where somebody is sitting in Nigeria
11:06
Speaker 4: pretending to be Brian Thomas and applying for benefits and
11:10
Speaker 4: getting them and having those direct deposited into an account
11:14
Speaker 4: and then and then spending them in Nigeria. They're not
11:17
Speaker 4: even interested in that. It's just people that don't see
11:22
Speaker 4: what's going on behind the scenes. What would be absolutely
11:26
Speaker 4: in the streets with pitchforks and torches if they knew
11:30
Speaker 4: what was going on.
11:31
Speaker 1: It's perhaps Jay, it's they don't want to change because
11:34
Speaker 1: the day that you're referring to that wouldn't seek to
11:36
Speaker 1: bring about that very realistic and and and appropriate change
11:40
Speaker 1: are well. Global wealth redistributionists y'all know, we're the cat
11:44
Speaker 1: with richest country on the planet, Jay, and it's unfair
11:47
Speaker 1: that we're so rich. So if somebody in Nigeria is
11:49
Speaker 1: getting the benefit of fraudulently stealing the tax dollars in
11:51
Speaker 1: the American people, then that's just a form of wealth
11:54
Speaker 1: redistribution on a global scale.
11:56
Speaker 4: Yeah. There's another scheme that goes on too that that
11:59
Speaker 4: hasn't and really talk too much about, and that is
12:03
Speaker 4: the money comes through the Feds, it goes to the states,
12:07
Speaker 4: that goes to the NGOs. The NGOs give the money
12:10
Speaker 4: to companies that have never been in business before they
12:12
Speaker 4: pop up just to manage this money for the for
12:16
Speaker 4: the NGOs, like the leering in Minnesota, and a portion
12:23
Speaker 4: that money goes to very high salaries for the NGOs.
12:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. Just because they're nonprofit doesn't mean the
12:30
Speaker 1: boards of directors are the people who run the operations
12:33
Speaker 1: aren't making fat six figure plus salaries and living like
12:36
Speaker 1: cabs on the money. Yeah.
12:38
Speaker 4: And then and then the leering centers, the owners don't
12:41
Speaker 4: actually deliver a service, so they pocket one hundred percent
12:44
Speaker 4: of what they're getting. And both the NGOs and the
12:48
Speaker 4: leering centers or the Alzheimer's clinics or whatever that is,
12:52
Speaker 4: the end of life clinics, whatever it happens to be.
12:56
Speaker 4: Put a portion of that back into the campaign for
13:00
Speaker 4: the Democrats that it just cycles over and over and
13:04
Speaker 4: over again. Well, and going back and realize that it'd
13:07
Speaker 4: be crazy not to be upset about it.
13:10
Speaker 1: Well, and based on the most recent Fox pull that
13:13
Speaker 1: came out yesterday, Yeah, there is broad bipartisan support to
13:17
Speaker 1: stop the wasteful spending and inefficient spending. Republicans, Democrats, independents
13:22
Speaker 1: all collectively agree across the board that all that's wrong, Jay,
13:25
Speaker 1: And don't forget the other way that that benefits of
13:27
Speaker 1: the community. Remember the local Bentley dealership, they're going to
13:31
Speaker 1: pay taxes because the fraudster when they buy their Bentley
13:34
Speaker 1: has to pay the automobile packs and the transfer tax
13:37
Speaker 1: and all that.
13:38
Speaker 4: So you know, Yeah, And meanwhile, I'm living in Montgomery
13:42
Speaker 4: County paying the sort of taxes I would pay for
13:45
Speaker 4: property in San Diego. It's it's just unbelievable. Our backs
13:50
Speaker 4: are breaking while illegal aliens and politicians are getting wealthy.
13:55
Speaker 1: Well maybe we're all collectively now getting wise to it. Jay, Please,
13:58
Speaker 1: I can only hope for that really to settle in.
14:01
Speaker 1: This whole Minnesota thing is just the tip of the iceberg.
14:03
Speaker 1: But it serves as a great illustration that people who
14:06
Speaker 1: are in charge of our dollars in government capacity know
14:10
Speaker 1: about the fraud, wasting abuse and do not do a
14:13
Speaker 1: damn thing about it nothing.
14:16
Speaker 4: My fear, my big fear, Brian, is that they're going
14:19
Speaker 4: to continue to have congressional hearings with Tim Walls, Keith Ellison,
14:25
Speaker 4: that dirt bag Jacob Frye, and elan Omar, but never
14:31
Speaker 4: actually prosecute them or go after them with the FBI
14:34
Speaker 4: and do a full investigation. So it's all a show
14:37
Speaker 4: pony thing, and it's because the rest of Congress doesn't
14:41
Speaker 4: want to be exposed for their bad deeds. I'd love
14:44
Speaker 4: to hear I respect Warren Davidson. I'd love to hear
14:47
Speaker 4: his take on that.
14:48
Speaker 1: Well, next time we get Congress from Davidson on I'm
14:50
Speaker 1: sure that topic sadly will not have gone away. Jay,
14:53
Speaker 1: thank you for calling today. I hope you have a
14:55
Speaker 1: wonderful day. A thirty one on a Thursday. Already, you
15:00
Speaker 1: call it what you will always this time a week,
15:02
Speaker 1: it's a great time, except for next week. When you're
15:04
Speaker 1: not going to be around. Welcome back, I heeart media
15:06
Speaker 1: aviation extpert Jay Rattliffe, I thoroughly enjoy you coming on
15:09
Speaker 1: the program.
15:09
Speaker 5: My friend, A pleasure, good morning, and obviously my prayers
15:13
Speaker 5: today and yesterday with Joe's family with a passing his father,
15:17
Speaker 5: You and I have had to travel that road and
15:20
Speaker 5: it's it's it's it's it's.
15:22
Speaker 1: Rough, it is, but you know what, your prayers and
15:25
Speaker 1: the prayers of the listeners and a lot of messages
15:27
Speaker 1: to Joe and his family I know does take some
15:29
Speaker 1: of the sting off. And it's a wonderful thing to
15:31
Speaker 1: know that people really do care about you in these
15:32
Speaker 1: times of needs. So yes, my listening audience joined with
15:36
Speaker 1: Jay and myself and everyone else wishing at all the
15:38
Speaker 1: best and thoughts and prayers for Joe Strecker after his
15:41
Speaker 1: loss yesterday, and we talked about energy policy. I know
15:44
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of not really necessarily on your list,
15:47
Speaker 1: but I would this amazing Reality delta alone. They say
15:51
Speaker 1: they paid it and just to average is two dollars
15:53
Speaker 1: and sixty two cents per gallon in March for that quarter. Ah,
15:57
Speaker 1: but the second quarter they expect in all in fuel
16:00
Speaker 1: price of four dollars and thirty gallons, which translates to
16:03
Speaker 1: an increase for one company alone more than two billion dollars.
16:08
Speaker 1: That's a big change right there.
16:09
Speaker 5: Chain And then there's the PS on the ps that
16:13
Speaker 5: from their earnings that they announced this week that the
16:19
Speaker 5: reduced profit if you will, four hundred and twenty three million.
16:23
Speaker 5: But they don't expect that big a hit on their
16:26
Speaker 5: future guidance for the following quarters. And that's what's really
16:30
Speaker 5: going to be significant here is if they can obsort
16:33
Speaker 5: some of that and see the demand increase enough where
16:36
Speaker 5: they're not really going to be, you know, forcing themselves
16:39
Speaker 5: to say, hey, we're going to adjust down our future numbers.
16:43
Speaker 5: They say, we're confident with them right now. Now. Dell's
16:46
Speaker 5: has got a little bit of a plus because they
16:47
Speaker 5: get about a three hundred million dollar break because they
16:51
Speaker 5: own a fuel refinery.
16:54
Speaker 1: Oh that's right.
16:54
Speaker 5: They bought that a number of years ago as a
16:56
Speaker 5: way to kind of well, want it saved a town,
16:59
Speaker 5: and two it gave them an inflow of some aviation
17:03
Speaker 5: related product. But the whole idea is that, you know,
17:07
Speaker 5: that's a lot of money when you're talking about fuel,
17:09
Speaker 5: but you know, keep in mind in the big picture
17:11
Speaker 5: when we look at Delta last year. I think in
17:14
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five, they generated something like eight point two
17:17
Speaker 5: billion dollars, not from transporting passengers, but off of the
17:21
Speaker 5: loyalty program they have with credit cards, so they make
17:25
Speaker 5: a ton of money in other ways. But yeah, obviously
17:29
Speaker 5: fuel is a big, big thing, and it used to
17:31
Speaker 5: be a number of years ago. Airlines would hedge by
17:34
Speaker 5: hedge contracts where they would lock in the price of
17:37
Speaker 5: fuel for X amount of months at a time, and
17:40
Speaker 5: that way, if the fuel prices went up, airlines benefited.
17:43
Speaker 5: If the fuel prices dropped, they're paying that even a bit.
17:46
Speaker 5: It was the person selling the fuel that got the
17:49
Speaker 5: uh the kind of the extra cash. Well, a lot
17:52
Speaker 5: of airlines had hedge contracts rolling into the pandemic when
17:55
Speaker 5: fuel plummeted through the floor, and a lot of airlines
18:00
Speaker 5: lost a ton of money coming out of that, and
18:02
Speaker 5: many of the airlines that our days of hedging or
18:05
Speaker 5: locking in future fuel contracts are over.
18:09
Speaker 1: I understand that, and real quick briefly, one of the
18:11
Speaker 1: final topics you had on the list was airlines are
18:13
Speaker 1: adjusting their schedules because of the rising fuel costs. How
18:15
Speaker 1: does that translate into how does the adjustment translate to
18:19
Speaker 1: help the airlines?
18:21
Speaker 5: A lot of smaller cities that have less, say, minimal demand.
18:25
Speaker 5: The yield or profit for passioners some of these airlines
18:27
Speaker 5: are getting was minimal when fuel was where it needed
18:31
Speaker 5: to be. But now that fuel is at a price,
18:33
Speaker 5: we're seeing some of these airlines say, look, instead of
18:35
Speaker 5: us flying four times a day to this city, we're
18:38
Speaker 5: only going to fly twice. I see, because we're not
18:40
Speaker 5: filling up the airplanes that we have and it's just
18:43
Speaker 5: too expensive to run. So as long as we've got
18:45
Speaker 5: this current operating environment, we're going to trend back our schedule.
18:49
Speaker 5: And we've seen almost every airline do this to one
18:51
Speaker 5: extent or another, and it's impacting the smaller cities that
18:55
Speaker 5: have less demand than it is some of the others.
18:58
Speaker 5: And you hate to see that because I don't want
19:00
Speaker 5: any city in this country to be underserved from commercial aviation.
19:04
Speaker 5: But when it comes to fuel and what is costing airlines,
19:07
Speaker 5: In fact, some of these airlines are going back to
19:09
Speaker 5: propeller airplanes because yeah, the turboprops are more fuel efficient
19:13
Speaker 5: than the jet engines. Now of course, calm Air when
19:16
Speaker 5: they did what they did bringing the Bob Bardier jets
19:18
Speaker 5: to life with the fifty seat regional jets, that's all
19:22
Speaker 5: anybody ever want to apply. Don't put me on the
19:24
Speaker 5: propeller plane, put me on this nice corporate jet looking
19:27
Speaker 5: type of thing. But you know, the propellers were always
19:30
Speaker 5: more fuel efficient. And now airlines are saying, look, we
19:33
Speaker 5: really don't care about public perception. We've got some of
19:36
Speaker 5: these regional jets that are propeller that we can make
19:39
Speaker 5: more money on than we can the jets sure of
19:41
Speaker 5: comparable size. So yeah, we're seeing some airlines that have
19:44
Speaker 5: those in their fleet to kind of be using them
19:46
Speaker 5: more than they have in the past.
19:48
Speaker 1: It's proven technology. We all started out with propellers and
19:51
Speaker 1: they've never gone away, so I wouldn't have a problem
19:54
Speaker 1: with it perception wise anyway. Plus, they can project and
19:57
Speaker 1: show their green street crowds because we're using the most
20:00
Speaker 1: efficient planes out there.
20:03
Speaker 5: They'll get lots of credit for that. I am sure
20:05
Speaker 5: we've ever been.
20:06
Speaker 1: In a cockpit before A forty one Kerciti talks dation.
20:09
Speaker 1: Of course, today Rodliff has he's our aviation expert. He's
20:12
Speaker 1: a pilot. He's been in the aviation business forever and
20:15
Speaker 1: he joins us every Thursday for a few segments, which
20:18
Speaker 1: I appreciate his willingness to do so. Pivoting over a
20:21
Speaker 1: bad place to have a baby on board and an airplane.
20:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, Caribbean Airlines flight Jamaica to New York's JFK Airport.
20:29
Speaker 5: On final approach, when a woman goes into labor. They
20:32
Speaker 5: have medical personnel on board the plane that can assist
20:35
Speaker 5: of the flight attendants, and the crew notified the tower
20:39
Speaker 5: that they had the medical situation. They did not declare
20:41
Speaker 5: an emergency, but the air traffic control obviously moved everybody
20:47
Speaker 5: out of the way so they could land. The baby
20:49
Speaker 5: was actually born before the I think as the flight
20:52
Speaker 5: was landing or just before, and air traffic control obviously
20:56
Speaker 5: checking when the plane was on the ground how is
20:59
Speaker 5: the baby, and they said, both are fine. We'll have
21:02
Speaker 5: medical teams standing by, and the air traffic controllers were
21:05
Speaker 5: on dimensions that hey, if they're looking for a name.
21:11
Speaker 1: We lose, we lose. At a forty six to fifty
21:15
Speaker 1: five KCD talk station had a little technical glitch there.
21:17
Speaker 1: We lost Jay Ratliffe I Heart mediaviation eRx, what you
21:20
Speaker 1: were racking up the story about the baby being born
21:22
Speaker 1: on the plane. Two quick questions from our listeners. Jay
21:25
Speaker 1: went off that topic and moved to another one. First,
21:28
Speaker 1: what was the baby name suggestion? And number two? Is
21:31
Speaker 1: the baby a citizen of the United States?
21:34
Speaker 5: The latter question is still in question, and yeah, that's
21:38
Speaker 5: still up in the air because they were trying to
21:40
Speaker 5: determine where the baby was born. The name is yet
21:43
Speaker 5: to be assigned. But air traffic controllers one of the
21:45
Speaker 5: baby called Kennedy because they were pair pairing to flane
21:50
Speaker 5: into JFK. We've only had about seventy seventy five instances
21:53
Speaker 5: in the last one hundred years where we've had a
21:55
Speaker 5: berth on a plane, and typically that's because a doctors
21:58
Speaker 5: are very reluctant to allow women in the later stages
22:02
Speaker 5: of pregnancy to fly.
22:03
Speaker 1: As many times ask you that I thought that was
22:05
Speaker 1: sort of standard knowledge. You don't fly when you're Oh,
22:07
Speaker 1: it is, he's like eight plus months pregnant.
22:10
Speaker 5: Because if you do, the change in air pressure many
22:12
Speaker 5: times can't trigger a premature labor causing a problem. And
22:16
Speaker 5: there have been times when I've been at the gate
22:18
Speaker 5: and if we have somebody that's in the advanced stages
22:20
Speaker 5: of pregnancy. We have to tell them that we don't
22:23
Speaker 5: advise them flying, and many times have to ask them
22:25
Speaker 5: not to. Now, obviously, if it's an emergency situation things
22:28
Speaker 5: of this nature, you've got to make a gut call
22:30
Speaker 5: at the time. But you're worried about the safety of
22:33
Speaker 5: mom and the baby because if there are any complications
22:35
Speaker 5: at thirty five thousand feet, obviously, the medical response on
22:39
Speaker 5: an aircraft is limited, to say the least, and it's
22:42
Speaker 5: going to take twenty minutes to get that plane on
22:44
Speaker 5: the ground just to get him in the hands of
22:46
Speaker 5: medical personnel. So you're always careful about stuff like that.
22:50
Speaker 5: You want to err on the side of caution. But
22:51
Speaker 5: in this case, mom and baby are fine.
22:53
Speaker 1: And not exactly a sterile environment. Anyway, Southwest Airline's facing
22:58
Speaker 1: a three hundred and four thousand dollars. Are fine? How
23:00
Speaker 1: do they get fined for that?
23:01
Speaker 2: Jay?
23:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's the proposed fine. The FAA has a
23:05
Speaker 5: policy in place when you have employees that have a
23:09
Speaker 5: positive drug or alcohol test that there's a certain protocol
23:13
Speaker 5: you have to go through, and that is tests after
23:17
Speaker 5: that point in time that are scheduled days, weeks, months, etc.
23:21
Speaker 5: It's not a regular schedule, and it comes out the
23:23
Speaker 5: Southwest Airlines on about twelve employees did not have those
23:27
Speaker 5: follow up tests as they should. Apparently this was a
23:31
Speaker 5: mix of employees from pilots, flight to tenants, mechanics, all
23:34
Speaker 5: kinds of different people, and the fa saying, look, you
23:38
Speaker 5: needed to do this, you did not. They're proposing a
23:41
Speaker 5: fine of three hundred thousand. I keep saying proposing because
23:44
Speaker 5: typically what happens these fines the FAA comes forward with
23:47
Speaker 5: are negotiated down if the airline promises never to do
23:52
Speaker 5: it again, which drives me out of my mind. But
23:54
Speaker 5: we also have American Airlines yesterday that was announced they're
23:57
Speaker 5: facing a similar fine for two hundred and fifty thousand,
23:59
Speaker 5: I think, for the exact same violation. So I think
24:02
Speaker 5: that the FAA is trying to send a message here
24:05
Speaker 5: to airlines saying, look, you know what the protocol is
24:07
Speaker 5: when these types of situations take place, we expect you
24:10
Speaker 5: to follow it. And even though these fines would be
24:13
Speaker 5: minimal compared to what these airlines can afford, and they're
24:15
Speaker 5: going to be negotiated down, at least they're trying to
24:18
Speaker 5: send a message and hopefully that message will be received
24:21
Speaker 5: loud and clear.
24:22
Speaker 1: All right, Well, this doesn't shock me. Everybody gets frustrated
24:26
Speaker 1: about literally anything these days, but when it comes to
24:29
Speaker 1: checking bags, more and more people are getting a little
24:31
Speaker 1: angry about that. Jay.
24:33
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, Southwest is kind of leading the pack here,
24:36
Speaker 5: but other airlines are guilty of it. Two thirds of
24:38
Speaker 5: the way through the boarding process, the gate agent says,
24:40
Speaker 5: okay o, red bins are filled. We've got to check
24:43
Speaker 5: all the carry on bags. They're large at this point
24:46
Speaker 5: in time, that won't fit underneath the seat in front
24:47
Speaker 5: of you. Well, people don't want to give up their
24:50
Speaker 5: carry on bag because then they've got to wait for
24:52
Speaker 5: you know, baggers claim on the other end, but they
24:55
Speaker 5: obviously oblige give up their bag, get on the plane,
24:59
Speaker 5: and then they find a third of the overhead storage
25:01
Speaker 5: compartments are empty. Airlines are doing it to try to
25:04
Speaker 5: speed the boarding process so they can dispatch the flight
25:06
Speaker 5: on time, and we're seeing a lot of passengers, not
25:09
Speaker 5: only from Southwest, but other airlines are getting on there.
25:12
Speaker 5: When they are at the latter people to board and
25:14
Speaker 5: finding plenty of overhead storage space, and they're thinking why
25:18
Speaker 5: did you take your bag from me? Why am I
25:20
Speaker 5: being forced to waiting out baggage claim when I got
25:23
Speaker 5: all these places I could have put my bag. So
25:25
Speaker 5: they estimate it. It's based on a computer algorithm that
25:28
Speaker 5: they have built in that tells them at what point
25:31
Speaker 5: in time the bins are probably full, and that's when
25:33
Speaker 5: those announcements are being made at the gate. So you
25:36
Speaker 5: kind of hope you're one of the early ones to
25:37
Speaker 5: board so that you can get past that and avoid
25:40
Speaker 5: that frustration, especially if you've got limited time you're there
25:43
Speaker 5: and back in the day and you don't want to
25:44
Speaker 5: eat up twenty thirty forty fifty minutes waiting on your
25:47
Speaker 5: bags to you know, come through the baggage claim area. Yeah,
25:51
Speaker 5: I can definitely see why passengers are frustrated. I got
25:53
Speaker 5: an email today from a pot pilot from Southwest and
25:57
Speaker 5: he said, yeah, I mean, it's a big time frustration
25:59
Speaker 5: for the customers and hopefully something can change on us soon.
26:03
Speaker 1: Has there ever been any suggestion or any trial of
26:05
Speaker 1: having assigned to a seat overhead storage like this segment
26:09
Speaker 1: is for seat two A or whatever, so you don't
26:13
Speaker 1: have the fights over it. Everybody gets allocated one space
26:16
Speaker 1: and if it's there, it's there. If you don't want
26:17
Speaker 1: to use it, maybe you can give it to somebody,
26:19
Speaker 1: but it's your space and no one else can take
26:21
Speaker 1: it from you.
26:23
Speaker 5: There have been the question is who's going to police that.
26:25
Speaker 5: Some airlines have gone to putting stickers in the overhead
26:28
Speaker 5: storage been saying this is reserved for passengers seated here.
26:32
Speaker 5: Really the only place that's policed is first class because
26:35
Speaker 5: the flight attendant has maybe five or six rows at
26:39
Speaker 5: most to manage keep an eye on, and they're always
26:42
Speaker 5: very aware of those premium passengers. If somebody in coach
26:46
Speaker 5: walks by and throws your bag in a first class
26:48
Speaker 5: storage compartment and keeps walking back to coach, most of
26:52
Speaker 5: the time that's caught. If not, somebody in first class
26:54
Speaker 5: tends to point it out because you don't want to
26:56
Speaker 5: be boarding last and Sharon, I've done this many times
26:59
Speaker 5: and you get up to first class and all the
27:00
Speaker 5: binds are filled and there's no place to put your bag.
27:03
Speaker 5: Very frustrating, but really that's the only place that they
27:06
Speaker 5: can can can police that because you've just got too
27:09
Speaker 5: many rows and too few flight attendants to really make
27:12
Speaker 5: sure people oblige with that the other. If they could
27:16
Speaker 5: do that, brind, they would find a way to charge
27:18
Speaker 5: this extra for the storage in the overhead storage department.
27:21
Speaker 5: In other words, the bag you take with you carry on,
27:24
Speaker 5: if it fits underneath the seat, it is free. But
27:27
Speaker 5: if you need some of the premium space above our seats,
27:30
Speaker 5: that's what they would call it. Then it's you know,
27:32
Speaker 5: an extra five or ten, fifteen bucks whatever might happen
27:34
Speaker 5: to be. If there's a way they could figure that, brother,
27:37
Speaker 5: they would be doing that in a hardbyat well.
27:38
Speaker 1: What they need is, you know one of those dollars,
27:41
Speaker 1: you know when you feed dollars in a Kroger to
27:43
Speaker 1: pay for your grocery. So to unlock the overhead storage space,
27:46
Speaker 1: you got to feed it like quarters to get into
27:48
Speaker 1: the old school of a bathroom.
27:52
Speaker 5: How that would slow up the boarding process.
27:55
Speaker 1: That would go over like a lad Believe anybody.
27:57
Speaker 5: Got a corner, Yeah, it would be. It would be
27:59
Speaker 5: a nightmare when it comes. So you know, right Ryanair,
28:01
Speaker 5: I will say the European discount carrier did have pay
28:04
Speaker 5: toilet for a while.
28:05
Speaker 1: Oh my word, okay, uh, you have to pay me
28:08
Speaker 1: to go into one of those absent emergency anyway, probably.
28:11
Speaker 5: Had a they pray had a benefit or a sail
28:13
Speaker 5: on drinks too.
28:14
Speaker 2: True.
28:15
Speaker 1: Flight delayed over bees when it comes to airplanes versus bees,
28:18
Speaker 1: I guess bees win.
28:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, Charlotte. They were airplane was on the ramp preparing
28:23
Speaker 5: to depart. They looked out the left engine on the
28:25
Speaker 5: on the port side of the aircraft covered in bees.
28:28
Speaker 5: So they didn't want to fire up the engine because
28:30
Speaker 5: you don't want a feign debris of any kind sucked
28:32
Speaker 5: into the engine. Uh. So they called a bee keeper
28:34
Speaker 5: that came out with the assistance of a few very
28:36
Speaker 5: brave souls on the ramp and they collected the bees,
28:39
Speaker 5: put them in a in a box and took them
28:41
Speaker 5: away before they would dispatch the aircraft. The If you
28:44
Speaker 5: don't like bees, don't look at the picture. But fortunately
28:47
Speaker 5: they were outside the airplane, not inside, which is delayed flights.
28:50
Speaker 5: So we've got him on the inside the airplane. But
28:52
Speaker 5: people are freaking out seeing it. And uh but you
28:55
Speaker 5: know it is about an hour delay before they were
28:57
Speaker 5: able to clean up the mess and get under aid.
28:59
Speaker 5: But yes, say B delay. I don't know what the
29:01
Speaker 5: code on that would be in our computers to put
29:04
Speaker 5: a B delay.
29:05
Speaker 1: I'll fall into other well, as they upgrade the computer system,
29:08
Speaker 1: maybe they'll include the code for that one. As we
29:10
Speaker 1: always end, Jay Ratliff, it's a nice day to day here,
29:13
Speaker 1: but how about out there? In terms of travel nationally,
29:16
Speaker 1: For the most.
29:17
Speaker 5: Part, it is going to be a beautiful day to
29:18
Speaker 5: fly Chicago Detroit could see delays. I really think those
29:21
Speaker 5: are going to be minimal thirty minutes or less. We've
29:23
Speaker 5: got some bad weather coming this weekend that's going to
29:26
Speaker 5: kind of spoil the party. But don't worry about that.
29:28
Speaker 5: If you're flying today, gold Star, you picked a good
29:30
Speaker 5: dat to fly.
29:31
Speaker 1: I heart Mediaba's next for Jay, Ralph. Appreciate you coming
29:33
Speaker 1: on the show every week at this time and enjoy
29:35
Speaker 1: our conversations. I'll look forward to a week obviously next
29:38
Speaker 1: week you're not around, correct, No.
29:41
Speaker 5: I'm taking my bride on vacation. She wants to, I
29:44
Speaker 5: don't know, walk thirty some thousand steps a day at Disney,
29:46
Speaker 5: So who am I to say no?
29:48
Speaker 1: Right not to her? Yeah, you're out of her relevant buddy.
29:51
Speaker 1: Whatever she wants, happy wife, happy as you.
29:53
Speaker 5: Said, I did out kick my coverage. Whatever she wants
29:56
Speaker 5: she's gonna get.
29:56
Speaker 1: That's the Lea. You stay happily, Mary, Jay Ratliff, thank you,
29:59
Speaker 1: man r I'm there. We'll talk in two weeks. Safe
30:02
Speaker 1: travels a brother if he didn't get a chance to
30:05
Speaker 1: listen Congressman Warren Davidson on earlier in the program you
30:07
Speaker 1: get that podcast fifty five kr Sea dot com bring
30:10
Speaker 1: him account Hudson Institute. We had him for uh well
30:13
Speaker 1: four segments, I think yeah, four. He carried over into
30:15
Speaker 1: the eight o'clock hour Energy Policy. Great conversation with Brigham
30:19
Speaker 1: as always, and of course my conversation here with Jay Ratliffe.
30:22
Speaker 1: Fifty five care Sea dot com for that Tech Friday
30:24
Speaker 1: with Dave had Ter tomorrow. It's all I know about
30:26
Speaker 1: considering we are more than the loss of a Joe
30:28
Speaker 1: Strecker's father who passed yesterday and I presume he will
30:31
Speaker 1: not be in tomorrow either. And with that, I want
30:33
Speaker 1: to thank Danny Gleeson for covering for Joe Strecker. I
30:36
Speaker 1: know it was short noticed, Danny, but you always do
30:38
Speaker 1: a great job when you're in the booth. Folks, have
30:40
Speaker 1: a great day. Fifty five care Sea dot com for that.
30:42
Speaker 1: Get your iHeartMedia while you're there, and don't go away
30:44
Speaker 1: because Lundbeck is coming up