I had an absolute blast at NAPE with David Blackmon, Rey Trevino, Michael Tanner, and our guest podcast hosts Jay Young and Keith Stelter. This interview is one of my favorite, fun, episodes talking about the balanced diet of power we need to go forward. As David says, we need more sustainable power; nuclear is part of that formula.
David Blacmon is a legendary energy thought leader, and I had an absolute blast with David at NAPE. David had signed the declaration of oil and gas executives supporting nuclear and talked about the energy hypocrisy of not supporting nuclear.
David even came up with the interview topic with Grace Stanke and Meredeth Angwin on a nuclear webinar/panel. Please follow and subscribe to David on his Substack HERE: https://blackmon.substack.com/ and his LinkedIn HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blackmon-2325189/
Enter Douglas Sandridge, who discusses why he is pushing nuclear support as an oil executive. We then go on a huge discussion including Chris Wright, Alen Gilmer, Irina Slav, Meredeth Angwuin, Robert Bryce, and many other industry energy leaders.
Please follow and connect with Doug Sandridge on his LinkedIn HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-c-sandridge-63996312/
My thanks to all of the industry leaders who are advocating for low-cost energy to all people of the planet to eliminate energy poverty. – Stu: “My middle name is Pid.”
Highlights of the Podcast
02:39 – Unrealistic renewable energy goals acknowledged.
05:29 – Political decisions impact German nuclear plants.
08:01 – Financial interests influence nuclear opposition.
10:05 – Bipartisan support grows for nuclear energy.
13:04 – Advocates raise awareness with intelligence and humor.
16:45 – Oil executives support nuclear energy declaration.
19:28 – Nuclear energy stable for integrating renewables.
20:51 – Nuclear energy crucial for global needs.
21:45 – Nuclear key in achieving net-zero goals.
22:00 – Voting essential for advocating nuclear energy.
23:08 – Collaboration key to address energy challenges.
Other great resources from Sandstone and Energy News Beat
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Energy Dashboard https://app.sandstone-group.com/enb-dashboard-version-2
ENB Podcast https://energynewsbeat.co/industry-insights-2/
ENB Substack
https://theenergynewsbeat@substack.com
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Doug Sandrige Conversations in Energy – Final Cut.mp4
Stuart Turley [00:00:08] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley President and CEO and this is also a double header because this is also being released out on the energy question with David Blackman. But we’ve got a special guest. We have really Doug Sandridge. And I mean he’s not only an oil executive rising executive director for oil and gas executives for, nuclear. And I’ll tell you what, I’m energy agnostic to the point that we have to deliver the lowest kilowatt hour to all citizens of the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment, and it’s got to be sustainable without printing money and causing inflation and riots in the street. I’m just kidding on that. No I’m not.
David Blackmon [00:00:54] Reliable.
Douglas Sandrige [00:00:55] And reliable. And so this is going to go out on YouTube. But welcome. Thank you. Great to be here. I’ve been excited to hear this.
Stuart Turley [00:01:04] I’ll tell you what’s fun. I got a shirt for our broadcast listeners. That man Against the Gray bugs. Thank you for sending this out. Got a great logo on it. And I signed your, petition that was liquidation, and David’s also signed it.
David Blackmon [00:01:22] Yes.
Douglas Sandrige [00:01:22] Yes,.
Douglas Sandrige [00:01:23] Yes he did. I’ve been trying to get this man over here to sign it, so just get everything. Anyway. Yes, that’s a declaration. We call it the, Declaration of Oil and Gas executives in support of nuclear energy. Wow. Yeah, I am. And tell us you went to Germany to protest. Were you out there with the farmers? No, just at the nuclear protest. So, you know, I’ve been doing nuclear advocacy for a few years now. I am an oil and gas guy, and I have been my entire career, and I still make my living doing oil and gas. But a few years ago, I started getting into nuclear advocacy, and it started actually, I, I’m going to give Michael Bloomberg the blame for this, but nice. 19 2020 1920 2020 Election cycle I was researching all the policy positions of all of the Democrat candidates for president. Now, as you can imagine, some of those candidates didn’t even have an energy policy. And then all of them were incomprehensible. But you can you can forgive Pete Buttigieg for not having a comprehensible energy policy. He was the mayor of the South Bend in, in Indiana. So but the one that got me all fired up was Michael Bloomberg, because Michael Bloomberg had on his website that said, if you make me president by the end of our second term will be 80% renewable electricity in the United States. And I had nearly exploded. Yeah, because it’s not it’s not that that’s not a desirable goal, right. And but it’s not for lack of money or lack of will physically. That was not physics matter. And so I started researching all the reasons. This was an idiotic thing for Bloomberg to say at the end of this. And it took months and months, and I ended up developing a program that I call that the, the, the hurdles to net zero carbon emissions. But as a result of that kind of academic experience, I came to the conclusion we are not going to do any serious decarbonization, especially if we want to keep our our grid reliable and affordable. It is not going to happen without a lot more nuclear energy. So that’s how I got started.
Stuart Turley [00:03:34] I love it. And you know what? There’s a difference between, protests or mostly peaceful. And on our side of the the thing, you know, anyway, that old joke that Germany or the EU just put out that, oh, it’s okay to have nuclear again and Germany closed theirs down when, you know, they’re reading the people open.
Douglas Sandrige [00:03:57] Yes,.
Stuart Turley [00:03:57] That’s gonna happen. Right?
Douglas Sandrige [00:04:00] I’m not going to go down that road, I want to the Germany thing was. So then fast forward a year from 2020. We’re in 2021. And you guys know they closed down the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York, which was just that it was ridiculous. And it’s pure. There’s no safety issues. It provided 25% of New York City’s electricity. It provided 50%, I believe, of all the clean energy in New York at the time, it was closed down for purely political reasons. Right. And my again, my head was exploding. And our friend, our mutual friend Robert Bryce. Yes he did. Instead of doing his normal once a week podcast, he did what he called Indian Point Blackout Week, and he did like Shark Week. It was nice. Shark week, I loved it. And by the time I finished listening to Robert’s four episodes in a row, I was ready to run through a wall to save existing nuclear. I love it, it made me mad. And one of the guests that he had on his podcast, it’s a guy named Mark Nelson. I don’t know if you know Mark, but he’s one of the most foremost nuclear advocates in the country. Isn’t that great? And I got to know Mark. And he said, if you want to do something, I will get you involved in the nuclear advocacy. So I went with him to Germany. He said, if you’re serious about this, come with me to Germany and let’s do that. Let’s protest the shutdown of the last nuclear power plant. So I did that and in the end of 2021, and then they’d close three of their last six and 20 in December 2021. And then last spring he called again and said, hey, we have shut down the last four in April. And he and his mother and me and my mother went over and I to say we protested. We rallied in support of keeping nuclear open.
Stuart Turley [00:05:45] You know what’s even funnier, David and I am. That’s true. Podcasters have been laughing at the fact that, Gretta, was being hauled out from a, fake wind farm protest, coal plant. Excuse me? It was a coal plant. Yeah. And they were all in her out, and she’s laughing. And then, that same wind farm was then being pulled down and destroyed to remind the coal that they were like, they shut down. So now Germany’s rolling back in. We’ve had a successful deindustrialization, and their carbon output is like quadrupling now. So, we can’t manufacture. Okay. My, my. Name is Bid to Win. It was my, you know, my name, Stu. Middle name bid. My parents were mean. But when you say my vote look stupid. Do a whole nother level. I don’t get it. It’s hard to understand. And, you know, you know, Spain just announced they’re going to shut down the rest of their nuclear power plants. But other than that, it’s.
David Blackmon [00:06:51] Mass insanity in Europe.
David Blackmon [00:06:53] It is. There’s a lot of places where that it’s going the other way. I mean, Poland is all in. Yeah, right. Estonia. Bulgaria. Romania. Isn’t that great? They’re all going in and the. You are in. I just interviewed Grace Starkey. She is the. She’s a rock star. She’s a rock star. And she was last year. Miss America, I have to give a shout out to, our team for introducing me on that. I got to interview her, at 12:00 at night on time, and it was 8:00 in the morning there in Dubai. And she was out there representing the U.S., and the UAE has 30% of their power, or 25% of their power is being done by the first nuclear reactor in there. God bless them. And they brought balance. Power come in. And grace is the real deal. And we had, we had a bill come up in Colorado, a few weeks ago that was simply did nothing except redefine clean energy to include nuclear power in that. Great. And because right now in Colorado, you can’t get any benefits from having nuclear power. And we introduced a bill, senator listed and introduced a bill. And I supported the bill saying all you did is just add nuclear as a defined clean energy gray. Stankey. She came and was the first person to testify. And, you know, she did not want to she would not let anyone fly her out. She wanted it to be on her own because she didn’t want anyone to say, well, you only can’t because it. Yeah. So she paid her own way round to be the first person to testify in favor of that bill. Now, the. The, mental midgets in Colorado Senate. Right. Did not pass this. They they voted it down. But anyway, Grace. Thank you. That rock star.
David Blackmon [00:08:45] Was. So what was their reasoning for voting at the U. SA0 emission power generation?
Douglas Sandrige [00:08:52] Because a lot of those people are still living in the past. They still they think nuclear is dirty. They say there’s there’s nothing inappropriate to do with the waste. They but most of this.
David Blackmon [00:09:04] Is the biggest myth in the law.
Douglas Sandrige [00:09:06] So that they have all the reasons. Now, I don’t know this, so I can’t say who’s getting money from who, but I suspect that, you know, collar, there’s a lot of these politicians who get part of their funding from the Sierra Club, Greenpeace or NRDC. And I think that they, you know, they’re being told we do not want to support that. I don’t know that to be fact. I haven’t checked their.
David Blackmon [00:09:27] I know it’s a big pack. I mean, absolutely, I mean, the Sierra Club, the the climate alarm lobby in general, all that industry. And it’s a pure industry. A multibillion dollar industry is one of the biggest funder of Democratic Party political campaigns in the United States. They’ve basically taken the place of trial lawyers as the biggest funders of the Democratic Party. I mean, it’s just a matter of public record. So you didn’t have to say it. I’ll say it.
Douglas Sandrige [00:09:55] Okay. The good news is, though, the good news is that nuclear energy is quickly becoming a bipartisan issue in many places in the country. I mean, even in California, even in Illinois, Connecticut.
Stuart Turley [00:10:10] Kind of funny how, you take a look at Diablo Canyon and it is now got another extension on its life.
David Blackmon [00:10:17] 25 more years.
Douglas Sandrige [00:10:18] Yes. And and it’s kind of like, the politicians, when they start getting, like, no power and no shower for you, you know, they it’s going and boom, the energy sobriety will make you realign energy sobriety. And I’ve been told I do not know Gavin Newsom personally, but I’ve been told by all my nuclear folks in California that basically when they started having blackouts in 2016, 2017, that he finally decided he finally became open to the possibility of changing his mind on this issue. So blackouts will change your mind?
Stuart Turley [00:10:57] Well, I’ll tell you what. We’re facing some Big Mac blackouts coming around the corner because of the balance. Shout out to Meredith. And one shorting the grid. So. Love, Meredith. Hey.
David Blackmon [00:11:11] Robert Bryce’s documentary. Yes, she has a big role in it.
Stuart Turley [00:11:15] And I tell you what, I just love my interviews with her. But she is such. She is another a previous generation of graves. Thank you. And, I mean, I put those two equal into the same, pile there for that.
David Blackmon [00:11:29] That’s a great idea. We need to organize.
Douglas Sandrige [00:11:31] A great idea. I don’t want to be there when you do it. I don’t want that. But but but the whole thing is, is to have that exactly what you’re doing. They’re better looking than you. I have to tell you. No, I wouldn’t be on air with them. I just want to be there when they book that. Okay? Okay. I want to see them. Yeah, okay. It just it’s. Well, you don’t even care about where it is living with Irene and Slav Negro.
David Blackmon [00:11:57] This is a great story. You have to tell the story.
Douglas Sandrige [00:11:59] Well, you know, I grew up overseas. I spent most of my childhood living in Europe. And so my family always kind of trends towards international news rather than, you know, American news. So I, you know, I subscribe to the Financial Times rather than the Wall Street Journal, just because I want to get a little bit of a more international perspective. And I found a arena several years ago, and I just was. So I wanted so much. There’s so much going on in Europe, energy wise. I wanted it a European perspective. So I found an arena and started to listen. I was a first podcast I ever did was with arena metro and it wasn’t very good. So don’t please don’t go back and look at it. But but I, I fell in love with her for a number of reasons. First of all, she is super, super smart. Oh, right. Oh yes. Incredibly, she is an incredible writer. Yeah, right. But the best thing is she does all this with the wit and the sense of humor that I cannot wait. And no offense, but I cannot wait to see her article come out every week because it’s going to be really powerful and really funny. Well, I, I have gone once literally agree with it. I have gone one step further and that is I’ve had it on my podcast about 12 times, and I and those are the highlight of my month whenever I get my original fix. And then when she added the voice over so you can listen to her Substack, I sit there and listen in her Bulgarian accent and I’m like, curling because I did my. I really effects. And you really get her sense of humor coming out even more. When we started emailing and texting and I was on her podcast and I just, I really like her. And my mom’s like, I mean, my wife is like, don’t need to be worried about this man crush you have on Irina. Of course not. I haven’t even met her, but she’s she’s just that brilliant. You know, so every time I go to Europe, usually every year and usually with my family. And so for a couple of years we go to Europe and I would say to my wife, what do you think about going to Bulgaria? And she’s like, why do you want to go to Bulgaria? And I was like, well, you know, if we’re there and we never been there, let’s go and maybe we can meet Irina. And she’s like, oh, for the love of God, are you kidding me? And so, you know, David, I’m a stocker on your material. You have not stopped smoking. I, Renesmee, turned into a horror movie. I go into one, I go in 2022. And actually in 2020 and 2022, I, my whole family went on a river cruise for, for, Thanksgiving. And I said to my wife, what do you think about let the kids go home? What do you think about let’s go in to see Irina and my wife. She roles are. I am not going to Bulgaria to meet some energy analyst. And so last spring, in April, Martin Nelson asked me to go to Berlin to rally in support of German nuclear. Right. And I asked my wife, do you want to go with me? And she said, no, I’m not. I’m not going to Germany to protest nuclear war. So I asked my mom, and then my mom said, sure, let’s go. And I said, why would you think about going to Bulgaria now that I don’t have to worry about my wife and my kids, I can just go. And my wife said, I mean, my mom said, I’ve never been to Bulgaria. Let’s go there. So after we go home, we fly directly to Bulgaria. You know, she lives out in the country. She does. So she doesn’t live in, in the in Sofia. Right. She lives out in Stars Gora in a village. And I didn’t feel comfortable. You know, I felt comfortable driving in Italy, Germany or someplace where I sort of speak the language. I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive in Bulgaria. So we rented a driver service, and he drove us out, and we met Irina. And her daughter is lovely.
Stuart Turley [00:15:53] Isn’t she a great. Isn’t it? She was great. Yeah. And the family. And Chris, her husband, is such a neat guy. But I tell you, I absolutely love what you’re doing, and I want to support the effort. Tell us some of the big, oil and gas executives that have signed it. But also, we’re going to this is just not just one podcast, because we are going to continue to carry this period with you. But like, you have Chris, right? Chris. Right. And you and I are going to have a discussion here a little bit.
Douglas Sandrige [00:16:29] Chris was the I had the idea and I had this idea because some of my friends in the nuclear industry made a statement at a meeting in front of everyone, said, well, I know all you oil and gas is directed at me. And the only oil and gas guy in the room, right. They said, I know you oil and gas guys hate us. And I know that that, that your industry undermines the nuclear industry. And I said, hold on, hold on. I don’t think that’s right. And I know that, you know, maybe that was true in the 1970s. I don’t know if the Rockefeller Foundation probably. But but that is not true. Now throwing a flag flag. And I start asking around all my friends, and I cannot find a single person in our industry. And I’m not saying there’s none. Right. But I’ve never found anyone who would say I’m anti-nuclear. And so I thought, I’m going to I started this out, sorry, to prove the nuclear community that we’re with you. We are. And so I had this idea and I thought, well, I’m a nobody. I don’t know if I can pull this off. So I called Chris, right? I actually texted Chris, and Chris is a busy guy. Yes. In a few minutes he texted me back and says, I love this idea, let’s do it. So we wrote this declaration of support for nuclear energy and we Chris was the first one to sign it. And then we started going out and getting other executives to sign it. Told me, I said HQ team and CEO at Chesapeake, the former CEO of Continental Resources. I mean, you got all sorts of excuse.
David Blackmon [00:17:57] Alan Gilmore just signed it out of the blue.
Douglas Sandrige [00:17:59] Alan Gilmore, I love our, he was about it, and he found somebody else’s copy of it. Why did I have their name? And then signed into them? Which you may not even know. Alan. Okay. The only claim to fame I have with Alan is off of my podcast with him. He said that’s the funniest line, best I’ve ever been on. So I really guess it says I’m the best podcast. So I would say of all the podcasts I’ve ever been on, you are the most fun. Yeah. And it’s not a this isn’t serious stuff. This is just fun. Oh, always do you say we we talk about my cast now from. Games be stupid. You know, the funny thing is, when you’re covering serious topics and this is getting around me, I. Because I does not understand me. I can’t spell a I. But yet I can get around the Google Analytics because it does not like oil and.
David Blackmon [00:18:55] Gas though it does not. It doesn’t like anybody who says anything good about all the.
Stuart Turley [00:18:59] A lot of plans coming up with all the things that we want to do for you, for marketing, for everything else. If you’re an oil and gas executive, we want you to get in touch with Doug Sandridge, sign up and help us market this program, because it is not at a point anymore where you can sit by if you want to sit there and have a, a blackout. When you look at Texas, Texas nuclear is a solid 4 to 10%. Whatever line it is, it is straight across.
David Blackmon [00:19:36] We’re saying I think, yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:19:37] It is a baseline. We need, I believe California’s 10% out of the Diablo Canyon. If you don’t have that baseline, you can attach renewable. Oh, by the way, once you get an 80 year reactor, I think you got some more on that bad. You do. And the other thing, of all you people that like your cell phone out there, try to make a cell phone out of a neutral reactor or a windmill, writes a rock, as they say. Scooby doo would say, right. Yeah, yeah, we need it. Oh, it’s interesting you say that because I was at a class teaching a class at University of Oklahoma last week, and after the class, a lot of these students want to stand around and talk with me afterwards. And I had several students who said, now because I, I said, we need more nuclear. I’m not saying to the exclusion of something else, but they came up and they said, so what are you replacing? We talk about more nuclear. And I said, we’re not talking about replacing anything. We need more energy.
David Blackmon [00:20:38] And just to keep up with demand.
Stuart Turley [00:20:40] Keep up with demand here. Hey, I was driving more. I was going to double exactly all the I, all the, targeting electric vehicles. So I said I don’t I’m not they they said are we, are we talking about getting rid of some gas or are we trying to reduce renewables? I said, no, this is a creative. We’re adding we need nuclear to add to everything we have, especially if we’re going to really make a dent into world poverty, into all the the billion people in the world who don’t have affordable or reliable energy. So nuclear is not replacing anything else. It is a creative. And in addition to we need more energy, not less.
David Blackmon [00:21:18] And that’s I think that’s one of the hardest points to to really get people to understand is we’re going to have to have more of everything, or we’re going to have to shut our society down. We won’t be able to sustain modern society with all the gadgets possible, with all the EV charging hospitals, everything Bitcoin mining that devours energy. We can’t continue to do that without more of everything and a lot more of nuclear. If we’re really going to get to something even close to net zero.
Stuart Turley [00:21:53] And I would also like to say, in closing, we’re going to have one last word go through. Well with two things. Right. Early vote often. Vote in the mail. Call your grandparents. Yes, your great grandparents. Drag them to their parent and grandparents. And get them. No, we’re not advocating dead people. We’re not advocate. No, we gotta do something. Just make sure you vote. No. We’re not. We actually believe in ethics. I believe in ethics. Now, here’s the thing. You have to vote. But vote with your money. And I guarantee you, as a, group of humans in the United States, great will win. The battle coming up is tough, but we will win. The good side is going to win. Vote. Vote with your money. So don’t be afraid to do that. What are your last words? That.Doug
Douglas Sandrige [00:22:55] THank you for having me here. Giving me the opportunity to visit with you guys. I’m changing the subject, I know I was out, I tell you, my family is very. And only been living. Yeah, everyone living is my family. But yes, I agree with you. Thank you for giving me the forum to talk about this. I look forward to working with you guys in the future and we’re going to have fun. We need more energy. And nuclear is not the only thing, but it’s going to be a part.
David Blackmon [00:23:23] It’s got to be a big part of. And maybe you were going to a political rally.
Douglas Sandrige [00:23:28] I did not know that. I thought I was just coming to have a chat.
Stuart Turley [00:23:30] Oh no. But this is so good. Thanks to our audience. We appreciate everybody. They. Hey, it’s good to see you. All right. We will see you guys next time on the energy question and the energy news beat
