International Author writing about energy, mining, and geopolitical issues. Bulgaria
Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.
Energy Consulting Specialist
President, and CEO, Sandstone Group, Podcast Host
Blubrry Podcast:
Energy Reailities Live – “Biofuels”
Stuart Turley [00:00:02] And.
Irina Slav [00:00:13] Yay! Welcome to the Energy Realities podcast with David Blackmon, Tammy Nemeth, Stu Turley, and me, Irina Slav. And today we’re talking about biofuels. Very exciting. New or not so new markets. And a very important part of the energy transition. Tammy, how do you feel about biofuels?
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:40] I have mixed emotions. About biofuels on that, because on the one hand, I get why there was such a push for it in the early 2000. There was, you know, it was a time of peak oil. There was a lot of angst in the American government that they were running out, and they needed alternatives and find ways to sort of stretch out, oil use, you know, as long as possible, the supply. And so if you could water it down a little bit with biofuels, that would buy you time. On the other hand, it takes up space for food production, and I’m not really sure that it’s as helpful with reducing emissions, which is why it’s being talked about now. I agree with one of the articles. I forget which one it was that talked about. You know, once you start with those subsidies and you and the farmers get used to having those subsidies, it’s really difficult to take it back because, you know, there’s been this investment made and so on and doing this and and so now you get the farmers who are like, wait a second, we’ve invested in all this stuff and we get these subsidies. We should keep it going. Even though technically the U.S. doesn’t need it unless it’s for emissions. And even then the emissions numbers are questionable.
David Blackmon [00:01:55] Right?
Irina Slav [00:01:57] David, what’s your.
David Blackmon [00:01:59] Yeah, So we can blame the evil geniuses and the George W Bush administration for this atrocious. You know, they’re the ones who really created the big subsidy programs for biofuels. And the Clinton administration had done a little bit on it, but, it was really a George W Bush administration virtue signaling about all this crap. It’s it’s just like wind and solar. It’s it’s a big cottage industry. A lot of people have a vested in it. Their livelihoods depend on it. And the point about the farmers becoming dependent on these subsidies is, is really phenomenal. There’s an extremely popular show that I know Tammy is familiar with in the UK, and it’s now on Amazon. It’s called Clarkson’s Farm. Jeremy Clarkson, the talk show. Yeah. And and it is such a. And my wife and I have been, bingeing it this past week. It is such a fantastic revelation about how it impacts farmers and Great Britain to be, you know, completely relying on all these heavy subsidies coming from the EU and all this government control, controlling what they plant and when they plan it and how they do it and blah, blah, blah, what you can and can’t do. You can’t even build a road on your own farm now. But it all got taken away, you know, during Covid and right after Covid, all those subsidies got taken away because the conservative government under Boris Johnson said, oh, well, don’t worry about it. When we do Brexit, your government will fill in those subsidies. Well, they took them all away during Covid and after Covid. And so now you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of British farmers either having already failed or on the verge of failure because they, their whole livelihoods depended on those subsidies. The same in in the United States. Corn farmers, have become completely addicted to these subsidies for, for biofuels and not just corn farmers, but other farmers. And so now it’s this whole thing. It’s this whole big subsidy thing that we’re incurring. It’s all funded with more and more debt, just like all the subsidies for wind and solar and everything else in this energy transition. And if you take it away, well, what’s going to happen? All the family farms that are completely dependent on these subsidies now to stay in business are going to go out of business. And Bill gates is going to own everything. So none of the billionaires and corporations are going to going to control the whole farming system. So the government is, is now you know, I mean, they have this, this problem facing them because we can’t afford the subsidies anymore. Really can’t. The fuels that are created don’t really provide any benefit in terms of the environment at all. None. Zero. Some of them are actually actively destructive to the environment. They’re all destructive to the food system. But but you’ve got this monster you’ve created, and, whichever president decides, you know, happens to be an off office when it all goes away, won’t be winning reelection. So, it’s, it’s a real, real problem here in the US, and I know it is in other countries as well. Anyway, everyone should be watching Clarkson’s Farm.
Irina Slav [00:05:07] Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. You is very inspirational for me as well. But really, education quite horrifying.
David Blackmon [00:05:17] It is. Really.
Tammy Nemeth [00:05:19] Can I add to that to the Clarkson’s farm issue in the UK? So the farmers get paid not to plant crops. They get paid only. It’s like the EU Green Deal stuff where they get paid to put in flowers, they get paid to do all of this biodiversity stuff rather than planting crops. You know, they take food, they take land out of production in order to put in woodlands or flower banks or whatever. And he kind of talked about that a little bit, in the, in the latest season. But anyway, that’s.
Irina Slav [00:05:52] Yes. And there was this idea just to, to continue. It’s really fascinating, very interesting. The swapping the previous subsidies with ESG subsidies. Yeah, yeah. You know, John was droning on about we didn’t hear it because it wasn’t that interesting. What I find most fascinating about biofuels, on top of everything you said, which is the fact is how I wonder how it it fits with these calls for more responsible use of the land, regenerative farming, things like that, not using fertilizers. How does that work? If you you need to produce a lot of biofuels. So. How would you do it if you reduce your fertilizer use and, you know, start doing regenerative farming, which produces much lower yields, as we saw in Clarkson’s farm. Again, it’s it’s paradoxical, isn’t it?
David Blackmon [00:06:51] It really is. And you’re taking so much food out of the food system. And, you know, our, our exports of grain out of the United States and other countries, Ukraine and all these other countries, really help feed the world and have for decades and decades. And we’re in the process of now destroying all that. And it’s going to I mean, it’s just inevitable. It’s going to create a an absolute catastrophe, a human life killing catastrophe if we don’t stop and reverse a lot of these policies. And, it’s just so sad that we don’t ever seem able to elect anyone who really understands the problem and wants to correct it.
Tammy Nemeth [00:07:29] Except Holland now.
David Blackmon [00:07:31] Except Holland, you know, and he will be fought tooth and nail by the globalists and the Netherlands government. And, we’ll see how much progress he’s able to make on this front. Hopefully. Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:07:41] Well, his coalition is with that farmer. Party? Yeah, that’s one of the coalition partners. And they were very strong on, addressing the agriculture issues that are coming down from the EU. But I’m just, I don’t know what they, what they actually have the power to do because the EU sends this stuff down. So it’ll be interesting.
Irina Slav [00:08:02] They will maybe, you know, have people have been talking about more exits after Brexit? Someone will leave. I mean, how long can you take this? The threats like Hungary and Poland a while ago now, the Netherlands. What they’re going to threaten with kicking them out? All the way. You know, removing the right to vote on EU matters will of course, the country will leave at some point.
David Blackmon [00:08:33] And that’s that’s what it’s going to take to, to end this stuff, to reject those kinds of policy. You can’t do.
Irina Slav [00:08:40] It in one country. Right?
David Blackmon [00:08:42] I think, you know what I’m saying, more than.
Irina Slav [00:08:43] One that the message.
David Blackmon [00:08:45] It’s really.
Tammy Nemeth [00:08:46] Is it Hotel California? You can yeah, you can come in but never leave.
Irina Slav [00:08:50] You know.
Stuart Turley [00:08:53] It’s not with tax revenue.
David Blackmon [00:08:55] What’s that Stu?.
Stuart Turley [00:08:57] Especially with tax revenue. Yeah. And don’t leave with your tax revenue right. Yeah. Yeah I think biofuels I absolutely love the idea. The implementation under George W Bush was horrific. That man should be tried and put in prison because of this. And, let’s take just a bit of a.
David Blackmon [00:09:18] Stu Turley who said that? Stu.
Stuart Turley [00:09:22] my middle name is? PID. So
David Blackmon [00:09:26] Those of.You at the NSA.
Stuart Turley [00:09:27] Yeah, yeah. That’s Stu PID. But when you sit back and take a look at ethanol, I, you know, Ford, or a, Buick Enclave, I get 25 miles per gallon running on that without having, ethanol. You throw ethanol into that bad. It’s, you know, it is, it drops down to about 21 miles per gallon. Yeah, ethanol in that car does not run very well. Ethanol costs more energy to make. It is worse on the environment. It ruins crop grounds. There is nothing good about ethanol. Now, that’s one biofuel. Let me go on to half of them. I’m going to do my best. David Blackmon rant this morning. I have to like, buckle up. If we went to, landfills and I’m working with Deborah Wall in Green Lily energy on her new podcast coming out there now. We’re now going into production on it, and they have patents that allow for renewing, of, taking all its trash to treasure. It’s almost anything for renewable and turning it into biofuels, into turning it in taking even recycling windmill blades. They can do anything. And this is pretty cool technology that they they’ve been able to do. So to me biofuels means landfill and not like in, New Delhi, where I have the largest landfill fire in the world going on right now.And there’s
David Blackmon [00:11:18] My God, that’s still going on.
Stuart Turley [00:11:22] Yes it is, it is horrific. Check. I saw the video on it yesterday and it is absolutely horrific. This thing is, is horrible landfill, renewable natural gas and or biofuels from farm equipment. I’m all in that to me is biofuels. Taking good, healthy farm grain and turning it, using energy to put it into ethanol to destroy engines means absolutely. That’s something that somebody from Oklahoma University would do. Oh, what did I just say? That on the air? I’m sorry. I went to the other school, the state university, the one that actually loves animals.
Irina Slav [00:12:13] And then did you read the news about biofuel refiners having to to shut down their refineries because there’s no enough demand, and the hilarious pile that some former oil refiners who converted the refineries to biofuel plants are now converting back. So oil.
David Blackmon [00:12:32] Yeah. I mean, it’s not profitable, not business.
Irina Slav [00:12:36] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:12:38] And the there was a big refinery in Philadelphia that had been there for 70, 80 years. And it shut down a few years ago because they couldn’t afford it. They couldn’t afford, to to make the biofuels required. And it’s this whole scandal. And with, you know, if you make make biofuels that you’re refinery, you get credits, you know, to offset your emissions. And so it’s one of these emissions offsetting scams that the government set up. And and it’s just it’s, it’s just a terrible burden on these independent refiners, you know, who aren’t owned by giant international corporations like Shell and Exxon Mobil and others, you know, who can be profitable because they’re they spread the costs out over their whole refining line. But for independent refiners. What’s that?
Irina Slav [00:13:27] Like, how am I to know they cover the EV losses with yeah, internal combustion engine car sales.
David Blackmon [00:13:33] Right. Exactly. And the fully integrated companies can not only spread it across, you know, multiple refineries, but also, you know, up all the way back up the whole supply chain. And so, it’s just it’s for the independent refiners in the, you know, so it’s it’s always the independents who get killed by stuff like the coals.
Irina Slav [00:13:53] Because they’re smaller so they.
Tammy Nemeth [00:13:56] Can’t absorb it. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:13:58] Right. Right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:13:59] Well, there’s also the issue of like the, the biodiesel does it if you add these the ethanol but not into fuel, it doesn’t last as long, then you have to put a biocide into the fuel because it won’t last. And there’s mold and watering algae kind of stuff, I don’t know, stuff building.
Irina Slav [00:14:20] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:14:20] Which is that’s disgusting. Because, like, you’re gonna leave. Your lawn mower over the winter, no big deal. And now with, if it’s a blended fuel, you have to flush it or you have to put a biocide in over the winter and stuff like that. So you end up having to use more chemical. You know, to keep it running longer. And I thought it was also a little bit hard on engines, but, I don’t know. I don’t have the the data to back that up from.
Irina Slav [00:14:50] It was a running joke when The Walking Dead was conceived, and they kept driving these cars two years after the apocalypse. And viewers were livid about it because with all the biofuels in the, in the petrol and diesel, the wooden stuff itself.
Tammy Nemeth [00:15:11] Yes. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:15:16] Yeah. go ahead Stu.
Stuart Turley [00:15:17] Oh, I don’t know. I, I thoroughly enjoy lobbing that conversation out there to just get you guys fired up on a Monday morning. My day is made.
David Blackmon [00:15:26] Well, Tom Mumford, Tom Mumford really enjoyed your rants. Do he.
Stuart Turley [00:15:30] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:15:32] Well I can’t, I can’t I think we’re both trying to. There we go. Right on. How can anyone take these green seriously when they won’t address Indian and China? Of course. And they never.
Irina Slav [00:15:42] Seem to do anything right. They can’t force you to do anything. So.
David Blackmon [00:15:47] You know, but I, of course, I’m a conspiracy theorist. Everyone knows it. But they won’t address India and China because they.
Stuart Turley [00:15:55] Don’t have limits. David, you’re a conspiracy theorist with.
David Blackmon [00:15:59] I have limits. I want, I want, I like the conspiracies I can see actually functioning in action today, which is the real, true goal of the climate alarm lobby that’s pushing this transition is to industrialize the Western world, which they’re having great success doing in Europe especially, and make us all reliant on China and to a lesser extent, India. In the long.
Irina Slav [00:16:28] Term, we are all weather reliant.
David Blackmon [00:16:30] Right? And we’re going to become increasingly reliant as we go to renewables, because China controls all the supply chains for all of the minerals that go into all the renewables it control, it’s going to control the EV market. It’s already making great inroads into Europe and will be in the United States. And so that’s really the bottom line goal here is to turn the whole Western world into a giant nature park. And and shift all the industry and and emissions to India and China. And and that’s exactly what’s happening. This is you can see it in action. And and as I always say, a conspiracy theory is not a theory when it’s standing in front of you slapping your stupid face. And that’s what’s happening right now.
Stuart Turley [00:17:15] That’s a wife.
Irina Slav [00:17:16] I don’t agree with you. I don’t think it’s deliberate. I think they genuinely think they’re doing doing good.
David Blackmon [00:17:23] Well, I think the policymakers, most of them do. Yes.
Irina Slav [00:17:26] Yes, yes. I think there’s a mix.
Tammy Nemeth [00:17:29] Yeah. You wouldn’t be able to do it if you didn’t have the people who were believers, right. That, you know, that this was.
Irina Slav [00:17:36] Making the decisions there. Actually, you can see them, those, European members of Parliament, they genuinely believe it. And they have the power to make decisions affecting each and every one of us. And they are sure they’re doing good. And they’re worried that this populist right wing wave that’s coming for us, for them, actually in June, I mean, that thing. Yeah, so I.
David Blackmon [00:18:03] Almost killed that one time. I’m still in this from Tom Mumford. I’m a I’m a pattern recognizer. There we go.
Tammy Nemeth [00:18:10] Not conspiracy theorist. Pattern recognizer. I really love that.
David Blackmon [00:18:14] There’s a clear pattern going on here, folks.
Stuart Turley [00:18:16] Well, you know what? The difference between a conspiracy theory and reality is right now, guys?
David Blackmon [00:18:23] 3 to 6 months.
Stuart Turley [00:18:24] One week.
Irina Slav [00:18:25] Weeks.
David Blackmon [00:18:29] Timeframe getting shorter and shorter than that. Hi, Robert.
Irina Slav [00:18:35] So I was wondering if the US federal government is so much in favor of biofuels, why didn’t they give biofuel producers the quotas? You know, the blending mandates they wanted?
David Blackmon [00:18:45] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:18:46] There’d be some rudimentary caution or something.
David Blackmon [00:18:51] It was probably what.
Irina Slav [00:18:52] You’d expect from those drinking biofuel production.
David Blackmon [00:18:55] Right. It’s all a political calculation, and it’s probably an election year when it came up. And, when enough people will take political hit. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:19:04] David, real quick, I think we have a video of the effects of those energy policies on consumers. You want me to show you that one we have. Absolutely. Yeah. Very important clip that we have, David. This is an amazing effect. Their second order effects on this one. And if we’re going to set this up, this is the average consumer according to the bio.
Stuart Turley [00:19:50] That just makes both of my teeth hurt.
David Blackmon [00:19:53] That’s brutal.
Irina Slav [00:19:55] Yeah, that’s that’s not funny at all. Oh.
David Blackmon [00:20:01] It’s really not.
Irina Slav [00:20:03] Oh, show me the headlines.
David Blackmon [00:20:06] Oh, yes. Yeah. I think we’ve destroyed biofuels here. So let’s go to headlines.
Stuart Turley [00:20:11] Okay, here we go.
Irina Slav [00:20:17] Oh, these are mine.
David Blackmon [00:20:20] Yeah. I think so.
Irina Slav [00:20:21] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:20:23] Free solar.
Irina Slav [00:20:27] Yeah. Free solar actually did a Substack today on the show because I was planning on doing something else, but this really got my attention. It starts with the touching story of a chicken farmer who installed $300,000 worth of solar panels on his farm, and it came free because of all the subsidies, all the tax incentives that got piled up. And he didn’t pay anything for it. But apparently, these subsidies in the form of tax credits are becoming very, very popular because you can sell them if you wanna put a solar installation on your house or whatever, and you don’t want to pay for it, and you don’t want to wait until the government gives you the money, because they only give it to you after you’ve been sold, after you’ve paid for it. And so it’s so you can sell the credits that go with the installation. So any company willing to buy it and reduce its, you know, its tax liability. So it got me wondering how many companies will be reducing their tax burden by, you know, buying these credits at a discount, by the way. Yeah. And what happens with tax revenues.
David Blackmon [00:21:49] Yeah. Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:21:52] . The government is funding the transition. Directly and indirectly, almost entirely. And if they think this is public private partnerships that will stimulate investment in the transit, that’s not investment. That’s reducing your tax load. And making a profit because of these discounts. I saw this really, really peculiar way of. Investing calling it.
Tammy Nemeth [00:22:23] How do they how do they verify the tax credits? Do they have to be registered with a an authorized party?
Irina Slav [00:22:32] Probably. Probably. But, this tax credit trading, there are already marketplaces who put buyers and sellers in contact with each other. The very fact that you want to build a solar farm as a solar installation on your farm already grants you right to certain tax incentives that you can sell.
David Blackmon [00:22:57] Yeah. This is my
Stuart Turley [00:23:04] Biggest problems. That really gets me worked up. If you can imagine that. Land reclamation, a form of renewable energy. I mean, this absolutely drives me nuts. I am seeing, part of the Meyer Day jobs deal, evaluations in oil and gas and now looking at deal evaluations in wind, solar and those things. Well, can I take one second and brag on David? I mean, compliment David. No, I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. I want to show this one film real quick while I jump in and be rude. This
David Blackmon [00:23:42] This Is wind. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:23:43] This is wind. But it is. Actually, take a look at this hole in the ground. Look at the amount of steel. Look at the amount of, land reclamation on this. And wind farms don’t last the 30 years. They don’t land, and solar farms don’t last 30 years. They barely last seven. If they last seven, then they have to be redone and then refinanced. And then consumers get to pay for it again. $800,000 just to remove one of these stupid things.
David Blackmon [00:24:17] That’s one. Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:24:18] And usually the landowners who.
Tammy Nemeth [00:24:22] Yeah. And then the landowners are usually left with the bill to reclaim it. And that’s what’s happened in Canada where they signed these agreements or whatever. And in the small print it says if the company goes bankrupt or whatever the landowner is responsible for, for cleaning it up. And, I mean, if the all of a sudden the farmers are like, what. Do you mean? I have to pay to clean this up now? And where do you dispose of it? Right. Because there’s no big place like, I’m glad, Stu, that this company is going to be able to maybe recycle the turbine blades in one. But how do you get it there? And how many of those places are running?
Irina Slav [00:25:03] And what happens to the rest of it? Blades and the rest with the the foundation. What do we do with all these? These are tons of concrete.
David Blackmon [00:25:13] Well, yeah. And the thing about the concrete foundations is the the only regulations that exist in most states in the United States is they have to be covered up by at least three feet of dirt, which in theory, if if a farming operation, you know, once you tear down the towers and haul them off, although nobody’s got plants to do that, really, because there’s no regulation forcing it. But if you do that, farming operations typically don’t, don’t plow down below three feet. So that’s kind of the so those concrete foundations are going to be there forever okay. They’re never going way out of any of these wind farms. One point about that, that particular video was that tower was only about 150ft tall. So it’s a small one. These are small ones. They’re up to 700ft tall. So if you had a 700 foot one, you’re going to have to proportionally make make it that much bigger and deeper, to, to and use. You know, I don’t know how many times more rebar and concrete in, in a foundation for that. It’s going to look like a skyscraper foundation in downtown Houston. So these things, are popping up everywhere. They’re all over the country. The waste disposal of the towers and the turbines and the blades is already an enormous problem in states that are home to significant wind operations. And they’re only going to get bigger because, you know, I had one booster of wind on, on LinkedIn yesterday claiming, oh, you know, well, we recycle the turbines and the blades. Well, no you don’t, because we’ve got all these videos now and in articles and in liberal publications like Texas Monthly, documenting all the damn graveyards out there, surface yards. I’m sorry, not graveyards out there in West Texas all over the landscape now. And they’re just piling up and piling up and piling up, and and they’re not going to be recycled because there’s billions of dollars that have to be invested to do that. And no one wants to invest in that. Okay. And even if you do invest in it, you’re not going to be able to sell most of the recycled product you get out of a facility. So there’s no market for it. There’s no investment for it. And and this is just going to be a huge problem because none of the state governments in the United States of America have appropriate regulatory structures requiring the proper disposal and remediation of these sites.
Tammy Nemeth [00:27:50] Can I add something about the concrete, platform? So with the new International Sustainability Standards Board, sustainability and. Related financial disclosures. They mandate the use of the Sasb industry based guidelines and in those industry based guidelines. Some wind projects do not have to account for the emissions in that concrete base.
David Blackmon [00:28:17] Right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:28:18] So oil and gas companies have to account for all the emissions in their operations, in their reserves and all that kind of stuff, which is crazy to account for the as part of your absolute emissions, your reserves. Like, really? But the wind projects don’t. It’s specifically excluded. The foundation and the transport of the turbine to the location where they will be erected. So it’s like this skewing of an investor decision making towards wind projects, because their their emissions number will be so much lower than anything else with respect to energy.
Irina Slav [00:29:00] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:29:01] Yeah. And it’s it’s just. And it’s. Anyway when, when needs to go away. So there’s a lot less of a problem because you don’t have big foundations like that under the ground. You know, the first hailstorm comes through is going to destroy all those all those solar panels, and you just hear it down and cart it off. And so but the one last question I have about this Irina, I wonder if there’s an answer somewhere since, the farmers are getting the solar installations free of charge, who becomes liable for taking all that down when the hailstorm comes through and destroyed? It’s a.
Irina Slav [00:29:33] Great question. I have not.
David Blackmon [00:29:36] You know.
Stuart Turley [00:29:37] The contract that I’m seeing, guys, is that the I think Tammy had mentioned that or alluded to it. And that is if the company is still in business and, I think this is.
David Blackmon [00:29:50] Which most of them won’t be, by the way.
Stuart Turley [00:29:52] Exactly. Yeah. Tom, Tom, again, shout out to Tom wheel blaming fine print as ridiculous. Not reading the fine print is illogical. We’re all adults and should always read the fine print. Major decisions. I, I quit doing that after I said I do. By the orders. Your, after signing. I did, and she’s still in control. And did I just say that?
David Blackmon [00:30:19] Comment on.
Stuart Turley [00:30:20] Yeah. No, it’s as well she should be my my beloved wife.
David Blackmon [00:30:24] Well, we need to go back because Iryna has one more story.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:27] She has one more story.
Irina Slav [00:30:28] Oh, I was just. That was just for fun. Really? Well, it is funny. A Trump presidency would risk $1 trillion in clean energy investment, said would Mac. How that’s actually what’s.
David Blackmon [00:30:43] Happened to.
Irina Slav [00:30:44] Is meant for Trump. Because when they say investments, they mean subsidies. Yes. That are coming out of your pockets.
David Blackmon [00:30:55] It’s just so and WoodMac not the only one, but I like to pick on them because they they’re so public about it. All these, not all of them, but many of these big consulting firms that traditionally have consulted in the energy space have just gone full woke, and you end up with this kind of headline of a story.
Irina Slav [00:31:15] Yeah, yeah.
David Blackmon [00:31:16] You know, I mean.
Irina Slav [00:31:17] Really calculated it.
David Blackmon [00:31:19] And they’re really behind the curve here, folks. For those of you with WoodMac, I want you to understand this all is starting to reverse, okay? This energy transition is not going to succeed. It’s going to be a major, unmitigated disaster. And you guys are headed in the wrong direction. Two directions now about here. And it’s going back this way. And that’s because of science and physics. And it’s not going to be reversed. So
Stuart Turley [00:31:49] and physical.
David Blackmon [00:31:50] You’re changing the rhetoric here.
Stuart Turley [00:31:52] I’d like to throw one more squirrel in there on your your comment. It’s science. Physics and fiscal irresponsibility can only be, you know, kept up for so long.
David Blackmon [00:32:03] Right. Anyway. I’m terrible. I shouldn’t have said that. But it is what it is out there now.
Stuart Turley [00:32:11] I got me at international. I wonder who this LinkedIn user is. Tell me about me at the international said this isn’t me. Yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, this this this. Sorry.
David Blackmon [00:32:25] I’m not sure what that means.
Stuart Turley [00:32:27] I don’t either, but it was funny. Like the other. I mean, I don’t any big words.
Tammy Nemeth [00:32:31] I don’t know.
Irina Slav [00:32:32] But if you.
Tammy Nemeth [00:32:35] Okay, so these are my stories. The one on the left is the feds give financial boost to biofuel sector amid growing U.S. competition. So this is Canada. And, in the latest budget they’re putting I think it’s something like one point almost 1.3 billion towards building new biofuel facilities throughout Canada. And they they disbursed up to 500 million. And they’re saying they can pay for it by collecting from clean fuel regulation compliance payments, like or using it to tax people for not being clean enough and then use that to make to fund biofuels. I don’t know, something like that. But one of the what stood out for me in this article was that they’re talking about how biofuels can be made from lots of different materials, like corn or vegetable oils, like, canola or animal fats. And the animal fat one caught my eye because when you look at these new wood windmills that they’re building, these new blades that are made out of wood, I was like, okay, so what’s the resin that they’re using to preserve this wood? And it turns out that they’re using various like coconut oil and animal fats that they’re incorporating into the wood.
Irina Slav [00:34:02] Well, it’s just.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:04] Right. But but the thing is okay, so then you’re using.
Stuart Turley [00:34:07] You’re going to cure.
Irina Slav [00:34:08] Water supply. You might as.
Stuart Turley [00:34:10] Well use all the animals that they’re going to get rid of.
Irina Slav [00:34:14] And you want me?
Stuart Turley [00:34:17] I think you’re. Great.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:18] You cannot eat it. But we’ll use it for wind turbines. I anyway, so Canada, Canada wants to invest a bunch in this biofuel sector because when they’re banning the, you know, internal combustion engine, they are allowing hybrids to continue. And I think they’re going to try and go like Germany where Germany said, we don’t want to ban the internal combustion engine, but we want to be able to use biofuels or sustainable fuels or something like that. So maybe that’s why they’re partially. Well, they’re big in subsidizing, the biofuels aspect. And then the other article is in the UK and it’s North Sea, Chevron has pulled out. They were like one of the first big companies to develop the North Sea. And they’re pulling out. And they pulled out the the day after a big meeting was held between Shell and Ithaca and BP. And I forget there was a harbor energy at Harbor Energy. And because they were trying to pressure the government to lessen its windfall tax, because right now, the windfall tax on North Sea developments and production is 75%. So and and it’s extended out to like 2027. I’m like, what do you think the war is going to go on until 2027? Because that was the excuse for why they needed this windfall tax. And so the next day, Chevron said that’s it. We’re done in the North Sea. But then they said, oh, but it wasn’t about the windfall tax. We’re just looking at, you know, where investment is best made and so on. And we’ve decided North Sea, isn’t it? But it begs the question, what? Why is the North.
David Blackmon [00:36:10] What’s the biggest factor. Yeah, the windfall tax, the biggest factor in that. Right. Right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:15] But they were dancing around the water. No, it’s not the windfall. Well, why can’t you just say it? Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:36:20] Just say it. Be honest, people. Be blunt.
Irina Slav [00:36:22] Yeah. Yeah, long and better.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:26] But I suspect if labor gets in and it’s likely they’re going to get in there talking about nationalization and shutting it down and everything else. So
Irina Slav [00:36:35] this is great. That will lose any sort of revenue from North Sea oil and gas.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:41] But it’s dirty, right? Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:36:44] You don’t. Want. Any. Dollars.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:45] Dirty.
Stuart Turley [00:36:50] Yeah I need to go get a shower after this conversation.
David Blackmon [00:36:52] I cannot make this stuff up. No.
Stuart Turley [00:36:55] I’m really I’m feeling dirty after this one. Did I just finish this? Sorry. Did I?
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:00] You said it out loud.
David Blackmon [00:37:01] Oh, boy. These are mine. So. Yeah. This, the one on the left here. New report reveals just how energy rich America really is. Is from the Institute for Energy Research. My friends over there, Dan Kish and Tom Pyle, is the president of that wonderful think tank in Washington, DC. They put out published a new report last week, showing just exactly how energy rich and I would use the term energy dominant. The United States of America is in oil, gas and coal. We have enough coal reserves for 900 proven coal reserves, which means the ones we’ve already begun tapping, 934 years at current usage rates, natural gas, 130 years in proven reserves. And, something like a thousand years, in, in reserves in place. If we if only 50% of them end up becoming economic in the coming years, and oil reserves for three centuries. And, you know, it’s just we have more reserve, double the amount of reserves in place that Saudi Arabia does in oil. Far more natural gas, than any combination of countries on the face of the Earth that you want to name. And, our government, our current administration is seems to be focused and very intent upon squandering them and leaving them in the ground. And, no other country on earth I would submit to you, other than possibly the UK to me. Sorry for picking on the UK. Would even dream of leaving that kind of enormous mineral wealth in place, for posterity. And.
Stuart Turley [00:38:47] Don’t leave.
David Blackmon [00:38:48] Quickly insane for the United States.
Stuart Turley [00:38:50] To. You know, Tammy’s feeling a little bit, slighted that you’re just dissing, the UK and not just in Canada. You mean Canada wants to leave? Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:38:59] Listen, man, Canada’s an oil powerhouse. You know, despite, Trudeau’s rhetoric.
Stuart Turley [00:39:04] They used to be there. Want to leave it here?
David Blackmon [00:39:08] No, man, that new pipeline. Think of all the additional productions coming out of the oil sands now because of that new pipeline going out the Pacific coast there. Canada’s a powerhouse. And.
Stuart Turley [00:39:19] And.
David Blackmon [00:39:19] Yeah, there’s a lot of respect.
Tammy Nemeth [00:39:20] They want a production cap. They want a convention. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:39:23] Yeah, but if they do that, they know they’re going to lose the election. So, they’re probably going to lose it anyway.
Irina Slav [00:39:29] Let them do it.
David Blackmon [00:39:30] Yeah, yeah, let them do it. Please. Yes, please. Yeah, yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:39:35] Now they’re talking about Mark Carney taking over from Trudeau.
David Blackmon [00:39:38] Oh my god.
Irina Slav [00:39:39] Oh
David Blackmon [00:39:42] What’s the lady’s name. That’s the economy minister. What’s her name.
Tammy Nemeth [00:39:46] Chrystia Freeland, our finance minister.
David Blackmon [00:39:48] Finance. Oh my God. Wow
Tammy Nemeth [00:39:51] Yeah. Carney, we’re on the board of directors for the World Economic Forum. She’s still on there, but Carney left about eight months ago as he was prepping to, take over the Liberal Party, I think. Oh, man.
David Blackmon [00:40:08] Wow. Anyway, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s worse in the United States, but still, it’s just hard to imagine how how people, so obviously so obviously phony and destructive get. You know, just get keep falling up in life and getting increasingly powerful jobs in life. Anyway. DeSantis signs a law slashing climate agenda directives targeting adversary investments. Ron DeSantis, the greatest governor in the United States of America, today, signed a wonderful energy bill towards the end of last week that, almost eliminates the discussion of climate change from Florida’s, regulatory structure. It outlaws the placement of offshore anywhere in the state waters. Yeah, I.
Stuart Turley [00:41:01] Heard all these.
David Blackmon [00:41:01] Anywhere in state. When it incentivizes natural gas and power generation and nuclear and power generation. And of course, the the climate alarm lobby went insane and the news media attacked him on every front. You can imagine the, the The Washington Post, my favorite deal was from the Washington Post, which writes that the desantis’s new law, energy laws, put the focus, for power generation back on to reliability and, and, affordability. Two very popular right wing talking points. Okay. So reliability.
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:47] Oh my God
David Blackmon [00:41:49] At the Washington Post, it all boils down to reliability and affordability and power generation, which were the objectives and should still be the objectives for decades and decades are now nothing more than right wing talking points.
Irina Slav [00:42:03] Yeah, problematic reliability and affordability problem.
David Blackmon [00:42:09] It’s just crazy. It’s just insane. It’s absolutely insane through the Looking Glass kind of stuff. So anyway, thank you and congratulations to governor DeSantis for signing those bills.
Stuart Turley [00:42:18] But that’s actually really cool.
David Blackmon [00:42:20] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:42:21] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:42:23] Hey, our hearts and prayers go out to all the folks in Houston this weekend. Was it, David, I believe between, Louisiana and Houston on Friday. I watched it all all weekend. We had, 1.2 million to 1.3 million people without power on used in, in, Texas and Louisiana. And as of this morning, we still have 230,000 people without power. And there were some high winds that came through and took out, major grid sections. So I want to go on a soapbox for just one second. Please, everybody prepare for either manmade or natural disasters. Get a little jackery. It’s the brand that I use. They can I they’re not sponsoring the show or anything, but, 200 bucks or bucks for a small electrical generator and a little generator. You know, solar panel. That’s actually a great use for the solar. And those things get a little bit of security for your house. Have a plan, have a 72 hour bag, and just have basic supplies for tornadoes. We’ve had a lot of tornadoes. We’ve had a lot of disasters. And there’s a lot of grid, instability, gaming coming around the corner. For many reasons. So everybody, please just take care. And I have to give a handout. Hug a lineman if you have power, hug alignment when he’s working, but wait till he gets to his truck and you give him a hug and and, you know, so, David, on this this had a lot of, things going on on this. This was just out of the blue. Straight winds, high winds.
David Blackmon [00:44:21] Yeah. Hurricane force.
Stuart Turley [00:44:22] And.
David Blackmon [00:44:23] Yeah. And, you know, Houston’s, a tough place to live sometimes in the spring, particularly when you get into late spring like this. It’s, weather can be incredible down there.
Stuart Turley [00:44:34] It is. And, the cockroaches, when I was, I worked out of there for quite a while, and, the cockroaches are so big that I trained one of them to get a beer. It’s pretty impressive the size of those things. Let me let me go over here to this one. Low carbon fuel groups in U.S. prompt issuance of tax credit guidance. And, Tammy, this one has a lot to do with, the, neutral production credit represents a first time and federal tax incentive based on lifecycle greenhouse gas emission rates to incentivize domestic, production of fuels. it’s unbelievable. And Canada is now having to interact with this and going, hey, that’s not right. So, anyway, let’s see here. This is a great comment I enjoy. This is from David, Alioto. I hope I get your name right. David. I enjoy listening to different feedback from Andrew on my question. Are there any solutions that work or do they all have problems?
Irina Slav [00:45:51] Solutions for.
David Blackmon [00:45:52] Nuclear. Nuclear fission. It works. We know it works so well.
Irina Slav [00:45:57] Just what?
Stuart Turley [00:45:59] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:46:00] Energy transition alternatives, I think, is probably what we.
Irina Slav [00:46:03] Will stop, stop, stop subsidizing these monstrous wind farms.
David Blackmon [00:46:09] Yes.
Stuart Turley [00:46:11] I, I would like to say a balanced diet of, of, energy is what we need. We need to use all forms of energy. As far as I’m concerned. I’m energy agnostic from the standpoint of let’s deliver the lowest kilowatt per hour to everyone on the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment and not printing money. That means that natural gas is good, coal is good if it’s used, you know, correctly, and you can start learning to use some of those things. One of the things that just drives me nuts, guys, is the whole simple fact that we should not be dictating, from the West to Africa. Why in the world should we force them to go to renewable energy when it’s not fiscally sustainable?
David Blackmon [00:47:05] Let’s let’s specially when we’re not forcing India and China to do it. I mean, me and John are just going.
Irina Slav [00:47:11] Well, because you can’t force them, David. You can’t force.
David Blackmon [00:47:15] Well, exactly.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:16] Exactly. You know, China China’s doing what’s two pointed out. They’re doing everything.
Irina Slav [00:47:21] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:21] They’ve got the wind, the solar, the coal, the natural gas, the nuclear. They’re building more of everything and get it right. We’re saying, no, you can’t do this, can’t do that. And and they I mean, are there any solutions that work if you’re talking about emissions, if that’s the big elephant, whatever that they want to talk about is emissions. The thing the problem is. It doesn’t work. We know it doesn’t work. But they want to swap everything over before they’ve worked out what doesn’t work. And so by putting by taking out stuff that’s reliable and affordable and efficient, before there’s a replacement ready, then that creates a big problem for how people live. And it goes to what David had been saying earlier in the discussion that it ends up making people poorer. If people are poor, they really don’t care about the environment. They care about surviving. And when you’re in survival mode, then you’re not really caring about other stuff. So if we have, you know, reliable, affordable energy that gives us the time and the leisure to worry about things like the environment.
David Blackmon [00:48:35] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:48:36] Yeah, I think David does have a good point here. And he says, new massive data centers are the major users and energy. David, I think he’s got a very strong point, and that is that we are going to see more natural gas generation kicking in because of AI and data centers. And the demand for, the EIA put out. And I have to fact check myself, which is normal, that wives do a great job of fact checking, you know, their husbands, and at least they should. And, we need more energy. The EIA says that we have never seen this big of an energy increase in 20% in years. And I mean, if we don’t go all in on natural gas plants, we will have an increase in deep deindustrialization with carbon increase.
David Blackmon [00:49:36] So I’m going to even go further than you used to.
Stuart Turley [00:49:39] Okay.
David Blackmon [00:49:39] I’m going to say we are within the next 2 or 3 years in the United States going to stop retiring coal plants because we won’t be able to afford to. And we may even find a way to start permitting the building of new coal plants in certain situations. Because we’re going to have to have it to keep grid reliability a thing. And, and it’s mainly going to be driven by just what David Alioto says. AI data centers, are proliferating all over the country. They’re they are incredible energy hogs, incredible energy hogs. And, we’re not going to be able to meet those power demands with, with, you know, with you just can’t solar and wind and and battery centers are okay. I mean, they’re a niche product that provides some, some pretty good, generation during certain parts of the day when the weather’s right. But but we’re going to have to double and triple the size of our grid, the generation capacity of our grid. And we just going to have to, like Stu says, keep building gas plants. And I believe we’re going to see situations where we’re going to permit the building of new coal plants in the coming years as well, because we have so much of it. First of all, it’s economically insane not to take advantage of that incredible energy resource wealth. And you can I mean, you’re we’re already taking out 99% of the real pollution pollutants produced by modern coal plants today. So, you know, and eventually the world’s going to stop focusing on fake pollution and refocus on real pollution. And that is when the United States and other countries will again start taking advantage of their coal resources.
Tammy Nemeth [00:51:32] Can I add to that? David, because when we talk about the energy requirements for AI and data centers, what are we using the AI and data centers for? Because on the one hand, we’re all told we have to change our life to not use as much energy. And but in the next breath, they’re like, well, we need to build more energy so we can have AI and data centers, right? Or what if we’re not allowed to live our lives using reliable, affordable energy? Then why the heck should we be building new power plants for AI and data centers and less? Well, I mean.
Irina Slav [00:52:08] What do they do to conserve energy and use less energy for all those small pieces that we’re going to build that are going to be mandatory? Probably.
David Blackmon [00:52:16] Well, I’ll tell you what. Some of them are far in Northern Virginia. Dominion Energy said it’s going to have to keep a nuclear plant online or constellation. I think it was. They’re going to have to keep a nuclear plant online that they were planning to retire just to supply, the power needs. I think it’s five data centers in Northern Virginia. Well, think about who’s in Northern Virginia, folks. Yeah. All the alphabet agencies of the intelligence community, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and all the other intelligence agencies of the United States are in Northern Virginia. So what’s the what’s that I going to be used for? It’s going to be used for spying on all of us. Okay. That’s what it’s going to be used for. And if you know, it’s going to double the amount of power generation needed.
Irina Slav [00:53:06] Priorities David, priorities.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:06] Priorities.
David Blackmon [00:53:07] Priorities. That’s right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:08] How dare you keep that stove on?
Irina Slav [00:53:11] Absolutely.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:14] No natural gas stove for, you know.
Stuart Turley [00:53:19] So it was the Seinfeld that has a new, stove Nazi now. It was it.
David Blackmon [00:53:31] Oh my God. I didn’t think of that. That’s awesome.
Stuart Turley [00:53:32] Yeah. The stove Nazi, the. That I love that Seinfeld episode. No, no soup for you.
Irina Slav [00:53:41] That’s a classic. How can you remember? Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:53:44] All right. We had a lot of great comments today, guys. You guys did great. Oh, hey.
David Blackmon [00:53:51] Don’t you have another video to share?
Stuart Turley [00:53:53] Yeah. Do we. Can we do you play? Does your husband play jokes on you at all?
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:59] He knows better not to
Stuart Turley [00:54:02] Here’s why. Let’s take a look at this. This one was pretty funny.
Irina Slav [00:54:20] No, you’re not sorry.
Stuart Turley [00:54:22] Okay. Never do that to your wife. Guys. I just want to give you a safety tip because it helps.
David Blackmon [00:54:29] I love how she claimed at the end that she hit him in the leg.
Stuart Turley [00:54:32] No, I love her in the in the video. And seeing that she’s doing this. That was real. I mean, that was not a setup, but more. That guy really got her. So anyway, for you guys, thank you.
David Blackmon [00:54:43] Thank you to everyone with your comments and questions.
Irina Slav [00:54:47] That was a great discussion. Have a great week.
David Blackmon [00:54:50] All right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:54:50] Bye.
David Blackmon [00:54:51] Thank you all.
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