March 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Join Zach Torpie and Katie Zakrzewski as they dive into the complexities of conservative environmentalism in this episode of Green Tea Party Radio! They explore the latest developments in environmental policy, including the intriguing nomination of Lee Zeldin as the head of the EPA and Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy. With a mix of humor and insightful analysis, they dissect the implications of these appointments, Zeldin’s mixed voting record, and Wright's focus on natural gas and geothermal energy.
The episode kicks off with some light-hearted banter about an upcoming play in London that dramatizes the negotiations of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and then Katie asks OpenAI to help her write her own.
The duo also shares their thoughts on the importance of balancing economic interests with environmental stewardship, while encouraging listeners to engage with their representatives on these pressing issues. Grab your mugs and tune in for a lively discussion on the intersection of politics, energy, and conservation!
🗣️ Quote from Zach
"I think there's a frantic push to hurry up and do something quick so you can say you were effective."
"Chris Wright is a solid Secretary of energy, as we could hope for under President Trump."
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Disclaimer: Green Tea Party Radio is an independent project and does not represent the views of the Diocese of Little Rock, Catholic Climate Covenant, or any of our employers.
🗣️ Quote from Katie
"Protecting the environment is one of the few things I think the government should do."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Zach (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss
conservative solutions to environmental problems. My name is Zach
Torpy.
>> Katie (00:06):
And I'm Katie Zachresky. Together, we'll guide you through
complex issues and provide strategies to address them
all while remaining faithful to our conservative values.
>> Zach (00:15):
Trust me, it'll be a good time.
>> Katie (00:16):
Yeah, uh, it's a party, so grab your mugs and, uh,
we'll pour the tea.
>> Zach (00:20):
So, Katie, before we get into any negative banter, I did
have some good, funny news I saw
on, um, newsletter I get.
>> Katie (00:28):
I am ready.
>> Zach (00:29):
In London, they are opening a play
going over the dramas of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol negotiations.
>> Katie (00:36):
Ooh, really?
>> Zach (00:38):
I'm glad Environmental international cooperation
is getting its own play now.
>> Katie (00:42):
Yes, it's, uh. We finally made it, gang. If you.
If you thought Kyoto Protocol was as good, just wait till there's a
Kyoto Protocol, too. So.
So I. I can't wait. Um, but, yeah,
no, how interesting. I hope it's a musical. I just want to see
what. What they would do with that. I'm going to. Let me. Let me ask
my assistant, Ched, GPT, who is not good for the environment,
(01:03):
what that would look like. Right. Be a
musical. Yeah. So where'd
you. Tell me a little bit more about that. Where did you see that?
>> Zach (01:11):
Uh, that was in my International Intrigue, uh,
newsletter, which is a, uh, geopolitical newsletter.
I follow. They also have a podcast.
>> Katie (01:19):
How interesting. Yeah, I was about to say, let's just get
all of our good, cheery, uh, fun facts out of the way, since
those are hard to come by these days. That. That's the.
You said. You said it.
>> Zach (01:29):
Yeah.
>> Katie (01:29):
How interesting. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I'm looking through this
right now. I'm about to play Kot.
What was the. What was the preview here? The tagline? It sounded like it was going to be
good. Let me find it. This sharp, searing, and
darkly comic story of the moment all nations tried to
set aside their differences for the sake of the planet. And then
I woke up. How interesting. How
interesting. Two and a half hours long.
>> Zach (01:51):
Slappy. Some happy notes for our. For
the environmental crew while we, uh, suffer through what
is looking like a dark retraction.
>> Katie (02:00):
Oh, my God. Yeah. These are the dark ages. Everybody who's in college
right now, you picked a real good time to be in school, because there's going to be a whole lot
of shit to fix when you get out. So good luck. Everybody
else.
Oh, I did want to say, uh, this is. This is what I was going to bring
up for banter. This is so random. This is
almost not even environmental. But it is my annual
tradition to revisit this. It's my favorite tweet. I've got it
(02:20):
bookmarked. It's the only tweet worth checking Twitter for now. It
is a scan of a letter from
the archbishop of the Diocese of New Orleans dated
March 3, 2010. This is a whole letter. I'll read it for
you. Dear Jim, thank you very much for your
letter on February 24, 2010, concerning the
question of whether or not alligator is acceptable to eat during
(02:40):
the Lenten season. Yes, the alligator is
considered to be in the fish family. And I agree with you. God
has created a magnificent creature, so much so that it's
important to the state of Louisiana and is still considered
seafood. Wishing you God's blessings. I am sincerely
in Christ. So for all
of you out there who are observing your Lenten Friday
(03:01):
abstinence from meat alligators on the menu.
>> Zach (03:04):
Very interesting. I, uh.
>> Katie (03:05):
Thank you.
>> Zach (03:05):
Louisiana never part took.
>> Katie (03:07):
Yeah, I was about to say.
>> Zach (03:08):
I think I will.
>> Katie (03:09):
We need to add. Yeah, look, alligator is good,
but I want to know about turtle. Is turtle acceptable? Is that
a meat? Where do you draw the line? What about
frog? Where does that sit? You know what? I'm just going
to avoid anything that had a pulse at any point on
Fridays during lint, just to be safe. Although I do agree
alligator's a magnificent creature.
>> Zach (03:28):
Going vegetarian is a little difficult, but not the hardest
thing.
>> Katie (03:31):
Honestly, just eat your good old baked potato and some Mac and cheese and
you're good on Friday.
>> Zach (03:35):
Yeah. And I, me and my girlfriend recently discovered the
wonders of seitan. Or seitan.
>> Katie (03:40):
Seitan.
>> Zach (03:41):
It cooks really easy and it is
vegetarian. And. But it's not. It is not gluten free. It's like,
all gluten. So interesting, but very
delicious.
>> Katie (03:50):
Um, and only because I just now reopened the window and forgot
that I asked. My assistant, Chatgpt, did indeed
write me a musical on the Kyoto Protocol. Opening chorus
lines. We're on the brink the world's in distress Climate
change is causing great regress the heat is rising,
storms are near Now's the time, let's make it
clear. Thank you, chatgpt. I'm probably
frying the planet with this as we speak.
>> Zach (04:12):
Uh, good little poem it gave us.
>> Katie (04:13):
But, hey, you know what? Good little poem to get the show started with.
So, speaking of which, now that we've bantered on all
things light and cheery that are probably left in the universe this
week, Zach, what are we talking about today?
>> Zach (04:24):
So today I thought we'd take a look at two of Trump
Cabinet picks for to head the EPA
and the Department of Energy.
>> Katie (04:31):
That sounds great.
>> Zach (04:32):
Lee Zeldin.
>> Katie (04:33):
And I love his songs.
>> Zach (04:34):
Right.
>> Katie (04:35):
Great music.
Stairway to Heaven is really good.
>> Zach (04:40):
So Lee Zeldin's background. He is a native
New Yorker, like myself. Went to college at
SUNY Albany, where He got his JD. He served in
Iraq in 2006 and was elected to
state senate in 2010 to represent
Suffolk county on Long Island.
>> Katie (04:56):
All right.
>> Zach (04:56):
And to the larger, to federal
Congress. Uh, in 2015, as a
state senator, he worked to repeal the saltwater fishing
license tax, repeal the MTA payroll tax.
He's not a fan of the mta. I figured that out reading through his,
uh, articles.
>> Katie (05:12):
He makes a cameo.
>> Zach (05:14):
Really did not like the MTA and
railroads.
Wrote the law that protects our fallen veterans and their families from
protests at military burials. Great law. Great.
>> Katie (05:26):
Mhm.
>> Zach (05:26):
Secured funding for the PFC
Joseph Dwyer Program, a statewide
program to help returning vets cope with post
Traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. And as
a state senator, he proposed slashing the MTA public transit
budget numerous times.
>> Katie (05:42):
Another cameo from the mta.
>> Zach (05:44):
Not a fan. Which, the LIRR really
is pretty terrible, but I've heard it's gotten better since
I left.
>> Katie (05:52):
There you go.
>> Zach (05:53):
In 2022, he, uh, unsuccessfully ran for governor of
New York, where he lost to Kathy Hochul, who
is, from my understanding, just the
wettest of paper towels. As a politician,
yes.
>> Katie (06:05):
Uh, definitely, uh, somebody's cardboard cut out that they've put there
for a little while until they find somebody else.
>> Zach (06:12):
And he ran on record of being pro fracking
and fossil fuel expansion and wanted to increase
pipeline connectivity throughout New York.
>> Katie (06:20):
Okay.
>> Zach (06:22):
The Sierra Club notes that he has taken
$410,000 in lobbying money from the oil and gas
industry.
>> Katie (06:27):
Damn. Okay, Led Zeppelin. Geez, save
some for the rest of us, bro.
>> Zach (06:32):
Get paid.
>> Katie (06:34):
Say, man, what a bankroll if the.
>> Zach (06:36):
Lobby industry's throwing it out there.
>> Katie (06:38):
Say, man, I might be. You know what? No, I'm going to
incriminate myself if I say that. Uh, I'm not going to tank this show with
that joke. All right, Keep going.
>> Zach (06:46):
Leave it clean, please. Elgin's
nominal state record of the League of
Conservation Voters gave him a score between 8 and
28 in his eight years in office and an average of
14%. Um, voted to
curtail PFAS numerous time.
Numerous times. Shark finning and offshore
drilling in the Arctic and Pacific, and was generally against
(07:08):
anything that mentioned climate change.
>> Katie (07:10):
Interesting that's kind of a mixed bag
here.
>> Zach (07:13):
Yeah, it's a difficult voting record. It's hard to look at
individual voting records just because. Was there just like, one thing
he, like, really hated or one thing he really liked and supported?
>> Katie (07:23):
Interesting.
>> Zach (07:24):
Voted against the IRA along with every other Republican.
>> Katie (07:27):
Yeah. Everybody else with an arm behind their name. Yeah.
>> Zach (07:29):
Yep. Voted to protect and slash. He voted to
protect and also slash the EPA budget in different
bills.
>> Katie (07:35):
Okay. I guess it all comes out. Or wise. So, uh.
>> Zach (07:40):
Supported climate resiliency for Long, uh, Island and had
some projects I thought were pretty good on climate change. In
2014. Lee said, I'm not sold yet on the whole
argument that we have a serious problem as other people are.
>> Katie (07:52):
Okay.
>> Zach (07:53):
During his confirmation hearing, he did say climate change
was real, but that US Emissions are already going down,
which is where.
>> Katie (08:00):
Where what? Where what?
>> Zach (08:02):
US Emissions have gone down. It's just we went from using coal to
using natural gas, so.
>> Katie (08:07):
Okay, well, we went from having two cancers to one
cancer. Let's help those rookie numbers up, baby.
All right.
>> Zach (08:14):
So technically correct.
>> Katie (08:16):
All right. Okay. Until we'll count it.
>> Zach (08:20):
And ah, also during his confirmation,
I'll, um, read an excerpt. I wanted to play this, but I had not brought it
up. Lee Selden said,
senator, United States emissions have been going down over the course of the
last couple of decades. Unfortunately, there are other
countries where it is not going the same direction. Now I would say that we
will have that we have never done enough to ensure
(08:41):
that our water and our air is clean, safe and
healthy. Whatever we do every day to achieve this objective, we need
to wake up the next day looking for war more,
for ways to do more.
>> Katie (08:50):
Interesting. Man. This
is. Jeez. This is really kind of a.
I don't even know how to like.
It's like somebody like, took all the different environmental perspectives
and threw them in a hat, pro and con, and then just pulled
out like 10.
>> Zach (09:05):
Yeah. Pulled a different one out. Different one out every
time.
>> Katie (09:08):
He built on something, man. And it's like, uh,
m. And it's not like it's. It doesn't come across as something
that like, he just like, was like, hey, Reddit, what should I say if I'm
asked about blank? Like, this feels
like I could see him making this argument, though, is a
strange thing.
>> Zach (09:23):
It sounds like the argument for a carbon border
tax or a carbon border adjustment.
>> Katie (09:29):
Mhm. Mhm.
Well, what. Let us introduce you to our little friend. And it's the
carbon price. Whip him out,
boys.
>> Zach (09:37):
So he was confirmed to be the new head of the
EPA under Trump, he's already cut $61 million
in grant programs from the EPA in conjunction with, uh,
Doge God, Elon
Musk's pet project, while he runs numerous other tech
companies at the same time. I really don't know what CEOs do.
>> Katie (09:54):
Can you. Can you imagine if we went back like, a year ago and we were
like, man, Doge is cutting everybody's jobs. And, like, for
us a year ago to be like, what the hell did you just say? Like,
Doge, the meme m coin with the yellow
dog. Yes, the one and only.
>> Zach (10:08):
Um, on a personal anecdotal
level, EPA is also in charge of lead grant program
funding. And as, uh, someone who works in the.
In municipal government and is
working in the lead program, which
is real awful pain in the butt.
>> Katie (10:27):
That's so unfun.
>> Zach (10:28):
KG13 is. All our
funding, all our federal funding is now up in the air, and we have no idea
if we're going to get money, if we're not going to get money, if the program's getting repealed.
>> Katie (10:36):
So, you know, that feels like one of those things that shouldn't be up in the air, you
know? Yeah.
>> Zach (10:40):
I feel like getting rid of lectures.
>> Katie (10:42):
Yeah.
Okay. Do you think this guy. Okay, but, like, be real with me
after we've just read through his track record in its background,
do you think, uh. Because I love to do the whole. If I went back
in time and spoke to myself, whatever. Maybe it's
just because I'm a writer. I have no idea. Do you think if
Lee Zeldin went back in time, like 20
(11:03):
years to Lee Zelda of, like,
2005, and told him, you're going to be the head of the
EPA and you don't believe in climate change,
do you think he'd have believed that, or do you think he would have been like, no,
no shot. I wouldn't take that job anyway. That's goofy.
>> Zach (11:17):
I.
>> Katie (11:17):
It's just as likely. What do you think?
>> Zach (11:19):
As likely as that billionaire who puts his name on
hotels winning the presidency?
>> Katie (11:25):
Ah. Uh, yeah, good point. You got me there. Okay,
Zach, you know what? 20 years ago, there's a lot of things you
could have said people were going to do in 20 years and they wouldn't have believed you. But
here we are.
So. All right, Doge and the guy with the, uh, show
where he fires people and the guy
from home alone. Yeah. And the guy who builds the ugly
trucks, uh, are all together and working
(11:46):
hard.
>> Zach (11:46):
Yeah.
>> Katie (11:47):
Oh, my God.
>> Zach (11:48):
So my thought on Lee Zeldin is It sounds like he really
wants to focus on cutting and making the
EPA leaner and more efficient.
But it also seems in part that he wants to dismantle a
lot of the programs and is in general wants to
reduce the size of the government, which is good, but
what is, I'm not sure what his goal
is at the epa, which is, I guess, something we'll have to wait for and see.
>> Katie (12:10):
Yeah, I don't think anybody knows that. I mean, part of me
wondered like, and I don't think that this is specific to him.
It's probably everybody who's just been put
in a powerful position right now. I think there's the
frantic push to hurry up and do something quick so you can say you
were effective the first 100 days that you were in your
position. But it's like, okay, I know I'm going to cut something, but I
(12:30):
have no idea what I'm going to cut and I need to do something right now
and I have no idea what I'm doing because I just started this job. So cut
everything and then we'll just steadily add back things we can't live
without. That's. Yeah, that's kind of what everything feels
like right now.
>> Zach (12:43):
Yeah. I was listening to um, an interview he was doing and he
sounded very proud of all the things he was cutting. And some of them do sound
ridiculous and like they deserve to be cutting. But I
do wonder in the thought process and how
specific we're cutting and like the, what the impact of those
programs are.
>> Katie (12:59):
Yeah, like what, what will the ripple effect of that be? Because I
like, okay, on the one hand I, I'm an
efficiency wizard, a self proclaimed efficiency wizard. I
would rather we have a, uh, workforce
like just in any given building that's like a third
or two thirds of its original size with people being able to stretch
a dollar farther than they were before. Because we're not paying a bunch of
salaries for people to like work on puzzles in the break room all day
(13:21):
long. But at the same time, like, this is not just like
one isolated small business. This is the
government. So, uh, it's just like, it seems like not even just
environment, but everything government. Lately we've
seen, okay, fire this group, cut
that, get rid of them. Um, and then 12 hours later they go, oh
shit. Those guys were in charge of watching nuclear weapons. Okay,
we'll come back in here, guys. Like, like, it's just like, maybe
(13:44):
we should know what we're doing before we do the thing. Just to
say we did the thing. And I Feel like we're seeing a lot of that in
environment right now. It's like, well, we're cutting this and we're stopping
that. We're not going to regulate that anymore. Okay, well, what do you think that's going to
look like in three months when lead poisoning somewhere
has gone up or when there's no fluoride
any, like, you know what I mean? Like, is that really something we want to
(14:04):
take a, uh, well, let's just wait and see approach with.
Because we used to do that and people got dysentery and died. So can
we just like, not go back to that? Yeah. Like,
uh, come on.
>> Zach (14:14):
Protecting the environment is one of the few things I think the government should
do because bad actors.
>> Katie (14:19):
Yeah.
>> Zach (14:19):
And people in general just. There's no re. There's no
intrinsic reason to protect it unless you're a good person.
Like, it's very much a test of your morality.
>> Katie (14:27):
Yeah.
>> Zach (14:27):
Right.
>> Katie (14:28):
It's like the shopping cart, like returning the shopping cart.
>> Zach (14:31):
That's exactly where I was going.
>> Katie (14:32):
Yeah. Uh, yeah. Of, uh, like political or like moral ideologies
like you. You don't immediately get anything in
return for not throwing your car battery in the
ocean. But it's really cool if you don't throw your car
battery in the ocean.
>> Zach (14:44):
I wonder if the most, one of the most insult things you could say to someone is
you don't look like someone who returned their shopping cart.
>> Katie (14:49):
I absolutely would say that with all the malice in my heart.
I would like, you look like you've never returned a shopping cart a day in
your life. Like, and if you say it
like that, like, genuinely, if somebody said that to me, I think I'd well up
and cry because I'm like, I always returned by shopping
cart. Like, I would just be like, no,
clearly I need to. I need to amend this somehow. Yeah.
(15:10):
The true litmus test of whether or not I'm a good
person is whether or not somebody thinks I'd return the shopping
cart.
>> Zach (15:16):
So, Lee Zeldin, how cutting out. Okay. In
summary, Lee Zeldin seems to be a bit of a mixed bag and a
little unpredictable on the environment. Seems to,
um, be on and off with different issues and vote yes or
no depending on certain aspects of Bill. So it's hard to
predict how he will act as head of the epa. I
am hopeful but not confident.
(15:36):
There could be worse heads of the epa. He has not come out and said he
wants to straight up dismantle the EPA and destroy it,
which I think is the last pick for the head of the
EPA set. Yeah. So improvements.
>> Katie (15:47):
But yeah. And, you know, I don't know, like, maybe I'm
just like more tuned into this kind of language now than
I was before, but I feel like we're seeing a
surge in people who care for creation,
but who don't necessarily buy into climate
change. And like, uh, for example, like the
thing that kind of stood out to me, that made me even kind of go, what? When
(16:07):
I read it, like, as you were going through the stuff that he had like,
voted for and against. Let me find it here. It was
the saltwater fishing license. No, it was
like shark finning. Like that.
>> Zach (16:19):
And yeah, I think he voted against that, which is
great. Shark finning is bad, right?
>> Katie (16:24):
Like, like, so that's what I like. So he's not like some
crazy, like, fat cat
monopoly tycoon who's like, I don't give a shit what you do
with the sharks. Like, clearly he's trying to
vote. At least it looks like this to me. And no telling
what else might have been in that bill that caused him to vote one way or another.
I have no idea. But it just seems kind of like the
things that he's generally voting for are not like a
(16:47):
I'm prioritizing money over anybody's
livelihood. It's. I do believe in caring for
creat, at least not being cruel, at
least being like a responsible hook and bullet
conservationist. But I'm a little iffy
on anything that's economically tied to the science
of climate change, which in a weird way I can
kind of admire and sympathize with. Because it's a start.
>> Zach (17:09):
Yeah, Uh, I think that's a good way to put it. He's very hook and
bullet and very not interested in climate change.
>> Katie (17:15):
Right, right.
>> Zach (17:16):
So, like, again, head of the epa. I feel like
that's fine because you're more focused on
the local issues and polluting rivers and such.
>> Katie (17:25):
I'll give him a year to see what I think, because I'll
give you a year, Mr. Man.
>> Zach (17:29):
So don't come back in a year.
>> Katie (17:31):
And do a rebranding. So don't run around and do anything quick
and crazy. I'll give you a year
because, like, uh, there are some things on here that concern me, but there are also some
things in here that give me hope.
Guarded hope maybe. But I want to see what he
does with it. I want to see where he takes it. This could be really good
because it's a fresh perspective, obviously a more conservative
(17:51):
perspective for the EPA or This could be really bad. So I'll
give it a year. Fact check it. Get audio listeners.
Love you to death. Let us know what you think in a year. But
yeah, so that I'm, I'm glad you brought up his voting record too, Zach.
Ah. That kind of gives you a better idea of some of the stuff he
might do, I guess as we look at our environmentalist crystal ball.
>> Zach (18:08):
Yeah.
And well now we can move on to the second
expose we're working on of the
head of the Department of Energy, Chris Wright, our
Secretary of Energy. I don't know what the proper title is.
>> Katie (18:21):
He's got something to do with energy.
I don't know that they know their job titles at this point, but you.
>> Zach (18:27):
Know, he is a self described energy nerd
and entrepreneur. Uh, he's got
a mechanical engineering degree from mit.
>> Katie (18:35):
Okay.
>> Zach (18:35):
Um, and has done graduate work in MIT
and UC Berkeley in electrical engineering. Founded
Pinnacle Technologies and served as CEO from
1992 to 2006 which
Pinnacle created a hydraulic fracture
mapping technology which is very important for like
measuring um, reservoir energy reservoirs and
natural gas reservoirs underground.
>> Katie (18:57):
Interesting. Okay.
>> Zach (18:58):
How digging forward and bringing up would interact
with the larger system.
>> Katie (19:02):
All right.
>> Zach (19:03):
And helped launch commercial shale gas production in the late
90s. Um,
variant. His company worked on micro seismic
mapping, reservoir mapping
and very. So he's a
very natural gas focused CEO. First
part of his career.
>> Katie (19:21):
Mhm.
>> Zach (19:23):
After the company was sold, he founded Liberty
Energy or he was CEO of Liberty Energy. And his team helped to
expand the shale revolution to include oil as well
as natural gas. He's a big believer in geothermal
energy as well as modular nuclear reactors which
his company has invested in. So he's very much a
natural gas entrepreneur and CEO and
(19:44):
that's where he's been in most of his career. But he has
interests in geothermal energy, which
is I think the close. The closest offshoot
to natural gas and fracking that you get in the renewable
sector, which I support. I hope he really
supports geothermal energy. I think that's one of the. I think it's the
rejected part of renewables along with nuclear that
(20:04):
could really be tapped into by the conservative movement. So I
hope we could put some energy into this
and maybe, maybe I'm.
>> Katie (20:11):
Projecting here, but like never. Let me word
this carefully. Whenever somebody says that they were real big
in the gas industry or something in the 80s or 90s,
I don't fault them for that because there really wasn't much of an
alternative. I mean I think for them they were like whoa, gas
is the clean energy, like to some extent, like it was, you
know, better than anything from before.
>> Zach (20:31):
It's not coal.
>> Katie (20:32):
Yeah, it's not literally though, like it's, it's not coal.
So. So this is pretty clean. It's not as
costlier as, you know, uh, in terms of health and well
being to get as coal as this is the clean energy.
So part of me thinks that like that's what he started in
with good intention even just like having read some of his
background up to this point. So I think he started in it with good
intention and he's not necessarily, you know,
(20:54):
opposed to the idea of clean energy. It's more.
So this is an industry he's been in for a long
time. So obviously that's where his loyalty
is. But at the same time he sounds
open to like you had mentioned, you know, geothermal
energy, modular nuclear reactors. So
that tells me that there is some openness at least to the
idea of, you know, I joined this because it was
(21:17):
better than what we had before. So I'm open to
learning more about what might be better than what we have now,
if that makes sense.
>> Zach (21:24):
Yeah. And he seems to be, he comes off as very
open minded to different energy sources, although he does not like
wind. He has a, uh, bone to pick with wind energy. He says
a lot of you, interestingly. Yeah, he says it's too expensive,
it's an eyesore.
>> Katie (21:36):
Well. And who knows, maybe he uh. And I don't. Is there like a
seismic impact? Like, like. Because it sounds like
he did a lot of micro seismic mapping. I wonder if he's coming at it
from the perspective of um, you know, like what impact might
that have? Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass before I say anything else.
Windmill impact on
seismic. Could there be a tie
there or did the edible just hit? Let's see.
(21:58):
Okay, well, unsurprisingly. Thanks Google
AI. Wind turbines don't cause earthquakes, but
their presence can introduce ground trimmers that can increase
noise levels at nearby seismic monitoring
stations. What the fuck? How
interesting.
>> Zach (22:14):
I mean, I know they have the impacts, uh, when they're driving them down,
especially when they're doing um, like
ocean windmills and.
>> Katie (22:21):
Yeah, so I just didn't know if he like, knew something, you know, pertaining
to something. Anyhow, it sounds like a lot of people have a
gripe about wind energy. I've come across that quite a
bit lately, especially as people have talked about that,
like surrounding the election. It seems like I've heard a lot of
more pushback for wind and Hydro and like the
last five years than there was before. I don't know why. Maybe
(22:41):
it's because we've got newer better things now and they just didn't get
the attention they deserved in the first place. But that's a soapbox
for another day.
>> Zach (22:48):
Yeah.
So at his confirmation hearing he said some interesting things. He
had a. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. He
said I've studied and followed the data the evolution of climate change
for at least 20 years now. It's a global issue, it's a real
issue, it's a challenging issue. And the solution to climate change is
to evolve our energy systems.
>> Katie (23:05):
You know which is. I think I agree with everything he says
there. Yeah, yeah.
>> Zach (23:08):
He says everything correctly but doesn't say anything really of
his own opinion or what he do. Yeah,
it's so it's like a very non answer which is what I
found. It's what I think every confirmation is like. It's
very non committal issues like maybe I will.
>> Katie (23:24):
Yeah. A lot of fence writing and a lot of information
hearings. Yeah, yeah, right, right.
>> Zach (23:29):
He also said that it's different sources in different
circumstances. Our economy today is underpinned by energy
dominantly from oil and natural gas. Coal is our major source of
energy in our country. Nuclear power is a major source of energy in our country.
Hydropower is a major source of energy in our country. Wind and solar
are growing rapidly and geothermal particularly in states like
Nevada is early on but has just
significant running room to become a meaningful source of energy in the
(23:52):
future. Every source of energy that either today or
technology innovation can be a growth engine for affordable,
reliable, secure energy. I'm um, for all of
those. He paints himself and
comes off as very open to any energy source
and very much it's like economically
dependent and is the. I want to develop
everything just like doesn't want to curtail
(24:14):
himself.
>> Katie (24:14):
Well and I know that we've talked about, you know the growing trend
and conservative environmental and even
energy thought. Well including energy thought
being. I'm not a this or
this, I'm an all of the above or I'm a this
and that that. You know there's no one policy
that you can take to the bank and it's going to knock out 100%
of emissions in a certain amount of time. So that's why they
(24:37):
talk about the importance of you know like a carbon price in
complement with solar energy, nuclear
energy, you know a carbon border adjustment mechanism
would be responsible for reducing emissions by this proportion.
So obviously no set one is going to get the
job done by itself. So I think that we've seen this growing
conservative thought towards. You know, I'm all for multiple
(24:57):
of these. I'm, um, for all of these things. And I think that that's
also rooted in that conservative thought of, you know, like,
the free market. Okay, well, let there be all of them being
legal. What is best will be shown in the end to
be the best. But I think the flaw in that is that don't, uh,
forget how much money you're in the oil and gas industry compared
to some of these clean energy industries. Sorry to cut you off, Zach. As you were
(25:17):
saying?
>> Zach (25:18):
And, uh, I think that's a great thought. And I think it's also the
way we regulate and pick winners and
losers, sort of with executive policy and
congressional policy. Like, Biden clearly picked
winners in the wind and renewable
sources, but it's not like he
antagonized fossil fuels. And I believe
that under the Trump administration, they very much feel like
(25:39):
they're picking winners and losers, with the winner being
fossil fuels. And there are antagonizing and
trying to slow down, um,
renewables in what feels like a very pointless way,
like pulling out EV or disconnecting EV
chargers in.
>> Katie (25:55):
The capital and which, like, what's Elon saying about
that? Like, is he just letting that shit slide so he can, like,
try to maneuver, like, do a 40 chest? I have no
idea. Like, if I was him, I don't know that I'd have been able to shut
up about that.
>> Zach (26:07):
Yeah, well, I don't know if Elon even cares anymore because his stock
price is crashing and burning.
>> Katie (26:13):
True. He's freaking out. You and I had talked a little
bit about that the other day.
Zach, do you want to hit us with some Zach's facts on that real quick on
how you're feeling about everything going on with Tesla right now? I know,
like, not maybe six months ago we did the
episode on you buying a Tesla and then all this
shit started.
>> Zach (26:30):
Yeah. Um, so sorry, Zach.
>> Katie (26:33):
Oh, man.
>> Zach (26:33):
Yeah. So I'm a heavy and early investor in Tesla. I have
made a lot of money with Tesla. I'm still very much up in
Tesla. But it has hurt to see so much of my
money burned down to the ground because Elon Musk
decided to send his in air quotes,
heart out to people or to Trump in
particular. And let's
call a spade a spade. Don't Nazi salute.
>> Katie (26:56):
In my country, it was a Roman salute.
Those. And the swastika
is an ancient Buddhist symbol or Hindu
civil. I Have no idea.
>> Zach (27:05):
I don't know what, what's changed in our country, but I've
always thought it's okay to kill a Nazi.
>> Katie (27:10):
Yeah. I mean, and I mean, yeah. And I even
saw somebody the other day who said, I don't even remember what it
was. Maybe I dreamt it. At this point I need to go to bed. But
I remember somebody saying like, you know, 20 years ago we, we
punched people like that when they opened their
mouths around us. And now we're
encouraging it. And I was like, yeah, more people
like that need to get knocked the fuck out. Yeah. Ah.
(27:34):
On next week's episode of
we're going to talk about how to Punch a Nazi. Why?
>> Zach (27:41):
Turning to Chris Wright.
>> Katie (27:42):
Yeah, sorry, Chris Wright, go ahead.
>> Zach (27:44):
Um, in his post appointment, some interviews I've been reading
up up on and watching, he's encouraged Africa
to develop all its energy capabilities and called the
west talking down to Africa about energy policy
being renewable. Paternalistic, post colonial
attitude which.
>> Katie (28:00):
Whoa, bro. Passed the speech check all right.
>> Zach (28:03):
Yeah. Which I think is completely fair and
justified because m. It is unfair for
those in the west and the developed countries to talk
down to people about being environmental
and good for the environment when they don't even have energy
and we have so much resources and are the cause
of so much of the pollution. So we can't really dictate to
(28:23):
these poor countries and how they should develop their
end resources and take care of their environment because we
did a terrible job. The blame of climate change is on, um, the
West.
>> Katie (28:32):
Correct.
>> Zach (28:33):
But I also do think
developing distributed sources of
energy is good for Africa in general. Just because
it is cheaper to put out solar panels than to build a whole coal
plant. And a lot of these people won't be able to get together millions of
dollars to develop these coal and natural
gas plants.
>> Katie (28:52):
Mhm.
>> Zach (28:52):
Distribute energy may be better for the individuals in Africa,
but it's very difficult to. You can't dictate to these
countries how.
>> Katie (28:58):
Right, yeah. If we. They can't on.
And I mean, and you hear this argument so frequently here in the
west, you'll hear people say, oh my gosh, well, we gotta do it for
countries like Africa. Um, you know, countries
that, you know, we should be forgiving our debts to them. We should
be addressing climate change because they're the ones that are most
adversely impacted by it. And then as soon as they bring
(29:18):
something up, we're like, now, now, wait a second, buddy. Like
you. Do you know who you're talking to right now? Like,
okay, which is it gonna be, are we gonna save them or
are we gonna shame them? So, like, like which.
>> Zach (29:29):
And the African Energy Chamber
endorsed Chris Wright after that, which is
okay. So they, they want to be
independent and develop their sources as they see fit and not be
dictated to, which.
>> Katie (29:41):
Is, you know, yeah, understandable. I'd want to
as well.
>> Zach (29:45):
On climate change, he has said the cure was far
more disruptive than the disease, which I feel like has become a,
uh, common conservative turning point
on climate change, where it's, yes, it's real, but
what we're doing to prevent it is worse for society
than what climate change will do.
>> Katie (30:01):
Which, I mean, my response to that would then be, okay, well
then what do you propose? And it better not be going back to
what we did before.
>> Zach (30:08):
Yeah, honestly, I think while these times I want to put the numbers in front
of them, I'm like, the levelized cost of energy for solar and
wind is on par with natural gas. Like, coal isn't even
competitive anymore. Like, you're not going to bring coal back.
>> Katie (30:20):
Yeah, like, let's, let's get over that pipe dream, dude. It ain't
1850 anymore. Like, like, forget it.
>> Zach (30:25):
You ain't spit shining, rubbing that coal to make it clean.
>> Katie (30:28):
Yeah, you're, you're, you're straight goofing if you think
for a minute that people are going to go back to getting black
lung or whatever to make coal a thing again. Stop
trying to make coal fetch, okay, get out of here.
>> Zach (30:39):
Wright has also defended Trump's executive order that prevents wind
development in offshore areas. And in my mind
that's just dictating to developers where
they can and cannot develop. And I don't know, that
sounds pretty nanny state to me.
>> Katie (30:52):
And now I will say I
would rather like if I had to pick between driving
past an ugly ass field full of windmills compared
to, like sticking them off on the side of the ocean where I'm not
gonna see them. I'd rather stick them off where I'm not gonna see
them.
>> Zach (31:07):
But, but the rich people will see them then.
>> Katie (31:09):
But the rich people, though, and their yachts, damn
it, they don't want to look at them. How dare we
plebeians ask for more.
>> Zach (31:16):
So in my mind, Chris Wright comes out as a very
knowledgeable technocrat who understands
his work, understands the broader energy industry, and is an
expert in fracking. He supports all energy very
broadly, but it's very much in line with Trump's
view of drill, baby, drill and develop fossil fuels,
that climate change is not
a priority. And, but he is very
(31:38):
vocally supports nuclear and geothermal, which is. I think,
which is what I would like Republicans to transition to
is instead of just being antagonizing to
renewables, is pick that. Pick renewables
that you support and support them. Instead of just saying
wind and. Wind and solar suck. Be like
geothermal and nuclear are worth investing in. We should
support these and help make these a bigger part of our
(32:01):
energy breakdown.
>> Katie (32:02):
I agree, and I don't even.
And on another side note, I swear to God, I won't keep us
long now. We so long already. But I feel
like only within the last year have I heard people try to dunk on
solar. What is the argument for that? Where
did that come from? Who started doing that?
>> Zach (32:18):
I think solar has really lost its flair because
of interest rates. I think as soon as interest rates started
climbing, solar becomes less and less appealing. It's because you treat solar
like mortgage. Uh, so if you're getting a low interest
rate, you're paying less for your solar than your. Than what your
energy bill would have been. But if you have high interest
rates, like you're getting a solar array at 7%
(32:38):
interest rate, you're now paying a higher rate no
matter what, instead of what your energy bill would be. So it
becomes not fiscally worth
it.
>> Katie (32:47):
You mean. You mean clean energy and the economy
have the opportunity to go hand in hand and mirror
one another depending on the conservative fiscal policies
of our lawmakers? No shot. There's no
way. We've been saying that for what, two years
now?
>> Zach (33:02):
What was the Reagan quote? It's the economy, stupid.
>> Katie (33:04):
It really is. And people tend to forget that for
some reason.
>> Zach (33:08):
Yeah.
>> Katie (33:08):
So if you hate talking money, we don't want to
talk on green Tea Party video.
>> Zach (33:13):
Yeah. And I think we should have some time and
maybe the end of the quarter, we should talk about where Trump is taking
our economy in general and impact on.
>> Katie (33:21):
Yeah, we're about to enter a recession, but thank God we
got the Gulf of America, baby.
Let's go rev those engines,
boys. God, I'm so
dead. No, no, actually, I can't say that. That's probably
gonna. That's probably gonna suggest. You know what? It.
Keep it. I don't care. All right. Take it. Take it
away, Zach. Do whatever.
>> Zach (33:42):
So I think Chris Wright is a solid Secretary of
energy, as we could hope for under President Trump. But we have
to remember that him and Lee Zeldin serve at the pleasure
of the president, and that they have to toe the line, even if they have
their own disputes with what should be done. They will be brought to
heel in front of the public and on their policies.
And they're the best I think I could have hoped for
(34:03):
for Trump, but they're not what would I would have hoped
for under most candidates.
>> Katie (34:08):
Yeah, I think that honestly, given under any other
president, I'd be mad. But under this one,
given that we get to see every day just how far it could go,
I'm like, you know what? Yeah. I'll take a pretty, uh, middle of the
road environmentalist as opposed to,
you know, any which way in this next four
years.
>> Zach (34:26):
And I will say we reserve the right to regrade
them in due time because everything is up,
up in the air on what they will do and it'll be interesting to
watch. And I will say I'm hopeful, but I
am worried.
>> Katie (34:38):
Yeah. I almost want to have like, uh, an episode where we're
like, milk versus wine. Which episodes aged
like milk? Which episodes aged like wine. Like,
after a certain amount of time,
like, I would like. Because there's even some. I was looking at the other
day, some of our earlier episodes, there were a couple, I was like,
ooh, that one did not age well. And then there were a
coup. And I was like, oh, yeah, we called that one. There
(35:01):
it is. Right. Clip that. Like, it was just, ah. Like, there have been a
few. Oh, my God. Another problem.
>> Zach (35:06):
Putting your voice into the air. It's.
>> Katie (35:08):
I know.
>> Zach (35:08):
For everyone to hear and see.
>> Katie (35:10):
God. Yep. No, nobody can call me here in 10 years and be
like, you had this opinion. Yeah. Okay.
>> Zach (35:15):
Yeah. So action steps. Make your voice heard. Call
your member of Congress. Let them know what you think. I have been writing
my member of Congress, although I wish I had a Republican so
I could feel represented in what this Congress will actually do.
>> Katie (35:27):
So, uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You
went from out of the frying pan and the fire, didn't you?
You went from one blue area to another. My guy.
>> Zach (35:36):
Yeah. And they will not, in Democrats will not be important
for the next two years.
>> Katie (35:41):
All right.
>> Zach (35:42):
I mean, hold those little stupid signs you
had at the. What are that? Mock State of the Union. I don't even know.
>> Katie (35:47):
Yeah, I think it was totally the.
>> Zach (35:49):
State of the Union.
>> Katie (35:49):
I don't know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. M. Racism destroyed.
Woman holds up mini sign at my State of the
Union or whatever it was. That was probably one of the best Babylon
News headlines from that week. It's just in
racism destroyed. Lady holds up miniature sign. Yeah.
So as Zach was saying, call your member of Congress.
Mine is about to take out a restraining order against me. I swear
I blow up his phone in his inbox at least twice a day.
(36:12):
Once in the morning with everything that happened overnight, and then
once in the evening with everything that happened during the day. And I'm going to keep doing it
for as long as he makes six figures. I encourage you to do
the same. So, yeah, call your member of Congress, uh, call your
representative, call your senator. Not just on the federal level,
but be sure to be in touch with your city council members as well
as your state legislature as well.
>> Zach (36:31):
All right, close it.
>> Katie (36:33):
Think so. For you, our listener. Email us
with your thoughts. Our email is info
greenteapartyradio.
>> Zach (36:39):
Thank you for listening. You're listening to Green Tea
Party Radio. A very special thank you to all of our patrons. We
couldn't do this without, uh, you. If you're interested in getting early access episodes as well
as Green Tea Party Radio merch, check us out@greent
partyradio.com for feedback. Tell us what's on your mind and
follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
>> Katie (36:56):
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have
any organizational sponsor, although if those Lodge Cast
Iron guys would like to sponsor us, we will gladly take an
organizational sponsor lodge. Email us. But just
a reminder that Green Sea Party Radio is not representative of the
Diocese of Little Rock, NASA, Catholic Climate Covenant, any of
our employers. We are just building a movement because we want the world
(37:16):
to know that conservatives, particularly young ones like us, have
important things to say about climate change.
>> Zach (37:21):
You want to hear our show on your college radio station?
Email us@infogreenradio.com give us
the details about your campus and your radio station. Email again
isinfo greent hardyradio.com thanks
for listening.
>> Katie (37:34):
Thank you everybody.
Hello, and welcome to the Green Tea Party, where we discuss
conservative solutions to environmental problems. My name is Zach
Torpy.
>> Katie (00:06):
And I'm Katie Zachresky. Together, we'll guide you through
complex issues and provide strategies to address them
all while remaining faithful to our conservative values.
>> Zach (00:15):
Trust me, it'll be a good time.
>> Katie (00:16):
Yeah, uh, it's a party, so grab your mugs and, uh,
we'll pour the tea.
>> Zach (00:20):
So, Katie, before we get into any negative banter, I did
have some good, funny news I saw
on, um, newsletter I get.
>> Katie (00:28):
I am ready.
>> Zach (00:29):
In London, they are opening a play
going over the dramas of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol negotiations.
>> Katie (00:36):
Ooh, really?
>> Zach (00:38):
I'm glad Environmental international cooperation
is getting its own play now.
>> Katie (00:42):
Yes, it's, uh. We finally made it, gang. If you.
If you thought Kyoto Protocol was as good, just wait till there's a
Kyoto Protocol, too. So.
So I. I can't wait. Um, but, yeah,
no, how interesting. I hope it's a musical. I just want to see
what. What they would do with that. I'm going to. Let me. Let me ask
my assistant, Ched, GPT, who is not good for the environment,
(01:03):
what that would look like. Right. Be a
musical. Yeah. So where'd
you. Tell me a little bit more about that. Where did you see that?
>> Zach (01:11):
Uh, that was in my International Intrigue, uh,
newsletter, which is a, uh, geopolitical newsletter.
I follow. They also have a podcast.
>> Katie (01:19):
How interesting. Yeah, I was about to say, let's just get
all of our good, cheery, uh, fun facts out of the way, since
those are hard to come by these days. That. That's the.
You said. You said it.
>> Zach (01:29):
Yeah.
>> Katie (01:29):
How interesting. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I'm looking through this
right now. I'm about to play Kot.
What was the. What was the preview here? The tagline? It sounded like it was going to be
good. Let me find it. This sharp, searing, and
darkly comic story of the moment all nations tried to
set aside their differences for the sake of the planet. And then
I woke up. How interesting. How
interesting. Two and a half hours long.
>> Zach (01:51):
Slappy. Some happy notes for our. For
the environmental crew while we, uh, suffer through what
is looking like a dark retraction.
>> Katie (02:00):
Oh, my God. Yeah. These are the dark ages. Everybody who's in college
right now, you picked a real good time to be in school, because there's going to be a whole lot
of shit to fix when you get out. So good luck. Everybody
else.
Oh, I did want to say, uh, this is. This is what I was going to bring
up for banter. This is so random. This is
almost not even environmental. But it is my annual
tradition to revisit this. It's my favorite tweet. I've got it
(02:20):
bookmarked. It's the only tweet worth checking Twitter for now. It
is a scan of a letter from
the archbishop of the Diocese of New Orleans dated
March 3, 2010. This is a whole letter. I'll read it for
you. Dear Jim, thank you very much for your
letter on February 24, 2010, concerning the
question of whether or not alligator is acceptable to eat during
(02:40):
the Lenten season. Yes, the alligator is
considered to be in the fish family. And I agree with you. God
has created a magnificent creature, so much so that it's
important to the state of Louisiana and is still considered
seafood. Wishing you God's blessings. I am sincerely
in Christ. So for all
of you out there who are observing your Lenten Friday
(03:01):
abstinence from meat alligators on the menu.
>> Zach (03:04):
Very interesting. I, uh.
>> Katie (03:05):
Thank you.
>> Zach (03:05):
Louisiana never part took.
>> Katie (03:07):
Yeah, I was about to say.
>> Zach (03:08):
I think I will.
>> Katie (03:09):
We need to add. Yeah, look, alligator is good,
but I want to know about turtle. Is turtle acceptable? Is that
a meat? Where do you draw the line? What about
frog? Where does that sit? You know what? I'm just going
to avoid anything that had a pulse at any point on
Fridays during lint, just to be safe. Although I do agree
alligator's a magnificent creature.
>> Zach (03:28):
Going vegetarian is a little difficult, but not the hardest
thing.
>> Katie (03:31):
Honestly, just eat your good old baked potato and some Mac and cheese and
you're good on Friday.
>> Zach (03:35):
Yeah. And I, me and my girlfriend recently discovered the
wonders of seitan. Or seitan.
>> Katie (03:40):
Seitan.
>> Zach (03:41):
It cooks really easy and it is
vegetarian. And. But it's not. It is not gluten free. It's like,
all gluten. So interesting, but very
delicious.
>> Katie (03:50):
Um, and only because I just now reopened the window and forgot
that I asked. My assistant, Chatgpt, did indeed
write me a musical on the Kyoto Protocol. Opening chorus
lines. We're on the brink the world's in distress Climate
change is causing great regress the heat is rising,
storms are near Now's the time, let's make it
clear. Thank you, chatgpt. I'm probably
frying the planet with this as we speak.
>> Zach (04:12):
Uh, good little poem it gave us.
>> Katie (04:13):
But, hey, you know what? Good little poem to get the show started with.
So, speaking of which, now that we've bantered on all
things light and cheery that are probably left in the universe this
week, Zach, what are we talking about today?
>> Zach (04:24):
So today I thought we'd take a look at two of Trump
Cabinet picks for to head the EPA
and the Department of Energy.
>> Katie (04:31):
That sounds great.
>> Zach (04:32):
Lee Zeldin.
>> Katie (04:33):
And I love his songs.
>> Zach (04:34):
Right.
>> Katie (04:35):
Great music.
Stairway to Heaven is really good.
>> Zach (04:40):
So Lee Zeldin's background. He is a native
New Yorker, like myself. Went to college at
SUNY Albany, where He got his JD. He served in
Iraq in 2006 and was elected to
state senate in 2010 to represent
Suffolk county on Long Island.
>> Katie (04:56):
All right.
>> Zach (04:56):
And to the larger, to federal
Congress. Uh, in 2015, as a
state senator, he worked to repeal the saltwater fishing
license tax, repeal the MTA payroll tax.
He's not a fan of the mta. I figured that out reading through his,
uh, articles.
>> Katie (05:12):
He makes a cameo.
>> Zach (05:14):
Really did not like the MTA and
railroads.
Wrote the law that protects our fallen veterans and their families from
protests at military burials. Great law. Great.
>> Katie (05:26):
Mhm.
>> Zach (05:26):
Secured funding for the PFC
Joseph Dwyer Program, a statewide
program to help returning vets cope with post
Traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. And as
a state senator, he proposed slashing the MTA public transit
budget numerous times.
>> Katie (05:42):
Another cameo from the mta.
>> Zach (05:44):
Not a fan. Which, the LIRR really
is pretty terrible, but I've heard it's gotten better since
I left.
>> Katie (05:52):
There you go.
>> Zach (05:53):
In 2022, he, uh, unsuccessfully ran for governor of
New York, where he lost to Kathy Hochul, who
is, from my understanding, just the
wettest of paper towels. As a politician,
yes.
>> Katie (06:05):
Uh, definitely, uh, somebody's cardboard cut out that they've put there
for a little while until they find somebody else.
>> Zach (06:12):
And he ran on record of being pro fracking
and fossil fuel expansion and wanted to increase
pipeline connectivity throughout New York.
>> Katie (06:20):
Okay.
>> Zach (06:22):
The Sierra Club notes that he has taken
$410,000 in lobbying money from the oil and gas
industry.
>> Katie (06:27):
Damn. Okay, Led Zeppelin. Geez, save
some for the rest of us, bro.
>> Zach (06:32):
Get paid.
>> Katie (06:34):
Say, man, what a bankroll if the.
>> Zach (06:36):
Lobby industry's throwing it out there.
>> Katie (06:38):
Say, man, I might be. You know what? No, I'm going to
incriminate myself if I say that. Uh, I'm not going to tank this show with
that joke. All right, Keep going.
>> Zach (06:46):
Leave it clean, please. Elgin's
nominal state record of the League of
Conservation Voters gave him a score between 8 and
28 in his eight years in office and an average of
14%. Um, voted to
curtail PFAS numerous time.
Numerous times. Shark finning and offshore
drilling in the Arctic and Pacific, and was generally against
(07:08):
anything that mentioned climate change.
>> Katie (07:10):
Interesting that's kind of a mixed bag
here.
>> Zach (07:13):
Yeah, it's a difficult voting record. It's hard to look at
individual voting records just because. Was there just like, one thing
he, like, really hated or one thing he really liked and supported?
>> Katie (07:23):
Interesting.
>> Zach (07:24):
Voted against the IRA along with every other Republican.
>> Katie (07:27):
Yeah. Everybody else with an arm behind their name. Yeah.
>> Zach (07:29):
Yep. Voted to protect and slash. He voted to
protect and also slash the EPA budget in different
bills.
>> Katie (07:35):
Okay. I guess it all comes out. Or wise. So, uh.
>> Zach (07:40):
Supported climate resiliency for Long, uh, Island and had
some projects I thought were pretty good on climate change. In
2014. Lee said, I'm not sold yet on the whole
argument that we have a serious problem as other people are.
>> Katie (07:52):
Okay.
>> Zach (07:53):
During his confirmation hearing, he did say climate change
was real, but that US Emissions are already going down,
which is where.
>> Katie (08:00):
Where what? Where what?
>> Zach (08:02):
US Emissions have gone down. It's just we went from using coal to
using natural gas, so.
>> Katie (08:07):
Okay, well, we went from having two cancers to one
cancer. Let's help those rookie numbers up, baby.
All right.
>> Zach (08:14):
So technically correct.
>> Katie (08:16):
All right. Okay. Until we'll count it.
>> Zach (08:20):
And ah, also during his confirmation,
I'll, um, read an excerpt. I wanted to play this, but I had not brought it
up. Lee Selden said,
senator, United States emissions have been going down over the course of the
last couple of decades. Unfortunately, there are other
countries where it is not going the same direction. Now I would say that we
will have that we have never done enough to ensure
(08:41):
that our water and our air is clean, safe and
healthy. Whatever we do every day to achieve this objective, we need
to wake up the next day looking for war more,
for ways to do more.
>> Katie (08:50):
Interesting. Man. This
is. Jeez. This is really kind of a.
I don't even know how to like.
It's like somebody like, took all the different environmental perspectives
and threw them in a hat, pro and con, and then just pulled
out like 10.
>> Zach (09:05):
Yeah. Pulled a different one out. Different one out every
time.
>> Katie (09:08):
He built on something, man. And it's like, uh,
m. And it's not like it's. It doesn't come across as something
that like, he just like, was like, hey, Reddit, what should I say if I'm
asked about blank? Like, this feels
like I could see him making this argument, though, is a
strange thing.
>> Zach (09:23):
It sounds like the argument for a carbon border
tax or a carbon border adjustment.
>> Katie (09:29):
Mhm. Mhm.
Well, what. Let us introduce you to our little friend. And it's the
carbon price. Whip him out,
boys.
>> Zach (09:37):
So he was confirmed to be the new head of the
EPA under Trump, he's already cut $61 million
in grant programs from the EPA in conjunction with, uh,
Doge God, Elon
Musk's pet project, while he runs numerous other tech
companies at the same time. I really don't know what CEOs do.
>> Katie (09:54):
Can you. Can you imagine if we went back like, a year ago and we were
like, man, Doge is cutting everybody's jobs. And, like, for
us a year ago to be like, what the hell did you just say? Like,
Doge, the meme m coin with the yellow
dog. Yes, the one and only.
>> Zach (10:08):
Um, on a personal anecdotal
level, EPA is also in charge of lead grant program
funding. And as, uh, someone who works in the.
In municipal government and is
working in the lead program, which
is real awful pain in the butt.
>> Katie (10:27):
That's so unfun.
>> Zach (10:28):
KG13 is. All our
funding, all our federal funding is now up in the air, and we have no idea
if we're going to get money, if we're not going to get money, if the program's getting repealed.
>> Katie (10:36):
So, you know, that feels like one of those things that shouldn't be up in the air, you
know? Yeah.
>> Zach (10:40):
I feel like getting rid of lectures.
>> Katie (10:42):
Yeah.
Okay. Do you think this guy. Okay, but, like, be real with me
after we've just read through his track record in its background,
do you think, uh. Because I love to do the whole. If I went back
in time and spoke to myself, whatever. Maybe it's
just because I'm a writer. I have no idea. Do you think if
Lee Zeldin went back in time, like 20
(11:03):
years to Lee Zelda of, like,
2005, and told him, you're going to be the head of the
EPA and you don't believe in climate change,
do you think he'd have believed that, or do you think he would have been like, no,
no shot. I wouldn't take that job anyway. That's goofy.
>> Zach (11:17):
I.
>> Katie (11:17):
It's just as likely. What do you think?
>> Zach (11:19):
As likely as that billionaire who puts his name on
hotels winning the presidency?
>> Katie (11:25):
Ah. Uh, yeah, good point. You got me there. Okay,
Zach, you know what? 20 years ago, there's a lot of things you
could have said people were going to do in 20 years and they wouldn't have believed you. But
here we are.
So. All right, Doge and the guy with the, uh, show
where he fires people and the guy
from home alone. Yeah. And the guy who builds the ugly
trucks, uh, are all together and working
(11:46):
hard.
>> Zach (11:46):
Yeah.
>> Katie (11:47):
Oh, my God.
>> Zach (11:48):
So my thought on Lee Zeldin is It sounds like he really
wants to focus on cutting and making the
EPA leaner and more efficient.
But it also seems in part that he wants to dismantle a
lot of the programs and is in general wants to
reduce the size of the government, which is good, but
what is, I'm not sure what his goal
is at the epa, which is, I guess, something we'll have to wait for and see.
>> Katie (12:10):
Yeah, I don't think anybody knows that. I mean, part of me
wondered like, and I don't think that this is specific to him.
It's probably everybody who's just been put
in a powerful position right now. I think there's the
frantic push to hurry up and do something quick so you can say you
were effective the first 100 days that you were in your
position. But it's like, okay, I know I'm going to cut something, but I
(12:30):
have no idea what I'm going to cut and I need to do something right now
and I have no idea what I'm doing because I just started this job. So cut
everything and then we'll just steadily add back things we can't live
without. That's. Yeah, that's kind of what everything feels
like right now.
>> Zach (12:43):
Yeah. I was listening to um, an interview he was doing and he
sounded very proud of all the things he was cutting. And some of them do sound
ridiculous and like they deserve to be cutting. But I
do wonder in the thought process and how
specific we're cutting and like the, what the impact of those
programs are.
>> Katie (12:59):
Yeah, like what, what will the ripple effect of that be? Because I
like, okay, on the one hand I, I'm an
efficiency wizard, a self proclaimed efficiency wizard. I
would rather we have a, uh, workforce
like just in any given building that's like a third
or two thirds of its original size with people being able to stretch
a dollar farther than they were before. Because we're not paying a bunch of
salaries for people to like work on puzzles in the break room all day
(13:21):
long. But at the same time, like, this is not just like
one isolated small business. This is the
government. So, uh, it's just like, it seems like not even just
environment, but everything government. Lately we've
seen, okay, fire this group, cut
that, get rid of them. Um, and then 12 hours later they go, oh
shit. Those guys were in charge of watching nuclear weapons. Okay,
we'll come back in here, guys. Like, like, it's just like, maybe
(13:44):
we should know what we're doing before we do the thing. Just to
say we did the thing. And I Feel like we're seeing a lot of that in
environment right now. It's like, well, we're cutting this and we're stopping
that. We're not going to regulate that anymore. Okay, well, what do you think that's going to
look like in three months when lead poisoning somewhere
has gone up or when there's no fluoride
any, like, you know what I mean? Like, is that really something we want to
(14:04):
take a, uh, well, let's just wait and see approach with.
Because we used to do that and people got dysentery and died. So can
we just like, not go back to that? Yeah. Like,
uh, come on.
>> Zach (14:14):
Protecting the environment is one of the few things I think the government should
do because bad actors.
>> Katie (14:19):
Yeah.
>> Zach (14:19):
And people in general just. There's no re. There's no
intrinsic reason to protect it unless you're a good person.
Like, it's very much a test of your morality.
>> Katie (14:27):
Yeah.
>> Zach (14:27):
Right.
>> Katie (14:28):
It's like the shopping cart, like returning the shopping cart.
>> Zach (14:31):
That's exactly where I was going.
>> Katie (14:32):
Yeah. Uh, yeah. Of, uh, like political or like moral ideologies
like you. You don't immediately get anything in
return for not throwing your car battery in the
ocean. But it's really cool if you don't throw your car
battery in the ocean.
>> Zach (14:44):
I wonder if the most, one of the most insult things you could say to someone is
you don't look like someone who returned their shopping cart.
>> Katie (14:49):
I absolutely would say that with all the malice in my heart.
I would like, you look like you've never returned a shopping cart a day in
your life. Like, and if you say it
like that, like, genuinely, if somebody said that to me, I think I'd well up
and cry because I'm like, I always returned by shopping
cart. Like, I would just be like, no,
clearly I need to. I need to amend this somehow. Yeah.
(15:10):
The true litmus test of whether or not I'm a good
person is whether or not somebody thinks I'd return the shopping
cart.
>> Zach (15:16):
So, Lee Zeldin, how cutting out. Okay. In
summary, Lee Zeldin seems to be a bit of a mixed bag and a
little unpredictable on the environment. Seems to,
um, be on and off with different issues and vote yes or
no depending on certain aspects of Bill. So it's hard to
predict how he will act as head of the epa. I
am hopeful but not confident.
(15:36):
There could be worse heads of the epa. He has not come out and said he
wants to straight up dismantle the EPA and destroy it,
which I think is the last pick for the head of the
EPA set. Yeah. So improvements.
>> Katie (15:47):
But yeah. And, you know, I don't know, like, maybe I'm
just like more tuned into this kind of language now than
I was before, but I feel like we're seeing a
surge in people who care for creation,
but who don't necessarily buy into climate
change. And like, uh, for example, like the
thing that kind of stood out to me, that made me even kind of go, what? When
(16:07):
I read it, like, as you were going through the stuff that he had like,
voted for and against. Let me find it here. It was
the saltwater fishing license. No, it was
like shark finning. Like that.
>> Zach (16:19):
And yeah, I think he voted against that, which is
great. Shark finning is bad, right?
>> Katie (16:24):
Like, like, so that's what I like. So he's not like some
crazy, like, fat cat
monopoly tycoon who's like, I don't give a shit what you do
with the sharks. Like, clearly he's trying to
vote. At least it looks like this to me. And no telling
what else might have been in that bill that caused him to vote one way or another.
I have no idea. But it just seems kind of like the
things that he's generally voting for are not like a
(16:47):
I'm prioritizing money over anybody's
livelihood. It's. I do believe in caring for
creat, at least not being cruel, at
least being like a responsible hook and bullet
conservationist. But I'm a little iffy
on anything that's economically tied to the science
of climate change, which in a weird way I can
kind of admire and sympathize with. Because it's a start.
>> Zach (17:09):
Yeah, Uh, I think that's a good way to put it. He's very hook and
bullet and very not interested in climate change.
>> Katie (17:15):
Right, right.
>> Zach (17:16):
So, like, again, head of the epa. I feel like
that's fine because you're more focused on
the local issues and polluting rivers and such.
>> Katie (17:25):
I'll give him a year to see what I think, because I'll
give you a year, Mr. Man.
>> Zach (17:29):
So don't come back in a year.
>> Katie (17:31):
And do a rebranding. So don't run around and do anything quick
and crazy. I'll give you a year
because, like, uh, there are some things on here that concern me, but there are also some
things in here that give me hope.
Guarded hope maybe. But I want to see what he
does with it. I want to see where he takes it. This could be really good
because it's a fresh perspective, obviously a more conservative
(17:51):
perspective for the EPA or This could be really bad. So I'll
give it a year. Fact check it. Get audio listeners.
Love you to death. Let us know what you think in a year. But
yeah, so that I'm, I'm glad you brought up his voting record too, Zach.
Ah. That kind of gives you a better idea of some of the stuff he
might do, I guess as we look at our environmentalist crystal ball.
>> Zach (18:08):
Yeah.
And well now we can move on to the second
expose we're working on of the
head of the Department of Energy, Chris Wright, our
Secretary of Energy. I don't know what the proper title is.
>> Katie (18:21):
He's got something to do with energy.
I don't know that they know their job titles at this point, but you.
>> Zach (18:27):
Know, he is a self described energy nerd
and entrepreneur. Uh, he's got
a mechanical engineering degree from mit.
>> Katie (18:35):
Okay.
>> Zach (18:35):
Um, and has done graduate work in MIT
and UC Berkeley in electrical engineering. Founded
Pinnacle Technologies and served as CEO from
1992 to 2006 which
Pinnacle created a hydraulic fracture
mapping technology which is very important for like
measuring um, reservoir energy reservoirs and
natural gas reservoirs underground.
>> Katie (18:57):
Interesting. Okay.
>> Zach (18:58):
How digging forward and bringing up would interact
with the larger system.
>> Katie (19:02):
All right.
>> Zach (19:03):
And helped launch commercial shale gas production in the late
90s. Um,
variant. His company worked on micro seismic
mapping, reservoir mapping
and very. So he's a
very natural gas focused CEO. First
part of his career.
>> Katie (19:21):
Mhm.
>> Zach (19:23):
After the company was sold, he founded Liberty
Energy or he was CEO of Liberty Energy. And his team helped to
expand the shale revolution to include oil as well
as natural gas. He's a big believer in geothermal
energy as well as modular nuclear reactors which
his company has invested in. So he's very much a
natural gas entrepreneur and CEO and
(19:44):
that's where he's been in most of his career. But he has
interests in geothermal energy, which
is I think the close. The closest offshoot
to natural gas and fracking that you get in the renewable
sector, which I support. I hope he really
supports geothermal energy. I think that's one of the. I think it's the
rejected part of renewables along with nuclear that
(20:04):
could really be tapped into by the conservative movement. So I
hope we could put some energy into this
and maybe, maybe I'm.
>> Katie (20:11):
Projecting here, but like never. Let me word
this carefully. Whenever somebody says that they were real big
in the gas industry or something in the 80s or 90s,
I don't fault them for that because there really wasn't much of an
alternative. I mean I think for them they were like whoa, gas
is the clean energy, like to some extent, like it was, you
know, better than anything from before.
>> Zach (20:31):
It's not coal.
>> Katie (20:32):
Yeah, it's not literally though, like it's, it's not coal.
So. So this is pretty clean. It's not as
costlier as, you know, uh, in terms of health and well
being to get as coal as this is the clean energy.
So part of me thinks that like that's what he started in
with good intention even just like having read some of his
background up to this point. So I think he started in it with good
intention and he's not necessarily, you know,
(20:54):
opposed to the idea of clean energy. It's more.
So this is an industry he's been in for a long
time. So obviously that's where his loyalty
is. But at the same time he sounds
open to like you had mentioned, you know, geothermal
energy, modular nuclear reactors. So
that tells me that there is some openness at least to the
idea of, you know, I joined this because it was
(21:17):
better than what we had before. So I'm open to
learning more about what might be better than what we have now,
if that makes sense.
>> Zach (21:24):
Yeah. And he seems to be, he comes off as very
open minded to different energy sources, although he does not like
wind. He has a, uh, bone to pick with wind energy. He says
a lot of you, interestingly. Yeah, he says it's too expensive,
it's an eyesore.
>> Katie (21:36):
Well. And who knows, maybe he uh. And I don't. Is there like a
seismic impact? Like, like. Because it sounds like
he did a lot of micro seismic mapping. I wonder if he's coming at it
from the perspective of um, you know, like what impact might
that have? Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass before I say anything else.
Windmill impact on
seismic. Could there be a tie
there or did the edible just hit? Let's see.
(21:58):
Okay, well, unsurprisingly. Thanks Google
AI. Wind turbines don't cause earthquakes, but
their presence can introduce ground trimmers that can increase
noise levels at nearby seismic monitoring
stations. What the fuck? How
interesting.
>> Zach (22:14):
I mean, I know they have the impacts, uh, when they're driving them down,
especially when they're doing um, like
ocean windmills and.
>> Katie (22:21):
Yeah, so I just didn't know if he like, knew something, you know, pertaining
to something. Anyhow, it sounds like a lot of people have a
gripe about wind energy. I've come across that quite a
bit lately, especially as people have talked about that,
like surrounding the election. It seems like I've heard a lot of
more pushback for wind and Hydro and like the
last five years than there was before. I don't know why. Maybe
(22:41):
it's because we've got newer better things now and they just didn't get
the attention they deserved in the first place. But that's a soapbox
for another day.
>> Zach (22:48):
Yeah.
So at his confirmation hearing he said some interesting things. He
had a. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. He
said I've studied and followed the data the evolution of climate change
for at least 20 years now. It's a global issue, it's a real
issue, it's a challenging issue. And the solution to climate change is
to evolve our energy systems.
>> Katie (23:05):
You know which is. I think I agree with everything he says
there. Yeah, yeah.
>> Zach (23:08):
He says everything correctly but doesn't say anything really of
his own opinion or what he do. Yeah,
it's so it's like a very non answer which is what I
found. It's what I think every confirmation is like. It's
very non committal issues like maybe I will.
>> Katie (23:24):
Yeah. A lot of fence writing and a lot of information
hearings. Yeah, yeah, right, right.
>> Zach (23:29):
He also said that it's different sources in different
circumstances. Our economy today is underpinned by energy
dominantly from oil and natural gas. Coal is our major source of
energy in our country. Nuclear power is a major source of energy in our country.
Hydropower is a major source of energy in our country. Wind and solar
are growing rapidly and geothermal particularly in states like
Nevada is early on but has just
significant running room to become a meaningful source of energy in the
(23:52):
future. Every source of energy that either today or
technology innovation can be a growth engine for affordable,
reliable, secure energy. I'm um, for all of
those. He paints himself and
comes off as very open to any energy source
and very much it's like economically
dependent and is the. I want to develop
everything just like doesn't want to curtail
(24:14):
himself.
>> Katie (24:14):
Well and I know that we've talked about, you know the growing trend
and conservative environmental and even
energy thought. Well including energy thought
being. I'm not a this or
this, I'm an all of the above or I'm a this
and that that. You know there's no one policy
that you can take to the bank and it's going to knock out 100%
of emissions in a certain amount of time. So that's why they
(24:37):
talk about the importance of you know like a carbon price in
complement with solar energy, nuclear
energy, you know a carbon border adjustment mechanism
would be responsible for reducing emissions by this proportion.
So obviously no set one is going to get the
job done by itself. So I think that we've seen this growing
conservative thought towards. You know, I'm all for multiple
(24:57):
of these. I'm, um, for all of these things. And I think that that's
also rooted in that conservative thought of, you know, like,
the free market. Okay, well, let there be all of them being
legal. What is best will be shown in the end to
be the best. But I think the flaw in that is that don't, uh,
forget how much money you're in the oil and gas industry compared
to some of these clean energy industries. Sorry to cut you off, Zach. As you were
(25:17):
saying?
>> Zach (25:18):
And, uh, I think that's a great thought. And I think it's also the
way we regulate and pick winners and
losers, sort of with executive policy and
congressional policy. Like, Biden clearly picked
winners in the wind and renewable
sources, but it's not like he
antagonized fossil fuels. And I believe
that under the Trump administration, they very much feel like
(25:39):
they're picking winners and losers, with the winner being
fossil fuels. And there are antagonizing and
trying to slow down, um,
renewables in what feels like a very pointless way,
like pulling out EV or disconnecting EV
chargers in.
>> Katie (25:55):
The capital and which, like, what's Elon saying about
that? Like, is he just letting that shit slide so he can, like,
try to maneuver, like, do a 40 chest? I have no
idea. Like, if I was him, I don't know that I'd have been able to shut
up about that.
>> Zach (26:07):
Yeah, well, I don't know if Elon even cares anymore because his stock
price is crashing and burning.
>> Katie (26:13):
True. He's freaking out. You and I had talked a little
bit about that the other day.
Zach, do you want to hit us with some Zach's facts on that real quick on
how you're feeling about everything going on with Tesla right now? I know,
like, not maybe six months ago we did the
episode on you buying a Tesla and then all this
shit started.
>> Zach (26:30):
Yeah. Um, so sorry, Zach.
>> Katie (26:33):
Oh, man.
>> Zach (26:33):
Yeah. So I'm a heavy and early investor in Tesla. I have
made a lot of money with Tesla. I'm still very much up in
Tesla. But it has hurt to see so much of my
money burned down to the ground because Elon Musk
decided to send his in air quotes,
heart out to people or to Trump in
particular. And let's
call a spade a spade. Don't Nazi salute.
>> Katie (26:56):
In my country, it was a Roman salute.
Those. And the swastika
is an ancient Buddhist symbol or Hindu
civil. I Have no idea.
>> Zach (27:05):
I don't know what, what's changed in our country, but I've
always thought it's okay to kill a Nazi.
>> Katie (27:10):
Yeah. I mean, and I mean, yeah. And I even
saw somebody the other day who said, I don't even remember what it
was. Maybe I dreamt it. At this point I need to go to bed. But
I remember somebody saying like, you know, 20 years ago we, we
punched people like that when they opened their
mouths around us. And now we're
encouraging it. And I was like, yeah, more people
like that need to get knocked the fuck out. Yeah. Ah.
(27:34):
On next week's episode of
we're going to talk about how to Punch a Nazi. Why?
>> Zach (27:41):
Turning to Chris Wright.
>> Katie (27:42):
Yeah, sorry, Chris Wright, go ahead.
>> Zach (27:44):
Um, in his post appointment, some interviews I've been reading
up up on and watching, he's encouraged Africa
to develop all its energy capabilities and called the
west talking down to Africa about energy policy
being renewable. Paternalistic, post colonial
attitude which.
>> Katie (28:00):
Whoa, bro. Passed the speech check all right.
>> Zach (28:03):
Yeah. Which I think is completely fair and
justified because m. It is unfair for
those in the west and the developed countries to talk
down to people about being environmental
and good for the environment when they don't even have energy
and we have so much resources and are the cause
of so much of the pollution. So we can't really dictate to
(28:23):
these poor countries and how they should develop their
end resources and take care of their environment because we
did a terrible job. The blame of climate change is on, um, the
West.
>> Katie (28:32):
Correct.
>> Zach (28:33):
But I also do think
developing distributed sources of
energy is good for Africa in general. Just because
it is cheaper to put out solar panels than to build a whole coal
plant. And a lot of these people won't be able to get together millions of
dollars to develop these coal and natural
gas plants.
>> Katie (28:52):
Mhm.
>> Zach (28:52):
Distribute energy may be better for the individuals in Africa,
but it's very difficult to. You can't dictate to these
countries how.
>> Katie (28:58):
Right, yeah. If we. They can't on.
And I mean, and you hear this argument so frequently here in the
west, you'll hear people say, oh my gosh, well, we gotta do it for
countries like Africa. Um, you know, countries
that, you know, we should be forgiving our debts to them. We should
be addressing climate change because they're the ones that are most
adversely impacted by it. And then as soon as they bring
(29:18):
something up, we're like, now, now, wait a second, buddy. Like
you. Do you know who you're talking to right now? Like,
okay, which is it gonna be, are we gonna save them or
are we gonna shame them? So, like, like which.
>> Zach (29:29):
And the African Energy Chamber
endorsed Chris Wright after that, which is
okay. So they, they want to be
independent and develop their sources as they see fit and not be
dictated to, which.
>> Katie (29:41):
Is, you know, yeah, understandable. I'd want to
as well.
>> Zach (29:45):
On climate change, he has said the cure was far
more disruptive than the disease, which I feel like has become a,
uh, common conservative turning point
on climate change, where it's, yes, it's real, but
what we're doing to prevent it is worse for society
than what climate change will do.
>> Katie (30:01):
Which, I mean, my response to that would then be, okay, well
then what do you propose? And it better not be going back to
what we did before.
>> Zach (30:08):
Yeah, honestly, I think while these times I want to put the numbers in front
of them, I'm like, the levelized cost of energy for solar and
wind is on par with natural gas. Like, coal isn't even
competitive anymore. Like, you're not going to bring coal back.
>> Katie (30:20):
Yeah, like, let's, let's get over that pipe dream, dude. It ain't
1850 anymore. Like, like, forget it.
>> Zach (30:25):
You ain't spit shining, rubbing that coal to make it clean.
>> Katie (30:28):
Yeah, you're, you're, you're straight goofing if you think
for a minute that people are going to go back to getting black
lung or whatever to make coal a thing again. Stop
trying to make coal fetch, okay, get out of here.
>> Zach (30:39):
Wright has also defended Trump's executive order that prevents wind
development in offshore areas. And in my mind
that's just dictating to developers where
they can and cannot develop. And I don't know, that
sounds pretty nanny state to me.
>> Katie (30:52):
And now I will say I
would rather like if I had to pick between driving
past an ugly ass field full of windmills compared
to, like sticking them off on the side of the ocean where I'm not
gonna see them. I'd rather stick them off where I'm not gonna see
them.
>> Zach (31:07):
But, but the rich people will see them then.
>> Katie (31:09):
But the rich people, though, and their yachts, damn
it, they don't want to look at them. How dare we
plebeians ask for more.
>> Zach (31:16):
So in my mind, Chris Wright comes out as a very
knowledgeable technocrat who understands
his work, understands the broader energy industry, and is an
expert in fracking. He supports all energy very
broadly, but it's very much in line with Trump's
view of drill, baby, drill and develop fossil fuels,
that climate change is not
a priority. And, but he is very
(31:38):
vocally supports nuclear and geothermal, which is. I think,
which is what I would like Republicans to transition to
is instead of just being antagonizing to
renewables, is pick that. Pick renewables
that you support and support them. Instead of just saying
wind and. Wind and solar suck. Be like
geothermal and nuclear are worth investing in. We should
support these and help make these a bigger part of our
(32:01):
energy breakdown.
>> Katie (32:02):
I agree, and I don't even.
And on another side note, I swear to God, I won't keep us
long now. We so long already. But I feel
like only within the last year have I heard people try to dunk on
solar. What is the argument for that? Where
did that come from? Who started doing that?
>> Zach (32:18):
I think solar has really lost its flair because
of interest rates. I think as soon as interest rates started
climbing, solar becomes less and less appealing. It's because you treat solar
like mortgage. Uh, so if you're getting a low interest
rate, you're paying less for your solar than your. Than what your
energy bill would have been. But if you have high interest
rates, like you're getting a solar array at 7%
(32:38):
interest rate, you're now paying a higher rate no
matter what, instead of what your energy bill would be. So it
becomes not fiscally worth
it.
>> Katie (32:47):
You mean. You mean clean energy and the economy
have the opportunity to go hand in hand and mirror
one another depending on the conservative fiscal policies
of our lawmakers? No shot. There's no
way. We've been saying that for what, two years
now?
>> Zach (33:02):
What was the Reagan quote? It's the economy, stupid.
>> Katie (33:04):
It really is. And people tend to forget that for
some reason.
>> Zach (33:08):
Yeah.
>> Katie (33:08):
So if you hate talking money, we don't want to
talk on green Tea Party video.
>> Zach (33:13):
Yeah. And I think we should have some time and
maybe the end of the quarter, we should talk about where Trump is taking
our economy in general and impact on.
>> Katie (33:21):
Yeah, we're about to enter a recession, but thank God we
got the Gulf of America, baby.
Let's go rev those engines,
boys. God, I'm so
dead. No, no, actually, I can't say that. That's probably
gonna. That's probably gonna suggest. You know what? It.
Keep it. I don't care. All right. Take it. Take it
away, Zach. Do whatever.
>> Zach (33:42):
So I think Chris Wright is a solid Secretary of
energy, as we could hope for under President Trump. But we have
to remember that him and Lee Zeldin serve at the pleasure
of the president, and that they have to toe the line, even if they have
their own disputes with what should be done. They will be brought to
heel in front of the public and on their policies.
And they're the best I think I could have hoped for
(34:03):
for Trump, but they're not what would I would have hoped
for under most candidates.
>> Katie (34:08):
Yeah, I think that honestly, given under any other
president, I'd be mad. But under this one,
given that we get to see every day just how far it could go,
I'm like, you know what? Yeah. I'll take a pretty, uh, middle of the
road environmentalist as opposed to,
you know, any which way in this next four
years.
>> Zach (34:26):
And I will say we reserve the right to regrade
them in due time because everything is up,
up in the air on what they will do and it'll be interesting to
watch. And I will say I'm hopeful, but I
am worried.
>> Katie (34:38):
Yeah. I almost want to have like, uh, an episode where we're
like, milk versus wine. Which episodes aged
like milk? Which episodes aged like wine. Like,
after a certain amount of time,
like, I would like. Because there's even some. I was looking at the other
day, some of our earlier episodes, there were a couple, I was like,
ooh, that one did not age well. And then there were a
coup. And I was like, oh, yeah, we called that one. There
(35:01):
it is. Right. Clip that. Like, it was just, ah. Like, there have been a
few. Oh, my God. Another problem.
>> Zach (35:06):
Putting your voice into the air. It's.
>> Katie (35:08):
I know.
>> Zach (35:08):
For everyone to hear and see.
>> Katie (35:10):
God. Yep. No, nobody can call me here in 10 years and be
like, you had this opinion. Yeah. Okay.
>> Zach (35:15):
Yeah. So action steps. Make your voice heard. Call
your member of Congress. Let them know what you think. I have been writing
my member of Congress, although I wish I had a Republican so
I could feel represented in what this Congress will actually do.
>> Katie (35:27):
So, uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You
went from out of the frying pan and the fire, didn't you?
You went from one blue area to another. My guy.
>> Zach (35:36):
Yeah. And they will not, in Democrats will not be important
for the next two years.
>> Katie (35:41):
All right.
>> Zach (35:42):
I mean, hold those little stupid signs you
had at the. What are that? Mock State of the Union. I don't even know.
>> Katie (35:47):
Yeah, I think it was totally the.
>> Zach (35:49):
State of the Union.
>> Katie (35:49):
I don't know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. M. Racism destroyed.
Woman holds up mini sign at my State of the
Union or whatever it was. That was probably one of the best Babylon
News headlines from that week. It's just in
racism destroyed. Lady holds up miniature sign. Yeah.
So as Zach was saying, call your member of Congress.
Mine is about to take out a restraining order against me. I swear
I blow up his phone in his inbox at least twice a day.
(36:12):
Once in the morning with everything that happened overnight, and then
once in the evening with everything that happened during the day. And I'm going to keep doing it
for as long as he makes six figures. I encourage you to do
the same. So, yeah, call your member of Congress, uh, call your
representative, call your senator. Not just on the federal level,
but be sure to be in touch with your city council members as well
as your state legislature as well.
>> Zach (36:31):
All right, close it.
>> Katie (36:33):
Think so. For you, our listener. Email us
with your thoughts. Our email is info
greenteapartyradio.
>> Zach (36:39):
Thank you for listening. You're listening to Green Tea
Party Radio. A very special thank you to all of our patrons. We
couldn't do this without, uh, you. If you're interested in getting early access episodes as well
as Green Tea Party Radio merch, check us out@greent
partyradio.com for feedback. Tell us what's on your mind and
follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
>> Katie (36:56):
And just so you know, this is our passion project. We don't have
any organizational sponsor, although if those Lodge Cast
Iron guys would like to sponsor us, we will gladly take an
organizational sponsor lodge. Email us. But just
a reminder that Green Sea Party Radio is not representative of the
Diocese of Little Rock, NASA, Catholic Climate Covenant, any of
our employers. We are just building a movement because we want the world
(37:16):
to know that conservatives, particularly young ones like us, have
important things to say about climate change.
>> Zach (37:21):
You want to hear our show on your college radio station?
Email us@infogreenradio.com give us
the details about your campus and your radio station. Email again
isinfo greent hardyradio.com thanks
for listening.
>> Katie (37:34):
Thank you everybody.
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