Why isn't Texas doing more?

Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:

• TPPF's Aliyah Formont on Texas energy

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Breaking down the world's nonsense about.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How America's common sense.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston. This
is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by viewind
dot Com.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
All right, we're gonna start off, by the way, welcome
to the show. We're gonna start off today with a
cruise brawl in Galveston. And I I hate to say this.
You know, stereotypes exist for a reason. There's a reason
why there are certain stereotypes that are out there. It's

(00:53):
because more often than that, it's true. And I'm going
to share with you some stereotypes about cruising. Going on
a cruise, yep, y'all ever been on a cruise. We
love Elizabeth and I loved Cruz, we love Dacruz. We
haven't been on one in a while, and we're really
excited because in June we're taking a group of listeners

(01:14):
and we're doing a cruise of the Greek Islands and
we're looking forward to that. That's like a bucket list
item for me, and I'm really, really excited about doing that.
We're doing it on celebrity cruise lines, very very good reputation,
not the kind of place where brawls break out. Not
to say that you don't get any drunks on a

(01:34):
celebrity cruise. You get them on any cruise line. But
there are some cruise lines that attracted a different caliber
of individual than others, and at the risk of suff well,
let me explain the story first, and then you tell
me which cruise line you think this belongs to. A
cruise line has banned dozens, in fact, twenty four to

(01:55):
be exact, after a massive brawl caught on camera broke
out in Galveston. This is after the cruise is over.
They're getting off the ship. They're picking up their bags
and getting ready to leave. Now there's a couple of
things about this. Number One, it's a cruise out of Galveston,
so chances are that most of these people were Texans,

(02:19):
or some more close to Texas where it makes sense
to drive in order to get there. Not to say
that nobody ever takes a cruise out of Galveston that
flew from somewhere else. I'm sure there are, but I'm
making a little bit of an assumption here that these
might have been local people, or Texas people, or people
from not all that far away. And I have no

(02:40):
idea what the fight was about. I don't know if
the fight was overclaiming bags. I don't know if it's
something that started on board the ship with a couple
of different groups of people. They took itself outside. Whatever
it was. You know, they're throwing stuff at each other,
they're throwing punches at each other. Police had to come in.
It was handled by the port the cruise ship. They

(03:01):
were already off the cruise ship. But I wouldn't be
surprised if the whole thing started on board the ship
and it was bad enough where all twenty four of
these people involved in this brawl had now been banned
from taking another cruise on. Would you care to guess
the cruise line anybody? If you said Carnival, you're right.

(03:23):
If you said Carnival, you're right about that. Now, this
is where I guess stereotypical comes in. Of all the
cruise lines out there, Celebrity Norwegian Cruise Lines, Holland America,
Princess Cruises, Disney Cruises, of all the cruise lines that

(03:44):
are out there. There is one cruise line that sort
of caters to the budget friendly, let's get drunk kind
of crowd, and that would be Carnival. At least that
I've only had one experience actually taking a Cardival cruise.
That's exactly what it was. It was the cheaper it
was the cheapest option. Uh So you had people on

(04:06):
board who were there to get drunk. They weren't. They
weren't there to spend a lot of money. Maybe they
didn't have a lot of money to spend, Which is
not to say, by the way, that that people who
don't have a lot of money should not be able
to take a cruise every now and again, That's not
why I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say
is is that when you attract that kind of a crowd.

(04:27):
For example, the last cruise line I would take if
I were going on spring break around college spring break time,
the last I would take would be a Carnival cruise
because that's who's going to be on board all the
all the college is looking to get drunk and party.
Just like I wouldn't take a Disney cruise if I
didn't want to be around young kids making a lot

(04:48):
of noise. That's what you get with Disney. I mean,
you need to know what you're going to get before
you go on board, so that that's kind of that's
kind of the lesson for me. Anyway that I wanted
to warn you about is that some cruise lines catered
to certain types of people, and if you don't want
to associate with those types of people, then you don't

(05:09):
want to go on that particular cruise. So that's and
it's proven itself once again. Oh and here's something I
got started on this. Do I have time to get
started on this one right now? Why not? I guess
I can. I wasn't gonna spend a lot of time
talking about this one. We got into slang terms today
on the Morning show on ktr H. Words that are

(05:33):
still used by people even though you should know that.
You know, they're not really current anymore. They're not they're
not hip anymore. Hip. That's a slang word, right. Cool
is the slang word too, But that one seems to
that one seems to transcend generations. But gnarly, for example,

(05:57):
rad you know, those are like eighties maybe early nineties
terms that aren't used anymore except by people who, even
though they know they're not cool anymore, the term's not
cool anymore, they still use them. So we asked our
listeners this morning on KTRH, what what's the slang term
that you remember or you maybe even occasionally used by accident,

(06:17):
that you know is not current or cool, but you
but you use it anyway.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
Hey, Jimmy Rick from the East Side, how are you
doing today?

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Me?

Speaker 6 (06:25):
I'm hockey Dory. Good morning, my KTRH friends.

Speaker 7 (06:29):
My mom would always say either beans or fiddle padel
when you would get mad.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
It's staty in the spring.

Speaker 7 (06:36):
My grandmother when you asked for now sha where she
would always say fair to middlins, And I still use
that today. Hello, this is Jesse from Willis. The term
that I would like to think is out of date
is the word killer. When you're describing something that is
really really good. Say that you're listening to a good
album and you love it, you would describe it as killer.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Hey, Jimmy.

Speaker 7 (07:00):
The phrase that is long passed that really needs to
come back is when you want somebody to leave, you
tell them gone.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
Get Hey, Jimmy, don't forget the word red that was totally.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Red yep, nobody uses that one anymore. I mentioned Narley
right stoked sweet word sick when something's really cool, something sick.
Same pieces say goodbye, dude, dude regardless of gender. By
the way, dude was like both male female. You call

(07:32):
guys dude, chicks dude. Everybody's dude. Oki doki. Now we're
cooking with gas. Can you dig it? It's the bomb
Bogus home Slice Snap, and the list goes on and
on and on. Anyway, if you want to add a

(07:52):
few to it, you can go to the iHeartRadio app
kt r H, hit the talkback button, then leave me
a message there. We're gonna take a little break. We'll
be back with more in a moment. Jimmy Bart Show
here on NAM nine fifty KPRC. I always enjoy watching

(08:26):
President Trump orchist magic, and to me, it really is magic.
He has an ability to relate to any crowd and
he understands who and what the crowd is better than
any other politician I've ever seen. And he's not really
and maybe it's because he's not really a politician. I mean,

(08:47):
I think he's more of a politician now than he
was in the very beginning. He certainly has learned a
lot of hard lessons in the world of politics. But
deep downside, he's a businessman. You know, he's a salesman.
He's not a politician. He's a salesman, and he's selling himself.
He's selling himself to the voters. This is what I
stand for, this is what you want, this is what

(09:08):
I'm going to do for you. He was in McCombe County, Michigan,
which is a suburb just north of Detroit. I had
a rally. I'm not sure how many people where they
had the rally. I think it was at Macomb County
Community College. I'm not sure they're auditorium there. I'm not
sure how many people that holds, but from what I understand,

(09:29):
it was packed to the gills. There are people outside,
you know, think about that. I mean, he still attracts
crowds like nobody's business. There's no other politician that attracts
crowds the way Trump does. And the only other politician
who can attract a crowd even close, not close, but
anywhere in the neighborhood of what Trump can is somebody
who's out there railing against Trump. So they're either coming

(09:51):
to love on Trump, or they're coming to hate on Trump.
Either way, Trump is the reason for the crowd any
way you look at it. So he's there last night.
I guess Governor Gretchen Whipper was there, which I find
a little bit surprising. Well, you know, she's a politician too.
She seems to understand that Trump resonates with blue collar

(10:12):
workers in Michigan, especially auto workers, and that she needs
the support, at least some support from auto workers if
she's going to retain retain the governorship of Michigan. You
know she's gonna have to run again. She's gonna have
to win again. She's going to have to have some
of that support. So anyway, let's share some highlights from

(10:33):
Trump's visit to Macomb County, Michigan. Here he is welcoming
the crowd and endearing himself to them by talking about
how many automotive jobs there will be recreated generated, how
much expansion there will be thanks to the things that
he is doing.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
But I'm thrilled to be.

Speaker 8 (10:53):
Back into this beautiful state. I love this statement. And
a lot of auto jobs coming much. What's happening. The
companies are coming in by the tens.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
You got to see what's happening.

Speaker 8 (11:08):
They all want to come back to Michigan and build
cars again. You know why, because of our tax and
tariff policy. They're coming from all over the world. They're
coming up and they're opening up plants, and they're talking
to us all day and all night. They want to
get here, and they're coming in and levels you've never
seen before. And I want to thank the Order workers
for your support.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
That was great.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
When I'm thrilled to be.

Speaker 8 (11:32):
Back in this beautiful state with thousands of proud, hard
working American patriots, and we're here tonight in the heartland
of our nation to celebrate the most successful first one
hundred days of Penny administration in the history of our country.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
And that's according to many many people.

Speaker 8 (11:55):
This is the best they say one hundred days start
of any president in history. And everyone is saying it
was just we've just gotten started. You haven't even seen
anything yet.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
It's all just kicking on and week by week.

Speaker 8 (12:10):
We're ending illegal immigration, We're taking back our jobs and
protecting our great American auto workers and all of our workers.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Frankly, we're protecting all of our workers.

Speaker 8 (12:25):
We're restoring the rule of law, which was sort of
out the window with this crazy guy we had hotda
hell did that guy ever become precedent?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Because somebody explained to these hota, hell did that happen?
How the hell did that happen?

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Uh, you know, Trump being Trump, and so you know,
that was just kind of his introduction to the crowd,
and then he started to get into some of the
issues and in some of the things that he wanted
to relay to the audience there his supporters, including talking
about inflation and getting rid of inflation is certainly something
he's promised to do. Extending the tax cuts, a little

(13:06):
message to the voters about how you got to be
careful who you're going to vote for if you want
to get those tax cuts, otherwise you're gonna end up
with a big tax increase. Here's President Trump.

Speaker 8 (13:16):
We're ending the inflation nightmare, the worst that we've had
probably in the history of our country. Getting woke lunacy
and transgender insanity the hell.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Out of our government.

Speaker 8 (13:31):
We're stopping the indoctrination of our children, Slashing billions and
billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, and above all,
we're saving the American dream.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
We're making America great again.

Speaker 8 (13:43):
It is happening fast to what the world is witnessed
in the past fourteen weeks is a revolution of common sense.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
That's all it is. Really.

Speaker 8 (13:56):
We're conservative, your conservative, whatever the hell, you know what
it's all about. It's about common sense when you think
about it.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
We're for common sense.

Speaker 8 (14:04):
We like strong boarders, we like good education, we like
low interest rates.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
We like being able to buy a beautiful.

Speaker 8 (14:10):
Car and now deduct the interest on the loan. That's
never happened before. We want a strong military. We want
to load taxes. You know, the Democrats, they campaign on
we will raise your taxes.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's the first time. You know, I haven't been doing
this that long.

Speaker 8 (14:30):
Actually, compared to a lot of people, they've been doing
it for a long time. They say, you became president,
I can't get out of Congress.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
So some of them can't even get into Congress. But
you know, I haven't been doing it that long.

Speaker 8 (14:42):
But all my life I've been watching and I've never
heard people campaigning.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
That they're going to raise taxes.

Speaker 8 (14:48):
It's always been we will reduce your taxes. Democrat, Republican.
Now they go, we're going to raise your taxes. If
our bill doesn't pass the Republicans. We have a hundred
percent just about Republican support, but it would be nice
if we had just a couple of Democrats just to
make sure, because you know, every once in a while
you have a grand standard Republican. We have some grand standards,

(15:12):
but every once in a while, not many, not many.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
But remember who.

Speaker 8 (15:16):
Those grand standards were, and vote.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
Them the hell out of office. Okay, will you do that?

Speaker 8 (15:25):
Vote them out of office?

Speaker 1 (15:27):
You know they do it, or morally they're morally bound.
You know what the answer is.

Speaker 8 (15:31):
If you if you don't get it, you're gonna have
the highest tax increase in history instead of the greatest
tax cut in history. If the Democrats prevail on this bill,
you get a fifty eight percent tax increase.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Would you like that? These are the Democrats.

Speaker 8 (15:48):
But I've never seen all the years the campaign we
will raise your taxes.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
I say, what, this place has gone. This country's gone crazy.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
This country's gone crazy, all right? And one more for
you here from the President last night in Mcomb County, Michigan,
at his rally. And that has to do with and
I'm sure he brought this up because the guy who's
introducing the seven articles of impeachment against him. Is a Democrat,
newly elective freshman Democrat from Michigan, an Indian guy. I

(16:21):
can't remember his name. Hard to pronounce the name. Anyway,
I probably just butchered, which I don't want to do.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
So.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
President Trump brought up this latest impeachment thing, but also
talked about how lost the Democrat Party is right now.

Speaker 8 (16:35):
And today they did it again, some guy that i'd
never heard.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Of, John James. Is he a congressman?

Speaker 8 (16:41):
This guy he said, He said, ladies, gentlemen, I am
going to start the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
What the hell did I do? Here we go again?
They want to peach mee this lunatic, this lunatic. Use um.

Speaker 8 (17:00):
Actually, I had the television wag down and I said,
to our great first lady, listen, did I just hear
ours being impeached again?

Speaker 1 (17:07):
We're getting good at this though.

Speaker 9 (17:09):
No.

Speaker 8 (17:10):
They've gone totally crazy, these people. And you know what,
they've totally lost their confidence, so they can't even tell
a lunatic like this dumb guy that said it. And
then you have the other one that's always with the cane.
He's always impeaching and he raises his cane. He always impeaches.
But they have no control over those people. They have

(17:30):
no control. And the reason is they've lost their confidence.
They have no confidence anymore.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
As a party. They have no candidates.

Speaker 8 (17:38):
And you know when they say that Bernie, Bernie's probably.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
The best they have. By the way, he's about seven.

Speaker 8 (17:43):
Years older than me, more eight years older.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
One thing. I got to give him credit.

Speaker 8 (17:49):
He's a lunatic, but he's still pretty sharp.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
And he's going around with.

Speaker 8 (17:54):
AOC plus three, you know, the plus three follow up.
They hang on for a little bits, they hang on
for nuggets, and they get crowds. They say, oh, the crowd,
our crowds. There's so much biggers in their crush. Their
crowds are small. If I ever had a crowd like
their biggest crowd. They say it's over for Trump. He's
lost the magic. But this is great and all the

(18:15):
people outside, we love you.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
We put screens up.

Speaker 8 (18:20):
We're taking back our country from a sick political class.
They've got rich, selling America out and bleeding America dry.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
We don't let that happen anymore.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
You can always tell when he's you know, on script
and offscript. Most of the time he's off script, all right,
but doing what he does best. All right, quick little
break back with Bore in a moment, Jimmy Bertt show
here on name of nine fifty KPRC. All right, let's

(19:02):
talk energy here.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
I'm frustrated.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
My guess is going to find out just how frustrated
I am, because I don't feel like Texas is making
any headway. We have all these natural resources. We are
with the oil center of the world. We produce a
lot of natural gas, we produce a lot of propane
gas here in the Great State of Texas, and yet

(19:27):
we put all of our incentives into things like solar
and wind. We know from Center Point, at least that's
what Centerpoint is telling us that by the year twenty thirty,
with the population growth is projected here in Texas, we're
going to have to produce at least fifty percent more
power in order to be able to keep up the demand.
But there doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency

(19:47):
to come up with more traditional power sources. Leah Forbond
is with US Texas Public Policy Foundation. Aleah, why do
you think there is no sense of urgency right now
in Texas?

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah? I would agree with you, Jimmy. Thanks for having me. Also,
I think what we've seen here in Texas and across
the US, because of this growing trend of the green
agenda net zero by the previous admin, we are not
differentiating our unreliable and reliable energy as they should be

(20:18):
or paying them as they should be for what they are.
So what that means is our wind and solar are
getting made just the same as our dispatchable thermal reliable generators.
And some people call wind and renewable, but here at
to have we like to call them unreliable because what
they are, and the fight kind of rests among are

(20:40):
we going to increase our renewable are we going to
are dispatchable reliable generators? And at the end of the day,
the market is not signaling that we need that dispatchable
energy on our grid.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
And that that mystifies me, because it's pretty clear that
the companies like Centerpoint are are trying to warn us
that hey, listen, we're going to have a problem here
and not that far down the road. Twenty thirty is
not very far away. If they got started right now
building more traditional power plans, it probably would take that

(21:13):
long to get them online, wouldn't they?

Speaker 4 (21:17):
And I think right now with this administration, there's an
incentive to kind of cut those regulations to build as
fast as possible our natural gas, specifically our most reliable
energy spores. I think we can see that generation being
built sooner. But if our market isn't corrected, specifically here

(21:38):
in Texas, to guarantee that the revenue is there for
these generators, they're not going to have any incentive to
build out.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
So the problem is, of course that plant operators, the
people who are going to be responsible for building these plants,
they want to know they're going to make a profit.
All the financial incentives have been in renewable energies here
in Texas. They're worried that they don't think they can
make a profit. Therefore, why would you build something like that?

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Right right?

Speaker 4 (22:05):
And I think, I mean, you have your wind and
solar and that are being subsidized so heavily that you
don't even have to make a profit after you build
out these energy sources. And so now these companies that
are building wind and solar are profiting off of the subsidies,
are tax dollars and bidding into our energy market. Sometimes

(22:28):
zero or negative pricing, pricing out all of our reliable
generators and waiting thoats sit idly, and now we're building
your peaker plants that come in to fill in those
gaps where renewables cannot.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
All right, I'm going to regret even saying this because
this is not I know you and I just met.
You don't know me. I'm a free enterprise kind of guy.
I'm a firm believer that competition improves virtually everything. I
don't believe in government running things that should be business's
best left of the private sector. But do we get
to the point when it comes to energy that we

(23:04):
have to take a look at whether or not we
want to produce energy as a state? Down words, should
the State of Texas in any way, shape or form
be involved in building power plants if we can't get
the private sector to do it.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
The state of Texas plays a really important part in
setting up the market to not be dissuaded by external factors,
as in your federal subsidy any other subsidies at the level.
But also we have the responsibility as Texans and at

(23:43):
the legislature and as a state to make sure that
we're paying people the appropriate price, which means making sure
that our reliable cerators are getting paid fairly when they're
the ones that Texans rely on the most.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
All Right, So if the problem is is that these
companies are not allowed to make enough of a profit,
then the problem is with the Texas Public Utilities Commission.
Is that what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
I think the Public Utility Commission is they have the
same goal that we all do. We want to make
sure we have a reliable grid, but there's a lot
of other factors do it. And if the general perception
is that we need more renewables or we need more suck,
than everyone responds that way, and so does the market.

(24:32):
And market wait for the subsidies some men to build.
But if there's an opportunity to fix that, then I
think people will forward to do that in the market.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, I have some concerns. I don't know about you,
but I have some concerns about the Texas Public Utilities Commission.
First of all, their appointments from Governor Abbott. I don't
know what their backgrounds are. I don't think their backgrounds
necessarily are asociated with energy or power. They basically are
their job is to keep an eye on companies like

(25:08):
Center Point and to make sure that they're doing the
right things, making sure that the rate request is justified
that they're asking for, making sure that they're spending money
on the right things. And they've already made some moves
that were rather questionable, like allowing a Center Point to
spend millions upon millions of dollars on portable generators that
were never utilized when we had major power problems. So

(25:29):
maybe we need to relook at how we appoint these
people on the PUC. These people need to have an
energy background, don't they.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
I think, you know, the PUC covers more than just energies,
so I think they cover you know, Texas water rates,
and I think that requires a various background and you
kind of have to be strategic in that. But I
think at the end of the day, it really comes
down to getting everyone to understand what Texas needs is

(26:03):
a pharma file generator. And if the general public perception
it's that renewables are good and carbon is bad, then
the public and legislature and all agencies involved respond that
way too. Yeah, even though we know that it's to
say that's not correct.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Well, you know what's going to happen. Though, here's here.
If that's how they're going to play the game, Here's
what's going to happen is we're going to get to
twenty thirty or whatever that year turns out to be,
and we're gonna start having brownouts and rolling blackouts because
we can't generate enough power, and businesses will go to
some other place where the power sources are more reliable,
and people will be upset, just like they were doing

(26:46):
the winter storm when they lost their power for several days,
and they're going to start, you know, making a bunch
of noise, and we'll just be starting over all over
again because we haven't done anything to prevent that problem
from happening.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
That's what we're focused on here. We're hoping that by
signaling to everybody that we can prevent something like winter
Storm Yeurie happening again. We convent we don't want to
be on the same path that's being n Portugal was
when their entire country shut off and went through a
blackout because of their massive winded solar on the grid

(27:20):
and priding themselves with their hundred grid turned out to
be a complete disaster the next day. So I think
these instances popping up around the world. It's us did
not follow on that same path that we have been previously,
and I think the legislatures starting to realize that too.

(27:45):
I think the other issue, too, is it's not such
a black and white philosophical conservative versus democrat issue. Your
energy falls into this weird meddle ground where you either
care about it don't, and you you your LIFs either
turn on or you don't, and then that's when you
start to worry about it. So I think people see this.

(28:08):
These events around the world are really starting to gain traction,
and we're starting to realize, Okay, how the country that
we can.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
So we need a few more. We need a few
more Spain and Portugals to happen. It's what you're saying,
we need. Yeah, we need Europe to go dark for
you about a month and then and then we'll decide.
Then we'll decide we'll build some more power plants here.
I'm I'm hoping that we have more foresight than that.
I know that your average American might not because, like

(28:38):
you said, it's it's not on their radar until they
lose their power. But I'm hoping that the people who
suppose they are in charge of all this, you can
see the forest for the trees and realize that even
though you may have to make a case for it
and people wonder why you're doing it, what you're doing
it for the greater good, which is to make sure
we don't find ourselves in that position one day.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
Yeah, and if anything, that you start to realize that
out on your utility bill and when your prices are increasing,
even though you have this free wind centergy that you've
been promised that will help the earth and also help
your built and that's doing either.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, that's for sure. Well, listen, it's been a pleasure
to talk to you. Thank you for checking in. I
do appreciate that, and have a great day.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Well, thank you, Jimmy, it.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Was a pleasure, enjoyed it. That is from the Texas
Policy Foundation joining us to talk about energy today here
on news radio seven forty k nick A nine fifty KPRC.
Aleah Forormont. Thank you. Leah back with more in a moment,
Jimmy Birtt Show AM nine fifty KPRC. Before we wrap

(30:03):
up today, here's another topic we got on this morning,
and it was an innocent question. That I was asking,
and the answer surprised me just a little bit. I'll
tell you what I'm talking about here. President Trump, amongst
all his executive orders, signed an executive order which basically
requires truck drivers to be proficient in English. And I

(30:30):
thought that was interesting. That is this a big problem?
Do we have a lot of commercial truck drivers who
cannot speak English? And by the way, when we're talking
about proficient in English, we're not just talking about speaking
the language. We're talking about understanding the language. We're talking
about being able to write in English, being able to
read in English. I mean I can, I can spout

(30:52):
off a few Spanish sentences, but that doesn't mean that
I can if you were to put that in front
of me. I can read some words that are pretty obvious,
but I can't read a complete sentence. I couldn't go
to Mexico and drive a commercial truck and be able
to communicate effectively with the people I would need to
communicate with and in a lot of different ways. You know,

(31:14):
they want to make sure these commercial truck drivers, the
President wants to make sure that they understand the language,
can speak the language, can write the language, can understand
road signs in English, and what those road signs mean
so they can follow traffic laws. The list goes on
and on and on. But my question became, is this
really a problem? How much of a problem is this?

(31:37):
You know, I don't know what prompted him to write
the executive order other than maybe, you know, he was
told by the trucking industry that this is a problem.
But then again, I thought, well, why would the trucking
industry tell him that, because, you know, they're just trying
to hire drivers. And maybe part of the problem is
is that we have not been able to desp our

(32:00):
best efforts despite the fact that these people make great
money truck drivers. A lot of truck drivers make six
figure salaries. They make a decent living doing what they're doing. Now,
I'm not saying it's a lifestyle for everybody, especially long
haul trucking. I'm not saying that everybody wants to do that.
But I'll tell you what, it's a great way to
make a living if they if that's the vocation you

(32:22):
choose to do. But I was asking truck drivers to
call into our morning show today on KTRH. Is this
you know, I just want to know, is this a problem.
Is this a big problem that we have too many
people driving commercial trucks who don't speak English. Turns out,
based on the phone calls we were getting, the talkbacks,
we were getting that. Yet it's a problem.

Speaker 9 (32:44):
Yes, the language barrier is an issue across the trucking industry.
Anytime that I go to pick up near the port,
you can't understand a single thing being said. It's kind
of distracting.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Yes, sir, I work for a company. Then I see
many trucks coming through every day, and I would say
a great percentage of them do not speak English. I've
actually had to use my phone as a translator for
Chinese and other languages. So it's true there's a lot
of them out there that do not speak English at all.

(33:21):
Thank you, love your show.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
Good morning, Jimmy.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
So.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
I have a destruction supply company which I supply construction
stuff across the United States. The job sites, it's a tremendous,
tremendous problem. Over the last year and a half to
two years, I've been getting tremendous complaints from job sites
from a project managers at trailer driver show up, can't communicate.

(33:46):
No one's understanding each other. All they know is have
papers that have to be signed to get on their way.
It's been a tremendous problem.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
It is a problem. But the State of Texas offers
the CDL.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Exam and other languages.

Speaker 6 (33:57):
Because they can't speak it be.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Stopped Como no.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Esp I'm glad we still have our sets of humor
is intact around here, that's for sure. Okay, Yeah, did
you realize it was that big of a problem. I mean,
I guess I realized that we have people out there,
you know, we have certainly have a lot of people

(34:26):
in the landscape business. You know, virtually everybody I know
who's in the landscape businesses is Mexican. Many of them
speak you know the I know the guy who does
my place, he speaks he speaks English. It's it's clearly
not his first language, but he speaks and understands English.
I don't think any of the people working for him do.

(34:47):
But you've got a lot of got a lot of
people who are driving, you know, landscape trucks and trailers,
towing trailers and stuff who may or may not speak
the language I have, would be able to read English.
I guess there's a lot of things that are universal
about driving, although I shouldn't say that I've been to Mexico.
They it's a different driving experience in Mexico, especially if

(35:09):
you're lucky enough to get into an accident. Yeah, if
you're if you're if you're a tourist and you're driving
a rental car in Mexico and you get into an
accident with a with a with a native Mexican chance,
don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. No matter whose fault
it is, it's your fault. That's usually how that works.
And don't be surprised if you don't have to pay
up for the damage before they let you out of

(35:31):
the country. So, yeah, it is different from country to country.
The answer to this, I don't know. I guess because
we have to have truck drivers and we have to
be able to deliver goods, and we've had a shortage
for a long long time. So do we just get
rid of people who can't speak the language. Do we
put them in some sort of an English emergon emergence

(35:52):
situation where they learn enough of the language where they
can communicate. There's probably no simpler good answer on this one. Hey, listen,
gotta leave it at that for now. Y'all have a
great day. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow morning, bright
nearly thirty five am over on news Radio seven forty
k t r H. We're back here at four on
AM nine fifty kt r C.