Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In twenty nine to fifty bout kersee de Talk station.
Very happy Wednesday to you, Brian Thomas here in always
looking talking and looking forward to talking to Americans for prosperity,
helping you and me do the necessary steps to bring
about some sort of logical and reasonable reform which will
benefit all Americans. Welcome back from AFP, Donovan and Neil.
It's great having you back on the show, sir Brian.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Always great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And yeah, sort of springing from my comment about German
Chancellor Merge now finally admitting that it was stupid and
suicidal to try to go full on carbon neutral. Look
what they're doing. They're building eight gigawatts of new gas
fired power plants. Hopefully they'll get them online by twenty
thirty one. This is County your twenty twenty six. I
guess they have regulations that standing the way of a
(00:44):
fishing production of new energy there too. But maybe we
can bring about some efficiencies and reductions in the regulatory
burden here in the United States, because who can deny
that our energy demands are growing and that we can't
rely on the sun and the wind to provide us
our ever growing energy demands Donovan O'Neill. Well, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Think what we're seeing is a shift not just around
the world, but most importantly here in America, with a
where returning the page from having a scarcity approach to
energy policy making to an abundance approach to energy policy making.
What that means, Brian, is we're gonna unleash energy abundance.
We're gonna instead of saying there's only so much of
the pie to go around, we're gonna build a bigger pie.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
This scarcity model was built on a lie. It was
a product of making energy intentionally scarce, not because we
were running out of the opportunity to build it or
create it. Right.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, absolutely, Okay, yeah, I want to make.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sure we were clear on that concept because it's something
that really just pisses me off. You cut your own
throat economically, in the name of all this is the
religion we're going after, Donovan. Isn't it carbon dioxide? Evil
plant food? We need to get rid of it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Finally, we're all coming out and waking up to the
idea that we've been sold a bill of goods.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's right. Well, and in talking with lawmakers about this,
it's baffling to me. You know. Then there's number them
that put these provisions of the place or direct to
the regulators to do it. But a lot of this
has been you know, those those in the shadows, regulators
and controllers like PGM, who have pushed that idea right
and said, hey, we don't want new nuclear, we don't
(02:25):
want new coal, we don't want new gas powered. We
want wind and solar. And when it's just not adding up.
It's where we find ourselves in this situation today, high
energy costs, low availability, and questions about grid stability.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean Mertz, Chancellor Mertz to have acceptable market prices,
i e. What you and I can afford, Donovan for
energy production. Again, we would have to permanently subsidize energy
prices from the federal budget. We can't do this in
the long run. At least he's speaking reality now, Donovan,
and maybe the pgams of the world were all itching
(03:00):
and get you with excitement about putting up windmill farms
and solar panels because they got all kinds of cash
love from the federal government incentivized to do just that.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, yeah, money aside. The difference here is between renewable
energy sources and reliable energy sources. At the end of
the day, what we want our reliable sources right when
it gets to negative ten degrees in Ohio, like we
have happened from time to time in the winter, we
need to know that that energy can be dispatched, generated quickly,
(03:31):
and dispatched efficiently. That doesn't happen in cloudy cold days
where with slip panels, or you know, even in frigid
weather with wind. It comes from nuclear, coal, natural gas.
It really comes from a diverse array of energy. But
we need these reliable sources to provide that dependable, affordable
(03:52):
energy that so many people need to heat their homes
in the winter and cool them in the summer.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, and the whole thing about PGAM puzzles. Yes, they're
on that green energy tract and they don't seem to
be doing anything. And politicians up in the Northeast tend
to be blue states, and for whatever reason, they're against
the idea of efficient, quick, reliable energy production just because
I don't know, is it the cult of global warming
that they're convinced on, or is it some of the
nefarious purpose that they're up to. I don't know, but
(04:18):
the idea that that region keeps drawing more and more
AI data centers, Like, why would you hook yourself up
to the ubilical court of unreliable energy knowing full well
that there are other places in this country that provide constant,
easily reliable energy sources. So put it over there and
not up there, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, well we just saw Actually, I don't know if
you saw this. I know you're a big nuclear fan, Bryan. Yes,
Vistra just announced partnerships with our with data centers Meta
to do some additional private investment in nuclear here in Ohio.
I think that's the key to really unlocking this up right,
as we get the permitting reform done, get the red tape,
(05:00):
the regulators out of the way, we allow private companies,
billion dollar companies right like Matt, Amazon and others who
are also draining a lot of this energy to be
able to invest in in strong, dependable, reliable energy like nuclear.
That's how we not only maintain our ability to have
these data centers as the national security interest here in
(05:21):
the United States, but we also help bring down the
cost of energy by getting a more private investment into
the energy sector.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Amen, and maybe the Speed Act might be something transformative
to permit us to get in that area or to
do just that. We're going to hear about some of
the details of the Speed Act, which AFP is calling
on lawmakers to embrace more with Donovan Neil, plus a
word or two about the government funding deadline fast approaching.
On the thirtieth at seven forty fifty five KRCD Talk Station,
(05:52):
Brian Thomas here with Donovan and Neil, Americans for Prospered.
Do we do this? Everyone? Stay be again at seven
thirty talking energy policy. Well, Donovan, it sounds like we
have met the me and they are us, at least
the giant swath of us, those being the elected officials
who intentionally cut our throats and deprive us of inexpensive,
easily deployable energy in the name of whatever. Obviously it
(06:12):
has a nefarious element, totallyst I'm sticking with my view
of that. But there is the Speed Act, which AFP
describes as a game changer. What is the Speed Act?
And do we have an option to actually get this through?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, it passed out of Congress, the lower chamber, and
it's over at the sitting with the Senate right now,
and we see an opportunity with this January thirtieth funding deadline.
They've got to get the rest of their regular order
bills done or pass the Continuing Resolution. We think they
can get this included in that marathon sprint to January thirtieth.
And what it would do, Brian, for your listener's benefit,
(06:46):
is it would really modernize the federal permitting process. We
already did this at the state level, and I've been
on your show a few times talking about it with
a piece of legislation called House Bill fifteen. The Speed Act,
to me, does a lot of the similar things, but
just at the federal level, modernizing the modernizing NEPA, setting
deadlines for feral agencies to make permitting decisions, as well
(07:07):
as limiting scope among other things. And that limiting scope,
I think is important because you get these overzealous regulators, right,
these folks who think they're going to change the world
by broad interpretations of congressional authorization, when what their job
really is, right, Congress makes the laws, the executive branch
(07:28):
enforces those laws, and they're not supposed to go beyond that.
Even with modern reforms like Chevron and regulatory reforms like
Grains Act, we see these oversualous regulators get a little
outside of their lane. The Speed Act would help limit
that scope to really what the proximity caused by the project,
(07:48):
rather than know these through or fourth or fifth order
issues that they kind of construe as reasons for not
allowing energy projects or other products to proceed. Well.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Are these unnamed, unknown, unelected regulators behind the scenes that
are making life so complicated for us to have the
energy that we know we could easily produce I mentioned
smile modular reactors Again, Are they political idelogs?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Or do they have some sort of nefarious intent behind them?
Do they want to deprive us of the greatness that
we can achieve even more so with abundant energy? I mean,
what's their deal? Donovan mean, do.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
We know does anyone fully understand the mind of a bureaucrat?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
No, But you're pointing out illustrates the reality we've been
dealing with such a long time, absent to Chevron decisions
and others which have endeavored to pair back this liberal
viewpoint that all these unelected officials have behind the scenes
that they once given any subject matter, they can put
out a regulation that rules over something so broad it
(08:54):
was never contemplated by Congress, and yet they've been doing
it forever. I mean, what is their motivation? I guess
I'm really struggling with that because it always ends up
working on very poorly for us as a nation. See
the current energy crisis we're facing.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Well, I'll get a little philosophical here of but to
the soul I think outlined it in his Conflict of
Visions book, right where there's a constrained and an unconstrained
vision that people hold, we as conservatives, but in fact
our nation, our funding fathers held a constrained vision for
our nation. And that's not in a bad way. Right.
(09:31):
The Declaration of Independence gives us I'm sorry, the Constitution
gives us those those negative rights, that ability that this
is the things that the government can do, and the
rest are retained by the people. Right where the unconstrained
viewpoint says, you know, the ends justify the means. In short,
right the rest of it be damned. The idea is
that you know, you give me enough power and I
(09:54):
can solve the problems of the world that far. That's
the dilemma.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
If all they were trying to solve the problems of
the world. I mean, go back to Germany again. They
cut their own throats. They made it unaffordable to produce energy,
the same thing Barack Obama was his plan. I use
this line all the time because he said it over
and over again. The price of gasoline will necessarily increase.
Why do laws of supply and demand? Nope, because we're
(10:20):
making it harder. Is that solving a problem, Donovan, No,
I think it's making the existing problem that much worse.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, And we see it play out, whether it's in
the energy sector where we got to five dollars a
gallon prices in Ohio. I think it was close to
five dollars yere in Ohio. During the Biden administration, healthcare
costs that we've talked about on your show many times
skyrocketing again not to Republicans in action, but in fact
Democrats actions, voting consistently to increase subsidies and march us
(10:53):
down this path of perpetual Obamacare that's making everything more affordable,
from painkiller tailand alls to to X rays for your
kid's broken arm. It's insane. And these policies, right, it's
this idea that out of Washington d c they know
better than the people in Ohio. It's the classic trust
the experts of COVID line right, and we see this
and that's what's made energy so expensive. But fortunately, Brian,
(11:16):
let's bring it back to the sunshine and rainbows here.
That is very much in front of us right now
and as an opportunity, the Speed Act. Congress has got
it done, the Senate, the House of Representatives has got
it done. The Senate is holding onto it and can
do this thing. It's a priority of the leadership team
there the Republican majority. President Trump one of his first
actions as president nearly nearly a year ago, now got
(11:40):
to his administration to work and identify these problems. The
Speed Act would help codify a lot of those problems
that the Trump administration identified and said, we want Congress
to remove the authority from the executive branch to unlead
so this. By doing that, we can unleash energy abundance
in this country.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
All right, Donald, and nail Americans for a prosperity call
to action. It sounds like we need to get in
touch with our senators.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yes, contact Senator Moreno, contact Senator houstaid, let them know
they need to bring the Speed Act up, and believe
it or not, they do. Listen. We've had a number
of our activists calling their office as of late, reaching out,
and there are human beings on the other line who
take those calls and are more than happy to pass
that message onto the Senator. He's told. Senator Marino has
told me that himself. So reach out, tell them to
(12:22):
get the Speed Act done before January thirtyeth.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yep, we'll see if the government shuts down on January
thirtieth too as well over defunding ICE. Yeah, okay, Donovan
me Americans for a prosperity on behalf of my listening audience.
Thank you and everyone with everyone with AFP for what
you're doing and appreciate your giving us the opportunity to
utilize your sources to help it make Getting in touch
with our elected officials and working toward achieving these good
(12:47):
goals goals that will help us and getting them actually
passed and into law. Will continue to help you out.
You continue to help us out. We'll talk again next Wednesday.
Donaldan O'Neil, thanks for what you do.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Thanks as always.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Briany seven fifty five KRC the Talk Station Foreign Exchange