AFP - Ohio Energy Policy

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
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Speaker 1 (01:02):
I fIF you have KERCD talk station Friday E fast
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(01:23):
coming up in an hour. In the meantime, Donovan and
Neil Americans for US Prosperity joined the program regularly. This
week's topic and I love this topic and it's something
vvak rama swimming our next governor's all over Ohio's energy policy.
Welcome back, Donovan and Neil. It's always a pleasure to
having you on the morning show. Brian, always good to
be with you. So do tell I mean I said
earlier in the program, I praise Dear God. Let AFP

(01:45):
mention small modular reactors as one of the solutions for
Ohio's energy needs into the future. I think it is
the pathway to the ultimate prosperity. If we could get
a whole bunch of them built, create an abundance of
carbon free if that's important energy. Those things produce massive
quantities on a tiny footprint. We'd solve all of our
energy problems and probably produce so much energy we could
sell it to other states who are busy chasing their

(02:08):
tail looking for carbon neutrality. Am I on the right path,
Donovan O'Neil.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Absolutely, I mean that's one of the key pieces, right.
It's part of this abundance approach to energy policy making
that we've been driving on wild Actually, I don't know
did you see this. I was going to mention it
to you because I know you're a fan of these.
Senator Jerry Serino from Lake County actually wrote an op
ed talking about the need for SMRs here in the
state of Ohio. It lays out very eloquently, what's that

(02:37):
stake if we don't unleash the opportunity that that technology
can bring to the Buckeye State when it comes to
manufacturing lower energy bills for books like you and I,
and the ability to power these data centers that are
at the heart of a lot of the conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Now, yeah, I mean the data centers are coming. We've
had all these major announcements. They are going to need
the power. And if we allocate power and they who knows,
they may come ahead of the of the curve when
it comes to who gets power and who doesn't. Your
neighborhood may experience a brown out while the massive data
center is going to get continuous power solution small modular reactors.

(03:15):
And you know, Donovan May, I'm convinced that these major
AI corporations, multi multi billion dollar corporations, if they were
given a green light and they agreed to fund the
damn things, they probably build their own SMRs to fund
their own AI centers and then be able to sell
the elector of the extra electricity to the population at large.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, yeah, I think that's that Actually is absolutely a
key part of this right is that we think we
have to rethink and there's a lot of folks who
are doing this right. This isn't not breaking news or
anything right than Niger, But that's what's at the heart
of this right is saying, hey, look, you know, the
facebooks are the Metas of the world, the Apples of
the world, all these the amazons. Why can't we let
them just go build that energy, build that energy the

(03:57):
power their needs which we enjoy consumer and then if
there's excess energy, let's throw that back on the grid.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
But the challenge, Brian Wright, is these.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Archaic permitting and federal, state and local infrastructure, all red
tape and bureaucracy that is inhibiting the ability to do
the states that we think would be really common sense in.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
This story, red tape and bureaucracy which was put into
place back in the days of Three Mile Island, right,
I mean, we're living in a regulatory state that still
exists in nineteen seventy not in a world where we
have developed nuclear technology. Where it's I always like to
draw the parallel. They're like legos. You can just pop
them together. One size does in fact fit all, not

(04:38):
subject to individual regulatory approval. Look, you approved it over
here in this area of the state, so it automatically
has approved any place else you want to put one,
you know, all things being equal. I mean that we
just need to, I mean just sort of pay attention
to the reality the technology has evolved. We're not cooling
Tower nineteen seventy five anymore.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Right, Well, and that's what this road to prosperity campaign
we're kicking. All we kicked off this week actually is
all about is dialing in and focusing in on that
you know, we need to unleash in order to unleash
prosperity in this country, right we need to we need
to remove the red tape and burden some regulations at
their heart of the permitting process on the federal level.

(05:19):
And if we could do that, right, we could power Ohio,
can power the East Coast, and we can actually bring
you know, the manufacturing jobs and all that opportunity that
is at the heart of President Trump's agenda right now,
that can all be powered. But right now, that's the
really big question mark is if we can't power this stuff.
You know, you can have all the jobs you want
to bring back to the country, all the investment that

(05:40):
manufacturers want to make, but if they can't get cheap,
affordable energy to fuel that, it becomes very shaky and
untenable in terms of like building that long term prosperity
that we all we all are hoping for and want
to want to see happen.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Well, as you point out, and I know you're the
Chief Government Affairs Officer, Brett Rent Gardner from AFP has
pointed this out in statements, the unnecessary self imposed federal regulations.
This isn't a state impediment, Donovan. This is something we
have to deal with with our federal officials.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, and so on the state level. I mean, the
state can be a problem, but we actually our legislative
leaders in Columbus got that fixed, believe it or not,
back in April, House Bill fifteen have been on the
show and talked about it. They did a lot of
the things you need to do to get the policy right, basically,
you know, cleaning up the power siting board and making
sure that you know, if you're going to put a

(06:33):
project for approval to the State of Ohio, that you've
got some shot clocks at some time so you have
some confidence that you're going to get an answer right.
You're not just dumping something into a black hole and
saying will or will the will the bureaucrats or will
they not tell me if my project's approved? So that
is an important part of this permitting reform, I think,
is making sure that there is confidence that when you're

(06:54):
going to make an investment in an energy project or
you're going to look to get a project going, you're
going to get an answer within a fine period of time.
They don't get to just sit and slow walk this
stuff till the next administration. So on the state level,
I think we're primed for this stuff, But the other
side of the equation is federal because you know, we
sit in these interconnects, and the federal government has a

(07:15):
lot of interest through the environmental rules and rags that
also have added more layers of bureaucracy beyond just whether
or not we should add the new energy. So it
gets complex, not in that you know, most folks can't
understand it ways, but it just gets complex. And the
fact that if you want to go get these projects done,
there's a lot of money spent on lawyers and accountants
and red tape that even if you get the project done,

(07:40):
that all gets built into the costs that have to
be recruced when it actually gets to the consumer. And
so we want to streamline that it doesn't need to
be this way. As you pointed out, we're operating off
of nineteen seventies mentality here. It's the twenty first century,
and we have to go to get this stuff done,
and that's what we're going to be highlighting while elevating
with members of Congress and say get this done. The

(08:01):
opportunity is.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Here, the opportunities most assuredly here, most notably in the
federal level, because we have a Trump administration now which
seems keen and eager to get rid of a lot
of the regulations with DO standards impediments to us moving
forward in the right direction. Environmental litigation always slows things down.
It's like you put to rest one case, you know,
they find that, no, the environmental regulations have not been violated.
The project screenlighted, only to be met with a follow

(08:24):
up challenge by some other group on some other twisted
theory not involved in the first theory of liability, start
from scratch again. The project end up getting delayed for
another three, four or five years for that litigation to
go out. That's one of the areas we need to
have solve.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Donovan, Well, one of you know, I don't know if
you remember. Back when President Trump repook office, he had
hours of just signing executive orders from the Oval Office,
and this was one of them.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was to have a.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Full review of all the regulatory policies and procedures in
the executive agencies regarding energy production. So that review has
been going on for the last nine months and those
results are going to start coming back. And that's why
this is. Congress is a critical part of this because
as you know, right, an executive order is only as
good as the executive and all now we're going to

(09:12):
need We're going to need Congress to act. And so
that's that's the big push here, is saying, hey, the
Trump administration did its part. These things are coming back
from review, and there's going to be opportunities to make
codify changes. We've got to be primed and position to
get that done, especially knowing that the midterms. Hate to
talk politics about it, right, but the midterms around the corner.

(09:33):
We've got to get this stuff done while Republicans have
that leadership and have the ability to follow through their promises.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
At a time, Donovan, but the help my listeners can
give is located. If prosperity is possible dot org.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
That's it, break it out.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Prosperity is possible. Please get involved, get engaged, HELPAFP, help
you to help us all. Donovan and Neil, thanks for
what you're doing. I'll look forward to having you back
on and best of luck with this new campaign. Prosperity
is Possible dot org. Take care brother UH America. We're
gonna hear from the Comer County Veteran Services Next it's
Suicide Awareness Month. It's such an important topic to talk

(10:08):
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Speaker 2 (10:49):
If you've built significant