Boy it was a lively group on the comment sections of the Energy Realities live Podcast.

The discussion of natural gas is only the beginning. We need to have an honest discussion about relooking at the grid. We need wind, solar, and storage to pay for reliability, and I even feel that they should pay for the additional wear and tear on natural gas and coal turbines that must cycle to enable wind and solar to generate, thereby costing consumers millions.

The podcast with Irina Slav, David Blackmon, Tammy Nemeth, and Stu Turley is always entertaining, and today we had lively comments from regular listeners and even some troglodytes.

The main topics discussed in this Podcast are:

1. The role of natural gas as a vital fuel, not just a “bridge fuel”, especially during extreme weather events in Europe and Texas. Speakers emphasize that natural gas was crucial for keeping people warm and the grid stable during recent cold snaps.

2. Criticism of the over-reliance on intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which failed to perform when needed most during the extreme weather. Speakers argue this has led to higher costs for consumers.

3. The challenges facing nuclear power development, with concerns that it is not being built fast enough to replace retiring nuclear plants and provide reliable baseload power.

4. The potential for using cleaner coal technology and the importance of maintaining coal power plants as a reliable baseload source, especially in regions lacking sufficient natural gas infrastructure.

5. Discussions around energy policy, subsidies, and the impacts on consumers, with speakers arguing that the push for renewable energy has led to higher utility bills.

6. Geopolitical issues related to Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas and the need to diversify supply, including increased LNG imports from the US.

A shout-out to our own The Electric Grandma Merideth Angwin, as we mention her several times. We strongly recommend purchasing her book, and we need her to lead the effort to plan how the grid should be built.

Here are some of the most interesting and impactful quotes from the transcript:

1. “Gas is here to stay because people need it, especially in winter. They will be needing it in summer as well when it will be hot and we’ll need air conditioning. So yeah, that’s what I wanted to say. We have to forget this whole bridge-fuel story.” - Irina Slav

2. “If you just force the developers to ensure against real retirement costs at the end of life, which means digging up those foundations and retiring them, because we’re just, we’re condemning millions of acres of arable lands in the United States to build these damn windmills that will never be usable again. And that’s because there’s no requirement for proper retirement. If there You wouldn’t Nobody would invest in it.” - David Blackmon

3. “In Texas, most people don’t realize that both the Texas and California grids and then many other grids throughout the country afterwards were modeled by, They were created by Enron and Kinlan. The Texas legislature deregulated our market in 99 and 2001 sessions and adopted the Enron model for our grid. We never had blackouts prior.” - David Blackmon

4. “If you just put more capacity on. Capacity, who cares? You could have a thousand solar panels, but they don’t operate at night when it’s freezing. You could a thousand windmills that don’t operate when it’s calm, cold and calm. So what good does it do when it not there when you need it?” - Dr. Tammy Nemeth

5. “We have now as rate payers in Texas paid to build two separate power grids in Texas. We’ve got this virtue signaling power grid for the politicians to brag about. That’s wind and solar and batteries that fails when we got a weather emergency. And then we’ve got the conventional grid made up mainly of natural gas.” - David Blackmon

Irina Slav

International Author writing about energy, mining, and geopolitical issues. Bulgaria Irina Slav

David Blackmon

Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host. David Blackmon

Tammy Nemeth

Energy Consulting Specialist The Nemeth Report

Stuart Turley

President and CEO, Sandstone Group, Podcast Host