Power Hour with Alex Epstein

By Alex EpsteinNews News Commentary

Power Hour with Alex Epstein episodes

April 01, 2021 The Roots of the Green New Deal
On this week's Power Hour, Alex Epstein discusses the policy platform known as the Green New Deal with Marc Morano, author of the new book "Green Fraud: Why The Green New Deal is Worse Than You Think."

They focus on the roots of the Green New Deal--Marc, its historical and political roots, Alex, it's philosophical roots--which both believe are key to successfully opposing it and advocating a positive alternative.

Some of the topics they cover are:
- How Marc became skeptical of the modern environmental movement.
- What UN climate conferences are really like--lavish parties, exotic locations, impressive carbon footprints.
- How Marc was once kicked out of a climate conference and literally thrown in the middle of the desert.
- Why Marc features EnergyTalkingPoints.com so prominently in his new book.
- What we can learn from the great economics teacher Walter Williams.
- Alex's views on the three levels of reframing the energy and climate conversation.
- Where the Green New Deal came from.
- How the Green New Deal is part of the current administration's plans.
- The wide-ranging, totalitarian scope of the Green New Deal.
- How Covid lockdowns are encouraging advocates of a totalitarian Green New Deal.
1 hr 3 min
March 25, 2021 How Defunding Reliable Energy Caused the Texas Blackouts
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein joins philosopher Gregory Salmieri and statistician Carlos Carvalho to discuss what caused Texas electricity to be so unreliable when it was desperately needed during a recent winter storm.

In this wide-ranging discussion Alex emphasizes the point that by giving undeserved money and preferences to unreliable wind and solar electricity, Texas defunded the reliable and resilient electricity it needed.

Some specific topics include:
- How the grid needs to match supply and demand.
- What we know about what actually happened before the mass blackouts.
- How Texas policy gives preference to wind and solar.
- Why a “Red State” like Texas is so pro-wind.
- How Texas’s “Energy Only” market works.
- How Texas’s fundamental problems exist nationwide.
1 hr 18 min
March 18, 2021 Fake Invisible Catastrophes--and why we fall for them--with Patrick Moore
On this week's Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews ecologist Patrick Moore, cofounder of Greenpeace and author of "Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom."

In his book Moore thoroughly debunks 11 alleged current or imminent catastrophes, from mass species extinction to ocean "acidification" to the near death of the Great Barrier Reef.

In this interview Alex asks Moore about the false assumptions that drive our propensity to believe in "fake invisible catastrophes," including the assumption that human impact is inevitably destructive because it disrupts an alleged perfect, delicate balance of nature.

More debunks this "delicate balance" idea thoroughly with numerous examples, above all with CO2 levels--which, he argues, were on a natural and deadly downward trajectory toward mass plant death until human beings restored some of it to the atmosphere.
1 hr 14 min
March 12, 2021 "Steps toward decriminalizing nuclear" with Robert Hargraves
On this week's Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews Robert Hargraves on the topic of how to decriminalize nuclear energy so it can provide low-cost, reliable, ultra-clean energy for billions of people.

Hargraves is cofounder of ThorCon and author of "Thorium: Energy Cheaper Than Coal."

They cover topics including:
- Why since the creation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) over 45 years ago not one nuclear power plant has been designed and built to completion.
- Why the Linear no Threshold (LNT) approach guiding the NRC should be abolished.
- What ALARA is, and how it increases nuclear costs.
- Why South Korea builds nuclear plants at 1/3 US costs.
- Should the NRC exist at all?
53 min
March 05, 2021 The fallacious "Social Cost of Carbon" with David Kreutzer
The Biden Administration has just announced $51/ton "Social Cost of Carbon." On this week's Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews David Kreutzer, Senior Economist at the Institute for Energy Research, about the many methodological and moral problems with this metric, including:
- How the SCC overestimates negative climate impacts
- How the SCC underestimates positive climate impacts
- How the SCC underestimates adaptation
- How the SCC ignores the unique cost-effectiveness of fossil fuels
- How the SCC is radically changed by arbitrary decisions about its "discount rate"
1 hr 3 min
February 25, 2021 Maxwell Goldberg on Our Dangerous Material Dependence on China
Alex Epstein interviews Maxwell Goldberg, an entrepreneur and industrial analyst, about our little-known dependence on China for dozens of materials that modern life requires.

They cover topics including:
- How Maxwell got interested in this issue at such a young age.
- Just how dependent the US is on China.
- China’s proven track record of exploiting its control of the “rare earths” supply chain
- China’s goal
- The sincerity of China’s “net-zero” by 2060 pledge
- What policy changes are necessary

Maxwell (Max) Goldberg is an industrialist and investor developing materials, manufacturing, and industrial companies, products, and services. In 2021 Max is focused on investing in and acquiring United States based manufacturing companies and helping United States industrial businesses dissect “where stuff comes from”, particularly the critical minerals and value-added-commodity-products that are ubiquitous throughout their value chains. Max is an engineer by training, with a B.S. in Materials Engineering and and M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2018, Max has hosted the Next Frontier Podcast, a show devoted to understanding how innovation resources enable industrialists and entrepreneurs to innovate faster than ever before. Max formerly worked as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Dr. Peter Diamandis, executing technical due diligence and business development across the XPRIZE Foundation, Singularity University, Bold Capital Partners, Fountain Therapeutics, and Peter’s recent book launch.

His website is https://maxwellgoldberg.com/

1 hr 6 min
February 18, 2021 The Future of Oil with Michael Lynch
Alex interviews Michael Lynch, the renowned debunker of “peak oil,” to discuss Lynch’s new essay on “peak oil demand”—the idea that the post-pandemic world will mean “the end of oil.”

https://eprinc.org/2021/02/the-pandemic-and-the-end-of-oil-the-pandemic-peak-oil-demand-and-the-oil-industry-by-michael-lynch-and-ivan-sandrea/

In this interview they cover: false past predictions of a green future, the real economics of EV batteries, what post-pandemic culture will look like, how much oil exists in the world, and much more.
48 min
February 18, 2021 The Failure of Unreliable Energy in Texas and Around the World with Steve Milloy
Alex brings on Steve Milloy, a fellow green energy whistleblower and creator of JunkScience.com, to discuss the massive power outages in Texas and how they were brought about by “green energy” policies. They also discuss the failure of green energy around the world this winter.

Near the end of the show Alex asks Steve about his remarkable success countering “ESG” efforts and his views on the recently-publicized “fossil fuels cause 1 in 5 deaths” claim.
1 hr
February 11, 2021 Alex Epstein on the world of energy in early 2021
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein shares a recent interview of him by Heidi McKillop, a Candian filmmaker who went from an opponent of the Candian oil and gas industry to a champion of it.

This is his first wide-ranging interview in many months.

He shares new thoughts on the world of energy including how to think about our environment, how to stand up to the anti-fossil fuel movement, and the miracle of “machine labor.”
42 min
February 04, 2021 The Destructive Power of ESG with Yaron Brook
Alex Epstein interviews Yaron Brook about the origins, rise, and unprecedented power of today’s anti-fossil fuel ESG movement in investing.

They cover:
- Larry Fink’s latest influential letter
- The shareholder value theory of the purpose of a corporation
- What’s wrong with the “stakeholder value” theory of the purpose of a corporation
- How government coercion increases the power of the ESG movement
- How the culture gives the ESG movement most of its power
- What companies can do to fight back against the anti-fossil fuel ESG movement?
Yaron Brook is a former finance professor, an investor, Executive Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, and host of The Yaron Brook Show.
1 hr 3 min