Power Hour with Alex Epstein

By Alex EpsteinNews News Commentary

Power Hour with Alex Epstein episodes

January 28, 2021 Our precarious electric grid with Meredith Angwin
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Meredith Angwin, author of Shorting the Grid, on the precariousness of today’s electric grid.

They discuss:
- Why the so-called competition of today’s electric grid is a myth.
- The strengths and weaknesses of the old regulated monopoly system.
- Why “deregulation” increased costs and regulation.
- How today’s pseudo-competitive RTO (Regional Transmission Organization) works.
- How today’s RTO system devalues reliability.
- How New England’s inability during a cold snap to provide electricity without using massive amounts of oil (and some Russian gas) is a sign of things to come.
- What policies can improve the system.
- What the average person (ratepayer) can do to make a difference.
52 min
January 21, 2021 Pierre Desrochers on the history of environmental catastrophism
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Professor Pierre Desrochers of the University of Toronto, about the history of environmental catastrophism, including but not limited to climate catastrophism.

Today we are told that our use of fossil fuels is causing a global environmental catastrophe, and that the solution is for government to dictate what kind of energy we should use, namely solar and wind.

Both this prediction and this policy, we are told, are the conclusions of the best experts, especially environmental experts like climate scientists, and thus should not be questioned.

Pierre Desrochers explodes this idea by chronicling in depth the track record of our designated environmental experts.

For more on the history of environmental catastrophism, read Population Bombed, which Professor Desrochers wrote with collaborator Joanna Szurmak.
55 min
January 14, 2021 Rupert Darwall on The Unscientific and Suicidal Corporate Net-Zero Movement
On this episode of Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews energy/environment researcher Rupert Darwall, author of The Age of Global Warming and Green Tyranny, on why the corporate “net-zero” movement is unscientific and suicidal.

Here’s some of what they cover:
- Where the net-zero-by-2050 and its accompanying 1.5 degrees C target came from. Hint: It’s not a scientific origin.
- How even small steps toward “net-zero” are harming citizens and industry in the UK.
- The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) religious focus on minimizing human impact on the planet instead of maximizing human flourishing on the planet.
- How the IPCC evades the amazing improvement in human life over the past two centuries and fossil fuels’ fundamental role in it.
- How the IPCC doesn’t seriously address the costs of net-zero policies.
- Why certain elements of Wall Street find “net-zero“ so compelling.
56 min
January 07, 2021 How the fossil fuel industry can stand up for itself
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews one of his mentors, philosopher Onkar Ghate, on how the fossil fuel industry can fight for its freedom (far) more effectively by standing up for itself as a matter of justice.

Some of the questions discussed include:
- Why is it so powerful to fight on grounds of justice?
- What should people in the fossil fuel industry consider unjust about the way they’re treated?
- What kind of justice should the fossil fuel industry demand?
- How should the fossil fuel industry act in the political world?
- How should the fossil fuel industry interact with the media?
- How should the fossil fuel industry act in the corporate/ESG world?
- What can we learn from Ayn Rand’s success in winning people over to the cause of economic freedom?
1 hr 7 min
December 30, 2020 Anas Alhajji on the future of energy and energy security
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews international energy economist Anas Alhajji about the future of energy and energy security.

They cover:
- What factors affect energy security
- How overreliance on electricity is a threat to energy security
- The future of competition with the global oil industry using solar, wind, and batteries
- The future of competition within the global oil industry, including US shale, OPEC, and Russia
- The contradictions of the modern environmental movement
1 hr 1 min
December 23, 2020 The CEO who took on The North Face
Alex Epstein interviews Adam Anderson, author of a widely-circulated open letter to The North Face when the company refused to sell Anderson’s oilfield services company, Innovex, 400 jackets.
They discuss:
- How Adam got into the oil and gas industry
- Why Adam wrote the letter
- How Adam was influenced by The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
- The unexpected volume of feedback Adam has gotten
- Why The North Face and other anti-hydrocarbon groups didn’t publicly respond
- Why speaking up has less downside than people think
- Adam’s plans for the future
46 min
December 17, 2020 The Physics of Freedom with Professor Adrian Bejan
On this episode of Power Hour Alex Epstein continues his discussion with physicist Adrian Bejan, of “constructal law” fame, to discuss the central ideas of Bejan’s book Freedom and Evolution.

They cover:
- Professor Bejan’s broad-ranging conception of freedom, including change and movement.
- How freedom of change and movement naturally leads to economies of scale for humans, for other life forms, and for the inanimate.
- How freedom of change and movement and naturally leads to hierarchies, for other life forms, and for the inanimate.
- How Bejan explains the continued dominance of the Northeast United States in the university world.
- Why Bejan expects energy use to keep increasing.
- Why Bejan agrees with the moral case for fossil fuels.
- The role of bad ideas in restricting freedom and progress
1 hr 30 min
December 09, 2020 The physics of life, energy, and environmental impact with Adrian Bejan
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Adrian Bejan, a Duke Professor and Benjamin Franklin Medal recipient renowned for identifying “constructal law.”

The topic is how physics, specifically thermodynamics, can help us better understand life, including our use of energy, our environmental impact, and the need for freedom.

Topics covered include:
- How Bejan escaped communism, immigrated to the US, and studied MIT.
- How Bejan identified “constructal law.”
- The universality of thermodynamics.
- Why humans impacting our environment is natural.
- Bejan’s predictions of our energy and climate future.
1 hr 25 min
December 02, 2020 Threats to Energy Freedom with Congressman Keith Rothfus
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein is joined by former Congressman Keith Rothfus, to talk about threats to energy freedom under the new administration--and how to fight back.

Alex asks Congressman Rothfus:
- What prompted you to run for Congress?
- What did you do to promote energy freedom while in Congress?
- What are the major attacks on energy freedom you expect from the Biden administration and its Congressional allies?
- What advice do you have for pro-energy, pro-freedom elected officials?
- Are there opportunities to make a difference by proposing legislation even if it won’t pass (like Democrats with the green new deal)?
- What do you think of EnergyTalkingPoints.com--and what can we do to make it better?
53 min
November 26, 2020 Best of Power Hour: Greenpeace cofounder Dr. Patrick Moore eviscerates climate catastrophism
In the “Best-Of” episode, originally titled “Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore eviscerates climate catastrophism,” Moore does just that by looking at rising CO2 levels from a scientific and pro-human perspective--not the pseudoscientific and anti-human perspective that dominates today.

Topics include:
- Why Moore left Greenpeace.
- The beginnings of the climate catastrophe movement.
- Why Moore believes human beings would not only survive but survive better at far higher average temperatures (which would be concentrated toward the poles).
- Why Moore believes that contrary to being in a Sixth Extinction, we are actually at an unprecedented time of biodiversity with no end in sight.
- Why Moore believes “ocean acidification” claims are totally meritless.
- The commonality among opposition to plastics, GMOs, nuclear energy, and fossil fuels.
- Moore’s unrefuted theory that human beings actually saved life on Earth from terminal decline in CO2 levels.
1 hr 7 min