The Power Hungry Podcast

Edgardo Sepulveda is a Toronto-based economist who studies telecommunications and electricity markets. In this episode, Edgardo explains why the U.S. nuclear sector is shrinking in states with deregulated electricity markets, the need to align “patient capital” with societal goods, why nuclear energy needs strong government support,  and why Ontario is leading the world in the nuclear renaissance. (Recorded February 2, 2024.) 

In his third appearance on the podcast (his most recent was May 31, 2022), Emmet Penney, the editor of Grid Brief, and host of the Nuclear Barbarians podcast, talks about “environmental apocalypticism,” the staggering complexity of America’s electric grid, and why writing about electricity and energy has been intellectually humbling. (Recorded January 17, 2024.) 

In her sixth appearance on the podcast (her last appearance was January 13, 2023), I welcome back Meredith Angwin, the author of the 2020 book Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid. In this episode, Meredith discusses the physical and the policy grids, why no one is responsible for electricity reliability, and why facts are finally “intruding on the narrative” about decarbonization and the electric grid. (This episode was recorded on January 16, 2024.) 

Isaac Orr researches and writes about environmental issues, mining, and energy for the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based think tank. In his fourth appearance on the podcast (his last was on March 7, 2023), Orr talks about the staggering cost of decarbonization mandates, why the EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rule could result in blackouts across middle America, the impact of higher interest rates are having on renewable-energy projects, and the widening divide between urban and rural voters. (Recorded on December 4, 2023.) 

Everett Waller is a member of the Osage Nation and chairman of the Osage Minerals Council, which on December 20, 2023, won a federal lawsuit that requires Enel to remove 84 wind turbines it built in Osage County at an expected cost of $300 million. In this episode, Waller explains why the tribe continued the legal fight against Enel for 12 years, its plan to collect compensatory damages from the company, why he is “ecstatic” about the ruling, and why he believes it will “be a landmark case, spoken about long after I'm dead.” (Recorded December 29, 2023.)   

H.W. (Bill) Brands is a historian who has written more than 30 books including one of his most recent ones, The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo, and the War For America. In this episode. Brands talks about his ongoing desire to find out “what makes humans tick,” how he got “inside Geronimo’s head,” partisan politics, and the future of the American dollar. (Recorded June 8, 2023.)

In 1990, Richard Lindzen, who is now 83, published an article in which he said claims about catastrophic climate change “leave me unconvinced, and leave me concerned whether unanimity on such an issue is healthy for meteorology.” In this episode, Lindzen, an emeritus professor at MIT and one of the world’s most-noted skeptics about climate change, says when the public believes the “science is settled, they no longer believe in science because science is never settled,” that policymakers should focus on “making society as prosperous as possible,” so it can handle extreme weather events, and that the West is being “encouraged by energy policy to commit suicide.” (Recorded December 11, 2023.)

Grace Stanke, is a nuclear engineer and the 95th winner of the Miss America competition. In this episode, she talks about why nuclear is a “brilliant, brilliant gift that we turned our back on,” why we need “bold leadership” to reignite the domestic nuclear sector, and why she is working hard to change the public’s perception about fission. (Recorded November 20, 2023.)

George Yates is a third-generation oilman and the CEO of Heyco Energy Group, a Dallas-based oil and gas company. In this episode, Yates talks about his company’s investments in conventional and unconventional plays in Europe, how Russia’s misinformation campaigns about hydraulic fracturing increased Europe’s dependence on imported energy, and why he is optimistic that his company and others will soon be able to produce more hydrocarbons in the U.K. and Europe. (Recorded November 1, 2023.)