The Power Hungry Podcast

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.) 

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.)

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.)

Kathryn Porter is the founder of Watt-Logic, an energy consulting firm based in the U.K. In this podcast, Porter talks about a new report she wrote for the Global Warming Policy Foundation titled “Prospects For Nuclear Energy In the U.K.,” why Britain’s approach to nuclear has been “too slow and too timid,” how the electricity market has been “overloaded with interventions,” and why energy security has become a top issue in Britain. (Recorded November 17, 2023.)

Tony Abbott served as prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 as a member of the Liberal Party. In this episode, recorded during the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London, Abbott talks about the geopolitics of energy, the qualities of a good politician, and why he believes the world is more dangerous than ever. (Recorded October 31, 2023.)

Travis Fisher has worked at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy and is now the director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In this episode, Fisher explains why the energy-related provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act could ultimately cost taxpayers close to $3 trillion, the “Californication” of our electric grid, the mess in Congress, and why federal subsidies for wind and solar, combined with the EPA’s proposed rules are undermining the reliability of our electricity system. (Recorded October 25, 2023.)

Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old pro-democracy leader and publisher of Apple Daily, has been in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison since 2020 on trumped-up charges lodged against him by the Chinese government. In this episode, Jimmy’s son, Sebastien, who lives in Taiwan and is leading the campaign to have his father freed from prison, talks about the Umbrella Revolution that swept through Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020, his father’s remarkable life and career, why he was motivated to promote democracy after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, and why China continues to see Jimmy Lai as a threat. (Recorded October 23, 2023.)