You cannot buy this kind of entertainment. The unfortunate part of a clown show is that Canada's leaders are not the only ones having full-energy policy madness on display. This morning, the Energy Realities podcast gang is ready after a Thanksgiving break to bring the fun side of a sad story. We have Irina Slav from Bulgaria, Tammy Nemeth from the UK, and David Blackmon and Stu Turley in Texas. We will have some great stories and will take questions from the live audience on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Highlights of the Podcast
00:01 - Introduction
04:05 - Overview of Canadian Energy Policies
08:20 - U.S. Tariffs and Trudeau's Mar-a-Lago Visit
12:24 - Quebec's Economic Advantage
15:02 - Polievre's Prospective Leadership
16:49 - The Interplay of Politics and Energy Policy
19:35 - BRICS Currency Threat and U.S. Dollar Weaponization
24:11 - Global Energy Policy Comparisons
26:00 - COP 29's Failure and Its Impacts
31:04 - Challenges in EV and Energy Markets
37:57 - Wind Energy and Carbon Storage
40:27 - Biden Tosses Rivian a $6 Billion Lifeline
42:36 - Environment and Climate Change Canada Greenhouse Gas(GHG) Regulations
44:34 - JAY GOLDBERG: Northvolt bankruptcy an ominous sign for politicians’ Ev gamble
46:54 - Labour's net zero plans left in disarray after factory closure
50:13 - Europe's gas storage empties at fastest rate since 2016
52:18 - Ottawa must ensure Trump understands importance of Canadian oil to US, minister says
57:33 - ‘Hit the Panic Button’: Why the UK's Electric Car Mandate is Crashing
58:24 - Why Europe’s Hydrogen Economy Dreams Remain Just That
International Author writing about energy, mining, and geopolitical issues. Bulgaria
Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.
Energy Consulting Specialist
President, and CEO, Sandstone Group, Podcast Host
Canada's Federal Government's Madness on full display
Stuart Turley [00:00:01] Hey, looks like we're here. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy Realities podcast. My name's Stu Turley President of the Sandstone Group. It is not only Monday. It is my favorite day of the week because I've got three van tastic podcast co-host sitting here from all over the world and we have got a clown show for you. I mean, we have got an unbelievable energy realities podcast with you. First up around the corner, we have Irina Slav. She is the energy queen of the world. And I love your substack. It is. It is. Absolutely. Everybody must know. Subscribe right now. And if not, we will send out David Blackmon to beat him up. So welcome, Irina. How are you in Bulgaria today?
Irina Slav [00:01:11] Great. Winter is coming.
Stuart Turley [00:01:15] I noticed your sweater.
Irina Slav [00:01:17] Yeah. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:01:18] My goodness. Now, how's your cat? Does your cat live outside during the winter?
Irina Slav [00:01:23] No, he doesn't. But he would like to spend as much time outside as he could, even though it's been raining today. He wanted to be outside to protect us from intruders. This is a dog in disguise.
Stuart Turley [00:01:39] I. That is my kind of cat. And next to around the corner, we have the David Blackmon. I mean, not just a David Blackmon. I mean, he is the David Blackmon energy absurdity. It over there on X and I love following him there and his Substack is blackmon.substack.com I believe. Is that correct, David?
David Blackmon [00:02:03] Yes. Thank you. I appreciate the plug. That's great.
Stuart Turley [00:02:06] I'll tell you. You are one of the rare animals in the world that speak the truth around energy. And you and I have something in common. We both have interviewed Chris Wright, and so that's pretty cool. What is going on in your world?
David Blackmon [00:02:22] Yeah, well, I'm hoping to get another interview with him, although it's probably pretty hard for him to free up any time these days. It's, you know, once you get a nomination like that, you just hit the ground running and your hair is on fire all the time. He's going to be a great energy secretary. And, you know, today I wrote about I didn't have anything to write about Mr. Write. So I wrote about Landman and Tommy Norris and how five characters I've known in my life, just like Tommie Norris. There's a lot of them in the oil patch.
Stuart Turley [00:02:54] Well, I'm writing a paper right now on how we should kill the It's Time to kill the Jones Act. And it would help. It would help Hawaii with emissions by being able to import our own LNG. And I'm also writing on other things that would help the get rid of the ethanol. And Tammy, I have a few questions on on gas mileage on that. So when I write these papers, I'm going to be getting them to Chris and maybe David. We can all get Chris on here to talk about things like that. So anyway. It'd be fantastic. And Tammy Nemeth, I mean, this is a. Tammy Nemeth is the Nemeth Report. Tammy Nemeth. how are you today, Tammy?
Tammy Nemeth [00:03:44] I'm doing well, thank you. Thanks so much for plugging the podcast there. The Nemethreport.com. That's awesome.
Stuart Turley [00:03:51] I'll tell you what, it is fun. I've actually listened to it. It's a good show. What's up with that?
Tammy Nemeth [00:03:58] Always great interviews with some really smart people. So it's always really fun to do.
Stuart Turley [00:04:05] And that me, that's the only reason I look good is because of my guests now. And I'll tell you what, let's get rolling here. And as we go through this, Tammy, you had brought up some of the energy policies in Canada. And I found that I used X and created today's artwork. And I said, give me positive things in Canada. And it came back with this. I love Grok on X. I thought it was pretty funny. So what were you thinking when you came up with the topic for today?
Tammy Nemeth [00:04:40] Well, I mean, Canada has been faced with a lot of different policy initiatives from the Trudeau government, the Liberal government in Canada over the past nine years. And what's interesting is that when his dad, when Justin Trudeau's dad was prime minister back in 1980, they had put all of these energy policies into one package called the National Energy Program, and it was a disaster. Everybody hated it except, of course, people in Ontario because it lowered their prices. But it really created a huge divide. But because it was in one package, people could target it and it was a lightning rod for lots of different things that were going on. So the people behind Justin Trudeau got a little bit smarter and they've been rolling out all of these separate policies so that it's very difficult to just hone in on, my gosh, this is all bad, like the Inflation Reduction Act or something. Instead, it's like all of these different little policies. And this morning I just wrote down ten, ten and there's more. And it's like an impact Assessment act, which changed how approvals were done for any kind of big project. So basically they call it the No Pipelines Act because there's no way you would ever get approval for another pipeline in Canada. It's just so onerous and everything else. Then we have clean electricity standards, even though it's the electricity is the responsibility of the provinces. Canada decided no, you know what? The federal government is going to tell provinces what to do. So they brought in those, which basically gets rid of coal and natural gas. Then they they announced just the other day an emissions cap on oil and gas production in Canada. And they were bragging because they did this at Cop 29. We're the only major oil, oil and gas producing country to do this. Yeah, because it's stupid. So they have to they have to reduce oil gas production emissions 35% by 2030. So we have five years to lower emissions by a third. Good luck. And then the Ibby mandate, where they have sales targets and everything else like the UK and punishments and so on. Ottawa also is spending $100 billion on an EV strategy, and part of that is paying for Northvolt, which is now going out of business, paying for all of these different things. Then there's a net zero building code. They designated all plastic as toxic and then it got taken to court. The court said, That's pretty vague. What do you mean? Not all plastics are toxic. So then the government is appealing that. So all that's crazy. They set up a plastics registry. They're behind this U.N. plastics agreement that that fell apart yesterday. They want to pass a cap and trade system, biodiversity regulations. The list goes on. That's what's happening in Canada. And then we have Trump saying 25% tariff on all Canadian stuff unless they get the border and stuff under control. So what happened? Justin Trudeau, who hates, who hates Trump, flies down to Mar a Lago, stays over, has dinner on Thanksgiving, stays over and is, you know, trying to smooth things over. Yeah, yeah. We'll we'll take care of the border. But meanwhile, there's all these other energy things on the table that are just a nightmare for Canadians. So my red stuff for the day.
Stuart Turley [00:08:20] No, it's not. That was so good. Go, Tammy. Go. Okay. This just came in from a person watching on my X channel.
Stuart Turley [00:08:31] I Vote U? That would be me. The I vote the United States, throw the U.N. out of the U.S. and pulls out of the U. N The U. N needs to go away. Did I just say that?
David Blackmon [00:08:44] What does that have to do with candidates Stu?
Stuart Turley [00:08:49] Well, the reason for that is, is because Tammy was bringing up the U.N. climate thing that just failed. And it is absolutely horrific on Canada. The U.N. is absolutely a demonic institution that needs to go away. Sorry, Tammy, I'm trying to cheer you on. And David's over there.
Tammy Nemeth [00:09:14] But you know, it's.
Tammy Nemeth [00:09:17] Every time Canada send has an ambassador, whatever, to the U.N., it's usually a former leader of the Socialist Party, which tells you something about the U.N.. And so then you have these people in power who are closet socialist. Sometimes they wear it on their sleeve and they're the ones who are in charge of Canada's environmental climate policy. And they're happy to go to the U.N. and say, look, these multilateral institutions are saying we should make these changes and support us. So, yes, we should do it. And and regular Canadians are like, what? This is stupid.
David Blackmon [00:09:53] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:09:54] Yeah, I know, Irina if you were a world leader and you wanted to visit with somebody, would you arrange to hide your airplane and go to Mayor Lago when everybody's tracking your airplane? I saw that on X. I thought that was absolutely a hoot.
Irina Slav [00:10:13] So you don't.
Stuart Turley [00:10:16] Yeah. Trudeau didn't announce it, did not go do anything. And then I found it on air. Somebody like Trudeau is going to Merrill Lago, and all of a sudden, within 15 minutes, he liked it so much he stayed two days.
Tammy Nemeth [00:10:30] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:10:33] Talk to president elect. No, great summary town is wonderful. I remember someone on X. I posted something about Canada, about pipelines. I don't remember, but it was critical of the Trudeau government. And this guy comes in comments that this is a very pro oil in progress government. And that's bad because they bought the Trans Mountain project and they approved the mother, the Eastern, the coastal Gaslink or something. And this proves that they're in fact very much in favor of oil and gas. And. Okay. So
David Blackmon [00:11:18] we'd all like to go to
Irina Slav [00:11:23] Like that. So these people feel like the Trudeau government is not doing enough to kill the oil and gas industry of Canada.
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:32] Well, they can't say that now with the emissions cap.
David Blackmon [00:11:37] Same. What? What was that, Tammy?
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:43] I said, I can't say that now. With the oil and gas emissions cap and all the other things,
Irina Slav [00:11:48] They Will, they will probably want the whole industry to be completely killed with one single blow once there's reduction. I mean, as you've said repeatedly, the Canadian oil and gas producers have been exemplary in their work to reduce their emissions, but it's never enough. But it seems that the government likes the revenues that come into the federal budget from oil and gas production.
Tammy Nemeth [00:12:17] Yes, because they use it to give transfer payments to Quebec. So
Irina Slav [00:12:24] That's Nice.
Tammy Nemeth [00:12:24] Yeah. 60% of the transfer payments go to Quebec.
Irina Slav [00:12:28] Why,
David Blackmon [00:12:29] Of Course. Well, of course,
Tammy Nemeth [00:12:31] It's. It's how it's set up. And. And the western provinces wanted to renegotiate as it's supposed to be renegotiated every 5 or 6 years. And I think it was last year. Trudeau just arbitrarily said, no, we're not renegotiating. We're keeping it the way it is. So the the money it's really kind of one of these things, stupid Canadian things. But it they they take the money, then they redistribute it to the provinces that are supposedly have not. And they consider Quebec to have not province at.
Irina Slav [00:13:06] Why was it so special? Because it's predominantly French speaking. Or why is it special?
Tammy Nemeth [00:13:13] Yeah. Good question. Why is it special.
David Blackmon [00:13:16] In the seat of power in Quebec? My favorite line about Trudeau's trip tomorrow was was the guy on actually commented that Trump invited Trudeau down to Mar a Lago to reestablish open relations with the Castro government in Cuba. So that's just what it was. I wish I had a thought of it. You know, frankly, I wish I didn't think of it first.
Stuart Turley [00:13:47] I'm sorry it made my day
David Blackmon [00:13:53] anyway. You know, Canada is just I think really, when you get down to it, Canada's policies don't look a lot different than the Biden administration. Luckily, we got the Biden administration going out of power now and over the last six years of our government have been spent going down this mad trail of climate alarmism. And, you know, Canada's doing a lot of things that go further than what the Biden administration managed to do. But but by the same token, Justin Trudeau appears to be in a lot of trouble. Right. And may be headed for the ash heap of history himself. If we ever get around to those national elections next year in Canada, hopefully that'll happen. But my question, I guess, for me is this guy, what's his name? I don't know how to pronounce the last name Paul Live.
Tammy Nemeth [00:14:47] Pure polio.
David Blackmon [00:14:49] Polio. Pure polio. Would he be materially different on on energy and climate policy than Trudeau, do you think? I think he's kind of a mixed bag on all this stuff.
Tammy Nemeth [00:15:02] And yeah, I mean, I forgot one of the things when I was listing off the different stuff that Canada does, I forgot the carbon tax. So, you know, that's, that's something that increases every year until it'll be like some ludicrous amount by 2030, 2040, whatever. And, and he set his whole campaign or policy platform is ax the tax. So you know he would get rid of the carbon tax. And I like what you said about you know, what we're what Canada has been doing has been very similar to what the Biden administration has been doing. And there's always this kind of idea that Canada should be in alignment with whatever the United States is doing just because it is so huge and it's our biggest trading partner. And it just makes things easier for businesses if we're more in alignment with policies. And so if, you know, one could make the argument while Canada was behaving in such a manner that's more in alignment with what the United States was doing under Biden. But that doesn't fit with what was what Trump was trying to do, right? So what this means going forward, there's a lot of people saying, well, we should be more in alignment with what the United States is going to do under Trump. I don't know that that's possible if he ever is elected, but it's unclear if he would have a full majority. It could still be in a minority position and and yet not have enough of the other party supporting what the what the conservatives want to do. I'm concerned it could end up in a situation like Europe where you have a more conservative party win, but they get outnumbered when it comes time to fill out to actually form the government because there's more left wing parties than there are conservative parties.
David Blackmon [00:16:49] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:16:50] And this start calling him a far right extremist. An ultra nationalist.
Tammy Nemeth [00:16:56] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's the usual. And they keep saying he's Trump. Like, my gosh, he's Trump. Like.
David Blackmon [00:17:03] He's like the most.
Tammy Nemeth [00:17:05] That's a bad thing in Canada. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:17:07] This this positionally, he is absolutely nothing like Trump. He is one of the most outspoken individuals I've ever seen. But he's very witty and and obviously very intelligent. I, you know, people I get a lot of complaints about bringing politics and everything, but I think this this 25% tariff thing and the way Trudeau reacted to it is a prime example of why it's all interrelated. I mean, that is that is immigration policy impacting energy policy. It all gets mixed up in all of these political machinations between the two parties. Trump threw it out there as a proposal, you know, in order to create exactly the reaction from Justin Trudeau that Trudeau had. Trudeau had such a great time at Mar a Lago. He spent an extra night there. Right. So it was supposed to go back 30. He stayed over until Sunday before, you know. But that was exactly the Yeah, yeah. And so he was hoping to create that kind of response so that. So that Trudeau might take some some quick action and Trump can come into office and say, look, I'm not going to have to implement this 25% tariff on all these Canadian goods because the Trudeau government has done X, Y and Z, and now the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants across the border is going to slow down dramatically. And the hope being, of course, that you never have to employ those tariffs. And but it was just a great example of why, you know, I know people get frustrated that we often veer off into politics in these discussions. But but it just you have to because these these these political. Games that get played. Impact energy policy in a very real way and you can can't escape.
Tammy Nemeth [00:18:54] One policy is is political, unfortunately.
David Blackmon [00:18:58] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it varies so widely from industry in the US and well in Canada after this next election very so widely between the two changes in government the two parties that that it just it becomes a really major impact on the industry and these companies that are in it. And you know it just it's you have to deal with it. You can't just ignore it. You have to deal with it.
Tammy Nemeth [00:19:25] Well, did you see yesterday there where Trump said that if the BRICs go ahead with having their own currency, it would be like a 100% tariff on.
David Blackmon [00:19:35] So. Wow. Okay. Yeah. You know.
Irina Slav [00:19:39] Bag.
David Blackmon [00:19:40] Right? Yeah. It again, he's just trying to nip this process within BRICs in the book.
Stuart Turley [00:19:47] I covered that on on my Daily Show with Michael Tanner. And the reason I put in there on the article that I put up on energy news beat dot Co Shameless plug, but I put that up on my podcast because I said if the Biden Harris administration had not weaponized the U.S. dollar. Yeah. Criminally and horribly being a bully around the world, President Trump would not have had to come out in that way and try to protect the US dollar. Putin may be a bad guy, but Reagan went out and promised. Gorbachev said NATO will not add any more on there. By the way, they added eight more countries and kept encroaching that way
David Blackmon [00:20:38] Russian border.
Irina Slav [00:20:40] Slope is doing. I know David, that's one of David's headlines, but just wanted to say, well, tariffs, these sorts of tariffs, basically sanctions by another name. Yeah, I think you should be doing that. I don't think it's productive for the mighty dollar, really. It might strengthen their resolve. Not that they're going to do a common currency any time soon. But yeah, let's leave that off. And you.
David Blackmon [00:21:05] Know, that's actually a really solid point. You know, maybe we do another episode about all that actually would be a you could fill a whole episode with that discussion.
Stuart Turley [00:21:14] I like to get Professor Strange on here. He is a cool cat. I'll reach out and see if he has time to hop on the energy reality podcast because he was talking about some of that. He is a good guy on X, He is very, very sharp.
David Blackmon [00:21:32] Yeah. What's the first thing that I forget?
Stuart Turley [00:21:35] Let me find out.
David Blackmon [00:21:36] Anyway
Stuart Turley [00:21:42] So I've got. Sorry. Go ahead.
David Blackmon [00:21:43] Go ahead. Go ahead. You've got one. Now go ahead. You've got that video about the how the Trudeau administration establishes energy policy in Canada.
Stuart Turley [00:21:53] And and how it's actually working on it. This is the Canadian policies in action as this first question.
David Blackmon [00:22:25] That was a.
Tammy Nemeth [00:22:26] Plastic bottle.
Stuart Turley [00:22:45] I love this.
Tammy Nemeth [00:22:47] That's fun.
Stuart Turley [00:22:51] Now I'm going to take a look at that. This is actually me doing Christmas shopping. Yeah. Let me show you. This is actually what I think. This next one is actually what I think Chris Wright is going to be doing as he is working on the new energy policies. This is energy policies. Good management from Chris, Wright. That's how you manage your energy policy and rupiah. By the way, Mr. EPA is Lee Zelman, and you're going to have Doug Bergin working on this project. And you've got currency, right? Now, this was the Biden Harris When we take a look at the Biden-Harris policy. They tried to go after everything, and this was the Biden-Harris policy.
David Blackmon [00:24:11] Is that Jennifer Granholm. The squirrel?
Stuart Turley [00:24:17] Okay. My goodness. Yeah, you know that.
Tammy Nemeth [00:24:25] Wow.
Stuart Turley [00:24:29] So look at this moral world. I mean, don't you know he's like me. I have got to get me one of them feeders. But you can see from the policies that we had the Canadian policies in action. We had the U.S. policies in action. And here we have the next generation of U.S. policies.
Tammy Nemeth [00:24:51] What's interesting.
David Blackmon [00:24:53] Go ahead.
Tammy Nemeth [00:24:54] What's interesting is that if you compare what the EU is doing with the U.K. is doing what Biden had been doing, it's exactly what Canada is doing. It's like there's there's all of this alignment in what they're doing to to go towards net zero. And if I could just add something here. There's a really great economist named Robert Lyman, who's written quite extensively about the economic implications of net zero for Canada. And sometimes he compares it with what the EU is doing. But he put a cost on it. And the estimates, based on what Deloitte has been saying, what other economists have been saying, we're looking at over 5 trillion. 5 trillion CAD to implement net zero in Canada. So all of these policies together, the impact and cost is like 5 trillion. And that doesn't take into account what are the benefits. So I don't think there are that many benefits and it certainly doesn't make a difference with respect to what the weather is or what climate is.
David Blackmon [00:26:00] So, yeah, then that brings up the question, you know, Cop 29 just ended in massive failure. They didn't achieve anything.
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:09] And except the carbon trading market that Irina talked about.
David Blackmon [00:26:14] The carbon trading market, which is just a total scam, big international and other international scale. Big grift. I guess the Biden family will get involved in it. But the Gore family. So, you know, there was a big piece in The Washington Post last Friday about the fact that it fell apart. And we're just now going to our drive through this 1.5 degree temperature scenario that the IPCC has been preaching about for the last 20 years. Do you think the failure of Cop 29 and the falling apart of that international commitment? Because I think it has fallen apart. And I just don't I mean, nobody even remotely believes we're on track to achieve any of that now. How do. You think the. Reality now we've entered into a new reality? Does that impact where Canada is going to go on energy and climate policy?
Tammy Nemeth [00:27:17] That's a good question. I mean.
David Blackmon [00:27:18] Will the leaders respond to reality is what I'm asking? Yeah. Well, you know, it's a question.
Tammy Nemeth [00:27:32] The only way the only way reality and everything is so ridiculously expensive that people are like, this is ridiculous. We can't we can't do this anymore. And, you know, the UK has five years of this extremist government that keeps bringing in all these different things. And so, you know, if the you're at the some of the European countries are already starting to buckle, like the German citizens and some of the French citizens and so on. But, you know, within the new EU parliament is pretty much the same as the old one. And they figure they've got, you know, a mandate to do this. And with with respect to Canada, unless Paula gets a majority, I think it'll be very difficult to try to undo a lot of what's been been put there, except if you say, look, you know, the Supreme Court's ruled this legislation, that legislation and the other ones are unconstitutional. Maybe we ought to not not do something that's constitutional. So will reality sink in with the with the U.N. falling apart? These the see the bureaucrats go in and then they renegotiate and they do all this stuff and then they they bring it forward to the leaders and they'll just repackage it under a different name and. Okay, not leaders, but,Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:28:57] I don't know who that LinkedIn user was.
Irina Slav [00:29:00] So knowledge obviously is usually Travis Lewin who comes out this link.
Stuart Turley [00:29:08] We love Travis.
Irina Slav [00:29:09] Good point. But it's really, really I don't understand how they see Canadian leaders. They see what's happening in Germany. They see what's happening in the UK, where green policies are arguably more advanced and they're not taking any. No. They're not learning that lesson. They think it's going great. Is that it? They think this is the way forward, even if it includes a lot of pain for a lot of people. But we will prevail and the future will be bright. Is that how they think?
Tammy Nemeth [00:29:46] Yes.
David Blackmon [00:29:47] Yes, I think it is.
Irina Slav [00:29:49] Wow.
Tammy Nemeth [00:29:49] I think there's there's a large portion of them of people who believe that and then others who, of course, like you say, grift, who are looking to take advantage of the situation. Like like, for example, Nissan, the CEO made an announcement last week saying they've got about 15 months before they're going to be bankrupt. Nissan. Yep. And and it was because of their investment in in the EV market and so on said well we underestimated the the demand for hybrids versus EVs. Okay. But also because they have an arrangement with Renault and maybe Stellantis, I can't remember which one. So there's they form a sort of triumvirate and share costs and expenses and so on and marketing maybe. And that agreement expires in 12 months. So is he's trying to say, well, and Renault, I guess, has signaled they won't renew their arrangement. So is he looking to raise this flag in order to get a white knight to come in and take over what Renault is doing? I don't know. But
Irina Slav [00:31:04] EVs, did you hear that the CEO of Stellantis just resigned?
David Blackmon [00:31:09] No.
Irina Slav [00:31:11] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:31:11] Did that happen today?.
Irina Slav [00:31:13] You very sane voices in the car manufacturing space. And now he's resigned because the Stellantis is in trouble like everyone else. I probably need to work the I told you so.
Stuart Turley [00:31:26] They didn't get to. They didn't get the Biden bailout. I mean, excuse me.
David Blackmon [00:31:29] Boehner's $6 billion Billion payoff from Biden.
Tammy Nemeth [00:31:34] Well, just yesterday there is there's a Canadian EV company called Lion Electric, and they make busses or something. And they were I think they were trying to put them out to cities and school busses and so on. And they're teetering on bankruptcy. They haven't been able to pay their debt. The Quebec government has, I guess, given another bailout or something saying. But they've laid off almost all their employees. And the thing is, those busses don't work.
David Blackmon [00:32:06] And they don't work. Exactly. And so that does create a conundrum for government like Trump's coming in, is, you know, there's there's you know, obviously the Trump administration in favor more subsidies for companies like that. But by the same token, there's a lot of jobs involved. Right. Yeah. And so you're going to end up with a lot of pressure coming on. Chris Right. And these other appointees in the Trump administration to, you know, to find a way to pour more money into failing companies like that, to keep the jobs from going away. And that's going to be a really difficult conundrum for the Trump administration, for the probably probably ever administration if he gets elected. You know, how do you balance all that? Because, you know, it's all I mean, those people, they have jobs because of these Biden programs. And the other programs were bad ideas. They're ruinous financially. They're they're leading these companies to bankruptcy. At the same time, do you really want 5000 employees going on the on to the unemployment rolls? And that's it's a very real dynamic that everybody's going to be in.
Stuart Turley [00:33:18] A lot of those jobs went to Republican areas. And this is just like in this LinkedIn user Exxon's president president protested loudest at first. Reminds me of Trump's promise in 2016 to shut down the ethanol mandates. I'm writing about that for Chris and I'm trying to get to Chris, right. And Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin. This cut this paper because it is important. That brings up a van tastic point. You've got the agricultural system, meaning ethanol, which takes more power. I went from my lake house to Texas, and in seven hours, if I use non ethanol, it saves me two and a half miles per gallon. Not to use ethanol. Yeah, I don't like ethanol. It is expensive.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:15] And it also it's hard on your engines. And Can't it doesn't store well and it's got a lot of moisture in it.
David Blackmon [00:34:22] Yeah, right.
Stuart Turley [00:34:24] Yep. I predict that they will claim carbon credits as a financial savior of the carbon institutional complex. I think that's a great comment. I think. Occidental Petroleum, who was bought by a big chunk of it by Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett jumps in when he sees federal dollars rolling in to things and that's why he has been so very profitable. And he's he said, I wouldn't invest in a wind farm unless there was tax subsidies. So when you take a look at big oil is in trouble without those subsidies for their carbon credits, because that's what Occidental has really set themselves up for.
David Blackmon [00:35:07] Yeah. Yeah. Well, don't dig into carbon capture and you know what I mean. And hydrogen. And there's that tax credit that benefits those kinds of projects. And so that's, I guess, what the LinkedIn user was referring to about Exxon's president protesting loud as him first. You know, everybody wants to preserve that enhanced tax credit that was there in the IRA. Some of the specific subsidies, not so much.
Stuart Turley [00:35:33] You mean the particulars, Bill? Was that the Oculus?
Tammy Nemeth [00:35:38] Well, I mean, one of the the problematic aspects of these kinds of things is that the the governments are telling these companies that this is the direction of travel. This is what they have to do in order to stay in business. So, you know, they go to the exons and the shelves and the suncor's and say if you want to be able to keep producing, you have to invest in carbon capture. You have to do this. You have to do that. And like one of the things that when the Canadian government announced this emissions cap, they said, look, these companies are making profits. So instead of paying out their their investors, which happened to be pension plans and everything else, they should take all that money and invest it in carbon capture. And then that will make everything okay and they'll be able to stay in business. And the thing is, you know, what's a company supposed to do? They're caught between a rock and a hard place. They're being told by governments they have to do this to be able to keep producing. But then when when there's a change in government, they're told, well, actually, maybe we don't want to do that anymore. So, you know, I feel bad in some ways that companies are faced with that situation. But part of the problem is that they never really pushed back when it was being proposed in the first place.
Irina Slav [00:37:00] They just take it lying down. And that's a big problem.
David Blackmon [00:37:05] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:06] And then they complain that it's there's too much uncertainty. Well, you know, politics is uncertain.
Irina Slav [00:37:12] Yeah. Even though we're acting like Greece. Right? It was the only one to speak.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:18] It was it only one.
Irina Slav [00:37:20] Alarmism. Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:22] Yeah. And, you know, Brian's in track. Had some great points here about all this investment in Canada for for wind. And he has his first post comment was they have 1722 wind turbines that produce 0.007% of their output on Sunday. Because it was like a dunkel slaughter, you know, and yeah, yeah, 0.39MW of nameplate capacity, which was 5000 four 76.
Irina Slav [00:37:57] So Patrick is asking what happens with carbon that's called they put it underground.
David Blackmon [00:38:07] Yeah, they put it underground. They keep it there.
Tammy Nemeth [00:38:11] Yeah. Some at some state turned it into like a like a limestone or something, I think where they put it into a kind of stone and.
Stuart Turley [00:38:22] They also used and it's an, it's some of it's used in oil production when they try to put it back in the CO2 or you put it in the coal.
Irina Slav [00:38:30] Now that we don't want that we wanted to use for enhanced oil and gas recovery.
Stuart Turley [00:38:36] Then so does do we ban totally Cokes and do we ban. Hey, Tom, we love you, Tammy. We agree with Tammy, too. Tammy, is is the hip around on that one? But do we ban Cokes because CO2 goes into making of Cokes and soda? Right. Look at him. She's like, no. What? What's your favorite coke, Tammy?
Tammy Nemeth [00:39:03] I don't drink fizzy drinks. I just drink carbonated water. But that's what I thought. It's like. So when I if I have a soda stream or something, if I if I'm using it. No, I'm using CO2. This is bad.
Stuart Turley [00:39:20] Well, see, nobody singlehandedly supporting the carbon credits. Right. Just kidding. Okay. Let's go to the stories here. We're running right along here. And David Blackmon is first up.
David Blackmon [00:39:34] First. Well. So the first one we've already talked about the Trump threatening the 100% tariff from any BRICs country that continues this move to displace the US dollar as the currency of mark and foreign trading status it's had since shortly after World War One more than a century. And, you know, Trump will move to protect the dollar. I think there's no question about that. Biden would have just tried to figure out what was in it for him. But Trump doesn't need the money. So the second one is then again, the whole the whole idea behind him throwing these things out now seven weeks before he takes office is to cause those other countries to react and move away from trying to displace the dollar so that those tariffs never get implemented. That's the whole idea behind Biden. Tosses Rivian a $6 billion lifeline. You know, this is the Biden Energy Department led by Jennifer Granholm, just trying to shove that IRA money out the door. Rivian has been on the verge of bankruptcy for two years now. They sold 37,000 cars at a per unit, loss of $107,000 per unit this year. And yet Biden has given them $6 billion to build. They already have one plant capable of building 150,000 cars per year. That's in Illinois. Now they want to build a plant in Georgia capable of turning out 400,000 units every year for $6 Billion. Well, why does a company that sells barely 30,000 cars a year need 400 plants that are capable of putting out 550,000 cars a year? It's a make work program. It's like it's like being on the dole during the Great Depression. Okay. This is a make work program to create a bunch of jobs that aren't going to do anything. And we got to stop this crap anyway.
Stuart Turley [00:41:32] And that's
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:34] you know. Amazon owns 18% of Rivian.
David Blackmon [00:41:39] Yeah. Yeah. Wayne Jeff Bezos.
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:41] They've got a bunch of their little trucks or something, for example.
David Blackmon [00:41:44] Yeah. That's right.
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:47] Amazon
David Blackmon [00:41:48] So is Jeff. Jeff Bezos to put the 6 million in the Rivian. Yeah. If he thinks it's such a good investment.
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:56] Yeah, he's got lots of money. Why didn't he just.
David Blackmon [00:42:01] Anyway, that story pissed me off and that's why I wanted to put it in the deep end.
Stuart Turley [00:42:07] And we want David happy. And Tammy, you sent this out on our our group chat this morning and I really appreciated this. And this was another Canadian thing that you brought up. And holy smokes, this will cost a lot of problems.
Tammy Nemeth [00:42:23] Yeah. So there's there's a trucker that goes on this blog that that I follow. And they found this little thing that was released a few days ago where their environment and climate change Canada is changing the greenhouse gas regulations again. And they basically want to say that all big rigs have to be automatic and that somehow this is going to save emissions. And I'm like, why? Why would you want to make all big rigs automatic? And yes, on theory.
Stuart Turley [00:43:06] The theory is sound. Why would you want to do that? I'll say it so you don't get in trouble. I How's that? If they show up on my doorstep, they will be met with. So there is a theory behind that. And why would you want to put automatics into big trucks that don't work well with automatic transmissions and cost gas mileage and break down more? And it's because the drivers don't know how the new imported illegally drivers would not know how to handle shifting gears as well. Yeah. So you're illegal aliens? Could be then finding jobs on transmissions. That is pretty evil thought.
Tammy Nemeth [00:43:59] Yeah. I don't know. That's a that's a theory. I really don't understand how they think that this is more fuel efficient, that will lower emissions and everything else. I yeah, I don't it is stupid and it's not going to happen and it's a new thing. So that yet another piece of regulation legislation that a future government will have to consider repealing or whatever. Okay. My headlines the headline is is to the first one is Jay Goldberg, who talks about North volt bankruptcy, an ominous sign for politicians. EV gamble. In Canada, they're spending over 100 billion on the ev gamble, backing North Volt, of course, in Quebec. And it's interesting because the Quebec minister, who's already put billions into this project or maybe hundreds of millions, I can't remember which one it is because, you know, there's so much money being thrown around. I said, it's okay. The the the factory that they're building in Quebec is unaffected. This only affects their operations in Europe, in Sweden. So, you know, Northvolt has received a lot of government money, but the only way they can keep going is to keep getting more government money. So how is that a good business proposition? If you always have to have more government money just to keep going? So once again, central planning, maybe not the best planners ever. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:45:40] I just want to say Audis Byrd makes a great point. Sounds like some of the policy makers model, but stock and transmission companies. Holy smokes, Batman in the US when maybe AOC started at a negative and she's only been in in office I think six years, whatever the number is, and she's now worth $47 million. So, yes, stock trading does happen. Yeah, go for these.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:10] Really 47 million.
Stuart Turley [00:46:12] Some number like that. I mean, but then take a look at Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi on her salary is now she is worth $147 million. Being a politician pays
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:26] So let me get this straight. AOC, who who wore that dress that said tax the rich. I guess she meant that for herself. I mean, is she sharing her newfound wealth?
Stuart Turley [00:46:37] I doubt it.
David Blackmon [00:46:39] Yes. He somehow worth $29 million now being worth 160,000 when she got elected. How did that happen?
Stuart Turley [00:46:47] Yeah. Amazing, isn't it?
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:50] So. Okay. I just had one more story there really quick. Labor's net zero plan left in disarray after factory closure. This is in the UK. So Vauxhall has makes these little these mini like vans, delivery vans, white vans, whatever you want to call them. And this factory's been around for like 100 and some years and they're closing it down because of the new EV mandates and they're just going to have operations out of one of their factories instead. And they're updating it, whatever. And so now they're like, maybe we shouldn't be moving so fast with with the EV mandate if it means that these factories are going to close and and put people out of business or like lay off workers who would traditionally support Labor because Labor's supposed to be the party of Labor. And it turns out that they actually no longer help the people. They, they just do what the elites want and stuff. So now they're talking that they're going to extend the the timeline for when only EVs are going to be able to be sold in the UK. So that's that's one thing.
David Blackmon [00:48:11] Hey, Luca. Good to hear from you, Lucas.
Irina Slav [00:48:14] Hey.
Stuart Turley [00:48:16] Good seeing you. Hey. I got one for you here, Tammy. I'm gonna stay on this.
Irina Slav [00:48:22] Right.
Stuart Turley [00:48:22] Gayle Campbell Andrus. Good morning. I am the CEO of Truck Sale, Inc.. We have patents and know how to reduce fuel consumption in large trucks and transport trailers. There are significant fuel savings and therefore reductions in pollution. We love that and have not received funding to support our projects. Some R&D tax credit, which she's grateful. Our products make business sense and reduce the operating costs for trucking companies. Seems to me. That makes sense that we spend our money there instead of other places.
David Blackmon [00:48:59] I just want to thank Gayle Campbell Andrus for separating the concepts of CO2 from real pollution. Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:49:08] They are out of my mind now. Thank you. Indeed, it's a very important distinction. It's great to see someone from the business world making.
Tammy Nemeth [00:49:20] Yeah, except in Canada they call CO2 pollution.
Irina Slav [00:49:24] It's not just in Canada. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:49:29] Yeah. Reach out to us. We'd love. I'd love to visit with you and even possibly scheduling on my podcast as well. Since I'm the least fun one here, I'm the most serious. This one LinkedIn user. When all the current wave of EV batteries, wind farms and solar farms wear out at the same time, in 20 years we will learn new terrible terms like peak metal, peak minerals and peak money. I think it's going to be worse than that.
Irina Slav [00:50:00] Metal.
Stuart Turley [00:50:01] it's it is really, really, really bad. And it's Irina.
Irina Slav [00:50:11] Yes. It's one of these stories. First of all, Europe's gas storage empties at fastest rate since 2016. And I thought they had avoided the crisis. No, it would just delay you. It is because got nothing for two wins in a row and it was because of the weather. But now the weather is normal and winter is normal. And a very wonderful reader of my substack sent me a link to Gas Infrastructure Europe, a well hidden link where you can actually see the level of storage in each country. Denmark is yellow, which is risky. It's so low to be green. Germany is green and most of Europe is green. But if you look at the difference between injections into storage and withdrawals, it's like for Germany, it was like 25 terawatt hours in injections versus over a hundred. Terawatt hours in withdrawals or this, I'd like to say, is unsustainable. And it's going to get worse because this is the beginning of winter. We still have. Late December and January, which tends to be the coldest, at least in this part of the world. And they're going to fire up all this coal and where available gas power plants just to keep the lights and the heating on and they might fail. And the big surprise. Yes. And they should be able to wake up and stop treating it as something that doesn't concern them. Because this is what the great majority of Europeans have been doing, except French farmers and all of the farmers that went out in numbers to protest stupid laws. But yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:52:08] I love their protest. I love their protest. Guns that they do. They're pure guns. Holy Smokes.
Irina Slav [00:52:17] Yeah And the second story is even funnier because I remember this Minister Wilkinson, when when Shultz of Germany went to negotiate an LNG deal and it was Trudeau and this little guy who who said that we're not interested in developing an LNG industry in Canada. No, we're not.
Tammy Nemeth [00:52:37] There's no business case. They said there's no business case.
Irina Slav [00:52:40] Thank you Tammy that. Well, those were the words. Yeah. And now he's he he's basically incoherent. There were quotes in this Reuters report, and all he was talking about was talking. We should have robust conversations and we should talk about talking, basically. What's his message? Is it realistic to mention the words oil or gas? Thinking that readers would fail to grasp what he's talking about, which is oil and gas and the fact that he's worried about the Trump tariffs. It's really pathetic. And I'm sorry these people are in charge of Canada.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:21] I agree. But you know what's interesting is that the premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, she recently joined it was the first foreign government, joined the American governors for Energy Security. And it's a coalition, I think, of 16 governors and Alberta to ensure that there's energy security. And she when they announced the emissions cap, said, you know, we will negotiate directly with the United States. If that's what it takes, we'll just we'll bypass Ottawa. I don't really know how they'll do that because constitutionally they can't. But Quebec's already set a precedent for doing something similar. So we'll see.
Irina Slav [00:54:05] Yes. I was going to ask you about this, by the way. She she invoked some law that Alberta recently passed that they can actually say that what the federal government is doing is unconstitutional. So we'll do what we want, basically, as far as I understand.
Tammy Nemeth [00:54:22] Is right because yeah, that like the Canadian Constitution has Section 92 A which allows natural resource development is purely in the space and responsibility of the provinces. And so she I think it's called the Alberta Sovereignty Act, where they will double down on their constitutional responsibilities with that. They believe Ottawa is contravening so
Irina Slav [00:54:52] We'll see. I hope it works.
Tammy Nemeth [00:54:54] I hope it works, too.
Stuart Turley [00:54:57] Cool. And I'll tell you, I want to give a shout out to all of our folks that are listening on the podcast around the world. And if I miss you, I apologize. This is an awesome chat. Irina is awesome. Let's hear it for Irina.
Tammy Nemeth [00:55:19] Yeah Irina
Stuart Turley [00:55:20] Know I absolutely love Irina and I love Tammy and love David. And I am absolutely thrilled. Gayle also brought up There's also many great jobs for these types of project. I incorporated in Canada believing these types of innovations would be supported, including by investors. Investors in the U.S. are interested, but it looks like there's reluctance to invest in Canadian companies since there's a business case for truck sale products. It looks like our opportunities are in the U.S. not only for business finding this to be the case. Again, Gail, reach out to me. I'd love to interview you on my podcast and or the others might want to do that as well. Or you could sponsor the energy realities podcast and get your story out there for anybody else wanting to sponsor the energy realities podcast. Have a great. Thank you. Sorry.
Tammy Nemeth [00:56:16] Can I add two to Gayle's comment there? Because this is what happens a lot in Canada is that the investors don't want to necessarily invest in operations in Canada and we end up having to go to American investors or open up a shop in America in order to get the investment, because they're more risk taking, they're more interested in in developing new things. Whereas in Canada there's so many regulations and everything that it just in some ways it's a benefit to be so close to the United States that Canadians can actually find investment money to do things because it's like that's where where ideas go to happen instead of, you know, unfortunately in Canada where there's they're bogged down by red tape like crazy.
Stuart Turley [00:57:05] Cool. I like it. Norway is bipolar in like kind. I like that. Canada is it's so about like Al Gore owning Occidental while spouting is nonsense. We've had a lot of fun today. I'll tell you, on the the two stories that I have, which we're running out of time and thank goodness nobody wants to hear me blather. Hit the panic button. Why UK's Electric Car Mandate is Crashing. I think this was a funny story and since I can speak because I welcome anybody from the UK trying to arrest me over a post, please make my day show up on my doorstep to arrest me from the UK. What are net zero emissions targets? This article was really, really funny. I mean, it goes all the way through it. It was on Yahoo News and it's on energy news meet dot Co is wire calm carmakers hitting the panic button this year poor demand for EVs mean manufacturers have struggled to meet the government targets and now left with a difficult choice here. This brings up our whole point. And Tammy, you and I and David were talking before this. And the other story I'm just going to throw over there and say hydrogen and the whole thing behind that is Pammy. I think hybrids would be a van tastic way to get extra mileage if they're done right. Toyota has done a phenomenal job leading the world in their hybrids, but then you just rent one.
Tammy Nemeth [00:58:49] Yeah, we rented one and it was. We didn't. Not on purpose is the only vehicle they had in that class or whatever. And it was a hybrid. And every time we pressed the sort of EV button, it would say there wasn't enough power. And once that, we'd been driving for a while because I guess it would charge from the it wasn't a plug in hybrid, but it would charge from the use of the engine, I guess, normally. And and so finally we tried it when we were on these back roads or whatever, and there was a bit of an incline and we pressed the button. We got two minutes, got two minutes.
Irina Slav [00:59:26] the better kind of hybrids because the battery charges while the internal combustion engine runs
David Blackmon [00:59:34] Runs
Tammy Nemeth [00:59:34] I know I'd like it's a it's a unique sit engine formulation or something that they were talking about. It's unique compared to how Toyota does it. It was I didn't want to name the brand just in case it was.
Stuart Turley [00:59:50] Case I went over sponsored the show.
David Blackmon [00:59:52] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:59:53] I'll I'll write about it on Substack because then I can go into more detail about the experience, which I will never buy one of these.
David Blackmon [01:00:03] Hey.
Stuart Turley [01:00:04] You know, hey, somebody complimented today. Guys, this is unusual. Wow. Yeah. Way to go, Dave. David always gets it. Here's Janet. I've always had a hybrid since 2006. Man.
Tammy Nemeth [01:00:18] You must have a good one.
Irina Slav [01:00:19] Make and model. Yeah. Tammy
Stuart Turley [01:00:23] I think.
Irina Slav [01:00:23] I like kind of thing.
David Blackmon [01:00:25] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [01:00:26] whoever makes the best truck hybrid will win. I will I I'm going to have a 350 and a Tesla cybertruck just to get all my crap that I have to haul around on my land. And so do I get to buy a $100,000 cybertruck and a Ford 350 I don't know.
David Blackmon [01:00:46] Tom Mumford makes a great point about the hybrids. He likes redundant systems. Hybrids make a lot of sense. Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Irina Slav [01:00:55] Apparently they're done, right?
David Blackmon [01:00:58] You're right. If cept for the one Tammy rented on her vacation.
Tammy Nemeth [01:01:00] Yeah, it was bad. He was really bad. Well, Lexus is owned by Toyota. I'm not surprised.
David Blackmon [01:01:07] better than. Toyota
Tammy Nemeth [01:01:09] Toyota
Stuart Turley [01:01:10] Yep.
Tammy Nemeth [01:01:11] They know they've invested quite heavily into developing the hybrid technology. So.
Stuart Turley [01:01:17] Yep, yep. Tammy, how do people find you and how do people subscribe to your stuff?
Tammy Nemeth [01:01:24] TheNemethreport.com is my website where I link to this show and my own podcast and other writings and I'm on substack, but I haven't written a post yet, so I think this EV experience will be the one that the inaugural.
Stuart Turley [01:01:43] And Irina, you or Irina? And what is your substack?
Irina Slav [01:01:48] It's IrinaSlav on energy. But I'm thinking of changing it. I might have to go incognito since I'm in the European Union. But we're not doing this live on energy. Well, you never know.
Stuart Turley [01:02:02] Yup. I think Tammy here from Tom and Tom. We love Tom. Have a good week, folks. Thank you. And David Blackmon, how do people find you?
David Blackmon [01:02:15] Blackmon.substack.com. Everything I do gets linked or reposted there.
Stuart Turley [01:02:18] All right. And I steal all of it. My name's Stu Turley and I'm on energy news beat dot CO or the energy news beat up dot substack.com. I'd like to thank all of the listeners today and also if you want to get your word out, just like Gail Campbell Andrus was bringing out, we have a significant reach on this podcast. And if you want to sponsor us, please let us know because we got reach between the four of us. Believe it or not, we got reach. Have a great week, guys. We'll see you all.
Tammy Nemeth [01:02:50] Thanks, everybody. Thanks for those things Stu.
David Blackmon [01:02:51] Bye y'all
Irina Slav [01:02:51] Your comments. Bye bye. Bye.
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