The Energy Realities team tackles several tough issues—the Geopolitical issues around NATO, Pipelines, and Energy. We also cover some updates around the Trump assassination attempt and thoughts on world events in energy. Ask David Blackmon, Tammy Nemeth, Irna Slav, and Stu Turley questions Live at 8:00 AM CT. I live in Texas, the EU, and the UK.
Highlights of the Podcast
01:25 – NATO and Energy Security
06:44 – Importance of Energy in Military Operations
09:46 – NATO’s Role and Expansion
14:32 – Energy Realities and Adaptation
16:46 – Climate Plans and Adaptation
18:53 – Data centers gobbling up existing nukes threaten grid decarb goals
19:53 – BP wins a key ruling in City of Baltimore climate change lawsuit
22:26 – Biden talks tough about NATO, but his energy policies tell a different story
23:54 – Fears for food security as Miliband pushes through Britain’s biggest solar farm
27:11 – Three Mile Island was the site of the country’s worst nuclear disaster. Now AI energy demands might turn it back on
29:05 – AI and Grid Management Concerns
30:37 – Increase in Natural Gas Plants
32:20 – Media Misinformation and Podcast Popularity
34:29 – Green Steel and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
38:10 – US Energy Policy and Global Impact
42:23 – North Sea Oil and Investment Concerns
44:26 – Windfall Profit Taxes and Investment in Green Energy
47:07 – Keystone Pipeline Cancellation
48:00 – Influence of Political Figures on Energy Policy
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
NATO and Energy Security
Stuart Turley [00:00:12] Well good morning everybody. Welcome to the Energy Realities podcast. We have got an action packed show today. And I’ll tell you what, I’ve got two of the van tastic guests. My name Stu Turley, president of the Sandstone Group. I’ve got Tammy Nemeth. She is the head cabana over there at the Nemeth Report over in the UK. How are you today?
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:36] I’m doing great. Thank you. Still waiting for some sunshine.
Stuart Turley [00:00:39] Oh my goodness. Well, you’re all nice and cheery and ready for a Monday morning so that’s a great thing. What time is it there in the UK.
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:48] It’s 2:00 in the afternoon.
Stuart Turley [00:00:51] Just you got up at the crack at noon, I like it. Yep. And then we have the David Blackmon. I mean, not only is David Blackmon a legend in my mind, he’s a legend in his own mind. And you can find David on blackmon.substack.com. He’s on the Forbes contributing author. He is a man about town I welcome.
David Blackmon [00:01:14] Thank you. Yes I’m happy to be here. It’s a lovely day in Texas.
Stuart Turley [00:01:18] I’ll tell you what. We got a heck of a schedule. Talking today here. We got some stories in our topic today is NATO and energy security. And if I can offend anybody today, I sure will, because we’ve had a lot of things going on around here. And, but, you know, we did have, Tammy, what are some of the things that, you’ve got two things that we want to talk about here. At first you had an excellent, article on energy security that you had, thrown into the chat here and NATO. But let’s set this up for our our team coming around here, and we’re as we’re talking about this NATO for anybody that wasn’t watching the news last week was hanging out in Washington, DC with our brain dead president. And he introduced Zelensky, President Zelensky as President Putin. Can you guys believe that?
David Blackmon [00:02:20] That’s such a classic Joe Biden thing. It’s it’s the most believable thing ever.
Tammy Nemeth [00:02:25] What I think is interesting is that he can’t do anything without reading off a teleprompter, which tells me that whoever programed his teleprompter put that in there, that’s I would be surprised.
Stuart Turley [00:02:36] Oh, conspiracy theory. No way to me. No way. I happened to have a clip of this. So let’s take a listen and watch this.
Video Speaker Biden [00:02:46] The Ukraine, who has as much. Courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. You got beat, President Putin, president Zelensky, I’m so focused. On being Putin, we got to worry about it anyway.
David Blackmon [00:03:03] Yeah, we got to worry about it all.
Tammy Nemeth [00:03:05] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:03:06] Well, what an embarrassment. I have another clip of him. Putin. Excuse me, of, Zelensky going. I think as an American, I am embarrassed for this idiot even speaking on my behalf.
David Blackmon [00:03:29] I feel your pain.
Tammy Nemeth [00:03:31] I feel your pain.
David Blackmon [00:03:32] And have for three and a half years.
Stuart Turley [00:03:35] So anyway, back to the story here. What is NATO and energy security Tammy got to do with things?
Tammy Nemeth [00:03:42] Well, you know, it’s interesting because NATO seems to always be looking for a reason to exist. And the war in Ukraine has certainly bumped up its, raison d’etre, I suppose, to some extent. And what I found really interesting about this year’s, communique. So every year or two when they have these meetings, they, they put out these communiques of the different paragraphs or points that they’re all going to agree on working towards or whatever during the year, sets out the sort of, core blueprint for what NATO’s NATO’s actions will be throughout the year. And if you look at last year’s, there was like 90 paragraphs, 90 points and a huge one on climate, huge one on women and all these other things. And I mean, 90 paragraphs of really blather in the middle of a war. And so this year, what is so striking? The communique only had 38 points, and almost all of them were related to security. There was one very small paragraph near the end on climate, and it was significantly smaller, like a third the size of what it has been over the past couple of years. And I think that’s very telling on where they’re seeing this shift go. So last year it was almost like, you know, our collective security, we need to worry about these other things like climate and, and getting off oil so we can thwart Russia and all this kind of thing. But this year there’s a real marked difference. And there was even a stronger statement about energy security. That hasn’t been included for for a little while. So I thought that was was quite fascinating, especially in, in the 2024 one where it says energy is a critical capability enabler to NATO’s core tasks and military operations. We’re committed to ensuring secure, resilient and sustainable energy supplies, including fuel to our military forces. Now, why would you even need to say that?
Stuart Turley [00:05:56] Yeah, I mean, because as they’re stretching out a, you know, a in our, our in a, our military is wanting to put solar panels on submarines. Good grief.
Tammy Nemeth [00:06:08] And tanks. Right. I mean, that was what they were talking about a few years ago is putting solar panels on tanks, which is crazy.
Stuart Turley [00:06:16] Yeah. David.
David Blackmon [00:06:17] I mean.
Stuart Turley [00:06:17] It’s certainties within.
David Blackmon [00:06:19] Yeah. I mean, given given given the facts of history, such as the only reason the allies won World War two is because we were able to keep our supply lines for diesel open to fuel our tanks at the battle of the bulge, and Hitler was not able to do that. That’s that turned the whole war on on that critical piece of. I think the.
Stuart Turley [00:06:44] German soldiers traveled with siphon hoses.
David Blackmon [00:06:48] Right? Yeah, yeah. And and none of that’s changed. Okay. I mean, it’s it’s the absolute most crucial aspect of fighting or ground war anywhere in the world is to be able to keep your supply chains for fuel open and food. So, I mean, I’m glad NATO, is has decided to, prioritize that again over its DEI and ESG goals. And that’s really nice. And it makes me feel a just a little better about being in that alliance.
Tammy Nemeth [00:07:17] Well, I don’t know, because one of the other major things they talked about this, this conference women and dEI so
David Blackmon [00:07:26] now, of course, I mean, that’s they were here. It’s a requirement that, you know, you otherwise you’re going to have a, a bad media day, with The New York Times and The Washington Post. So they have to do that. But, just at least, at least they’re able to talk about what’s, you know, really vital in terms of international defense. The truth about NATO is that its reason for existence ended in 1990 and had the NATO countries and the United States, made a real effort to do some outreach with Russian leadership at the time to establish firm relationships and alliances on areas of mutual interest. NATO would no longer exist, and it probably should no longer exist. And the world will be a lot more peaceful place. And instead, what happened? Despite the promises made by President George Herbert Walker Bush in 1990 that he would never, the United States would never support the expansion, the eastward expansion of NATO in order to ensure Russia’s feeling of goodwill. Instead, what happened is a an endless effort to shift the borders of NATO eastward. Until now, we’re butting right up on the Russian homeland. Okay. And you call me a Putin lover, I don’t care, I’m immune to that crap. I don’t love Putin. I think he’s a war criminal. But if we don’t recognize the provocation inherent to the eastward expansion of NATO, to the Russian border, to the border of a country whose people have been completely paranoid for eons. Then. Then we are stupid people who don’t understand reality. So, I mean, I’m glad they’re talking about energy security. It’s vital. But the reality is, you know, the entire NATO exercise is turned in to really little more than, than a, an excuse to keep the military industrial complex in business. And, that’s my opinion. That’s my rant for this morning. I’m in a bad no.
Stuart Turley [00:09:46] You’re in. This is not your only rant, David.
David Blackmon [00:09:50] Yes, personally. Rant number one.
Stuart Turley [00:09:50] Rant number one. And I tell you, Tammy, I think that I agree. AI do a lousy Putin imitation and I love Irina. And when she does and your Putin imitation is so bad, I sound like a gangster or a mobster rather than, you know, Putin. I don’t sound anything like him. But I’ll tell you, I, I tell you, we we need to not support NATO. NATO does not need support. I’m sorry. You in NATO? Whoo! Bye! Get out! Go away! Sorry.
David Blackmon [00:10:29] Well, that was succinct.
Stuart Turley [00:10:30] That was my rant.
David Blackmon [00:10:36] Okay. But. So. Okay. Go ahead.
Tammy Nemeth [00:10:39] Well back in. I forget if it was 2018 or 2022. NATO was talking about having greater, integration with the United Nations. And I thought, so what does that mean? Why? Why would they be entertaining that idea? And what’s interesting, I mean, it must have been after 2018 because it was like as long as Trump was in power, there is no none of this talk about climate and stuff like that. And it was only after, he was gone that they started including these references to climate more prominently in the various NATO communiques and whatnot. I think they were still working on that climate aspect before, but it was really not as elevated as it became after he left. And as you have the EU take its stronger moves with the Green Deal.
Stuart Turley [00:11:31] Take a look at the articles that are coming around where NATO is wanting to expand into Asia. Why?
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:37] What? Yeah,.
Stuart Turley [00:11:41] This one.
David Blackmon [00:11:42] Will go wrong there.
Stuart Turley [00:11:44] This is this is a a organization that was there for a reason. And I again, as David just said, he is not a I am not a Putin fan of his actions, but he does do Russia first. He has taken he’s taken Russia to what I believe, the fourth, most prosperous country in the in the world, per capita income. Now, when you take a look at that, he has, been under attack for that. Was he justified in invading Ukraine? I’m not going to. I’m not even gonna talk about that because I think it’s wrong. On the other hand, when did he attack Crimea? It was under Obama. When did he attack Ukraine? Under President Biden? The man knows when he should attack and when he shouldn’t. But why did he attack? And it turns out Ukraine’s Ukraine turns out to be a crime scene. I mean, there is so much.
David Blackmon [00:12:50] Corrupt country in Europe for sure, and it has been rated French.
Stuart Turley [00:12:54] Going back to the U.S.. Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:12:58] So I took to kind of loop this back to energy security. I think what’s interesting is that it’s almost like energy reality has kicked in. You know, this is the the point of our podcast is to talk about energy realities. And I feel like they got slapped in the face with the whole energy reality aspect, where it’s like, if we want to escalate other, conflict with between Russia and Ukraine and it everything points in that direction, then we need to make sure we have secure, oil supplies. You know, as you mentioned, with World War Two. And even what’s interesting, if we go back to Vietnam, one of the the, the terrible aspects of the OPEC embargo, that the OPEC embargo was that they were preventing, oil and fuel from getting into the Vietnam theater of war. And this was like a huge crisis, of course, because it’s like we now we’re going to have to divert domestic supplies in order to ensure that the war operations in Vietnam can continue. And so we need a quick settlement and so on and so forth. So is that this, this energy reality kicking in where it’s like, okay, look, if we want to be able to, conduct this war as NATO is doing, they can want to call it a defensive operation, whatever. You still need those fuel supplies, even if you’re on defense. Whatever. So gone are maybe the solar tanks and where we can only hope. Yeah. Wanting to secure those supplies, maybe.
David Blackmon [00:14:32] Yeah. And, you know, and it’s been really interesting to, if you look back at the history of the Ukraine war, you know, as soon as Putin invaded the United States and NATO and EU began implementing these sanctions, a lot of which were designed to kill the Russian economy and go after its ability to trade, oil around the world, which is a significant piece of its income. Those sanctions have completely failed. Putin found ways around them with India and China and other willing trading partners who are part of bricks. And and what has happened over these two years and five months is that the BRICs alliance is suddenly become the largest trading alliance on Earth in terms of gross domestic, accumulative gross domestic product, of the member countries. They exceed the G7 substantially now. And are only going to continue to grow as BRICs continues to to add members. So the the effort by the US and NATO to damage Russia’s own energy security have been futile, basically. And, Russia is probably more energy secure today than it was in February of 2022.
Tammy Nemeth [00:15:56] What? I put up the NATO’s climate plan there because this is really interesting. When you read it, they have a little blurb about what, Russia’s doing to fight climate and what China’s doing. And they put forward in a very negative fashion that Russia’s focus is on adaptation. So Russia’s not trying to mitigate climate change. They’re trying to adapt to it. And so they have these different kinds of icebreakers. They’re doing these different kinds of things in in the more Arctic regions, there are finding ways to adapt to changes in permafrost and whatnot. And then when they talk about China, they say, oh, but China is a little bit better because they’re doing both adaptation and mitigation. But what’s interesting there is that now they can say, if you support adaptation, you’re acting like Russia.
David Blackmon [00:16:46] Right? Yeah. Which and by the way, what is adaptation? It’s what the human race has always been good at.
Tammy Nemeth [00:16:53] Always done. Right. Exactly.
David Blackmon [00:16:54] It has always done well because climate has changed across history. I mean, it recorded history. It’s constantly been changing, and human beings have been constantly adapting to the change and mitigating damages from the change. And obviously, if we if we’re going to spend 200, $300 trillion, took over our concern about, you know, plant food in the atmosphere. What better way to allocate it to to try to change the climate to, to pretend we have a thermostat to, to change, to control the Earth’s temperature or to spend it on mitigation and adaptation. I mean, it’s a no brainer, but spending it on mitigation adaption will not create the single greatest transfer of wealth in human history. And that’s really what these efforts to control the climate are all about.
Stuart Turley [00:17:56] Yep.
David Blackmon [00:17:56] And rant number two for today.
Tammy Nemeth [00:18:00] We’re chalking them up there.
David Blackmon [00:18:02] Oh are now didn’t I, man.
Stuart Turley [00:18:05] Well Tammy let’s take a look at your other two here. Speaking of security, Biden talks tough about NATO, but his energy policies tell a different story. That was an interesting story.
David Blackmon [00:18:20] Tammy, are you there? Oh, no. We lost Tammy. Tammy froze up.
Stuart Turley [00:18:25] Okay, quick. Now we can talk about what we wanted to talk about. But she.
David Blackmon [00:18:32] It’s moving. She said disruption of service there. Once you go to my headlines and we’ll be all.
Stuart Turley [00:18:40] Right, we’ll come back in just a second.
David Blackmon [00:18:43] Or your hairlines, either one. Let’s go to your. Okay. Here we go. These are headlines for the week. Boy, have we got some headlines. The top one data centers gobbling up existing nukes threaten Britain’s grid decarbonization goals. That is a piece written at the NRDC website. Okay. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a radical left wing activist group climate alarmist Group, who in 2022 boasted about their key efforts, their central role in shutting down the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York state. Okay. And now, two years later, they’re publishing this story expressing their concern that the rapid growth of data centers is suddenly threatening to secure or they’re going to hog all the, generation capacity of the existing nuclear plants in the region. So this is one of the clearest examples of of climate alarmist hypocrisy ever written at the NRDC website. Urge you all to go read it. The second one, BP wins a key ruling City of Baltimore climate change lawsuit. This is a lawsuit that is one of dozens of lawsuits filed by cities around the United States attempting to win big judgments, financial judgments against, oil and gas companies for allegedly causing negative impacts from climate change. This is, one of the biggest decisions in that, lawfare effort that’s being coordinated by a few big, plain attorney firms and good for BP for winning that. Chevron was also involved in that suit, along with several other plaintiffs. And then the last one.
Tammy Nemeth [00:20:35] Sorry. Do you think that they’ll, take whatever the judge has ruled on that and then rejig some of the other litigation that that’s being put forward?
David Blackmon [00:20:46] Yeah, I mean, it sets a precedent. And and, so we had, and one of the key aspects of the decision in the Baltimore case is that the judge in the case, who is a state district judge, not a federal judge. This case had already gone to the Supreme Court once and got shot down. And so now they’re trying to crank it up through the system again. But the state judge in making the ruling also referred to a similar judgment that had been made a couple of years ago in a similar case in New York City and another one that had been handed down in new Jersey. So we’re seeing a trend develop here now, shooting down this, this lawfare effort being mounted by the same people like the NRDC, you know, the whole, climate alarm lobby in the United States that has billions and billions of dollars to spend on stuff like this. Then the last one, of course, is about the Sandys assassination. It’s really kind of off topic, but, I think if anyone wants to read about the failings of the Secret Service to protect presidential candidate Donald Trump Saturday in Pennsylvania, that’s a story at Politico right now that details a lot of the. The complete, utter failure of the Secret Service to do its job in that. Anyway, that’s that’s kind of off topic.
Stuart Turley [00:22:08] There’s a lot going on with that one, I’ll tell you.
David Blackmon [00:22:10] Yeah. There is.
Stuart Turley [00:22:13] Tammy, before you decided to freeze up and. I’m sorry. That was pretty fun. Oh, we were talking bad about you. Of course. The recording. So you can go back.
Tammy Nemeth [00:22:23] I’ll have to have a listen.
Stuart Turley [00:22:26] Biden talks, tough about NATO, but his energy policies tell a different story.
Tammy Nemeth [00:22:31] Yeah, that was a great story where it talked about, the LNG pause and how this impacts the security of Europe, you know, because the United States by by having that pause on LNG exports and whatever, that was all LNG that was going to head to Europe and to parts of Asia. And the article also cited a report that was recently done out of, a think tank near Berkeley where they they kind of crunched the numbers to see what the sort of emissions profile is, of, American natural gas versus other imports that come in to Europe. And also the, the potential environmental impacts of displacing coal. And it’s a very actually a positive report, which was surprising. But it would be interesting to see that that data compared with, say, the UK natural gas or, Canada’s natural gas. But Canada hasn’t entered the European market yet, of course, because we don’t have a pipeline that goes to that, that part of our country. But the new one should be putting natural LNG onto the the Pacific side of the, of the global market, hopefully soon. So that was that was a really great story. And then the food security one. So this was an article in the Telegraph on the weekend. So within three days of Ed Miliband having taking over the energy energy department in the UK government, he immediately reversed, there’s three major solar projects in the sort of east central part of England that had been rejected by councils because they were good, they were huge, and they were designed to take up arable land that currently has crops on it. And, he reversed those decisions and said, no, we’re going forward with these, these massive, massive installations. And so the author was arguing that this is going to jeopardize the UK food supply because he wants to basically approve. If you have an idea for a solar farm or a solar project, he’d be happy to approve it. So there are significant concerns in the UK over what this means for food security, because, you know, England isn’t a really huge place and it has a limited amount of arable land, and now they want to install solar installations on this arable land so that that prevent presents a future problem for the UK.
Stuart Turley [00:25:12] I saw, an article this morning that came around and says Secretary of State of Energy has approved the construction for three major solar farms Seneca, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, gate, Burton, Lincolnshire.
Tammy Nemeth [00:25:29] Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire.
Stuart Turley [00:25:31] And Malad Pass in Lincolnshire and Rutland have all received consent. It’ll be 500MW at gate. Burton and Mallard Pass will be 350MW.
Tammy Nemeth [00:25:46] Yeah. And again, it’s one of these contradictions of the environmental movement, because if you look at what actually happens to the soil, underneath these solar installations, it’s it’s not good for biodiversity as much as they say it has limited impact. I mean, I’ve seen other studies that indicate otherwise.
Stuart Turley [00:26:06] You mean the sheep don’t like it?
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:08] It’s not the sheep. It’s the weeds. And, the lack of heat in the soil. Because if you have the solar panels there, it’s preventing the sun from going there. So there’s different aspects of the, of the soil that, that are affected by that lack of sunlight. So.
Stuart Turley [00:26:27] Oh, cool. Well done.
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:33] So we did that one year. Maybe not on holiday.
Stuart Turley [00:26:38] All right. Irina.
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:40] We should have had a picture of it. Tomato growing or something. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:26:43] There you go. These are my, stories again. Here’s where I found this very interesting. And again, the, tragedy that is the our political system in the United States is, pathetic. And. Trump. There is a lot coming out on that. We won’t, go into it on this podcast, but. Three Mile Island I found this article absolutely hilarious from the standpoint that Three Mile Island was, the, was the site of the worst nuclear disaster. Now I energy demands might turn it back on. I heard a few, activists head pop when I read that story in 1979, a partial meltdown of the reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, at the Sacco new, River in Pennsylvania brought nuclear fears to life. The Washington Post, that Constellation Energy, which owns the Three Mile Island, is considering to restart the unit number one.
David Blackmon [00:27:57] So so here’s what’s interesting to me about that headline. It was the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history. And everyone needs to understand that no one outside that site got a dose of radiation above what they get when they microwave a cup of soup. And no one died. No one died in America’s worst nuclear disaster.
Stuart Turley [00:28:23] Exactly. I love nuclear. I think it’s fantastic. And I think, though, that here, we talked about this a little while ago, and I think I is taking, net zero and throwing it in the trash. Excuse me, but net zero is not going to happen because of a I and the demands that big tech are putting on the grid.
David Blackmon [00:28:50] Right.
Stuart Turley [00:28:51] Personal opinion.
David Blackmon [00:28:52] And it’s going to and it’s going to cause a, a we were going to end up going to nuclear in any event. Okay. Eventually this is going to speed that process up anyway. Go ahead.
Tammy Nemeth [00:29:05] I agree. However, I think the whole purpose of AI right now, the way the governments are thinking about it, is to be able to implement net zero more quickly, more efficiently. And so they’re happy today. That’s what they say, right. Because you need these different elements to monitor and process what we’re all doing and to manage it. And so what my concern is with nuclear and AI and all this kind of thing, is that they would want to have to be able to manage the grid properly. The different elements of the grid need to be connected via internet or whatever, which then creates a whole new cyber security problem. And if you thought that the potential for a meltdown or whatever from a nuclear power plant was a problem before, now it’s connected to the internet and, you know, bad actors, and there’s a lot of them out there, funded, some of them funded by governments who aren’t friends. Could, you know, do some really terrible things, causing a meltdown if you have if you shut down a coal power plant, okay, you shut down the power in that area. But if you somehow affect a nuclear power plant, I would want to see what kind of protections that the grid operators or whatever would have in place in order to prevent that kind of thing from happening. And I don’t know. I don’t know if I would trust them to be able to do that. So I would say build more coal.
David Blackmon [00:30:37] Oh. Me too. Totally. Absolutely.
Stuart Turley [00:30:40] Robert. Robert Bryce, who’s a great human, by the way. Just put out that we had had an increase of 7.5 times more natural gas plants than anything else coming online because of AI.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:58] I believe it. Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:30:59] Talking about proposed new builds.
Stuart Turley [00:31:02] And and installed. Yes. No. That have come online.
David Blackmon [00:31:05] I mean, it takes 3 to 5 years to.
Stuart Turley [00:31:08] No, he’s.
Tammy Nemeth [00:31:09] He’s talking microgrid, like I’m. Guessing. Is that what he means, that that’s not actually plugged into the the larger grid, but it’s just there to be fueling the AI. Is that what you’re saying?
Stuart Turley [00:31:22] I’ll go look at the article, but, natural gas plants are coming online like you wouldn’t believe. So the only reason that the EIA has said that the United States reduced its net, net zero emissions in 2023 was because of our, pulling down of coal plants and installing of new natural gas plants.
David Blackmon [00:31:44] I mean, that’s been the trend for 15 years now. That’s the only reason we’ve been able to exceed our goals as a country. We’ve done more than any other country on earth thanks to fracking and natural gas.
Stuart Turley [00:31:59] Jeff, I love your comment. This is me. Again, this is me listening. I’m going to show a video here. Jeff of me thinking, or listening, to from the government. This is what’s going on in our world.
David Blackmon [00:32:20] this weekend.
Stuart Turley [00:32:21] Yeah, yeah. We got things going on. We got tanks going by. You know, this is. This is the way I look at the world anymore.
David Blackmon [00:32:30] You know, that comment from Jeff Chester is absolutely right. And the Secret Service is the prime example that we saw over the last couple days. But but again that’s an aside.
Stuart Turley [00:32:39] Jeff brings up an excellent point. And I don’t understand the UK and its, interconnect and you now have Irina has and I have laughed about on our podcast. On the podcast, and that is the, hydrogen highway that billions of dollars are going in. And, I’m over here going, that’s a bomb waiting to happen. Yeah. I don’t get it.
David Blackmon [00:33:13] So it’s just such nonsense. I, you know, see.
Tammy Nemeth [00:33:17] That’s what they need the eye for. And this is the argument that they make in the EU and the UK is that they need AI to be able to manage all those interconnects with the variability of, wind and solar. So they’ll be able to do all that stuff quicker than people telling people to ration.
Stuart Turley [00:33:36] I got two comments. Tammy, I love Patrick Devine. We love Patrick. Hey, Rockstar simply has outsourced all its emissions. China went up 220% last year in their net zero emissions to what I would.
David Blackmon [00:33:53] And I love Patrick too, but I would dispute that. I think the US has actually really eliminated a lot of emissions. Yes. But by by deindustrialization. Yeah. We’ve shifted some to China. But we’ve also substantially cut overall emissions with our efforts in the US. I think the UK is a little different in Germany as well. Yeah. I’m not.
Stuart Turley [00:34:17] Sure that’s going down. I got one on Tammy. You got to back that up.
David Blackmon [00:34:21] Tammy.
Stuart Turley [00:34:21] But show us, you know, it was a receipt. I mean, I know, but it’s true.
David Blackmon [00:34:25] The you just.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:26] Have to.
David Blackmon [00:34:26] Waste of time and effort.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:29] Yeah. I mean, they now they’re talking about green steel and that they’re going to throw more money at Tata for creating green steel. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:34:37] What is green steel
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:40] where You’re instead of using, coal power or natural gas to do for the, for the plants you use electricity and hydrogen. It’s.
Stuart Turley [00:34:56] I to. If you look at State University and even I can realize that stupid.
Tammy Nemeth [00:35:02] Yeah. But they’re doing that in the EU and the UK and Canada is looking at how to do that. And it’s, you know, so it’s all part of the the transition plan is to, to take the emissions out of steel. But I think China will just ship it. It’s heavy, but they’ll ship this.
David Blackmon [00:35:19] Yeah. Of course.
Stuart Turley [00:35:20] Oh, they’re going to go over there with a little magic wand and go. Here’s this. That was made with coking coal out of a furnace and blast fired and go. It’s green. And they’re they’re going to charge extra money because this magic hand watch this magic hand. You’re now green. And so that steel is going to identify, even though it was made with coking coal and really, really bad. And then they’re going to go, oh you’re now green. You identify as a green steel.
Tammy Nemeth [00:35:52] Well, part of the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism is that when goods are coming into the EU, you have to put the geographical coordinates of the power plant that you received your energy from. Right. So let’s say you’re China and you’re like okay EU and they give some kind of geographical coordinate. And it’s because they have these big wind farms all over the place. Wow. So how would you even know for sure that that’s the power that actually went to that plant? And who’s going to audit that? Or you’re going to send in some Westerner into China to verify the coordinates and data that you’re receiving from China. But then there’s suckers in Canada who will go, oh, yeah, okay, this is our geographical coordinate. Please send in your KPMG auditor, you know, trust. You know, we’re we’re so great and and we won’t have anything in China will just be good.
Stuart Turley [00:36:52] Can I ask both of you a question? With the stuff that’s going on and going through these podcasts, the mainstream media is absolutely horrific. I mean, we saw that with, there was a wonderful Brit that we were talking about, Tammy, that was talking about the assassination and how bad it was. She was a Royal Marine. Officer, I love her. I follow her on Twitter. She is absolutely wonderful. But yet the, one of the, British, things out there, the, publication said Trump slipped, off of the stage, and she goes, he was bloody shot. So we have mainstream media. And I think that’s why podcasts such as The Energy Realities and the Nemeth Report and David Blackmon and and mine are doing so well as people are tired of this. Why would you both have guessed that we would be in this energy, hypocrisy and world that we’re in now with so much target rich material?
David Blackmon [00:38:10] Who could have seen this coming? Yeah. No. So. But here’s the good news. Here’s the good days. Once the United States comes to its senses and changes out this administration for a Trump administration and shifts gears and changes direction on energy and climate policy, the rest of the world is going to have little choice but to follow. And that’s what’s going to happen.
Stuart Turley [00:38:39] Now say that again.
David Blackmon [00:38:41] Once the United States, Donald Trump, he’s not a certainty, not a shoo in. But it’s very likely now, right, that this election is going to go his way. And, and when that happens, United States direction on climate and energy policy is going to go a different direction, too. And that’s going to cause all these other countries that are currently going through this hysteria about plant food in the atmosphere to go a different direction as well. And it’s going to have a profound impact on all of this. And you can already see people starting to prepare for that eventually eventuality. So I, you know, maybe that maybe Biden will find some way to win, and like he did in 2020, but, the odds just went way down on that. And, so a profound impacts on energy policy.
Stuart Turley [00:39:44] Good point, Tammy.
David Blackmon [00:39:46] Well, I think the odds went way up on that. Him staying as the nominee to.
Stuart Turley [00:39:52] Unless Hillary gets involved.
David Blackmon [00:39:56] Well, you know, there’s always the.
Stuart Turley [00:39:59] maybe.
David Blackmon [00:40:01] Better. Well, that’s a little off topic.
Stuart Turley [00:40:05] It is. But, you know, maybe Obama called Hillary and said, I need some of your people. I don’t know yet, but there was a joke waiting there. But I’m not. Does anybody know whose Trump energy advisers are? I reached out, Patrick, that is a great question. And I have reached out to several folks that are in his, pool and am working on trying to get to that area. So the answer is, I’m trying to, get an interview in that realm. Like like right there. So that’s a great question.
Tammy Nemeth [00:40:40] You know, to be to be fair to the UK, I, I bet that newspaper that was referenced by that person, Stu, was the Guardian because the Guardian is super left wing and they follow what CNN does. And I think it was CNN who that had, the statement that Trump fell off, he fell down, and the Secret Service had to carry him off. Yeah. And whatever. But, you know, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and some of the other ones were, you know, spot on that of what was happening. So.
Stuart Turley [00:41:10] Right. And, Patrick, I’ll let you know as soon as I, hear back from them. So.
Tammy Nemeth [00:41:17] Yeah, well, that could be a podcast episode later is the the energy platforms after the candidates have been decided or whatever. We can talk about that.
Stuart Turley [00:41:27] This brings up a fabulous, question for both of us. We have a few more minutes here, and then that is, the North Sea for, the UK and Europe is is very, very important. But as an investor, I invest in oil and gas, and I work on deal evaluations and strip apart whether or not it’s a good deal. Right now my investments are making 30% on money back. That being said, I’m very picky on what money I put in in those we need to watch our money. So when you sit back and take a look, is the North Sea now they’re going to block drilling and now they’re saying that they’re not going to block drilling, and then they’re going to come back in. I saw 2 or 3 articles over the weekend were saying that they were now blocking or not blocking, and then now they’re denying it. The UK needs their North Sea real bad.
Tammy Nemeth [00:42:23] North keeps blocking that. He’s blocking it. He’s blocking the North Sea. New developments. But they’ll allow the the current ones to continue.
Stuart Turley [00:42:34] They need a so dialing in dollars just to make up for that North Sea oil and in in in green energy. And it ain’t going to happen.
Tammy Nemeth [00:42:44] I mean I know and and instead they’re importing it from Norway, from Norway side of the North Sea. It’s stupid.
Stuart Turley [00:42:52] It’s. I’m. I’m sorry. Again, I mentioned this earlier on the podcast. I went to Oklahoma State University, and I still realize that it is incredibly stupid.
David Blackmon [00:43:03] Well, what’s going to happen if you tell these big companies that are involved in the North Sea that you can no longer further develop your prospects, they’re going to start selling them to smaller companies. I mean, that’s the intelligent business thing to do. And so you’re going to get an entirely new set of players who are a lot smaller, a lot less well-capitalized, and it’s just all going to end up.
Stuart Turley [00:43:24] And David, you brought up a great point. And that is, Michael Tanner, my partner and co-host in crime on, The Daily Show. We’ve talked about the, shell and BP and others moving to the US and being listed on the New York Stock Exchange and getting out of the windfall profit taxes that are being hammered on them. Yeah. So the u g is really so, David, David, your point about Trump winning is going to change. It’s going to impact the world in energy. It’s going to hit the finance. It’s going to hit the world. But as an investor is where I was going with this is is whenever Trump was in office, oil prices were lower. And it’s because he did do drill baby drill. And it went on. So as an investor, I made less money under Trump, but I had more spending money because I had less inflation and better management, which I want.
David Blackmon [00:44:26] Yeah, yeah, I’ll.
Stuart Turley [00:44:28] Take this one with lower oil prices every day.
Tammy Nemeth [00:44:35] Yeah. You know, you made an interesting point about, the smaller entities taking over from the larger ones, especially with the ridiculous windfall profit tax that they’re increasing in order to subsidize GB energy, great British energy. And it’s unclear precisely what form GB Energy’s going to take. Is that maybe one of them. Well, they’ll they’ll take over the management of those assets using the windfall tax money from the existing players in order to buy them out or something. Who knows. That’s a possibility. My understanding, though, is that they want to invest more, to take taxpayer money, take company money, and then spend it on wind and solar and batteries.
Stuart Turley [00:45:18] Wow.
David Blackmon [00:45:20] Sounds like something a bunch of communists would do, something that fits right in.
Tammy Nemeth [00:45:24] And they have Mark Carney helping with the investment side of it because they they’re creating this big infrastructure fund.
Stuart Turley [00:45:32] You know, and of.
Tammy Nemeth [00:45:33] Course, his company, Brookfield, it, it buys into infrastructure. I’m sure there’s no conflict of interest.
David Blackmon [00:45:41] Oh, of course not. Yeah. No possible way.
Tammy Nemeth [00:45:43] No possible way.
David Blackmon [00:45:49] Patrick. It’s. If Trump releases restrictions on Yellowstone pipeline, the US and world could see benefit within a short time. I don’t know what Yellowstone pipeline is.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:01] Does he mean Keystone?
David Blackmon [00:46:04] Oh, well, I think John’s dead. I mean, they pulled the pipe up out of the ground on the Keystone project.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:09] Yeah, it doesn’t take much to put it back in.
Stuart Turley [00:46:11] I wonder if Patrick rewatching, that special of Yogi Bear and Booboo. Hey, booboo. I don’t know what you’re so.
David Blackmon [00:46:19] Yeah, let’s. I’ll do some research, though. Patrick sent me an email. Patrick.
Stuart Turley [00:46:25] Anyway,.
[00:46:26] He meant Keystone.
David Blackmon [00:46:28] Okay, I’m at Keystone. Yeah. Well, I mean, but but that’s a problem because, you know, when when, Biden canceled that project, they’d already built about half of it. Actually, more than half of it. And, on.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:41] The Canadian side in particular.
David Blackmon [00:46:42] Yeah, but also a lot of it in the US side as well. And they, they pulled the pipe out of the ground. So I, you know, here’s maybe those rights of way are still intact, I don’t know.
Stuart Turley [00:46:51] Here’s my $0.02. Knucklehead. I mean, excuse me, President Biden. Chatter head Biden. He on his second first day in office, killed it. Why? Why did President Biden kill the.
David Blackmon [00:47:07] Payoff to the NRDC and all.
Stuart Turley [00:47:09] These other. I think there was something else to it. And Warren Buffett, who would have profited from the Keystone pipeline? Warren Buffett takes the oil sands, which we need badly. Railroad, you know, railroad. And he is big in the railroad, and he makes big bucks who contributed to the Biden administration. So I don’t think this was necessarily placate placating to his, base. It did. It worked out nicely. But I believe Warren Buffett was one of the key reasons.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:42] No, I think it was center for American Progress. That was one of their key plot companies was to get rid of Keystone. And, you know, John Podesta and group Neera Tanden. So, I mean.
Stuart Turley [00:47:54] This is a dangerous individual.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:56] Right? And he’s he’s now replaced John Kerry as the climate czar. Whatever.
David Blackmon [00:48:00] Neera Tanden is a senior policy advisor in the white House and has been seized on. And yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:48:06] Yeah, they were trying to get her to be head of the OMB wasn’t it. And she got rejected.
David Blackmon [00:48:12] And God the Senate refused to approve her. She’s crazy talk about.
Tammy Nemeth [00:48:18] So I think that had more to do with it then. And there’s other big funders like Bloomberg and whatnot who demanded it. So.
Stuart Turley [00:48:28] I’m not sure if that is a booger on the table from Patrick Devine or if that coffee.
David Blackmon [00:48:35] Oh, that’s a coffee cup. Okay.
Stuart Turley [00:48:37] I’m pretty sure that’s.
David Blackmon [00:48:40] A little worried about what that was.
Stuart Turley [00:48:42] Yeah, I was like, if you lost your eye. Patrick blinked twice. All right, so with that next week, Irina is out. Next week again. Is she out traveling?
Tammy Nemeth [00:48:56] She’s back, but I’m. I’ll be out.
Stuart Turley [00:48:58] Oh, man. I can’t wait to pick on you. So with that, Tammy, people can find you on LinkedIn and the Nemeth report.com. What have you got coming around the corner this week?
Tammy Nemeth [00:49:14] This week I have nothing because I’m just getting ready to go on a short break leaving on Sunday or something. So.
Stuart Turley [00:49:23] Okay. Need more coffee? Hey, Patrick. Yeah. We love Patrick. What else you got, David?
David Blackmon [00:49:32] Well, I’m so obsessed with this assassination attempt right now. I’m not sure how much energy writing I’m gonna get done this week.
Stuart Turley [00:49:39] Why don’t you and I, schedule one for later this afternoon?
David Blackmon [00:49:44] Yeah, let’s do that.
Stuart Turley [00:49:45] Let’s, do one where it’s no holds barred and have some fun. I that.
David Blackmon [00:49:50] Let’s do it.
Stuart Turley [00:49:51] Let’s. All right. Thanks, everybody. We appreciate.
Tammy Nemeth [00:49:54] Thanks, everyone.
Stuart Turley [00:49:55] Thank you for listening to the Energy Realities podcast. We’ll see you guys next time.
Tammy Nemeth [00:50:00] Thank you. Bye.
David Blackmon [00:50:02] Hey, Stu, don’t leave the stream.
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