The Energy Realities Podcast Team is Live Monday Morning at 8:00 Central U.S. We have Irina Slav, Tammy Nemeth, David Blackmon, and Stu Turley covering the world's energy markets, and today we are talking about the "Trump Effect." This is an unbelievable first week of a new president of the United States, and the sweeping actions taken in the United States can be felt around the world. - But what does that mean to energy, oil, gas, nuclear and the rest of the global markets? Tune in and ask the team questions.
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Highlights of the Podcast
00:10 - Introduction
00:49 - Trump's Immediate Energy Policy Changes
01:45 - The Political and Media Landscape
06:22 - The European Reaction
11:42 - The Trump Effect in Energy Markets
15:28 - The Resistance to Trump's Energy Agenda
25:07 - European Energy Policy in Crisis
30:56 - Electric Special Forces jeep ‘will sneak behind enemy lines undetected’
33:04 - Mark Carney scoops more caucus endorsements, including Steven Guilbeault
35:09 - Ed Miliband slammed for approving solar farm built by major donor
37:37 - Venture Global IPO Signals A Return To Normal Order For LNG Exports.
39:53 - Trump Moves To Reverse Biden on Energy With a Special Focus on Wind
42:09 - Britain boosts electricity exports to France because of high winds
43:39 - Renewable giants shrug off Trump's anti-wind policies: ‘Electrification is absolutely unstoppable’
48:06 - Romanian minister warns of Green Deal’s negative impact on energy sector
53:21 - Africa's Energy Future and Globalism
58:53 - Trump’s Media Battles and Direct Communication Strategy
1:00:07 - Closing Remarks
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
The Trump Effect
David Blackmon [00:00:00] There we go.
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:10] Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to the Energy Realities podcast, where our international panel reflects on the energy realities of the week. So with us this week to talk about, don't turn to the Trump effect, we have the spinner of absurdities, Mr. David Blackmon. Then we have the very witty Irina Slav, and we have the irrepressible Stu Turley and then myself, Tammy Nemeth. So how are you all doing today?
David Blackmon [00:00:42] It's just wonderful.
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:45] So much winning. So much to talk about.
David Blackmon [00:00:47] So much.
Tammy Nemeth [00:00:49] Well, you know, this this has been such a tectonic week of events. You know, it's hard to believe it's only been a week since he's sworn in. I mean, this it's unreal what's going on not just in America, but in the energy space. And we've got Trump making all kinds of executive orders that are impacting American energy. It'll have knock on effects everywhere else in the world, which we haven't quite seen yet. At the same time as all these executive orders are being signed with the really big pens like pulling America out of the Paris Agreement. Again, that was a big one. We've had European leaders at the World Economic Forum saying they're not changing the thing. They're going to double down on the energy transition. You know, nothing like making your citizens poorer and de industrializing your economies for growth. So, David, what's your take on all of these changes or that we've seen this week?
David Blackmon [00:01:45] Well, so we've had four years of a sock puppet presidency, which with the Oval Office was occupied by an elderly gentleman with advanced dementia who didn't know what he was doing or where he was most days. And the effect of that has been a complete lack of leadership from the United States on the international stage. And so, you know, even with Trump coming in more aggressively than he did in his first term when he was hamstrung by the hoax, the Russia hoax mounted by the CIA and the FBI, it's the contrast that's now even more startling than the reality, because we've had this four year vacuum of leadership from the presidency of the United States. And I think that that combined with the utter collapse of the legacy news media in the United States, which no longer has any credibility with the public and very little audience anymore, has resulted in probably what's going to be the most powerful presidency in American history. And the danger for Trump and Republicans is you end up maybe overreaching in over correcting for the four years of the Biden insanity and where the energy space is concerned. You know, he in just two executive orders, really the first day in office, he reversed essentially everything Biden had done related to energy in two different executive orders. And and that includes the big offshore set aside that Biden did on January 6th, 625 million acres. That will be litigated, of course. But, you know, assuming the government takes the case to the Supreme Court, Trump will win on that question and he's going to win in pretty much all of these lawsuits that the left wing environmental groups are going to fire. And I just conclude by saying that the people at the WEF last week found out the hard way that the world has changed completely 180 degrees where their world is concerned related to the US energy and climate policy plans. There's not going to be any more U.S. cooperation with their energy transition agenda. Now a lot of what Biden did is set in stone pretty much through the subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act. But even those Trump is going to have a lot of authority to redirect much of that money now. And about half $1 trillion was unallocated at the end of the Biden administration. So it's a lot of money to redirect. And, you know, it's it's a real shock to the system. I know, for for Klaus Schwab and Bertha, Brenda and all those folks at the World Economic Forum who have gone along thinking the United States was going to lead the way in this energy transition and meeting these Paris Paris goals that really accomplished nothing related to the climate except for the reallocation of trillions of dollars from lower classes to the wealthy class. And yeah, I mean, the shaking out of all of this over the next few months is going to be a real sight to behold and is going to give all of us a lot of fodder to write and talk about
Tammy Nemeth [00:05:29] For sure. Related to that, Irina, I mean, I watched a bunch of the the World Economic Forum sessions and I got a real sense that there was even last year they were talking about the bifurcation in the global order. So you have. Like America and Europe and and countries on one side, the Old West or whatever. And then you had the BRICs countries on the other side. But I sense that there was a bifurcation within West this year of the different companies. So you had the businesses who were looking at what Trump is proposing and thinking, Wow, we're going to make a lot of money if we go to the United States. And then there was other companies, especially the financial services companies, who were still committed to whatever the European project was for the energy transition. What was what was your take about what was happening in the United States and how the Europeans were reacting to it?
Irina Slav [00:06:22] Well, as you already mentioned, the Europeans for now, you know, doubling down and their latest, you know, they're preparing to present this green industrial deal or clean industrial act or something in the next month. Yeah. And the latest idea is mandating low carbon products, for example, in public procurement tenders, which is a genius idea, especially in the context of the Trump presidency with Trump. Europe is even worse. It stands even even worse in terms of competitiveness. And what do they do? They completely you know, they go all in on the industrializing Europe, on stopping consumer demand and making life unaffordable for absolutely everyone, with very few exceptions. And that's their idea of improving competitiveness by mandating that we buy low carbon products. I think they're in the denial stage. They have been in the denial stage for years now, but now it's it's it's got a lot worse because of Trump. After all, let's be fair. They can just say, well, we didn't really mean that whole thing, which is there will be laughed out of the building. They can do this or they will keep pretending. But the businesses, the energy utilities, the power utilities are already sensing which way the wind is blowing and massive next Tuesday. And they're actually happy about Trump because Trump is going to be good for the power utilities. Yeah, the other companies with all this additional regulation coming, but I think we should give them a few months. And see if they're beyond hope and salvation. I still have my doubts on this. I think they might see the light of reason yet. And here's Denmark. I mean, it's hysterical what's happening with Denmark. It's not negatively hysterical. It's actually quite sad because I really like Denmark. I really like that culture. I admire that architecture and all that. But really, they thought they could have the U.S. to take that back militarily against where the Phantom all real threats. And they would never ask for anything in return. Well, who's Trump asking for? Who's not asking? He's demanding Greenland. They are in a state of shock because they didn't expect it. That's pretty much the same in the energy space, with perhaps a little less surprise because they knew Trump was not going to embrace wind and solar and EVs
Tammy Nemeth [00:09:35] It's interesting to see the what's happened to the stocks of wind and solar companies over the past week. They've just been doing a nosedive, especially. Which one is it? The the Norwegian one that was going to do the offshore. The East Coast.
Irina Slav [00:09:53] Or their
Tammy Nemeth [00:09:56] Sorry David. Another hit on Denmark for Denmark. But, you know, I think with respect to Greenland, it there's there's all the the rare earths and whatnot that are there are a lot of mining potential. And my understanding there was that there was a significant concern about China's inroads there and the potential for them setting up a base and doing a port and doing the infrastructure thing with the Belt and Road, just like they did in Africa, which received a lot of resistance from Denmark and the Europeans and whatnot. But that I think that threat was there. And that is factored into maybe part of Trump's thinking about Greenland.
Irina Slav [00:10:43] Part of the thing is that Greenland is basically autonomous, or so they say, and so says Denmark. So really, the only people who should be deciding what happens to Greenland. The premium in Greenland is, you know, 57,000 of them, which is what the premier said. You know.
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:05] I mean, if they do a referendum and they want to go in, do a referendum and want to go, then that should be there.
Irina Slav [00:11:11] Now that they've already said they don't want to be part of the United States.
David Blackmon [00:11:16] Right?
Irina Slav [00:11:17] Well, I'm not opposed to greater cooperation with the United States. Right. Which is a very civilized, you know, stance, I believe.
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:27] Exactly.
Irina Slav [00:11:28] But we'll see how it goes.
Tammy Nemeth [00:11:30] We'll Stu with all of these things that have happened this past week. What do you see for the Trump effect in in in the American energy space?
Stuart Turley [00:11:42] That is a wide open question. And I think that we're about to see some huge things. First on Greenland, Greenland. There is a lot of military action going on with China and Russia up there. And Trump has already gotten approval to expand our military base up there. So he's already got what he really wanted, and that is a bigger military presence up there. But as far as the Wartime Powers Act, President Trump is making coal great again. And one of the things that this is bringing up is a gigantic issue around the world, is that we're now realizing that all of a sudden. Good morning, Patrick.
David Blackmon [00:12:30] Good morning.
Stuart Turley [00:12:31] That baseline energy or baseline power for the grid has been overlooked, abused and was pretty much treated like a stepchild. And now President Trump is enacting the the Wartime Powers Act to lengthen coal plants and not shut them down as much. And we're seeing that reverberate around the rest of the world. If countries don't have low cost power, I think you've heard me say this before, regimes change. And it is going to be a wake up call for everybody to realize that baseline power. Now, President Trump also said the other day that I thought was very good, The technology in China does not stop coal plant fumes from coming over to California within four days. It's not on. So the two coal plants a week that they're putting up, why should the United States shut down our coal plants? And we again, the United States over. Let me refresh everybody's memory. We've dropped our CO2 output by 20% over the last four years by putting in natural gas plants. And so a side benefit is we are going to see a resurgence around the world for natural gas power plants. In fact, Bill Gates at Davos said, well, we're going to need a lot of natural gas power plants in order to get a bill. Gates said that. And then you had Larry Fink say, I think we're going to need a lot of natural gas power plants. So the Trump effect is bleeding over to Bill Gates and
David Blackmon [00:14:26] Jamie Dimon.
Stuart Turley [00:14:27] And Jamie Dimon. And it is absolutely going to be anyone that is building natural gas power plants. That's who you want to invest in. Now, the Wartime Powers Act also allows President Trump to build pipelines. Here's where it gets real weird in the United States, and that is New York. You can't build a pipeline in New York. And Kathy Hochul, who has the brain power of a potato but a potato bud has more brain power than Kathy Hochul. Governor, uncle is running the economy in New York, and she's going to even stop this. Even putting in pipelines to save money and lower energy costs in New York won't happen.
Tammy Nemeth [00:15:18] Right. I mean, that it's interesting that there's all this potential resistance to using the emergencies
Stuart Turley [00:15:28] I have. I have Kathy Hochul. I have a video of Kathy Hochul response. Hang on. Let me see if I can pull it up. This is Kathy Hochul responding to this.
Stuart Turley [00:15:50] Thats Kathy Hochul. Sorry.
Tammy Nemeth [00:15:54] Okay. I I'm glad that you mentioned Larry Fink and Bill Gates from the World Economic Forum events because, you know, they were talking about, as you say, using natural gas for having stable, reliable energy. And that's affordable for all the data centers they want to build all over the place. And it's true that in some of the other panels that we're talking about, the next generation of chips and systems won't require as much energy, but it still requires energy that's stable and affordable. And, you know, wind and solar batteries just don't cut it. So they talked about natural gas and then they talked about what what Trump said at his speech, which was hilarious to the World Economic Forum, was, okay, you can have natural gas as your as your power for the air data centers, but you should have a coal backup because coal is reliable. And even if something were to happen like a bomb being dropped on it or whatever, you'd still have. Cool, he said. I thought that was it was really funny and I wish I could have seen what the reaction in the room was because, you know, they had this screen. And then at the very end, when they showed the audience lukewarm leap clapping, a bunch of people weren't clapping. They were just sitting there very sour. It makes you wonder just what what Europe thinks is going to happen. Do they believe that New York and all these other groups, like the ones that Bloomberg has, Bloomberg is backing? And then there's a group of governors who have said they are going to still implement the Paris Agreement. And that included the governor of North Carolina, which I thought was interesting, given that Trump was there talking about why is it taking so long to to recover these people?
David Blackmon [00:17:46] He's a Democrat, still the governor of
Tammy Nemeth [00:17:48] Yeah, I know. And he the new guy.
David Blackmon [00:17:52] He has.
Tammy Nemeth [00:17:53] Elected. Yeah. But my understanding is that as part of their the climate thing in North Carolina is that anybody who was living along the rivers, they're going to buy them out and leave it just run to nature like rewilding the rivers. Anyway, that's a bit of a of a side issue, but that.
Irina Slav [00:18:15] Is the people.
Tammy Nemeth [00:18:19] Just going to buy them out and say, go find somewhere else to live.
Irina Slav [00:18:22] And what's sad.
Stuart Turley [00:18:23] Is a gigantic that is a gigantic land grab. Thats going on. And there is a lot of things on here that will get your YouTube channel shut down. If we keep going down this.
Tammy Nemeth [00:18:37] Okay, we will go down that rabbit hole but.
Stuart Turley [00:18:39] I'm just letting you know, I have talked to a lot of folks about this and there's a lot of lithium in there and there are hills. So, yeah, it is a land grant
Irina Slav [00:18:54] EVs are no longer on the agenda.
Stuart Turley [00:18:57] Well, it's or another issue. And it's the same thing with the fires in in L.A. What did L.A. agree to become? And now they're smart.
Tammy Nemeth [00:19:14] Yeah. January 6th, their fifth, they passed some new legislation that it's no longer for single family homes. So all those single family houses there, you'll have to build back with like a fourplex or any apartments
Stuart Turley [00:19:30] and. And Governor Newsome was dancing like this because he'd already been talking to folks about the new smart City by the UN and the global elites. Same group that Lahaina did, the same group in South America. Every smart city gets a natural disaster. Coincidence or cause?
Irina Slav [00:19:56] Well,.
Tammy Nemeth [00:19:56] I think it's a coincidence.
Irina Slav [00:19:57] People setting fire in L.A..
Stuart Turley [00:20:00] You know, there was a geofence of 86 arsons, was eight years old, and they had U.N. credit cards and debit cards, most of them.
Tammy Nemeth [00:20:18] Okay. So, David, to to talk about the resistance to what Trump is doing, what do you think? Do you think they're going to try the same stuff they did before? Or do you think they have some new tricks?
David Blackmon [00:20:32] Well, it's not really new tricks. It's going to be a greater emphasis on lawfare, because what you have to realize about the resistance is that all through the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party doesn't hold any lever of powers in Washington right now. And the media that has been their propaganda arm for the last half century and has had such a pernicious influence on public policy as a result. Billions and billions of dollars worth of free, free airtime for the Democratic Party through the mainstream media has collapsed. I mean, they don't have an audience and CNN and MSNBC almost have no audience that it measures in the few hundreds of thousands of viewers now. The TV, the three network television nightly newscast that in the from the 60s through the 80s, each of them would average 15 to 20 viewer. Million viewers every night do not average that much combined now. Their audiences collapse. The circulation for The Washington Post, New York Times, their subscriber base has collapsed. And what this has the impact of is freeing up President Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, who just made a fool of Margaret Brennan on CBS Morning show yesterday. It frees them up to act very aggressively without having to worry about having a bad day in the media, because the media now is what we're doing. The media with the audience now is in podcasts and social media and other forms of digital TV. Substack Yes, it's substack We're all for on Substack for a very good reason because that's where the audience is. And that audience, by the way, is largely conservative, or at least not partizan only Democrat. And so this is all playing a role in freeing up Trump to act this aggressively without fear of it. I mean, his approval rating is going up on a daily basis, not down, because of everything he's doing. He's almost as popular as Ronald Reagan was at the beginning of Reagan's second term in office after he won a 49 state landslide. So it's this is a real confluence of high impact events. And we talked about it on this podcast in October, how important Trump's interview with Joe Rogan was in the campaign to deciding the presidential election. Because Joe Rogan has 25 million viewers for his low rated podcast. So this is all a big confluence of events, including the collapse of the mainstream media that is enabling Trump to act very aggressively. It's cowing the Democrats, and there are only two left now in their in their what used to be a big, big quiver of arrows that could shoot is lawfare. And so every one of these Trump orders is going to be challenged in the courts. There's going to be, you know, liberal law firms leading all these lawsuit efforts. And and so what you're going to see happen with all those is the Justice Department moving very aggressively to force these cases up to the Supreme Court, where Trump has A63 majority majority, could grow over the next four years. So it's a really difficult situation for the Democrats. And the danger for Trump, in my view, is overreaching and overplaying his hand and engendering a backlash from conservative Republicans. You know, the ultra conservative my principles, Republicans in opposition to some of the things he's doing. And, you know, that could happen because he's he's you know, he's just kind of freed from all these shackles that he faced in the first term. And it's could be overly liberating to, I'm afraid.
Tammy Nemeth [00:24:50] So I really. What do you think? I mean that the European reaction to Trump has been kind of mixed between sort of standing saying they're going to stand firm but then on the other hand, kind of sucking up so well, like I mean, Starmer, which.
Irina Slav [00:25:07] Is still so incompetent. They're so bad. I mean, Kayak has the chief of European diplomacy is talking about positioning Russia. What? Yes, She she's talking that Russia may still lose the war in the Ukraine and that would be good because then they could break Russia into pieces. This is the chief of the European Union diplomacy people. And they're talking about sending European military people to Greenland while saying that they will buy more LNG from the United States. But I was wondering when I was listening to all of you, how would they square this commitment? Because they will commit to buying more LNG from the US with their green targets. You can have more LNG, you can have more gas and push people to pay more for electricity because it's supposed to be green, which it isn't because it's still generated from gas. Our leaders in Europe are in such a big mess of their own making. I have no idea how they will survive that.
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:25] That's a really good point.
Irina Slav [00:26:26] At dawn, by the way.
Tammy Nemeth [00:26:28] Because it it struck me and we had a little discussion in the email about this idea of energy segregation so that the common people will get stuck with the wind and solar to meet whatever climate targets they they've decided on. But then the industries they deem as absolutely necessary, such as the air data centers, in order to control everything that people are doing or whatever to monitor to make sure like that the one guy from Greg Jackson from Octopus Energy was talking about, if we could just get air properly on the grid, it could take care of all of the different management and make it more efficient and, you know, tweak this, tweak that and everything will be great and it'll all be running. But we need to have the dedicated energy for those.
Tammy Nemeth [00:27:16] The data centers. Right. So so you'll have the reliable, affordable natural gas for the essential data centers that will then tell the rest of us that we have to not use our computers so much or, you know, don't use the washing machine, wash my hand, you know, all of this kind of stuff.
Irina Slav [00:27:35] So that's a goal, isn't it?
Tammy Nemeth [00:27:37] It is.
Irina Slav [00:27:38] You're trying to get people to use more energy as long as it comes from you as a provider. But then because of this hypothetical, for now, segregation, you have to tell them to not use as much energy at certain times during the day. These people are stupid
Tammy Nemeth [00:28:02] Exactly. Because they have these national targets of the emissions. Right. And so if they then put all the natural gas for for the air data centers, that that's going to produce emissions. So what the rest of us have to to scale back in order to ensure that we the nation is still meeting its its national determined contributions. I mean, I.
Irina Slav [00:28:27] it's not going to happen because too many people will be affected by such developments and they won't stand for it because there are too many of us. You know, if you just affecting one group, say, the poorest. But the group of the poor, not just the poorest in the group of the poor, is is growing. That's a lot of people who these other people would need to convince that it's all for their own good. This will be really tough.
Tammy Nemeth [00:28:59] Yeah. Yeah. It's all for our own good. And the AI will tell you. Yeah, because you know that's neutral. It's not. It's not a committee. It's an algorithm.
Stuart Turley [00:29:11] I think.
David Blackmon [00:29:11] Don't worry. It's for your own good. Was the line that Big Brother used in the 1984 novel Ride Sharing during the People. It's all for their own good.
Tammy Nemeth [00:29:21] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:29:22] Yeah. Seems like this. I don't know. It's not the pandemic. They. Right. How many other pandemics they tried to to stop. As in scare pandemics. It's not working. It is. People don't care about that anymore.
Tammy Nemeth [00:29:37] Stu, what do you think?
Stuart Turley [00:29:40] I think we're going to see microgrids come in to play in a very huge way, and those that can afford them will be better off. Those who cannot afford them will be relegated to left over high cost power. And if you can afford your own microgrid, you're going to have low cost energy. So it's going to further the divide between the poor and the rich.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:12] Yeah, very cool. What happened in Europe, for sure.
David Blackmon [00:30:16] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:18] Well, folks, should we go to the the news headlines?
Irina Slav [00:30:22] Let's.
Stuart Turley [00:30:27] I love that one.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:35] I didn't realize. Okay, so.
Stuart Turley [00:30:38] They're really strict . Yeah. It's not going to work in the cold, so let's push it down the hill.
Tammy Nemeth [00:30:47] I know. Okay, so our first headline, which just cracked me up yesterday. I think it's in the Daily Telegraph in the UK. So the UK Special Forces have commissioned an electric jeep that instead of they have the the historic Land Rover that they use for their missions or whatever, it's really robust and reliable and everything else. But they've commissioned an electric Special Forces jeep. And I quote this is from the headline that will sneak behind enemy lines undetected because it's quiet. It has it's a hybrid. So it's got four massive batteries and quickly will be able to run 4000km without need of a refill. I call BS on that. Yeah. So it's like, can you imagine the special forces with their gear? They have this really heavy vehicle because it's got four batteries on it.
David Blackmon [00:31:48] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:31:50] Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what kind of testing they've done. Is this something that they've been required to do? Probably as part of the the energy transition. But yeah, I mean, that was just hilarious. Just a hilarious. Like what? It's like the electric tanks that the former Naito had was talking about that. That's what they were researching was electric tanks. Which is like.
David Blackmon [00:32:17] I think Patrick Devine first comment on this. Nails it. We're only going to put in wars during the war.
Irina Slav [00:32:24] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:32:25] Yeah. And make sure it doesn't overheat. Don't want it too hot. You know, spring and . But. But not summer. Exactly how much does that jeep weigh for massive batteries in addition to whatever other equipment they would put on that jeep? So
Stuart Turley [00:32:42] Going Downhill.
Irina Slav [00:32:44] I mean, people armies don't just detect vehicles by sound, you know, they.
David Blackmon [00:32:52] Just do the whole thing.
Tammy Nemeth [00:32:56] Sneak behind enemy lines undetected. My gosh. Like, you can't make it up. And then another story I have is from Canada's leadership race for the Liberal Party, which is currently the governing party. They they're governing with the NDP, but the Liberal Party, Trudeau resigned and they're trying to find a new leader. And Mark Carney, of course, is throwing his hat in the ring. And so a bunch of MPs have thrown their support behind him, including Canada's eco radical Steven Guilbeault. And Stephen Kebo has been the architect of the carbon tax. And all of these different kinds of policies that Canada's brought in. And now even Steven Guilbeault is saying, well, you know, the carbon tax has become quite unpopular. So I think we're just going to have to find a replacement, meaning we need to have it in such a ways. People don't see that it's a carbon tax, but it'll still everyone will still be paying. You just won't see it. And and so he's thrown his support behind Mark Carney because he said he knows that Carney will continue with the climate direction that the current Liberal Party has done. And I thought, well, of course he will, because he's been advising the Liberal Party on their economic policy since Covid, since 2020. So yeah, I mean, all this stuff that's been happening in Canada, you could argue you could throw that at the feet of Mark Carney because technically he's been their their advisor, their economic advisor. So our economy has you know, in 2015, we were at parity almost with the United States. Now the United States productivity is about 40% higher than it is in Canada. I mean, it's it's terrible. But anyway, I thought that was hilarious that Stephen Kebo is supporting Mark Carney. And for people that should be. You know, the fact that Kebo is supporting Carney should tell you everything.
David Blackmon [00:34:55] Yes.
Tammy Nemeth [00:34:56] So it'd be the same old, same old.
Irina Slav [00:34:57] Tell them everything. Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:35:00] Hopefully.
Tammy Nemeth [00:35:04] And then I had one last one. And this is so in the U.K., Ed Miliband is the minister responsible for environment and climate change. And the Labor Party received 5 million pounds in donations from Dale Vince, who is also one of the original funders of Just Stop. Oil and extinction Rebellion, I think. Maybe. And he owns a company called Eco Tricity, which is where they do vehicle charging and they do solar array projects and stuff like that. And so in Lincolnshire, which has some of the most fertile land in all of England, they are just going to paper them with solar projects. The councils have come out against it. And there were two projects that were that were put forward. The council said no. And Ed Miliband came in and said, no, we're going forward and therefore delve into this company. So it pays to be giving donations to the Labor Party. If you're a business or whatever, because they will make rulings in your favor.
Irina Slav [00:36:12] And later, the conflict of interests.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:16] I know, I know.
Irina Slav [00:36:18] It's corruption is the word.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:20] Absolutely. It's like that that peer that was giving all kinds of cash for Keir Starmer and some of the other cabinet members to buy clothes, to get makeovers, to do all these different kinds of stuff and all that. And he's like, yeah, you got me. Yeah, well, it kind of needed it and that was it. And so I don't know what the rules are in the UK with respect to conflict of interest, but clearly this is a big.
David Blackmon [00:36:50] particularly in.
Tammy Nemeth [00:36:53] So anyway, that's my three rants for today.
David Blackmon [00:36:56] That's gracious.
Stuart Turley [00:36:57] And your Nemeth report substack
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:02] Yes. Please check out the Report Nemeth dot substack.com. I'm posting little bits about what happened at the World Economic Forum this past week. It related to energy and whatnot, so please check it out.
Irina Slav [00:37:15] Brave woman Tammy.
David Blackmon [00:37:16] Yes.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:16] Thanks
Irina Slav [00:37:20] for doing this. Yourself watching World Economic Forum.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:23] I know it's pure torture, but I'm doing it for all of you.
David Blackmon [00:37:28] It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
Tammy Nemeth [00:37:31] Exactly.
David Blackmon [00:37:32] Yes. Okay. So venture global. This is me. Venture Global IPO signals a return to normal order for LNG exports. Venture Global is a big LNG export company has five different terminals under construction in various different stages in Louisiana right now. If it had an IPO, it raised $1.75 billion in capital, the share price of $25 per share on Thursday and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. And it just is. I just wrote that story because it's just such an indicator of where we're going now in the Trump administration. It came three days after the IPO came, three days after Trump reversed Biden's idiotic pause on LNG permitting. That lasted for a year, which was stupid to begin with and worthless, and produced a report that everybody, you know, glanced at for about five minutes and threw in the trash can. And that was the whole thing.
Stuart Turley [00:38:37] May I say this on this, David? Just say this. Yeah. Speaker Johnson admitted on TV last week that when he was talking to President Biden, President Biden did not even was not aware that he signed that ban.
David Blackmon [00:38:55] He didn't even know he'd signed the order. I mean, it's just such of the whole four years was just a 48 month long series of hoaxes. That's what it was. It was a hoax presidency. The permitting clause was just one of hundreds of hoaxes that they ran scams. And, you know, the same kind of crony capitalism dominated their energy policy that Tammy was describing happening in the UK and Canada. And that's all over in the United States. And yeah, those those subsidies and incentives from the IRA are still in effect. But trust me, the next four years, a lot of that is going to go away to. So that's the first story. And good luck to venture global. Hopefully they'll get all those terminals open and they can start expanding the industry again. The second one is Trump moves to reverse Biden on energy with a special focus on wind again. On the first day in office, Trump signed an executive order, pausing all permitting and construction on the various half a dozen or so big offshore wind projects in federal waters in the northeast Atlantic Coast, pending a review by the regulatory agencies to assess impacts on marine mammals, birds and the marine fisheries industries. I've written half a dozen stories advocating for that over the last year in the order looked a lot like a suggestion that I'm in early December in a story suggesting an order pausing wind industry. So I'm glad they did it. I'm not taking credit for it because I'm not that arrogant, but I'm sure glad that they did this. The wind industry, the offshore wind industry needs to die. It really does need to die. It's worthless. It doesn't provide energy that that is scalable in any real way and it increases. You've just created rapid inflation of rate payer for home electricity. All across the Atlantic, the northern Atlantic states in the United States. And it needs to stop. And so I'm glad this is a first step that in a series of steps the Trump presidency is going to take to to end that fiasco for good. And I wish them the best of luck. So that's it for me.
Stuart Turley [00:41:33] And your substack.
David Blackmon [00:41:36] Yeah. So, yes, I'm on substack. Energy transition absurdities I post most days. Didn't didn't yesterday because I was involved in granddaughters volleyball tournaments over in Dallas and but I don't take many days off and there's a lot of good content not just from me but you know, some other folks who who allow me to repost their stuff.
Stuart Turley [00:42:05] There we go.
Tammy Nemeth [00:42:06] Okay, Irina.
Irina Slav [00:42:08] Great story from Britain which boosted the electricity exports to France because of high winds. It was producing so much electricity from its wind turbines that it had to start exporting to France, which is a wonderful thing. And France had to, you know, dial down its nuclear generation because there was so much power coming in from Britain. Several days later, wind is generating less than 1% of you can actually see less than a week. I read this today in The Telegraph.
Tammy Nemeth [00:42:45] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:42:47] And this is why, as David said, wind must die and it's already dying. Really? And not only was Britain boosting electricity exports, but it was still producing more than there was demand for. So several and several wind installation operators were asked to turn over to the vines for which they were going to get paid by the government. Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:43:17] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:43:21] Yeah, yeah. And like going from more than I don't know how many percent of total generation to less than one in just two days. It's a rollercoaster. It's exciting. And the other story is renewable giants shrug off Trump's policies. Electrification is absolutely unstoppable. Now, first of all, we have two senior executives, one from Siemens Energy, and the other one from their role up. And they're talking as if, you know, Edison invented the light bulb the other week. And but just beginning said one of them are very serious. They continue to believe that the world is going to be electrified, completely electrified. And we're going to just using oil and gas. The other thing, however, they are eager to cash in on that no wind and solar power generation business, which is why I'm sure they're both and they're not alone. Huge brands of Trump became a big hit because Trump wants more energy. Yeah, he wants more oil and gas energy. And they have the technology. The expertise to provide is one of them. The Siemens Energy guy was boasting about people paying for reservations of gas turbines. We haven't seen this in a very long time, he says.
Irina Slav [00:45:02] For them, the Trump presidency is a boon, especially for Simmons. The message begins. Simmons Gomez up yet another quarterly loss because of its wind power business. Right. And some of it, most of its rally was offset by its other business, which has nothing to do with wind. It has to do with grid technology and gas generation.
Tammy Nemeth [00:45:27] Yeah.
David Blackmon [00:45:28] Yeah
Irina Slav [00:45:29] Of course they will shrug off Trump's anti-wind policies in a in a year they will have forgotten they were trying to be very wind oriented companies.
Tammy Nemeth [00:45:44] I find the language there really interesting because it's it's like a mockingbird effect. Electrification is unstoppable. Ed Miliband said the same thing. Scottish Power said the same thing. Then you have these other renewable companies saying the same thing. It's like they they have this little grab bag of vocabulary and then one person says it and then they all echo the same, say, terminology for reinforcement or something.
Irina Slav [00:46:11] I think nothing is electrified right now and.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:14] Right.
David Blackmon [00:46:17] Yeah. And we should we should never forget that denial is always the first stage in the seven stages of grief. Yeah, it's still there in the first stage right now.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:28] Let's say second stage.
David Blackmon [00:46:30] Were high or low.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:31] Anger.
Irina Slav [00:46:38] The problem is I don't think they will voluntarily move on to the final stage, which is acceptance.
David Blackmon [00:46:45] No.
Tammy Nemeth [00:46:45] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:46:46] They will have flag there.
David Blackmon [00:46:50] Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:46:52] Yes.
Stuart Turley [00:46:53] And not. Do not miss Irina's live on her substack. It is a treat.
David Blackmon [00:47:00] It's wonderful.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:02] Yeah. I love her. Her sense of humor and sarcasm. It's so refreshing.
Irina Slav [00:47:07] And so deserved.
David Blackmon [00:47:10] So deserving.
Irina Slav [00:47:13] They deserve it. They don't deserve anything else but mockery, really, at this point.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:20] And Irina your substack.
Irina Slav [00:47:23] Irina Slav on energy. My substack
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:28] Yes. Subscribe to I for your weekly dose of entertainment.
Irina Slav [00:47:35] Yeah, I'm trying to start doing it daily now with shorter, shorter stories.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:41] Good luck. That should be great.
Irina Slav [00:47:43] Thanks.
Tammy Nemeth [00:47:45] Okay, Stu. We've got some fabulous stories here.
Stuart Turley [00:47:49] I'll tell you what we've already covered Make coal great again. I really got tickled at Trump on that. And you said that, you know, instead of MAGA, it's Mecca. I guess. I'm not sure. But the article of the year of the article from the room Romanian minister came in on my feed inspired by President Donald Trump. And I really do not want to butcher his name and I apologize. Bird birdwatcher. I think in Romania.
Irina Slav [00:48:21] I don't know how it's written. Let me see. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:48:29] Revealed a shift in Romania's energy strategy moving the Green New Deal to the Smart Deal? He criticized the EU's environmental policies, arguing while they may be well-intentioned, they risk making European economies victims of bird cratic bureaucratic action and decisions divorced from economic realities. I think he must watch our show. I think that's why I got out of bed. Anyway, he he is really exemplifying what leaders are now understanding. Gen Chancellor Schwartz is now understanding. He is facing a run off from someone that actually wants the Nord Stream pipeline rebuilt. Go figure this out. I did not have that on my bingo card. But regimes change when low cost energy is not around. And this is from Patrick. Future Podcast. Trump made a comment over the weekend criticizing African leaders for failed leadership. With all the natural resources through the continent, African countries should be massively prosperous. I agree with Patrick 300% in NJ and Chuck is the head of the African Energy Chamber and he is in a 300% agreement. With that statement, Patrick And we can try to get him on. He's a little tough to get on. But Africa first needs to be something that is spread around the world, every country first. Take care of your country first and then worry about trade with other countries because China is going to roll over you. The U.S. is going to roll over you. You've got to do what Nelly's doing in South America. So sorry about that.
Tammy Nemeth [00:50:29] That's all right. I mean, I think of Jasper and how there's this whole movement to deprive Africa from using hydrocarbons where it's there's all this money pouring in to put solar and wind on these poor communities, which really don't do much to help the people out of poverty get fresh running water. To have the the mechanization for menial tasks that, you know, he has these little videos of his family out there separating wheat by hand. It's insane and and not and how much it costs to get a little milling machine. But the milling machine requires energy and they don't have enough energy, electricity to run the little milling machine. So I think you're right, Stu, that the poor African countries are being sort of exploited and manipulated by, I would say, these global institutions led by the European Union, pushing the this the wind and solar battery agenda rather than doing what's best for those people, which is the.
Irina Slav [00:51:34] Use of exploiting Africa since colonial times for.
Tammy Nemeth [00:51:37] Resources, rebel.
Irina Slav [00:51:39] Belgians.
Stuart Turley [00:51:41] In the world.
Irina Slav [00:51:42] Look at what they do with Africa. They're not interested in African countries having strong local leadership. This is why there are so few African countries with actual strong leadership that prioritizes the wellbeing of the nation. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what's particularly cynical about this push of wind and solar on on African countries is I strongly suspect it comes from the assumption it's a really horribly cynical assumption. They are not used to living in comfort anyway.
Tammy Nemeth [00:52:22] Yes, I've heard that argument. That's just. That's so insulting.
Irina Slav [00:52:26] Okay. I'm not as twisted as I've thought, but this is my this is my suspicions that this is what they think. It'll be easier to push wind and solar on them because they don't know about electricity 24 hour hours a day anyway.
David Blackmon [00:52:41] Yeah, they've never had it anyway, so. Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:52:45] And of course they're paying. Activists just told me they're paying people to be activists and protest the, for example, the E stuff.
David Blackmon [00:52:54] Gosh, it sounds like America.
Tammy Nemeth [00:52:57] Well, you know, I've read different studies. I read that talk about that where in the developing nations it would be a travesty for the world if they had access to as much energy on demand that we have. And so the solution is to to raise them up a little bit, to have a barely subsistence level, whatever. And we have to come down a lot in order to balance out.
Irina Slav [00:53:21] Well, that's how we become equal. That is smart. Why would it be a travesty? Because nature would suffer.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:27] Yes, it would be a travesty.
Irina Slav [00:53:29] Yes.
Tammy Nemeth [00:53:30] Yes, it would kill the planet, apparently.
David Blackmon [00:53:32] That's what the globalists view as equity. That's what that word mean.
Stuart Turley [00:53:36] It's like what the what the globalist or the elitists do not understand is that as in Jane, not the director of the African Energy Chamber of Fantastic Men has said, quit giving us subsidies. Quit overcharging us for money for wind, solar. Let us get low cost energy here, exploit our natural gas resources and make the products here in Africa and sell them. If you took this model and really helped Africans build products and then started trading with them when they built great high paying jobs in Africa, using African energy, you would have a better trading partner. Wait a minute. You'd make more money if you actually did this this way, and then all of a sudden the people would be here. And I.
Irina Slav [00:54:45] Mean, you're about people being happier. They do not have a long term vision.
Stuart Turley [00:54:54] Yeah.
Tammy Nemeth [00:54:54] Yeah. Well, and then there's the issue of corruption, which would have to be addressed.
Irina Slav [00:54:58] Yes, absolutely. But we have corruption in Eastern Europe.
Tammy Nemeth [00:55:02] Exactly. I'm thinking UK. What just happened is that now corruption? Yeah. They're worried about the corruption in Africa. Like how to.
Irina Slav [00:55:09] Solve that problem you can kind of mitigate is a bit.
Stuart Turley [00:55:13] You know, one of the things that I have discovered is my wife doesn't trust anything that I say, even after 38 years of marriage. And I think it's because that's the way she is. It's like if you're a cat trying to raise chickens, right? I got a video. And when you first look at this cat shaking the chicken, thinking that you're going to come out of this thing, it's the same thing when you do the same thing day in and day out, It's not going to change. That's the definition of insanity. And we've got to change how we address our political leaders around the world. Vote their raggedy carcasses out. Did I just say, I'm sorry about that? That's what this chicken I mean, is trying to do Some chicken.
David Blackmon [00:56:13] There we go.
Stuart Turley [00:56:14] Yes, I did it better at the end of AI this instead. These cats are incredible. That reminds me. A cat.
Tammy Nemeth [00:56:26] I like that.
Tammy Nemeth [00:56:29] Words.
Stuart Turley [00:56:34] Now. The Trump effect. We've only got two minutes. But with President Trump now unleashed and podcasts and X being the media, I'm censored all over the place and I can tell why I should be because I speak too much. But here's President Trump being President Trump.
Video Speaker Interviewer 1 [00:57:00] Writing for us, and we have a very high unemployment rate. Friends helped them with the recipe for.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:06] Well, maybe we have a better president than you do.
Speaker Interviewer 2 [00:57:09] Your research. Says that. There are four immigrants on the whole create.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:16] Come on, try getting it out. Try getting it. I'll get it. I mean, I don't know if you're going to put this on television, but you don't even know what you're talking about. Try getting it out. Go ahead.
Video Speaker Interviewer 3 [00:57:23] The question was, what did you want president to Lenski to do about present Vice President Biden and his son? Hunter?
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:30] Are you talking to me?
Video Speaker Interviewer 3 [00:57:32] Yeah, I was just a follow up of what I just asked.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:34] You can at least we have the president of Finland ask him a question.
Video Speaker Interviewer 3 [00:57:38] I have one for him. I just wanted to follow up on the one that I asked you, which.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:41] Did you hear me? Did you hear me? Yes. Ask him a question.
Video Speaker Interviewer 3 [00:57:44] I will. But.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:57:45] I'm giving you a long answer. Ask this gentleman a question. Don't be rude. Okay? Question. Yeah, go ahead. Sure. She's shocked that I picked her. Now she's like, in a state of shock.
Video Speaker Interviewer 4 [00:58:00] I'm not thinking.
[00:58:00] That's okay. I know you're not thinking. You never do.
Video Speaker Interviewer 4 [00:58:03] I'm sorry.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:58:03] Well, go ahead. Go ahead.
Video Speaker Interviewer 5 [00:58:07] Raymond Robert Mueller.
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:58:10] What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.
Video Speaker Interviewer 6 [00:58:19] Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus?
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:58:22] Because it comes from China. It's not racist at all. No, not at all. It comes from.
David Blackmon [00:58:27] The CIA.
Video Speaker Interviewer 7 [00:58:29] Overall, South Korea has done five times more tests than the U.S. per capita. Why is that?
Video Speaker Donald Trump [00:58:34] I don't think that's true. Who are you with? Yahoo News. And it's not true per capita. Do you want to respond to that? Do you?
Stuart Turley [00:58:41] Anyway, he responds back. He goes, No, that's why. And it turns out they tried to fact check him right there and he fact checked Yahoo! News. He goes, That's why you're Yahoo! News. Nobody watches you.
Tammy Nemeth [00:58:53] Well, you know, I watched one of his, but he was signing the executive orders and he was taking questions while he's doing it. And the one journalist I couldn't get over the disrespect, you know, when when it was Biden or Obama or whoever. He was always very respectful and yes, Mr. President, blah, blah, blah. And this guy was cutting Trump off and he was just being incredibly condescending. And it's like, this is the the hatred is so strong that they can't even check the attitude at the door and treat the the office with respect.
David Blackmon [00:59:29] And they're going to have to stop doing your nonprofessionals. That's what they're going to have to change their behavior. If they don't change that behavior, their platforms are just going to completely collapse. And I don't think they're capable of changing the behavior.
Irina Slav [00:59:45] I know they don't seem to see anything wrong with it, but.
David Blackmon [00:59:50] Right. Yep.
Tammy Nemeth [00:59:50] I guess I would like to see someone treat Ursula von der Linde like that and see what happens.
Irina Slav [00:59:54] Me too.
David Blackmon [00:59:55] Yeah,
Irina Slav [00:59:56] You've given
Tammy Nemeth [00:59:58] I mean, you can go to a scrum and question her. That would be great.
Irina Slav [01:00:04] I don't want to go to jail.
Tammy Nemeth [01:00:07] Thank you, everybody, for staying with us. Discussing the Trump effect. And we'll see you all next week.
Irina Slav [01:00:14] Thanks for the comments.
David Blackmon [01:00:15] Have a great weekend, everybody.
Irina Slav [01:00:17] Everyone
Tammy Nemeth [01:00:19] Bye
Stuart Turley [01:00:20] See you
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