Energy Tribes

Again, you have to think about both things here.

And everybody wants to talk about what the CO2 concentration is.

And that is one side of the equation.

The side of the equation that's often not talked about is we had a billion people on the planet in 1850.

We have 8 billion people on the planet today.

And so I do think that part of the challenge in this discussion is remembering that there are two sides to this equation.

Our power demand in the U.S. is growing again for the first time in 20 years.

So, you know, this is headline stuff again in the U.S. A lot of discussion about things like data centers and how much new power, you know, they're taking the growth of the Internet, high tech industries, reshoring American manufacturing, plugging in electric vehicles.

All this stuff is requiring the U.S. grid to grow again, which is really hard.

Because the scale at which it has to grow kind of boggles the mind.

I mean, the grid in the U.S. is 1,000 gigawatts, gigawatts, 1,000 gigawatts, actually now about 1,200 gigawatts altogether.

Any Back to the Future fans out there? Because everybody thinks they know what a gigawatt is,

which

isn't even a thing.

But that is how Marty McFly got Back to the Future, right?

Do you think anyone ever told Christopher Lloyd that he said gigawatts wrong in Back to the Future? They

probably didn't.

He was probably, you know, it sounds bad.

Jigga sounds more mad scientist.

I think that the script for Back to the Future, for listeners who may not know what we're talking about, in Back to the Future.

And I'm sorry if you don't.

The classic.

This is a cultural touch.

You need to go and watch it right now.

If you have not seen Back to the Future, stop listening to this podcast right now and go stream it on.