Alex Epstein interviews Joakim Book, an up-and-coming economic and environmental commentator.These days Book is writing articles challenging climate catastrophism and explaining the value of abundant energy use.But he used to be a climate activist who thought he was saving the planet from the evil of fossil fuels. Epstein and Book cover: - Book’s time as a climate activist. - Why Book and others never questioned the rightness of opposing fossil fuels. - How economic thinking changed Book’s persp...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 2 min
This week’s Power Hour features the wide-ranging Q&A from a recent speech Alex Epstein gave at Lafayette College--a speech that was supposed to be a debate with Michael Mann. Some of the many topics covered include: - Does the moral case for fossil fuels uncritically assume that progress is good? - Do people really choose fossil fuel energy? - Can the dominance of fossil fuels be explained by a lack of research into other sources of energy production? - Climate-related damages beyond climate...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 24 min
This week's Power Hour features a recent speech Alex Epstein gave at Lafayette College that was supposed to be a debate with Michael Mann. Learn why Mann pulled out of the debate and hear the latest version of the moral case for fossil fuels.
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 32 min
It’s common for us to hear that solar, wind are cheaper than coal or gas. Specifically we’ll hear that solar and wind are “bidding” at lower prices than goal or gas. All of this sounds very competitive, like they’re winning on the merits on a free market. And yet at the same time, something is clearly very wrong. Electricity costs tend to go up the more “cheaper” solar and wind you add. Intuitively we know that it’s wrong to not factor in reliability when you’re comparing prices. On this week’s ...
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 1 min
A couple months ago, a young researcher named Emily Harari reached out to me about my views about the scientific consensus on climate change. She raised some interesting questions I hadn’t commented publicly on, so I agreed to do the interview if we could share it with my listeners. This week’s Power Hour features that interview. Some of the topics we cover are: - The legitimate and illegitimate view of consensus - How to learn the actual state of consensus - The National Climate Assessment - Ho...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 17 min
On a special bonus episode of Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Patrick Moore, ecologist and cofounder of Greenpeace, on the realm causes of California’s wildfire disaster. Moore pins the blame squarely on “green” forest mismanagement. Topics covered include: - What are the top policy changes necessary to prevent dangerous, out of control wildfires (not the same as fires)? - How does private vs. government ownership of land affect the likelihood of dangerous fires? - What are the major drivers ...
Sep 16, 2020•1 hr 17 min
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Chuck DeVore, a Vice President at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former California state assemblyman on the California wildfires. DeVore has extensively studied the history of fires in California, and gives a fascinating historical perspective that points the right path forward. Questions covered include: - What is California’s climate like historically in terms of being prone to fire? - How were forests and fires dealt with by natives pr...
Sep 16, 2020•59 min
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews David McIntosh, President of the Club for Growth, one of the world’s most influential free-market organizations. The Club for Growth recently shared Alex’s EnergyTalkingPoints.com website with its members and the candidates it works with. In the interview Alex asked McIntosh a wide range of questions relating to promoting freedom and energy in 2020, including: - What does the Club for Growth do? - How does the Club for Growth select and help fre...
Sep 09, 2020•39 min
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein brings on Congressman Chip Roy to discuss the 2020 energy debate and how pro-freedom candidates and citizens can be successful in it. Some topics they cover include: - Why energy policy has not been a big topic of discussion so far, particularly among Republicans. - Why we can expect energy policy, including climate policy, to be a big topic in the final two months of campaigning. - What Congressman Roy thinks of EnergyTalkingPoints.com. - The challenges c...
Sep 02, 2020•34 min
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein brings back Michael Shellenberger, our most popular guest of 2020, for an in-depth look at the California blackouts and the California wildfires.
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 7 min
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews economist Dr. Saifedean Ammous about economics and energy. Dr. Ammous, in part due to his influence by The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is working on a new economics textbook that makes energy a central focus in analyzing the causes of prosperity. Dr. Ammous is best known for his popular book The Bitcoin Standard, a fascinating look at the economics of Bitcoin. Alex and Dr. Ammous discuss a wide range of topics, including: - How Ammous got intere...
Aug 19, 2020•1 hr 24 min
On this week’s episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein shares EnergyTalkingPoints.com–a growing library of short, powerful, and carefully-referenced talking points that any pro-freedom candidate or citizen can use. He discusses the enthusiastic responses he’s gotten so far and asks listeners to spread the word by: - Sharing them with campaigns you’re connected to and encourage those campaigns to talk to me. - Sharing them on social media. - Sharing them with coworkers and employees. - Sharing them w...
Aug 17, 2020•24 min
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on the future of energy in general and “renewable energy” in particular. In the last year and a half Mark has published two fascinating and widely circulated reports: “The ‘New Energy Economy’: An Exercise in Magical Thinking” and “Mines, Minerals, and ‘Green’ Energy: A Reality Check”. Mark brings a great perspective to energy issues because he a) has a strong physics background and b) he is d...
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 3 min
On this week’s Power Hour, Alex Epstein interviews Ron Stein, author of Energy Made Easy and Just Green Electricity, about the decline of California’s energy system. On the show they discuss: - How much oil California uses and where it comes from. - The decline of California energy production and the rise of imports from the Middle East. - Where California’s electricity comes from–hint: a lot of it isn’t from California. - How California is shutting down 4 reliable power plants with no replaceme...
Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 28 min
From Alex Epstein, author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels Last Thursday I was interviewed by former Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts as part of a project by him to educate Australian politicians and members of the general public on energy and climate. We ended up going 2 hours and 15 minutes. I think it’s my best and most comprehensive interview to date. Here’s the very long list of topics we covered. - Should Senator Roberts be proud to be a human being, and be proud to have worked in the ...
Jul 22, 2020•2 hr 19 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour On this week’s Power Hour I interview Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, author of False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet. As I discussed in my review of the book several weeks ago, I think this is an extremely valuable book, on two counts above all. 1. It documents in case after case how the media and political leaders wildly distort the conclusions of mainstream climate research. 2. It documents in case after ...
Jul 22, 2020•53 min
On this week’s Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Dr. Patrick Moore, ecologist and co-founder of Greenpeace, about climate catastrophism. Moore eviscerates climate catastrophism by looking at rising CO2 levels from a scientific and pro-human perspective–not the pseudoscientific and anti-human perspective that dominates today. Topics include: - Why Moore left Greenpeace. - The beginnings of the climate catastrophe movement. - Why Moore believes human beings would not only survive but survive bett...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Alex Epstein interviews Caleb Rossiter , Chairman of the CO2 Coalition. There is an active campaign, led by billionaire anti-fossil-fuel activist Tom Steyer, to convince Facebook to remove the CO2 Coalition from its platform. Some highlights include: - Rossiter’s decades-long work on African issues. - Why fossil fuels, especially coal, are crucial to African prosperity. - How Rossiter became suspicious of climate models. - CO2 as a warming gas *and* a plant fertilizing gas. - How challenging cli...
Jul 08, 2020•57 min
Alex Epstein interviews Michael Shellenberger, author of Apocalypse Never, which hit #5 on Amazon. His recent article, ‘On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare,’ has been widely shared. Some highlights: - How Shellenberger went from being a renewables activists to championing nuclear. - Why Shellenberger decided to stand up against climate catastrophism after years of silence. - How modern environmentalism is a religion. - The real motives of most of modern environmenta...
Jul 02, 2020•54 min
Alex Epstein discusses two soon-to-be released books: Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger and False Alarm by Bjorn Lomborg. He explains why these are crucial books in the broader project of a pro-human environmental movement that rejects climate catastrophism.
Jun 24, 2020•57 min
On this episode of Power Hour Alex Epstein interviews Naomi Seibt, the 19-year-old German teenager who has been called “the anti-Greta” for her articulate and outspoken challenges to climate catastrophism. The focus of the discussion is the outrageous attempt of the German government to take down her videos challenging climate catastrophism and advocating what she calls “climate realism.” Instead of trying to resolve the issue quietly, Naomi says “I’m going to go big this time. And I’m going to ...
Jun 17, 2020•58 min
On this episode of Power, Alex Epstein answers listener questions about “100% renewable,” why he publicly violated Gavin Newsom’s stay at home order, and the George Floyd saga.
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Alex Epstein interviews Matt Ridley on the topic of “how energy innovation works.” Drawing from Ridley’s new book, “How Innovation Works,” they discuss: -Why Ridley considers “the conversion of heat to work” to be perhaps the most important innovation. -The true story of innovation in fracking and why the conventional narrative about it being a government-led innovation is false. -Why there’s so little innovation in nuclear–and what to do about it. -Why freedom is crucial to innovation....
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 4 min
On this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein and Steffen Henne discuss: - Why no company is or can be 100% renewable for the foreseeable future. - The three dishonest techniques companies use to claim that they are “100% renewable” or “carbon neutral.” - How Google, Microsoft, and Amazon use these techniques to deceive the public. - Why companies’ refusal to consider nuclear energy is cowardly. - How 100% renewable propaganda pollutes the energy debate.
May 28, 2020•1 hr 16 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour On this week’s Power Hour I interview economist Ray Niles on how a freer market can help us protect ourselves from COVID-19. We covered topics including: - How price controls, in the form of anti-“price-gouging” laws, caused – shortages of vital medical supplies and other supplies. - How we are in a critical moment for freedom in America. - How “temporary” incursions on freedom rarely go away. - How a freer market in hospitals would increase capacity. - The ...
May 20, 2020•54 min
On this week’s Power Hour I interview Wayne Christian, Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission (the primary governing body over oil and gas in Texas), on why he decided against passing a government-controlled cap on oil production in Texas.
May 13, 2020•1 hr 24 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. In a bonus episode of Power Hour I interview one of my favorite COVID commentators, economist Daniil Gorbatenko, about the overwhelming evidence that the lockdown mantra “safer inside” is wrong. Being inside increases our risk of a dangerous infection from COVID-19 by a) exposing millions to higher doses of the virus and b) decreasing immunity. Being outside by contrast, exposes us to lower doses of the virus and increases our immunity. So not only are the ...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 22 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. On this week's Power Hour I discuss "The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets Totally Wrong." 1. It evades how bad the “natural” planet was for human life. 2. It evades how good today’s humanized planet is for human life. 3. It evades our ability to create new value and grow indefinitely. 4. It evades our ability to produce more value with fewer side effects (e.g., nuclear). 5. It evaluates the state of the planet by an anti-human standard (unchanged natur...
May 07, 2020•46 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. On this week's Power Hour I discuss "The Five Things Planet of the Humans Gets (Mostly) Right." 1. Green energy is a high-impact industrial process 2. Green energy has many undesirable environmental impacts 3. Green energy is hugely dependent on fossil fuels 4. "100% renewable" is energy accounting fraud 5. Leading green energy advocates are a terrifying combination of ignorant and dishonest Next week I'll cover "The Five Things Planet of the Human Gets Tot...
Apr 30, 2020•47 min
From Alex Epstein, host of Power Hour. This week’s Power Hour features a 2-hour interview with philosopher Onkar Ghate, focusing on why lockdowns were never a necessary or proper response to COVID-19. Dr. Ghate, a Senior Fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and a longtime colleague (and mentor) of mine, has been doing some great work on what a truly American, pro-freedom, approach to infectious diseases looks like. Some topics we covered include: - We need objective, clearly defined laws specifying ...
Apr 23, 2020•2 hr 4 min
