I spent the better part of the previous week at a conference composed mostly of very smart liberals—okay, I know, “smart liberals” sounds like an oxymoron or the smallest club this side of Real Housewives of the Vatican, but believe me, these folks are skeptical if not hostile to a lot of leftist orthodoxy these days. And the result of this is perhaps the most gonzo episode ever of the Power Line Show. It blends pop culture—well okay, a really really bad example of cult-schlock cinema—and policy wonkery. What could go wrong?
Lynne Kiesling
A major focus of the gathering I attended is energy, and I caught up with three of my favorite “energy people,” as Don Blankenship might say in a more lucid moment. They are, first, Lynne Kiesling of Purdue University, who has forgotten more about the electric grid than I will ever know. We talk about how California botched its electricity “deregulation” 20 years ago, how Texas (naturally) got it right, and where things are headed now.
Robert Bryce
My second guest is author Robert Bryce, who has a new documentary film coming out soon on his latest project about energy use around the world (Juice: The Movie). Check out the movie trailer—it looks pretty good! Robert as always is working on a book on the same subject.
My third guest is Tisha Schuller, an energy and environment activist in Colorado who has written a terrific book, Accidentally Adamant, about how she came to love fossil fuels.
Tisha Schuller
Now, you may be wondering, how in the heck does “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” (not to mention a Steve Martin reference!) figure into all this? Well, you’ll just have to listen to find out!
As always, you can listen at the window below, or download the episode from our partners at Ricochet. And as we never tire of reminding everyone, please subscribe to Power Line in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. Special thanks to our sponsor, Mancrates. And don’t forget: if you use our special tag, which is mancrates.com/powerline, you can get a 5% discount on all orders.
And finally, don’t forget to milk the soft power dividend!
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