Robert Bryce is the author of "A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations." He is the producer of two energy-focused documentaries.
Federal Newswire: Tell us about your new docuseries, “Juice: Power, Politics and the Grid.”
Bryce: It's available for free. It's a five-part series. You can find it at Juicetheseries.com. My colleague Tyson directed it and did a great job with animation, with the music, [and] with the original score. We did over 50 interviews. We have 35 people on camera, interviewed in Canada, Japan, Europe, and of course here in the US.
Federal Newswire: What is the main idea?
Bryce: We explain why the electric grid is so important to our everyday lives. Dr. Chris Keefer from Toronto says it's our civilization’s life support system. Which I think is a really great way to think about the electric grid, why the grid is so important, and why it's being undermined.
Federal Newswire: The series points out that we are moving to less reliable sources of energy. Is that by design, or is that an oversight?
Bryce: Let me be clear about my politics. I have no brief with either party. I don't represent the energy industry. I'm an independent journalist. But what this Administration is doing, I've never seen anything like it. On April 18 they published their final rule, where automakers by 2032, [will be required to have] two-thirds of their vehicle [sales] be EVs, roughly 20 to 60 percent, depending on how you interpret the rule. They're going to mandate the kind of cars that Americans can buy. It's going to result in a massive increase in demand on the electric grid, which is already faltering under existing demand. We're seeing more blackouts, more warnings from the independent system operators, the RTOs, and North American Electric Reliability Corporation, all warning about the reliability of the grid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is warning about the reliability of the grid. Exactly a week later, on April 25, the EPA promulgated or finalized another rule that's going to kneecap the coal-fired power plants and the natural gas-fired power plants in America. I say this again, not as a partisan, just as an observer, as a reporter. Did these people even read their own press releases? Their policies are in total conflict with each other. I don't understand how they reconcile them. Last year in America, the generation from coal fired power plants was greater than the generation from solar and wind combined. [So we’re] just going to replace that? All of this climate policy is regressive on the poor and the middle class. Who's promulgating it? It's wealthy, climate-focused NGOs. They're not environmental groups. They're pressure groups. They have budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Environmental Defense Fund is several hundred million dollars. The Sierra Club is over $150 million, NRDC is more than $150 million.
Federal Newswire: You also focus on renewable energy. What is your view on these sources?
Bryce: I don't call them renewables or clean or green. Those are marketing terms. It's old energy. I've been a critic of the wind business for a long time, and will continue to be a staunch critic because if the oil and gas industry acted like the wind industry in rural America, it would be front page news in the New York Times, but it's completely ignored. Wind companies built 84 wind turbines in Osage County on traditional Osage land and mined in the Osage tribe's mineral estate without the permission of the tribe. They were told twice by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to stop, including a direct letter to the company in 2014. A federal court judge in Tulsa ruled on behalf of the tribe, saying that it violated the tribe's sovereignty and ordered the removal of 84 wind turbines in Osage County, Oklahoma. It's one of many examples of this land-use conflict that's happening across the country where big business, big corporations, big law firms are trying to push all the energy stuff out onto the landscape with no concern about climate change. But, it's weakening the grid, and that's the point.
Federal Newswire: Is the problem of energy and power just going to continue?
Bryce: If climate change means we'll face more extreme weather in the years ahead, hotter, colder, more severe temperatures for extended periods, it's total [insanity] to make our most important energy network, the electric grid, dependent on the weather. We need to make our electric system weather resilient, not weather dependent. At the federal level, the Inflation Reduction Act is throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at wind and solar, but there's no guidance on where it should be built. It's a real problem.
Federal Newswire: What are the other issues you raise about wind power?
Bryce: I'm an avid bird watcher, and I have been for 30 years. We're building these wind turbines. What do they do? They kill birds. Oh, it's only a few. Oh, cats kill more birds…Yes, cats kill birds. They don't kill golden eagles. They don't kill bald eagles. They don't kill raptors. But, there's this pass that's being given to the industry because somehow, they've been able to brand themselves and been able to influence the federal government to say, oh, don't worry about it, just give us a permit. The issue that I'm getting to is not just about the wildlife, although I'm adamantly in favor of wildlife protection. It's about footprints and inputs. These wind projects, solar projects, they're low power density. If you have low power density, you have high resource intensity. This means you need more copper, more steel, more land, more neodymium iron boron magnets, more graphite, all of these things for batteries, all this other stuff. Also, a lot of people hold up California as the model we should follow. Former Governor Schwarzenegger mandated renewables in California in 2008, [and] about a third of the electricity had to be from wind and solar by a certain date. Now that is a 100% clean electricity mandate. Electricity prices in California have just exploded. Who does that hurt? It hurts the poor. It hurts the middle class. It hurts the people on fixed incomes. I think when you look at all these climate policies, all of them are regressive. With electric vehicle mandates, [are you] going to force the carpenter, the bricklayer, the landscape guys to drive a Tesla? They can't afford a Tesla.
Federal Newswire: How about nuclear energy?
Bryce: Let's be clear about the challenges facing nuclear energy. Yes, wind and solar can be deployed fairly rapidly, and there's a lot of capital and a lot of media support. Nuclear faces a lot of challenges on the regulatory front, and that's going to be difficult to overcome.. It took SMR, a nuclear company, six years and $500 million to get a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If we're going to see new nuclear power in the US, we have to reform the regulatory effort. [If this happens,] I think the other issues [of capital and regulations] will fall into line. If you don't solve the regulatory issues, the capital won't come.
Federal Newswire: Where can people follow your views on energy?
Bryce: This is what I do. I care about energy and power. I want to keep them cheap, abundant, and reliable. I've been incredibly fortunate to be able to do this. It's been a lucrative career, but a lot of people are interested in what I'm writing about, so I count myself incredibly lucky.
Robert Bryce’s writing is published at Robertbryce.substack.com.
