I am absolutely having a blast interviewing global energy, political, and thought leaders on my podcast. But one of my favorite friends and thought leaders is Irina Slav. Her Substack (https://irinaslav.substack.com/) is a mandatory subscription for any human person. And on her substack, she reads the article, and I can get my “Irina” fix for the day. Her humor is something that we need to make it through the horrific anti-human decisions being made by world leaders.
We will only elevate humanity from poverty through low-cost, abundant, sustainable energy. It seems that discussions from the “Greener” side do not want to happen, making open dialogue with facts, economics, and physics tough.
Please sit back and enjoy our conversation, and subscribe to her Substack. Thanks, Irina, for your time. – Stu
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:09 – Discuss COP 28 and express skepticism about its outcomes.
04:09 – Directed at the large number of attendees and the lavishness of the COPW28 event.
05:51 – Delves into climate policies, including the push for electric vehicles (EVs) and challenges faced by the automotive industry.
10:19 – The limited adoption of electric vehicles in Bulgaria, mentioning occasional sightings of Tesla’s, attributing the slow uptake to the country’s robust secondhand car market and expressing nostalgic sentiments about classic cars.
13:42 – Insights are shared on Bulgaria’s energy landscape, including the dominance of nuclear and coal, potential plans for a second nuclear power plant, and the presence of solar energy.
16:33 – The importance of self-sufficiency and potential backlash against carbon taxes.
17:40 – How’s the grid stability in Bulgaria?
19:01 – What’s coming around the corner for Bulgaria?
22:26 – Irina promotes her Substack, mentioning a special promotion for subscribers with a 20% discount until the end of January.
23:51 – Outro
Stuart Turley [00:00:03] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Meat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley. There’s been a lot of rumblings going on around this week about COP 28 and now we are able to get rid of all the fossil fuels and have low cost renewable energy. I am so proud of everybody. I’ve got somebody that has a little inside baseball on energy. I’ve got Irina Slav from Bulgaria, stopping by the podcast this morning. Good morning, Irene. How are you?
Irina Slav [00:00:35] Good morning, Stu. I’m great, thank you.
Stuart Turley [00:00:38] Okay. It is 7 a.m. in Dallas here. What time is it? Bulgaria?
Irina Slav [00:00:44] It’s 3 p.m..
Stuart Turley [00:00:46] 3 p.m.. You know, that’s not as bad. I interviewed Grace Stanky. She was in Dubai last week, and it was midnight here in the U.S. and it was 9 a.m. in Dubai. So, you know. Yeah.
Irina Slav [00:01:06] It’s a that crazy.
Stuart Turley [00:01:09] It is. And you kind of lose sleep on that. But I saw everybody, the cop president and everything else. And this cop was just kind of funny because Saudi Aramco showed up the that it’s being held in Dubai, you know, in the UAE, in the UAE, oil, they’ve got nuclear. 22 countries signed on to a nuclear deal and saying, hey, we want to really increase nuclear energy. And then all of the climate folks were saying we still have to have a deal. And as of yesterday, there was still no deal. Now, I this morning I’m seeing that. Oh, there’s a deal. Yeah, I’m like, you got to be kidding me. What kind of deal can they make when ESG investing is failing? BlackRock has now said that. I’m kind of teeing this discussion. A Bill Gates came out and said that climate change is not an issue. It’s not going to kill us. I saw him interviewed at COP. Oh, climate change is really bad. I guess one of the climate folks shot him in the back room there and said, Now, you shouldn’t say that. And then Larry Fink said, now from BlackRock, it’s okay to invest in ESG funds in the oil and gas. So this whole paradigm of climate, bad oil, bad, renewables, good, my head’s exploding. I have no idea which way to go.
Irina Slav [00:02:48] I know exactly how you feel. Actually, the nuclear deal is probably the one good thing that came out of this cop. If, of course, the countries that signed up for it, you know, stayed true to their word. Right. Which you never know. But it’s good to see nuclear getting the acknowledgment that it deserves. I mean, the IEA has been saying that we will need nuclear during the transition, but it hasn’t been amplified too much.
Stuart Turley [00:03:21] The IEA. Oh, my gosh. You know, if you always heard that, that one thing that says it takes a village to raise a kid or something like that, I think it takes a village to raise an idiot and call it a a. It’s just absolutely unbelievable the hypocrisy that they do. And it seems like whoever’s paying the bill, that is what their report will show.
Irina Slav [00:03:55] Well, and it seems there’s only one pair of the bill these days and a collective pair of the bill. But. You said hypocrisy. The whole cop 28 is blatant hypocrisy. 70,000 people attended these meetings. Do 72,000 people flew from overseas.
Stuart Turley [00:04:24] Right?
Irina Slav [00:04:26] Nearly because I guess a few thousand came from neighboring countries.
Stuart Turley [00:04:33] Right.
Irina Slav [00:04:34] And then they complained about the lavishness of the whole thing. They complained about the size of the venue and the absence of corridors where deals could be made. I am not joking. I read this in Bloomberg the other day. Attendants are complaining that it’s too big. The place where they’re meeting is too big and they can go into a corner and clinch a deal. Which has been done at other meetings, but they ended with a final deal that does not include the words phase out of rules. But what what really impressed me was that essentially the agreement is to start phasing down demands for oil and gas.
Stuart Turley [00:05:27] Huh?
Irina Slav [00:05:29] Yeah. This got my attention. Well, good. So they’re not going to produce this because they couldn’t, you know. Right. They made the stand and they won. So they’re going after consumers. That’s not good news for any of us.
Stuart Turley [00:05:46] Wow. Now, is that is an example of that, the forcing of the auto manufacturers to go to EVs, even though the consumers don’t want them or can’t afford them. So if they forced the E. So what we’re hearing is that they’re probably going to knuckle down, double down and triple down on EVs.
Irina Slav [00:06:12] Yeah, but they can’t because GM and Ford are already revising their manufacturing plans for this for next year. They’re all they’re both cutting production. Did you hear the news about this? Tesla is recalling 2 million cars.
Stuart Turley [00:06:28] There really isn’t a link.
Irina Slav [00:06:30] There recalling 2 million cars because of the, you know, these investigations of accidents with Teslas where the drivers blame the autopilot. So they’re recalling these 2 million cars to fix. They’re also pilot feature so drivers can’t misuse it. I know how it sounds.
Stuart Turley [00:06:54] I know.
Irina Slav [00:06:56] But you know what?
Stuart Turley [00:06:58] I think there’s more to that story that we’re not being told, Irene. And I think the security issue is there. Remote control with remote control of those cars is possible. Remote driving of those cars is possible. And we saw that with.
Irina Slav [00:07:20] The bulb that they should have thought about that.
Stuart Turley [00:07:25] Well, if I want a remote control car, I just call my wife and ask her, What do you want me to do? And she tells me exactly where that car was supposed.
Irina Slav [00:07:33] To be as well as remotely.
Stuart Turley [00:07:34] And she could draw. You know, it’s like I absolutely. I just absolutely say, Honey, what do you want? Now, if the rest of the men in the world would understand what needs to happen, I see this. There was a video. Irina, did you see this? Where? I think it was somewhere in California. All of the auto delivery, robo cars. Somebody had all the ones in the city all converge on one address. They all woke up? Yes.
Irina Slav [00:08:09] All the what they have.
Stuart Turley [00:08:12] They they just all went to one place and caused a traffic jam. Somebody hacked in to the zero driver cars and they all went to one location. I kid you not. I’ve got the video. It is a hoot.
Irina Slav [00:08:29] For them to prove that they are hackable and successfully hackable. Well done. That hacker, too, you know, highlighting the problem.
Stuart Turley [00:08:38] You bet. How would you like to be going to a wedding and having a hacker take your car and drive it off on the side of the road where I don’t trust anybody is if you have a government that says no driving for you, they’re going to I’ll send you your car, wakes up in the morning and goes, I’m going to go check myself in at the Department of Motor Vehicles. And you no longer have a car. I could see that happening.
Irina Slav [00:09:07] It’s a bleak scenario. Hope it doesn’t materialize. I really do.
Stuart Turley [00:09:13] I don’t. And so when we sit back and we think, okay, yay, comp, yay, we have. So I think. Do you think the markets will win? I mean, because there’s a big awakening of everybody saying, hey, wait a minute. I got to eat, I got to have electricity. I got to have natural gas.
Irina Slav [00:09:36] Exactly. How can people always win one way or another? It’s only a question of how much pain people will have to endure before market. You know, market forces snap back into place after governments give up on trying to manipulate every single aspect of, in this case, the energy commodity markets and the car markets. You can’t force people to buy these.
Stuart Turley [00:10:06] It’s not happening in the U.S. now. I mean, there’s all the Eves highlighting. In the used car lot. So in Bulgaria. How many EVs are driving around?
Irina Slav [00:10:19] I actually saw a Tesla in our village. No way. Yes. And I saw it several times, including once when I was returning from town. And the car was, you know, ahead of me. So apparently its owner lives in the village. We’re such a rich village that we have Tesla owners in it. But yeah, there’s the occasional Tesla. There’s some of those ridiculous Volkswagens. The little ones, you know, they look like boxes on wheels. There’s quite a few of these, but they’re not they’re not massively popular yet, and they probably won’t be massively popular any time soon, given that we are the one of the biggest secondhand car markets in Europe because Western Europe. Sells its cars, they sell them to us, which is great. I like all the cars, you know, they write. I’ve said it before, they don’t have. So much electronics stuck in them. So to make us safer and more reliable.
Stuart Turley [00:11:32] Yeah, I miss my 1943 Willys. I had a 43 Willys. It’s a World War two Jeep and I made a mistake and sold it years ago. And it’s I mean, I should have kept it because there was it was the first year they ever made four wheel drive vehicles. It was just as tough as you can imagine. And it was a great, great vehicle. But it was what’s called a four cylinder flathead and it was just tough getting parts for it. So, yeah, I just I really I regret that.
Irina Slav [00:12:13] Yeah, that that’s it is a treasure.
Stuart Turley [00:12:17] Oh. Especially because it was so.
Irina Slav [00:12:19] Rich by selling it now.
Stuart Turley [00:12:21] Oh. Well, see, the reason I would want it is because if the sun flares ever happened and an MP would knock out the power grid, that thing would have survived and I.
Irina Slav [00:12:34] Would have a problem. Yeah. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:12:37] So I don’t think a Tesla is going to survive a sunburst.
Irina Slav [00:12:42] I don’t think so either. Bad student in any other, you know.
Stuart Turley [00:12:47] So with this cop, everybody’s coming back at a cop. I’m going to interview some more folks that were there. And it’s I really cannot imagine being around 70,000 of my closest friends. I don’t like people. I just. I just just don’t like people. So. Now, I heard great things about Dubai. They have their new power plant that’s out. It’s a nuclear power plant. 25% of the UAE is now got nuclear.
Irina Slav [00:13:21] Well done.
Stuart Turley [00:13:22] Yeah. Hey. And it was on time, on budget. And I couldn’t be more happy for them because that is actually way cool. Yeah. Are you seeing a resurgence in the Europe about nuclear? It seems like people are.
Irina Slav [00:13:42] Poking about it in Bulgaria. They’re talking about finishing the second nuclear power plant. But I’m not holding my breath because it’s very political, because it was Rosatom that started building it. But then an anti Russian government came in and ordered suspension of the works. We can’t have the Russians build our second nuclear power plant. Let’s get an American company. But I think the American company wanted too much money or couldn’t be bothered to build it. I don’t remember what happened. And now it’s it has started the construction and is being frozen, which is.
Stuart Turley [00:14:22] Where.
Irina Slav [00:14:24] We are planning, you know.
Stuart Turley [00:14:27] That’s sad.
Irina Slav [00:14:28] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:14:29] And, um, you know, I. I do allow that you laughed at my Putin imitation before, and I do a lousy Putin imitation. But if they we, the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House just passed a bill to block your Russian uranium.
Irina Slav [00:14:52] And you’re going to get your uranium from.
Stuart Turley [00:14:56] 20% of our uranium comes from Russia.
Irina Slav [00:15:00] Yeah, I heard about that. And process. I mean, you can get uranium from Canada, I think, but you have to process it.
Stuart Turley [00:15:09] Right.
Irina Slav [00:15:10] So you’re building a supply chain to.
Stuart Turley [00:15:13] And those are being held up by permits. And and then President Biden shut down the new uranium mine opportunity and and won’t allow us we have some of the biggest uranium deposits in the world and he won’t allow us to mine it.
Irina Slav [00:15:36] Yeah well that’s that makes perfect sense. It’s very rational and logical. Great, great.
Stuart Turley [00:15:46] I graduate from Oklahoma State University, and I think I’m smarter than those guys.
Irina Slav [00:15:53] Well, you.
Stuart Turley [00:15:53] Are. Yeah, that’s a stretch.
Irina Slav [00:15:55] Well, he smiles within them and she’s well.
Stuart Turley [00:15:59] But you sit back and kind of go, well there’s a bunch of farmers up there, and farmers are actually pretty smart. So, yes.
Irina Slav [00:16:08] They are going to have to do. Well, yeah, if you think about it, they have to be smart, so the family will make it.
Stuart Turley [00:16:16] No, you starve. But where do we see in World War Two? The victory gardens kept the US, You know, everybody eating our vic, our garden home gardens. A big thing in Bulgaria.
Irina Slav [00:16:33] Oh, yeah. In villages, everybody has a home garden. Oh, man. Produce quite, quite a little bit of, uh, you know, whatever. For example, our neighbors have an orchard in their in their gardens, and they sell the apples and pears on. That’s a market in town. But yeah, and we’re trying to build a garden for us here by using considerable amounts of fertilizers because our soil is, is not really good enough. But we have big plans. Yeah. You know, I’m a big fan of self-sufficiency to whatever extent it is possible without too much pain. So if we have land and we can plant things in it and eat them, of course I’m going to do this along with my flowers and. Right. You know, pretty things.
Stuart Turley [00:17:27] Right. That that. Yes, I think that the more sustainable everybody can be is family on their own. How’s the state? How’s the grid stability in Bulgaria right now? Is it pretty stable?
Irina Slav [00:17:45] Yeah, it’s stable because most of our energy comes from nuclear and coal. Well, there’s quite a lot of solar in my part of the country. In this part of the country in the south. And some of it is specially installed to to sell into the grid. But it’s still a minuscule amount of the total power generation. So that’s okay that people with the solar rooftop installations, we’re planning to put some panels on our roads because we have know great exposure to the south. And when I think I mentioned this last time, when whatever government happens to be in power decides to deregulate the household electricity market, electricity prices will go sky high. So for us, it’s a kind of hedge, you know, because at least during the summer, we’ll have. Energy we generate ourselves. Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:18:49] And it makes sense. I like solar and wind for small personal use. It just seems like it doesn’t scale very well.
Irina Slav [00:18:58] No, it doesn’t.
Stuart Turley [00:18:59] No, no. So, okay, what’s coming around the corner for Bulgaria? In the EU.
Irina Slav [00:19:08] No idea about Bulgaria. I mean. They’re just borrowing more money. And I don’t like this. They have big transition plans because they listen to everything that Brussels says. The last thing I read about the European Union is that they’re really determined to, you know, to hit us with carbon taxes. And that might be the last stupid move. I think the opposing parties are coming into power. And and there are European Parliament elections next year.
Stuart Turley [00:19:50] Right.
Irina Slav [00:19:50] And things may change.
Stuart Turley [00:19:54] I’ll tell you, I think that you just hit a home run.
Irina Slav [00:19:58] A very good it is.
Stuart Turley [00:20:00] You know, on that may be their last stupidity action that they can do. I think people there is a great awakening happening, and I really think that, uh, Ursula is really crossing the line.
Irina Slav [00:20:18] Just all lines she could find, she and her friends and the only one. I’m not singling her out. I mean, she’s the face of it, but she’s not alone.
Stuart Turley [00:20:27] Oh, no. She’s being propped up by a bunch of folks. But here’s the thing. People are done. And I think that you’re going to see more Brexit, I think. I think so.
Irina Slav [00:20:45] I hope so.
Stuart Turley [00:20:47] I think it’s done. But that’s just me. During our podcast, listeners here heard it second and heard it here second.
Irina Slav [00:20:58] One thing is for sure that the European Union will fall and disintegrate because I set myself about this running joke in Bulgaria that whenever Bulgaria is on your side, you’re going to lose. You’re on the losing side of history of whatever battle you’re fighting. We were with the Germans in the First World War. We were with the Germans in the Second World War, and look how they ended.
Stuart Turley [00:21:22] Right. And Germany’s failing again because of their energy policies.
Irina Slav [00:21:29] Yeah.
Stuart Turley [00:21:30] And I visited with George Macmillan a few times and the U.S. has not done a lot of good things around the world.
Irina Slav [00:21:42] And it’s great to hear an American say this.
Stuart Turley [00:21:46] I love my country. I don’t love my leaders.
Irina Slav [00:21:50] Same here.
Stuart Turley [00:21:51] And there are a lot of great Americans. It’s just. The leaders of worlds don’t necessarily do what the people want.
Irina Slav [00:22:02] So that’s the problem in Europe as well. Right now, they’re doing what they want and they are actually saying as much that they do not care about the interests of their voters, that trying to mask it. You know, they’re trying to convince us that they’re doing it for our own good. Well, no, they’re not. Now, as we all know, it’s obvious.
Stuart Turley [00:22:26] Well, your Substack is Iryna Slav at Substack dot com. And I love your substack. And I’m going to encourage everybody to follow support and make sure that they get all of your opinions. Because, Irina, I truly love your sense of humor.
Irina Slav [00:22:49] I’m actually running right now. I’m running a promotional campaign, a special with 20% of paid subscriptions until the end of January. It’s the first time I’m doing this.
Stuart Turley [00:23:03] Well, good. We’ll see how many we can drum up for you. So everybody, the 20% off, That’s pretty cool.
Irina Slav [00:23:13] If you want more doom and gloom than you already have in your life, please.
Stuart Turley [00:23:18] Doom and gloom with humor. You could save a lot of people money by if they subscribed to you rather than get married.
Irina Slav [00:23:27] They could sit around and get therapy.
Stuart Turley [00:23:33] But, you know, I just have to walk down the hall and I can get all the doom and gloom I want. And then I.
Irina Slav [00:23:41] Know you have a great wife.
Stuart Turley [00:23:42] She is a she is a saint, but you know, she is. I wouldn’t want to put up with me. Well, thank you, Irene, for stopping by that. I guess I do appreciate you. And we will see you next month.
Irina Slav [00:23:58] Next year. And I have great holidays.
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