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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio, Welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 1: My name is Matt, my name is Nol. They call

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Speaker 1: me Ben. We are joined as always with our super

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Speaker 1: producer Paul Mission controlled deconds. Most importantly, you are you.

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Speaker 1: You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't

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Speaker 1: want you to know. We hope that this episode finds

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Speaker 1: you well and relatively sane despite all the plot twist

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Speaker 1: of what is still somehow twenty. Today's episode is inspired

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Speaker 1: by one of our fellow conspiracy realist and fellow radio man.

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Speaker 1: Come to find Mike out there in Vancouver. Mike, you

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Speaker 1: called us to say this, Hi, guys, I'd like to

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Speaker 1: show a lot. I challenge you to do a show

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Speaker 1: on the full true cost of gas. For background, UM,

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Speaker 1: there was a time when all our tanks and jeeps

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Speaker 1: were painted green. We were defending Europe and maintaining that ability.

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Speaker 1: Then one day all our tanks and everything started being

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Speaker 1: painted sand tan color, indication that the military industrial complex

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Speaker 1: was all about getting oil. I am somebody who specializes

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Speaker 1: and work in the field of energy efficiency and thinks

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Speaker 1: it's ridiculous that we're still using oil for energy. Neil

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Speaker 1: Degrassi Tyson has a quote that said, if aliens landed,

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Speaker 1: uld be embarrassed to admit that we still use carbon

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Speaker 1: energy from the ground. The full true cost of gas

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Speaker 1: on our health care system, on our environment, on the

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Speaker 1: taxpayers checkbook is astronomical. I challenge you to find that

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Speaker 1: full true cost gas per for a gallon of gas.

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Speaker 1: It's around forty dollars easily. Um. Anyway, love your show,

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Speaker 1: Love to listen to you guys, banter Um, your great

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Speaker 1: covid Um companions. Take care and all the best to

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Speaker 1: all of you. Thank you. So this is a This

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Speaker 1: is a fantastic question, Mike. As any economists can tell us,

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Speaker 1: the price at your local pump can make a huge

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Speaker 1: difference in the day to day function of not just

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Speaker 1: your town, not just your neck of the global woods,

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Speaker 1: but the state of your nation, and on a macro scale,

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Speaker 1: the state of the world. Empires have collapsed, they have risen,

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Speaker 1: they have collapsed again, all to ensure that when you

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Speaker 1: roll up to your local speedway as the most common

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Speaker 1: gas station in the us. By the way, you'll be

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Speaker 1: able to top off that car. And petroleum, of course,

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Speaker 1: isn't just used for gas. It's used for a multitude

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Speaker 1: of other things. And electric cars are an increasingly viable alternative.

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Speaker 1: But the world still has had serious problems moving away

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Speaker 1: from fossil fuels. And that's not a coincidence. We have

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Speaker 1: massively powerful vested interest and globe trotting institutions dedicated to

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Speaker 1: the maintenance and growth of the oil industry. For one

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Speaker 1: reason or another. This industry employs millions of people, it

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Speaker 1: generates billions of dollars, and for decades people have been

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Speaker 1: raising concerns about that Texas t that black gold powering

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Speaker 1: the world. But today's question, to your point, Mike, how

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Speaker 1: much does gas actually cost? Here are the facts, so

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Speaker 1: as often the United States consumed more gasoline than any

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Speaker 1: other country in the world, uh and the average household

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Speaker 1: has been about two thousand dollars a year on gas.

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Speaker 1: Individual drivers used pre pandemic an average of five fifty

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Speaker 1: seven gallons of gas each year UM and today being

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Speaker 1: July ten, as we record this, the average cost of

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Speaker 1: a gallon of gas, which about three point eight leaders

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Speaker 1: for our metric system focus out there is two dollars

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Speaker 1: uh and eighteen cents two point one eight four dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's according to Triple A UM. It's certainly a lot

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Speaker 1: lower than it's been in recent years. I think when

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Speaker 1: we saw a decrease in driving um due to the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure exactly how that supply and demand system works,

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Speaker 1: but gas prices definitely went way down. UM. So remember

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Speaker 1: back in twenty eleven when gas was about four dollars

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Speaker 1: a gallon, And you know, you guys all know that

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Speaker 1: this definitely varies from state to state, especially out west,

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Speaker 1: where things tend to be a good bit higher. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there's so much variability in fact, just within the

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Speaker 1: United States, but there are a lot of other things

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Speaker 1: that affect that price. We're going to get into a

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Speaker 1: little bit later. Prices, you know, if you're out west,

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Speaker 1: tend to be about higher than that national average that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about here, And specifically if you're in California,

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Speaker 1: and anyone who has lived there at any point or

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Speaker 1: lives there now can tell you and assure you that

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Speaker 1: those prices can be a lot higher, maybe fifty percent

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Speaker 1: higher than that national average. But you know, and then Again,

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Speaker 1: if you're traveling around the country, let's say you're in

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Speaker 1: the Midwest or in the South, the prices actually tend

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Speaker 1: to be about five to ten percent lower than what

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Speaker 1: you'd find on the national average. Um. You know, I

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Speaker 1: think the three the four of us here at stuff

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Speaker 1: they want, you know, can attest to that part. Um.

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Speaker 1: If you go to the Northeast, though, prices are only

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Speaker 1: I mean, you're a little bit higher, maybe about five

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Speaker 1: percent higher than the national average. So you can really

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Speaker 1: tell that there's a lot of variants. But there's also

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Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff, like we said, that goes

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Speaker 1: into that price. It seems to kind of follow cost

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Speaker 1: of living type things. You know, our taxes, I mean,

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Speaker 1: taxes in California are higher in general, and cost of

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Speaker 1: living in California in general is a lot higher. UM.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, that's just observationally, it seems to follow

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Speaker 1: to follow those trends. But there absolutely are a lot

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Speaker 1: of other factors like economic unrest, global shortages, UH and

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Speaker 1: even seasonal variations that can really have an impact on

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Speaker 1: the price that you pay at the pump. And yes,

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Speaker 1: as you pointed out there, we're going to talk about later, UM,

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Speaker 1: offsetting the price by paying for gasoline in essentially roundabout

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Speaker 1: ways or other ways is a major factor in how

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Speaker 1: cheap gases in the US. And we're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about that and and let's let's uh, let's admit this

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Speaker 1: is going to be a bit US centric because we

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Speaker 1: have so much data there. But we also have to

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Speaker 1: acknowledge Europe. As you might imagine or have unfortunately experienced,

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Speaker 1: gasoline or petrol, whatever you wanna call it in Europe

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Speaker 1: tends to be higher than gas in the States or

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Speaker 1: in Canada. This is due to higher rates of taxation,

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Speaker 1: and it makes prices historically around three to four times

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Speaker 1: higher than in the US. But we can flip it

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Speaker 1: in other parts of the world. Consider many oil rich countries.

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Speaker 1: Some other countries have subsidized gas cost that makes it

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Speaker 1: cheaper for people to buy gas than uh than taxation.

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Speaker 1: You know, taxation makes it naturally more expensive. Places like

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Speaker 1: you know, you can already imagine some of these places

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Speaker 1: off the top of your head, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Venezuela,

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Speaker 1: and so on. They've all subsidized gas at some point.

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Speaker 1: In the US and the US ecuadors on the list.

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Speaker 1: Bolivia is on the list, but these are these have

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Speaker 1: subsidized more well, it's tricky. They have done more direct

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Speaker 1: subsidization than the US. Perhaps this makes sense to the

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Speaker 1: leaders of these countries because subsidizing this cost makes it

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Speaker 1: easier cough cough, cheaper cough cough to transport people and goods.

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Speaker 1: But it also means that people are going to be

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Speaker 1: less efficient with gas, and it can spell huge problems

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Speaker 1: down the line, both in terms of the climate obviously,

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Speaker 1: but also in terms of the economy. We have to remember,

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Speaker 1: a country too dependent on a single resource is never

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Speaker 1: truly safe. And then, of course we did US and Canada,

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Speaker 1: we did Europe, did oil rich countries. We have to

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Speaker 1: think about the rest of the world because saying the

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Speaker 1: cost of gas at the pump is it feels safe

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Speaker 1: and it feels correct, but it's inaccurate. It's correct been

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Speaker 1: the price at the pump metric that we're talking about

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Speaker 1: here doesn't factor in all kinds of things like let's

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Speaker 1: say a person's income or a famili's households income. So

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Speaker 1: let's let's make up an example here with some made

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Speaker 1: up numbers. Let's say gas costs in some made up

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Speaker 1: country ten dollars per gallon sounds sounds intense. But let's

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Speaker 1: say ten dollars per gallon for gasoline. Let's say everybody

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Speaker 1: in this country makes an exact wage of four hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year. Right, Okay, that's seems like a

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Speaker 1: lot of money to me at least um. But if

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Speaker 1: you're you know, if you make that much money and

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Speaker 1: you have to pay ten dollars per gallon, that's not

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Speaker 1: that big of a deal. It's not going to break

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Speaker 1: your bank. You're you're not gonna be worried about going

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Speaker 1: into debt because you have to buy ten dollar gas.

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Speaker 1: It's all relative, and we really do have to consider

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Speaker 1: this relationship between how much uh for in this case

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Speaker 1: we would say a household makes right because there's gonna

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Speaker 1: be shared income, shared expenses. We really have to consider

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Speaker 1: that relationship between all the money that a household takes

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Speaker 1: in and how much they have to expend on gasoline.

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Speaker 1: So it may be more helpful, I guess, in this instance,

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Speaker 1: to really think about gasoline in terms of local affordability. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So there's a there's a really interesting Bloomberg report from

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen that looks at not the average price of

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Speaker 1: gas at the pump around the world, but the most

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Speaker 1: affordable gas in the world. And they arrive at this

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Speaker 1: calculation by comparing gas prices in different countries to the

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Speaker 1: average national paycheck. Right and went back in two before

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Speaker 1: a lot of things change, Venezuela had the world's most

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Speaker 1: affordable gas, which is interesting. A lot of people may have,

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Speaker 1: you know, somewhat plausibly assumed it would be a Middle

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Speaker 1: Eastern country, But in sixteen, gas in Venezuela was the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of two cents a gallon two cents US, and

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Speaker 1: this was in a country where the average daily wage

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Speaker 1: how they defined paycheck there was about sixteen dollars and

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Speaker 1: fourteen cents. Obviously this changed as the past few years

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Speaker 1: have been, to put it diplomatically, incredibly tough on the country.

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Speaker 1: But just with that we can already see how the

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Speaker 1: price at any given pump does not tell you the

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Speaker 1: full story about the cost. So what determines the price

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Speaker 1: it is spoiler alert, it's definitely not that person working

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Speaker 1: behind the counter at your local sitco. Please give them

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Speaker 1: a break. Gas stations make most of their money off

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Speaker 1: of the snacks and other things that they sell you

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Speaker 1: the gas is just to get you in the door.

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Speaker 1: Have you guys ever seen that show Nathan for you?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's a really great episode where he you know,

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Speaker 1: the whole the whole conceit is that he's trying to

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Speaker 1: you know, improve the earnings of like small businesses or

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Speaker 1: whatever with these hair brained schemes, and one of them

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Speaker 1: is that he had He goes to a gas station

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Speaker 1: and um gets them to like offer an absurdly low

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Speaker 1: gas price in California, as weep will flock to it.

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Speaker 1: But you only get that price with a rebate, so

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Speaker 1: you have to pay the full price. But to get

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Speaker 1: the rebate, you have to like do this like quest

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Speaker 1: up to the top of this mountain to find to

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Speaker 1: find like this box where you put in the rebate.

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Speaker 1: And it ends up being like, you know, people take

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Speaker 1: this shuttle to the foot of the mountain, and then

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Speaker 1: people gradually drop off, and then it ends with him

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Speaker 1: and like three of the people that stick around kind

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Speaker 1: of becoming the best of friends, only for him to

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Speaker 1: come clean and say there is no rebate. But uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's to your point. But I mean, you know, it's

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Speaker 1: like it's it's it's all set I actually worked at

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Speaker 1: a gas station, and you know how we would change

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Speaker 1: our gas prices. We would look at the other gas

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Speaker 1: station across the street and just match it or make

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Speaker 1: it like a cent lower. It was, you know, very

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Speaker 1: very rudimentary. But no, it's definitely, you know, determined by

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of factors. Taxes, supply chain, supply and demand,

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Speaker 1: capacity or refineries and even the time of year, um,

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Speaker 1: all have huge impacts. Are former parent company, how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works has a fantastic article explaining this whole calculation and

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Speaker 1: how gas prices work, um And here's a quote from that.

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Speaker 1: Price increases generally occur when the world crude oil market

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Speaker 1: tightens and lowers inventories. Also, growing demand can sometimes outpaced

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Speaker 1: refinery capacity. In the spring, refineries perform maintenance, which can

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Speaker 1: place a pinch on the gasoline market. By the end

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Speaker 1: of May, refineries are usually back to full capacity. Is

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Speaker 1: it kind of a similar calculus to like the way

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Speaker 1: the Fed kind of controls interest rates and stuff like,

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Speaker 1: when you know, they make a decision to to lower

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Speaker 1: the interest rate, you know, than than that changes a

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Speaker 1: lot of things within the system. I mean that that's

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Speaker 1: sort of a rough example, but it's sort of a

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Speaker 1: similar Yeah, well, they're definitely um, they're they're definitely interrelated

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Speaker 1: because when the Fed considers that, they are also considering

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Speaker 1: crude oil prices. But it's sort of like, uh, at

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Speaker 1: the risk of offending economists, predicting the actions and results

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Speaker 1: of systems this large Uh, it's very similar to try

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Speaker 1: and to figure out what the weather is going to

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Speaker 1: be like if you're a meteorologist back in the seventies,

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Speaker 1: you can make good guesses, you can have things you

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Speaker 1: want to happen, but there's so many intervening variables, and

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Speaker 1: that's why it's tough to ask ourselves what does gas

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Speaker 1: actually cost? And then necessarily the question follows what should

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Speaker 1: it cost? This quickly becomes an expensive, complicated question, and

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Speaker 1: in some cases this cost also becomes the stuff they

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Speaker 1: don't want you to know. But who are they will

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Speaker 1: dive into this after a word from our sponsor. Here's

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Speaker 1: where it gets crazy. So the true cost of gasoline

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Speaker 1: depends almost entirely on what we allow to factor into

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Speaker 1: the equation, and the way people approach or ignore those

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Speaker 1: factors can create a vast strange of conclusions. Anywhere from

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Speaker 1: fifteen dollars per gallon too, as you said, Mike, forty

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Speaker 1: dollars or distressingly more. And there are powerful forces that

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Speaker 1: in the past and maybe even the present don't want

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Speaker 1: you to know the full cost of gasoline. And we

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Speaker 1: we do have to point out here We've talked about

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Speaker 1: it on this show before. We've talked with people who

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Speaker 1: know about this kind of thing. In the past, we

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Speaker 1: have seen that large oil interests have worked together, whether

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Speaker 1: it's you know, uh in something like OPEC, where it's

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Speaker 1: a little more forward facing where you can you know,

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Speaker 1: you can kind of see it happening, or if it's

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Speaker 1: you know, behind closed doors, they've worked together to downplay

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Speaker 1: the full cost all the other things that factor into

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Speaker 1: that oil price. I mean, if you think about it,

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Speaker 1: there are lobbyists out there, attorneys out there who have

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Speaker 1: made millions of dollars taking action like this, and they're

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Speaker 1: also unethical scientists who have cherry picks data. We've seen

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Speaker 1: that before, we talked about it on a previous episode.

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Speaker 1: Politicians are out there on television and the radio, spinning

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Speaker 1: the language, spinning the facts like dervishes from that you

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Speaker 1: know that Madonna video you remember, which is it really

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Speaker 1: was great tornado actually wrote that song. Never mind, move on. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they are tornadoes of slight misinformation. Just think that's the

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Speaker 1: word looking for. So, so let's let's consider this, because

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Speaker 1: if we think about the true cost of cast lean,

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Speaker 1: we have to examine what economists sometimes call externalities. Externalities

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Speaker 1: is just a fancy it's a fancy word wearing a tie.

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Speaker 1: That means this associated costs that are born by society

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Speaker 1: at large, but are not directly included in the price

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Speaker 1: you pay at the pump. One of the first ones, obviously,

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Speaker 1: would be the environmental cost we let's let's take an

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Speaker 1: example from California, since we already mentioned some stuff about

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Speaker 1: California is higher than average prices. A single gallon of

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Speaker 1: gas in California produces about twenty five pounds of what

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Speaker 1: are called greenhouse gasses. Long time listeners, you've heard us

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Speaker 1: talk about this before. These aren't a conspiracy, uh, but

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Speaker 1: there have been conspiracies surrounding the degree of their effects

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Speaker 1: on the environment. Greenhouse gases are things like carbon dioxide, methane,

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Speaker 1: nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases. Uh, and also just to be

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Speaker 1: fair water vapor for a fun comparison, UH, think about

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Speaker 1: this twenty five pounds. It's about the same weight as

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Speaker 1: a small to medium dog, like a car her spaniel.

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Speaker 1: It's also it's always crazy to me to think about

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Speaker 1: these kinds of emissions measured in pounds. It's just like,

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Speaker 1: you know, because it's relatively If you think of like

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Speaker 1: the weight of a gas, you think it's like, okay,

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Speaker 1: that's basically weightless, but it's not. And it's massive amounts

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Speaker 1: of impact on on the environment and on the atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: When you think about that number, it's it's pretty mind boggling.

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Speaker 1: And don't forget that the average US driver buys about

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Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty seven gallons of gas per year.

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Speaker 1: Multiply that by two thirty eight million cars, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: and not to mention like the much less fuel efficient

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Speaker 1: and more polluting trucks and SUVs and hummers and man,

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Speaker 1: that's a lot of poundage of this stuff being pumped

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Speaker 1: out into into the atmosphere day in and day out. Uh,

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Speaker 1: an absolute crap ton of gas. Yeah. I just wanna

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Speaker 1: shout out Sarah Terry Cobo and the Center for Investigative

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Speaker 1: Reporting for making a video about this topic where we're

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Speaker 1: getting a lot of this information is really just a

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Speaker 1: great video you can check out right now. It's called

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Speaker 1: The Price of Gas. Check it out when you get

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Speaker 1: a chance. Yeah. So, with all of this driving, with

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Speaker 1: all this gas buying, a single driver on average within

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Speaker 1: the United States creates or generates, let's say, through that use,

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Speaker 1: about ten thousand pounds of greenhouse gas pollution each year.

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Speaker 1: And to continue these whimsical zoological comparisons, uh, ten thousand

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Speaker 1: pounds is about three thousand pounds less than an African

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Speaker 1: bush elephant, a male or bull African bush elephant. So

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Speaker 1: so think of it like, every every year, if you're

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Speaker 1: an average driver in the US, you're putting out a

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Speaker 1: small elephants wait worth of greenhouse gas pollution. Doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: where you drive, how you drive, what kind of vehicle

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Speaker 1: you drive, And it takes almost an higher acre of

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Speaker 1: forests to absorb that level of pollution. So uh, for

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Speaker 1: a cocktail Napkin estimate, let's say for Earth to handle

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Speaker 1: the annual gas related pollution from cars h plus those

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Speaker 1: trucks and SUVs. Let's keep in mind that that's just

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Speaker 1: the daily average um of of driving vehicles in the

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Speaker 1: United States. It could take a forest the size of

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Speaker 1: the entire state of California and Nevada and another smaller

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Speaker 1: state to absorb this level of pollution. So the question becomes,

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Speaker 1: if we're looking at this hypothetical gallon of gas situation

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Speaker 1: in California, how did we get here? Um? So why,

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Speaker 1: Like like all things that we try to do on

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Speaker 1: the show, let's take it back to the source. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the source of the oil itself, that crude um in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, this

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Speaker 1: is how the process works. The crude oil which is

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Speaker 1: which is you know, like the name implies, this has

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Speaker 1: been unrefined raw material. Uh, you should not put this

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Speaker 1: stuff in your gas tank. Um. It's pumped into these gigantic,

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Speaker 1: massive oil tankers. Uh. The biggest one holds I believe,

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Speaker 1: up to two million barrels of oil. Uh. This process

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Speaker 1: releases about two pounds of greenhouse gas for every gallon

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Speaker 1: of what will ultimately become gasoline. That ship travels about

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Speaker 1: eleven thousand miles to California, the site of our hypothetical situation. Here.

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Speaker 1: When the crewd reaches a refinery in California, it's mixed

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Speaker 1: with oil from other parts of the world. Then it's heated, melted,

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Speaker 1: burned to make different types of fuel and other industrial products,

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Speaker 1: petroleum based products. So this process creates about three and

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Speaker 1: a half pounds of greenhouse gas for every gallon of

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Speaker 1: gas you get at the pump. Uh for comparison here,

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Speaker 1: Uh you know, I can't come up with an animal

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Speaker 1: off the top of my head, but uh, it's like

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Speaker 1: the weight of a maybe a two sliced toaster. So

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Speaker 1: you so you get a toaster for for every gallont

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Speaker 1: every one of those two million gallons. Now, now we're

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Speaker 1: now we're shipping that refined gas from the refinery to

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Speaker 1: the station, right, Because it doesn't directly go through a

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Speaker 1: pipe from a refinery to your local Uh, stuckies, I'm

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Speaker 1: just gonna see how many gas stations I can name

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Speaker 1: in this in this episode. Uh you Instead, it goes

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Speaker 1: through a tanker, right, It's transported by a truck. You

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Speaker 1: see them all the time. On average, these tankers are

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Speaker 1: going to travel about fifty miles in the US to

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Speaker 1: deliver the cargo. And when it's transferring the gas from

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Speaker 1: the tanker to the tank at the gas station, some

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Speaker 1: of that gas evaporates. It makes more greenhouse gas as

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Speaker 1: well as benzene, and benzene is one of those things

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Speaker 1: you smell when you pull up into a gas station

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Speaker 1: where you were move the gas cap, there's more evaporation.

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Speaker 1: When you pick up the pump, there's more evaporation. But

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Speaker 1: now finally you have the gas. You have a small

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Speaker 1: piece of that gas all the way from Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: and you start driving, maybe to another gas station, like

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Speaker 1: a quick trip or a circle k. Yeah, and then

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Speaker 1: you just you know, continue on down the line because

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Speaker 1: there's always more environmental cost to be paid with this

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Speaker 1: kind of thing. And it really does depend a lot

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Speaker 1: on what vehicle you've chosen to drive. You may be

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Speaker 1: essentially pre paying for some of the environmental costs in

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Speaker 1: the energy production for your electric car or if you

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Speaker 1: are in a you know, a gas powered vehicle. Um,

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be things like the weather that are going

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Speaker 1: to affect how you're driving, Things like your mood even

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Speaker 1: or the music you're listening to. I know that sounds strange,

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Speaker 1: but that might affect how much goes into this. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And also the type of gas, right, how how refined

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Speaker 1: is it? Is it regular or is it that premium

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Speaker 1: good stuff or what's what's the middling one called like, okay,

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Speaker 1: mid mid grade, I guess the mid stuff. Uh. On average,

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Speaker 1: when you're looking at this extra environmental cost, you're talking

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Speaker 1: about a little over nineteen maybe twenty pounds of greenhouse

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Speaker 1: gas pollution per gallon. And this part, the driving around section,

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Speaker 1: that's where you're actually letting off the most pollution, around

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Speaker 1: three three quarters of the total, which is crazy because

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Speaker 1: you know, often in the past, uh, different factors have

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Speaker 1: been blamed for the pollution. But we have to keep

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Speaker 1: in mind it's the daily driver who is burning the fuel,

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Speaker 1: right It's us. We are three fourths of that cocker

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Speaker 1: spaniel when we get behind the wheel, which out of

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Speaker 1: context is a very strange statement to say, but it

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Speaker 1: holds up. And so when we think about pollution, we

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Speaker 1: have to remember talking about a long term price. It's

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Speaker 1: it's almost like a layaway cost. It's something everyone on

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Speaker 1: earth has to pay for in some way over the

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Speaker 1: course of their time here, even if they never drive,

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Speaker 1: never touch a car. Uh. And you know later generations

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Speaker 1: descendants of this species will pay some part of that

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Speaker 1: price as well. It just might not feel as steep

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Speaker 1: right now because the bill doesn't come due immediately. And

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Speaker 1: it doesn't come due through a single avenue. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: it's like, you know, unfortunately, there are coalitions that that

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Speaker 1: would would have us take these uh these hidden costs

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Speaker 1: into account and the idea of you know, creating some

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Speaker 1: kind of consensus globally about how much you know, we

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Speaker 1: want to put out there, how much greenhouse gases we

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Speaker 1: want to put out there. But a lot of that

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Speaker 1: stuff is not enforceable. A lot of that stuff is

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Speaker 1: just sort of like an on our system kind of situation.

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Speaker 1: And our country in particular right now, because of leading

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Speaker 1: ship is moving even further and further away from that. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, to to our caller's point about aliens coming

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Speaker 1: and being embarrassed that we're still deriving our energy from

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Speaker 1: this dinosaur juice that comes out of the ground. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of true. And and it really does feel

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Speaker 1: like a lot of it is just stacked against us

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Speaker 1: because of those corporate interests and because I mean, this

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Speaker 1: is all kind of stating the obvious. But yeah, and

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Speaker 1: and and and and you know, Ben, to your point

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Speaker 1: and once you wrote here in the outline, this isn't

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Speaker 1: just tree hugger kind of flim flammery. This should not

429
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 1: be just dismissed. There's absolutely a a cost in terms

430
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:40,040
Speaker 1: of human lives, in terms of cost of our environment

431
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,919
Speaker 1: and the habitability of our planet. Yeah yeah, and I

432
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 1: think you make a good point about the problems of cooperation.

433
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: It also goes into the problems of inequality. Imagine you're

434
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: developing nation, right, and other developed nations like the US

435
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,359
Speaker 1: or Western Europe are all of a sudden changing the

436
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: rules of the game. So now you are not allowed

437
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: the same industrial revolution that these other countries encountered earlier.

438
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,400
Speaker 1: Of course, you're gonna be irritated at that. That that's

439
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,640
Speaker 1: that's halfway through the basketball game or the football game,

440
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: someone moves the goal post. It feels a lot like

441
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,679
Speaker 1: stack in the odds against you. This works on a

442
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: micro economic scale too. It is deceptively easy for someone

443
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: in a higher socioeconomic status, someone who can individually bear

444
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: the increased costs of a fossil fuel free lifestyle, to

445
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: kind of look down their nose at the rest of

446
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,640
Speaker 1: the world, a world I should mention in which, by

447
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: the way, the average household makes less than the equivalent

448
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: of ten thousand dollars US a year. Uh, and look

449
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: down their nose. That's people are less fortunate and say, well,

450
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,440
Speaker 1: just do better first, that's a dick move, and worse

451
00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: than being a dick move, it's incorrect. There has to

452
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,440
Speaker 1: be some kind of transition, some kind of plan. A

453
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: world that found itself suddenly without oil would almost immediately collapse.

454
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,880
Speaker 1: And even if you feel pretty secure right now, that

455
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 1: collapse is going to rock your too. No one would

456
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: be immune. And honestly, the militaries of the world know this.

457
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: That is why, in a very real way, the modern

458
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: history of oil is also the modern history of war.

459
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: What are we talking about. We'll tell you after a

460
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: word from our sponsor, and we're back. So you know,

461
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: you've you've probably listened to this show once or twice.

462
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 1: Maybe this is your first time. Congratulations, But uh, if

463
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: you've been around for a while, you're probably familiar with

464
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:55,600
Speaker 1: the concept that world militaries, government's large corporations. Uh. There's

465
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: a lot of truth to the stereotype, specifically that government

466
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: and militaries within those governments are controlled by those governments

467
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 1: are pretty wasteful when it comes to spending at times. Corruption, Uh,

468
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:15,240
Speaker 1: it just runs wild within these organizations. And you know,

469
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: especially at the tops and you know, one of the

470
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 1: we've talked about before. One of the major reasons for

471
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 1: that is the need to increase budgets over time. That's

472
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 1: why you'll see what we would consider maybe wasteful spending

473
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: because you always have to get a little bit more

474
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: for the next time around. Um. And and you can

475
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,840
Speaker 1: really apply this thinking and this observation when it comes

476
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: to gasoline and oil usage within militaries. It reminds me of, uh,

477
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 1: to your point, Matt, that story about how the Air

478
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: Force spent a piece for these like reheating coffee cups

479
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: because because they were like poorly bill and their handles

480
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: would break. So they just dropped like hundreds and thousands

481
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,040
Speaker 1: of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars on these things

482
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: with absolutely no oversight. And finally, of course, when it,

483
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: you know, reaches the public, oh put the we'll we'll

484
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: put a stop to that or whatever. But that's that

485
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, unchecked happens, you know, all the time.

486
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: And I really want to refer back I've been I've

487
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: been wanted to mention this the whole episode. I thought

488
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: our callers point about changing the colors of the humvees

489
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 1: and stuff was really interesting, and I never thought of

490
00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: it that way because I think he's really saying more

491
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,719
Speaker 1: on the symbolic level. But I think it's it's apt, right, Like,

492
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: so you know, we used to go to war and

493
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 1: like jungle regions and and all of that, and then

494
00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: our you know, in our in our tanks and stuff,

495
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: we're camouflaged green. And now that's that that switched to

496
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: the sand colored camouflage really as signified the shift towards

497
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,840
Speaker 1: where our motivations truly lie, which is what this section

498
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 1: of the episode is about. I mean, it's it's beyond symbolism,

499
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: right because the green the green cameo won't work in

500
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 1: the desert. They could spot you from kilometers away. But

501
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 1: it's I think it's a very I agree with you, guys.

502
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: I think it's a very astute observation. Of course, it changed,

503
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 1: and it changed for a reason, and you know, think

504
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 1: about this. So everybody listening now has presumably survived April

505
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: and may of hopefully, and if you are listening to

506
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,479
Speaker 1: this from beyond the grave, beyond this mortal veil, please

507
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,760
Speaker 1: send us an email where conspiracy iHeart radio dot com. Uh,

508
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: but if you're alive, then you know full well that

509
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: in April of this year, gas prices plummeted. Plummeted is

510
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:47,240
Speaker 1: not even an adequate word, and in some cases crude

511
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:51,280
Speaker 1: for a time, crude oil took on a negative value.

512
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: This was a real problem for speculators who control a

513
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: lot of the oil and oil futures market because they

514
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 1: were starting to run out of places to store all

515
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: this excess oil. No one was driving to your Point

516
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: and Old due to a pandemic, and a lot of

517
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: businesses were closed. In May of this year, when a

518
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: barrel of something like West Texas Intermediate Crew cost around

519
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,720
Speaker 1: twenty bucks, uh, twenty bucks twenty bucks for a barrel

520
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: that works out about fifty cents US for a gallon,

521
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam was still paying slightly over ten dollars per

522
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 1: gallon for some types of fuel. Now hold on, you

523
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: might say, I see the three card Monte SWITCHERU that

524
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: you guys just pulled. Armies pay for different types of fuel, right,

525
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,800
Speaker 1: some of which is specialized. This is therefore not a

526
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 1: fair comparison. Well, yeah, okay, you caught us. The military

527
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 1: is paying ten dollars and four cents per gallon for

528
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 1: a type of fuel called jp L eight as jet

529
00:32:55,760 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: propulsion fuel eight psyche, as they used to say in

530
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: the nineties, kidding again the rascal, we're the rascals. The

531
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,959
Speaker 1: global average price for JPL eight isn't supposed to be

532
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,200
Speaker 1: ten dollars. It's supposed to be two to three dollars

533
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: per gallon. And where does all this money to pay

534
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,480
Speaker 1: these inflated gas costs come from? If you pay taxes

535
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 1: in the United States, it comes from you. But unfortunately, UM,

536
00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: While the problem that we're dealing with in might just

537
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 1: be a symptom of mismanagement and of course corruption and

538
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: a lot of these lobbies that we're talking about, the

539
00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: longstanding problem goes way way deeper, and it's at least

540
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: in part a function of all of those logistics and

541
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: supply chains and opening up the supply and closing it

542
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: down like we were talking about, um with that fed effect.

543
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,640
Speaker 1: Uh So, back in oh nine, the Pentagon reported that

544
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: the quote fully burdened cost of fuel. I love that

545
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 1: term burden there. It's very telling, um, meaning that cost

546
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: once you factor in all of these things, including those

547
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 1: I believe ben including those externalities, right like the cost

548
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,640
Speaker 1: of hospital stays and things like that, or no, not necessarily.

549
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: They may have. They may have factored it. Actually, they

550
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: may have factored in uh maybe cost of injury for

551
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: people who are transporting fuel, but probably not. Probably not.

552
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 1: So let's be conservative here and just assume that this

553
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:36,399
Speaker 1: refers mainly to the cost of the refinement process and

554
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: for moving it from A to B from where the

555
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,360
Speaker 1: crew comes out of the ground to where it gets refined,

556
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: to how it's then transported to the pumps and then

557
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,879
Speaker 1: into your car. I would say they might they might

558
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: bring in the cost of securing certain areas maybe or

559
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,520
Speaker 1: military basis. I don't know, just saying that might actually

560
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 1: be a part of it. It's a good it's a

561
00:34:56,880 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 1: good point. And that's the kind of stuff that we

562
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: probably aren't going to see like in ledgers, you know

563
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,799
Speaker 1: what I mean, because to your point bent earlier, there

564
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 1: is so much stuff they don't want you to know

565
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: about this whole process, uh, for good reasons far as

566
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam's concerned. Um, but that number to backtrack a

567
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:17,919
Speaker 1: little bit, cost of refinement transport and and who knows

568
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: what else. But let's just assume that it's refinement transport

569
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: and you know, the process of getting it from the

570
00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:27,319
Speaker 1: refineries to the actual point of sale would be four

571
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a gallon, wikes. When the you know, the

572
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: problem here is if that is true, then how the

573
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,600
Speaker 1: heck is that paid for? Right? How how does that

574
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars per gallon turn into to fourteen at

575
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: the pump near your house or something? Well, it's um,

576
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: it's America. It's the the financial systems within America that

577
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 1: make it go around. That's that who pays for it,

578
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 1: and the average American through taxes in probably the easiest

579
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,600
Speaker 1: way to think about it, is paying for that bill. Um.

580
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 1: And you know, the we haven't even got into the

581
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: concept of the government subsidizing the oil through taxes to

582
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: get that gas at the pump price lower. This is all,

583
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 1: this is all kind of a part of it. It's

584
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:26,880
Speaker 1: very very odd to imagine the way money essentially just

585
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 1: gets kind of moved around. Um, and we pretend that

586
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 1: it's paying for one thing when it's actually paying for another,

587
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 1: and we delay costs by paying in taxes once a year. Well,

588
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 1: it's just very strange. Sure, I mean, corporations do this

589
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 1: as well. That's why different departments or different divisions have

590
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: separate accounting lines on their spreadsheet. Right, you you distribute

591
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 1: the cost, or in the case of many corporations, you

592
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: distribute the losses and you keep the h you keep

593
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 1: the gains of the profits. But but just just for

594
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: some quick math here to pull a compare to walk

595
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,920
Speaker 1: these numbers out, Uh, so we can really feel the

596
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:17,960
Speaker 1: impact here. A hum V has a twenty five gallon

597
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: fuel tank capacity. So if it's ever in a situation

598
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:25,640
Speaker 1: where the fully burdened cost of of the fuel is

599
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 1: considered here, that means that to fill up one hum

600
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,640
Speaker 1: V it could cost ten thous dollars US. And to

601
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: your point, Matt, yeah, that that money doesn't fall from

602
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: the sky. Uh, it comes from uh, the taxpayers. And

603
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,760
Speaker 1: this is just an average. That's the weird thing about

604
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:48,840
Speaker 1: the four hunder dollar mark. In some places, government officials themselves,

605
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,560
Speaker 1: people work for the US government, have noted that the

606
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,240
Speaker 1: price can climb as high as one thousand dollars per gallon,

607
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 1: you know, like something you have to transport, maybe via

608
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: helicopter into an excessable terrain, uh, in the middle of nowhere.

609
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,360
Speaker 1: And look, yes, we're using the United States as an example.

610
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 1: But this, to be crystal clear, this is a problem

611
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: common to any globe trotting military, any any blue Water Navy,

612
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: and long time listeners you already know blue Water, green Water,

613
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,399
Speaker 1: brown Water Navy. Blue Water is the one that goes

614
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:26,799
Speaker 1: around the world. So, whether we're talking about Russia, whether

615
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 1: we're talking about China, whether we're talking about International Justice

616
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 1: League type avenger coalitions like UH or some we call

617
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 1: them brotherhoods of evil mutants like NATO UH, we're going

618
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 1: to see the same pattern playing out. As a matter

619
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,360
Speaker 1: of fact, you won't see this on mainstream news unless

620
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 1: you dig it kind of deep into some trade publications.

621
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:56,080
Speaker 1: But China just inked, or maybe reinvigorated is a better word,

622
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,840
Speaker 1: a a new leg of a secretive, multi decade deal

623
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 1: with Iran, and essentially the too long, didn't read version

624
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 1: of it. Is this in exchange for what amounts to

625
00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:11,879
Speaker 1: about a thirty to thirty two percent discount on all

626
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,359
Speaker 1: fossil fuel resources produced by Iran, China is going to

627
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 1: take an increasingly larger hold of infrastructure related to refineries

628
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 1: and transport of fossil fuels, as well as having a

629
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:30,200
Speaker 1: closer military partnership. They're moving pieces on the chessboard. The

630
00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:34,719
Speaker 1: great game never ever ended. But what it, but in

631
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,880
Speaker 1: a similar way, be to the way the United States

632
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: has moved in Middle Eastern countries for a long time, right,

633
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 1: just briefly mentioned there, the cost of securing oil supplies

634
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,439
Speaker 1: in other countries ends up being a factor, and it's

635
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: China making that move in Iran one of the only

636
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: places in the Middle East where the United States hasn't

637
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:01,520
Speaker 1: officially invaded and inserted itself. Yeah, good point, Matt. And

638
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 1: pull up the map, folks if you're reading along at home, Uh,

639
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: just just do a cursory Internet search on your OS

640
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:14,560
Speaker 1: demon browser choice and and ask how many US bases

641
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 1: are bordering Iran. You will see it's it's literally a ring.

642
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 1: The Strait of Horn moves is one of for a

643
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: long time. That's what a lot of people thought would

644
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 1: be the flashpoint for World War three. Again, as you know,

645
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: world War three might end up being over water, who knows.

646
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 1: But this this is just an example, right of a

647
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:38,399
Speaker 1: bigger issue. And it's not to pick on China, as

648
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,840
Speaker 1: you said, Matt, other countries have done this before in

649
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 1: much and much more uh blatantly belligerent ways, like like

650
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:52,120
Speaker 1: the UK, like Britain in the Middle East. Right, this

651
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:56,480
Speaker 1: all means that if we sincerely seek to understand the

652
00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: true price of gasoline, at some point we also have

653
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 1: to start factoring in the cost of regional instability, and

654
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 1: we have to factor in the price of war. And this,

655
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 1: I mean, this takes us. This is an incredibly important

656
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: point that doesn't get talked about near often enough. But

657
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: it's also not the only point. You know, they're they're

658
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 1: a hidden cost. We talked about these long term bills.

659
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: What happens when these bills come due, Like, like know,

660
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: you mentioned a little bit about whether or not the

661
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: pentagon factored in medical care and that fully burdened cost.

662
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 1: Is that another externality? What else is out there? Yes,

663
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 1: so we've talked about these hidden costs, um, these externalities

664
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,840
Speaker 1: and and whether or not these are actually factored in

665
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: in a meaningful way. Um, But there are other ones

666
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,440
Speaker 1: that we haven't mentioned too, that are much more difficult

667
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:55,480
Speaker 1: to quantify. Let's think about oil spills, I mean, in

668
00:41:55,520 --> 00:41:58,359
Speaker 1: a very callous and calculated way. I'm sure there are

669
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 1: some money people that consider these the cost of doing business.

670
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:05,319
Speaker 1: You know, the occasional disaster that you have to pay

671
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,720
Speaker 1: a lot of money in pr and in cleanup efforts

672
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 1: to get rid of It's ultimately worth it at the

673
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:14,799
Speaker 1: end of the day, considering how much money is generated

674
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,919
Speaker 1: from that product that you're having to clean up. Let's

675
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: think about things like respiratory illnesses. Let's think about lost

676
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: productivity when people in places like California, Los Angeles, Atlanta

677
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,440
Speaker 1: that have like things called orange small alerts that literally

678
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 1: the air quality is so bad that if you have

679
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 1: a pre existing condition or some kind of respiratory sensitivity,

680
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to go outside. It's just

681
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,040
Speaker 1: the reality of the world we live in. And it's

682
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:44,919
Speaker 1: not something that's factored in. And if it is, it's

683
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 1: certainly not factored in a meaningful way. Uh. In in

684
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and I think in Mountain Ben's possibly

685
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 1: as well. UM, but let's give a little bit of

686
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: a snapshot here. Uh, let's talk about Los Angeles alone.

687
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,800
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned, the overall cost of air pollution a

688
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 1: up to something in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand,

689
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:08,160
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars per person per year, and

690
00:43:08,239 --> 00:43:11,400
Speaker 1: that's because of things like emergency room visits. Uh. That

691
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:16,359
Speaker 1: lost productivity. We talked about lost work or missing school. Um,

692
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: for children. So, Ben, do you want to let's extrapolate

693
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 1: something from this, Yeah, if we if we build out

694
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,400
Speaker 1: from from these conclusions, a couple of different studies, including

695
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 1: Center for Investigative Reporting that we mentioned earlier, including uh,

696
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: some medical nonprofits and so on. It's not a surprise

697
00:43:37,520 --> 00:43:41,000
Speaker 1: studies have such a wide range on the cost of

698
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 1: these externalities. One study, in fact, found the concluded that

699
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 1: this per year cost five hundred and fifty billion dollars

700
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 1: Throw up your was it dr evil pinky there? Or

701
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 1: as much as one point seven trillion dollars for most

702
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,399
Speaker 1: people is cognitively impossible to think of as a real number. Uh.

703
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,839
Speaker 1: And that's in the U S A loan. If you

704
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: add that to the price of the pump, that's where

705
00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:13,439
Speaker 1: you'll see the conclusions that the true costs breaks down

706
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 1: to something like fifteen dollars per gallon. But again, like

707
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 1: we said, it all depends on your methodology. What what

708
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 1: variables do you admit and what what how do you

709
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 1: factor them? How do you wait them? In countries that

710
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 1: appear that appear to have a higher cost at the

711
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: gas station, yes, we're looking at you, Europe. Hello. Then

712
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 1: part of that higher at the pump cost comes from taxation,

713
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:42,280
Speaker 1: and that's interesting to the circle that you're talking about, Matt,

714
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,840
Speaker 1: because some of those taxes are in theory at least

715
00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:50,960
Speaker 1: dedicated to fighting to mitigating the problems we described above.

716
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,440
Speaker 1: So if you're in Germany, you're paying let's say you're

717
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 1: paying eight dollars per gallon, just pulling that out of

718
00:44:57,280 --> 00:44:59,920
Speaker 1: the ether here, you're paying eight dollars per gallon. Will

719
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:03,880
Speaker 1: a portion of that is not reflecting maybe the cost

720
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 1: of refineries. It's reflecting the cost of combating greenhouse gas emissions,

721
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 1: for example. And it's interesting because that would theoretically at

722
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 1: least reduce the demand for the gasoline, which should lower

723
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: that price further. But you're still seeing, like, you know,

724
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:23,440
Speaker 1: the equivalent of eight dollars or more per gallon in

725
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:26,759
Speaker 1: a lot of those countries. Again, the one of the

726
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:31,280
Speaker 1: major things here, in one of the last crucial things

727
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,719
Speaker 1: that we're going to be talking about in this episode,

728
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: is that variance. There's so there's so many factors that

729
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:43,279
Speaker 1: go into calculating how much gas actually costs, and when

730
00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 1: you're you know, especially when we're trying to research for

731
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 1: this episode, you're looking at contradictions made in how people

732
00:45:49,719 --> 00:45:53,560
Speaker 1: in different organizations are calculating these numbers and how they're

733
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: getting there. It can be really tough when you're thinking

734
00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 1: about all of these different possible factors. Agree. This is

735
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:07,120
Speaker 1: an increasingly fluid situation. I'm sorry, it's terrible and and

736
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 1: uh and they're they're indications fluid. I'm sorry. Oh god,

737
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: the reviews are going to kill us, you guys before

738
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:21,880
Speaker 1: before the fossil fuel industry does Uh what if we

739
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,840
Speaker 1: get disappeared by people who hate terrible jokes? What a

740
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 1: way to go? I would I would honestly go into

741
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:31,800
Speaker 1: that good night, you know, knowing that we've made a difference.

742
00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:34,640
Speaker 1: I would just say, for being the one non Dad

743
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: on this show as a host, you make the best

744
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,280
Speaker 1: dad jokes been dad game shan I learn. I learned

745
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:42,839
Speaker 1: it from growing up in the dad joke game. Under

746
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:47,359
Speaker 1: you guys, I yeah, we're we're here for your dad

747
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 1: joke needs. As the world burns down, so there is

748
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:52,880
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel, though, kind of

749
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:57,359
Speaker 1: electric vehicles are on the rise. And yet maybe they're

750
00:46:57,360 --> 00:46:59,919
Speaker 1: not perfect. Maybe they're not as much of a silver

751
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 1: bullet or panacea as some people would claim, but the

752
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: technology is there. It's evolving at a significant pace. More importantly,

753
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:11,839
Speaker 1: the infrastructure to support those vehicles is evolving as well.

754
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,360
Speaker 1: Don't remember just a handful of years ago, you wouldn't

755
00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:17,759
Speaker 1: see charging stations it like get grocery stores, you know,

756
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,600
Speaker 1: and like outside of Atlanta you even see them in

757
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:23,200
Speaker 1: Georgia Now, you know, Um, it's not as much of

758
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 1: like a bougie kind of you know, only for the

759
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:30,279
Speaker 1: rich thing anymore. And even Tesla, the prices are going

760
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,759
Speaker 1: down for like a nicer you know, a nicer electric car.

761
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:36,120
Speaker 1: That and they're faster now too, which I think was

762
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:38,880
Speaker 1: a big barrier to some gear heads was like, oh,

763
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: I don't want an electric car because it was like,

764
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,319
Speaker 1: you know, sort of embarrassing and you couldn't really get

765
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:44,759
Speaker 1: a lot of juice out of them. But some of

766
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 1: these new ones are super powerful. Yeah, but no where

767
00:47:48,600 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: where are you getting all that all that power power

768
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:58,319
Speaker 1: them electrical vehicle batteries? Huh. That's so that's a good

769
00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 1: point too. It's a good point, you may, it's all

770
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:04,760
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the problem you guys, with great power

771
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: comes great responsibility or black They're right, I mean, it's true.

772
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,879
Speaker 1: That's a really that's a that's a really good point.

773
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:15,399
Speaker 1: You know, for for a long time, depending on where

774
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: you were in the world, if you drove an electric car,

775
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:21,239
Speaker 1: you were driving a coal powered car, and people didn't

776
00:48:21,239 --> 00:48:23,919
Speaker 1: want to admit that. But also, I don't know about

777
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:26,640
Speaker 1: you guys, IM super envious of when I see a

778
00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 1: Tesla drive by, especially when when the slick ones but

779
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:36,279
Speaker 1: you know, the car car love aside. We're correct that

780
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 1: forms of alternative energy are increasing in countries across the planet. Yeah,

781
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: a lot of them are developed countries, you know, the

782
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:49,120
Speaker 1: socio economic equivalent of the global one percent, and they

783
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:54,399
Speaker 1: can afford to subsidize research and subsidize infrastructure. But still

784
00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,279
Speaker 1: it's a good time, you know, for for a long time.

785
00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:00,440
Speaker 1: Here in the US as well, research into these techno bologies,

786
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,840
Speaker 1: deployment of them is stymy by a ton of factors,

787
00:49:04,360 --> 00:49:09,360
Speaker 1: industrial political opposition, plain old hard technological limits. Like you

788
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:13,240
Speaker 1: mentioned Noli, who wants to buy a car that doesn't

789
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:15,800
Speaker 1: car very well? Right if we want to make that

790
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:19,680
Speaker 1: a herb We also had had problems figuring out how

791
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: best to store solar energy, make a solar battery powering

792
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:26,160
Speaker 1: something to also make it able to work at night

793
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:31,480
Speaker 1: with stored energy. There's this there's also this huge tremendous

794
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:35,040
Speaker 1: cost of making large scale switches from fossil fuel to

795
00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 1: something new. Quick question for you, gentlemen, is really quickly

796
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 1: when you say, you know, the processes that go into

797
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,360
Speaker 1: making the batteries with the electric cars, you know burns

798
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:46,360
Speaker 1: all kinds of you know, fossil fuels as well. Is

799
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:49,400
Speaker 1: it so much that it's not worth the fact that

800
00:49:49,440 --> 00:49:51,360
Speaker 1: you're not having to burn it every time you use it?

801
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:53,319
Speaker 1: You just have to like, you know, there's that, there's

802
00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 1: that sunk cost of making it, of the manufacturing process,

803
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 1: and then you've got the thing that presumably will last

804
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 1: you a long time. I don't know the answer. I

805
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:04,400
Speaker 1: don't know if you if you guys know, we're not

806
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:09,719
Speaker 1: talking about manufacturing. We're talking about the actual energy that

807
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:13,840
Speaker 1: goes from the outlet into the battery to charge the

808
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:18,319
Speaker 1: vehicle so that it can drive the energy. Yes, yes,

809
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: I'm such a dumby, of course, yeah, of course, no, No,

810
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 1: it's it's I mean, I can totally understand. Manufacturing the

811
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:29,480
Speaker 1: batteries is also not that's and it's also problematic, right

812
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 1: oh god, yeah, all the rare minerals, uh one of

813
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: the big things for electric vehicles right now is also

814
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: just in terms of efficiency. It's trying to get the

815
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:42,840
Speaker 1: weight of that battery down. That was a huge problem

816
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:45,200
Speaker 1: and it's still you know, it's still a speed bump today.

817
00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:51,759
Speaker 1: So altogether, it seems like the old theory of international

818
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 1: politics from Wu Tang holds true, and geopolitics and international

819
00:50:57,640 --> 00:51:03,440
Speaker 1: energy infrastructure as well as hip hop cream cash rules

820
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 1: everything around me sounds look, yes, it's a fantastic song,

821
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:13,320
Speaker 1: but it also it's also true. Large scale moves away

822
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,880
Speaker 1: from fossil fuel and all the associated costs with fossil

823
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:19,960
Speaker 1: fuel and the associated costs with moving from it only

824
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:22,920
Speaker 1: become more and more likely when there is a financial

825
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:27,279
Speaker 1: benefit to doing so, there's not. There might be a

826
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:32,839
Speaker 1: CEO somewhere who says, ultruistically, I'm gonna move away from

827
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:35,560
Speaker 1: fossil fuel because it's the right thing to do. I

828
00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:40,239
Speaker 1: think Louis Pasteur was right, uh to to spread his

829
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 1: innovation around the world. I don't know, call me a pestiment.

830
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:45,359
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna happen. I think it's gonna

831
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:47,800
Speaker 1: have to be something in a budget meetium. What do

832
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:51,879
Speaker 1: you guys think, Yeah, unlikely. That's what I would say,

833
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,360
Speaker 1: unlikely that somebody goes through and just changes the world

834
00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:02,080
Speaker 1: because it's the right thing to do. But it doesn't

835
00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 1: have to be the case. If you're listening to this

836
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: and you're running a multinational corporation and you've got love

837
00:52:09,160 --> 00:52:14,480
Speaker 1: in your heart, you can change the word. Isn't that

838
00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:16,839
Speaker 1: song from ghost But don't they use that in Ghostbusters

839
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:21,640
Speaker 1: at the end of Ghostbusters too, when the statue of

840
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 1: liberty is taken from somebody checked that and get back

841
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 1: to us, please. I don't know why I'm looking at No. No,

842
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to like nominate you to

843
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:35,919
Speaker 1: be in charge of knowing everything about Ghostbusters. I don't

844
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 1: remember this song from the end of Ghostbusters. I actually

845
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:43,320
Speaker 1: my mem my recollections of Ghostbusters two are pretty spotty.

846
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:50,080
Speaker 1: Uh not agree. I like the little I like his

847
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,120
Speaker 1: little What am I dead to? You know? I like

848
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:57,920
Speaker 1: his I like his little tody um. I like that

849
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 1: character actor and his his Eastern European accent is hilarious.

850
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:07,279
Speaker 1: But no, I actually don't even know what song you're

851
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,000
Speaker 1: talking about. Ben, Put a little Love in your heart,

852
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:12,879
Speaker 1: Put a little love in your heart. Wait, oh wait,

853
00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:16,520
Speaker 1: hang on, I think I might be wronged in the world.

854
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:21,760
Speaker 1: You know, Nope, it's the end of Scrooged. Another amazing

855
00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:25,280
Speaker 1: Bill Murray. But you know, genuinely, I was thinking about

856
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,799
Speaker 1: farting Preacher, and I think he has a line where

857
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:29,920
Speaker 1: he says, if you've got love in your heart, let

858
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:34,839
Speaker 1: it out, and then presumably he farts. Oh. Speaking of which,

859
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:37,640
Speaker 1: you guys everyone out there, pro tip if you have

860
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:42,680
Speaker 1: an Alexa device, Uh, you can make her fart go

861
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:46,440
Speaker 1: crazy and yeah, and she gets into this like crazy

862
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 1: fart loop. Uh. It's very it's very difficult to get

863
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:51,800
Speaker 1: her out of it, like you'll be You'll be like,

864
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:54,720
Speaker 1: please stop. He's like, would you like a wet fart?

865
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 1: What kind of fart do you require? Masta, I'm not kiddy.

866
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: And then at the end she tries to sell you

867
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:05,920
Speaker 1: a premium bundle of farts. It's all like an upsell thing.

868
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,160
Speaker 1: I felt like I had stumbled upon some sort of

869
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:13,960
Speaker 1: hidden treasure. But then it just wouldn't stop. So Jeff

870
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:17,919
Speaker 1: Bezos is trying to get into the professional flashiles m game.

871
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,759
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not surprised. Don't let people fart. Shame

872
00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:26,200
Speaker 1: you folks, either. The average person. Uh, the average person

873
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:29,360
Speaker 1: amits seventeen to twenty three farts per day, and you

874
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 1: actually you actually probably don't notice several of them. Also,

875
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:38,000
Speaker 1: also in your defense, so brain stuff things coming out.

876
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 1: Also in your defense, it's not really you that's farting.

877
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:44,799
Speaker 1: It's your gut flora that lives inside you emitting gas.

878
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:46,840
Speaker 1: So if you want to think about you know, you

879
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:51,200
Speaker 1: hear the argument about um farts from humans or cows

880
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:55,439
Speaker 1: or other mammals producing pollution, it's the gut flora. It's

881
00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:59,800
Speaker 1: not you, it's it's them speaking of emissions, right, and

882
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:03,880
Speaker 1: cycles and cycles like like Alexa. Right, we have to

883
00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: remember they're they're powerful invested interests right, their countries, empires,

884
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:14,359
Speaker 1: global corporations, and in some cases not necessarily naming names

885
00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:19,720
Speaker 1: in this episode, impossibly wealthy individuals who owe their entire

886
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:25,680
Speaker 1: current status to the existing fossil fuel energy infrastructure. They

887
00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:30,520
Speaker 1: will pay enormous cost to maintain that infrastructure. If they

888
00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:34,600
Speaker 1: cannot secure a comparable position in a new energy economy,

889
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 1: they will fight, make no mistake, to keep the status

890
00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:40,439
Speaker 1: they currently have. It's kind of a rain in hell

891
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:44,799
Speaker 1: versus uh, you know, having having a middle class job

892
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:48,719
Speaker 1: in heaven kind of thing. Absolutely, So, first of all,

893
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,880
Speaker 1: thank you so much Mike for sending us that message

894
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:55,279
Speaker 1: and getting us to look into this entire thing. Um.

895
00:55:55,440 --> 00:56:00,279
Speaker 1: I hope you are doing well up there in Vancouver, Washington. Hey,

896
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:03,360
Speaker 1: so what do you think about this whole subject? What

897
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:05,759
Speaker 1: do you think about the true cost of gas? How

898
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 1: much does it cost where you are? And what do

899
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:10,919
Speaker 1: you think it would actually cost if you were paying

900
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:14,960
Speaker 1: for everything at the pump? Um? What's the future of gasoline?

901
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:16,920
Speaker 1: Do you think we're going to continue to you know,

902
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 1: drive these cars around, especially now after you know the

903
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 1: pandemic situation and all of our new at home lives

904
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:29,160
Speaker 1: that we've got going on. Um. And also what do

905
00:56:29,200 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 1: you think should be factored in at the pump when

906
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,959
Speaker 1: you're paying? Is there anything specific that we talked about

907
00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 1: today that you think is the most important thing? And

908
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 1: how would we pay for it? We want answers. We're

909
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: going to change this whole system from our desks in

910
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:47,960
Speaker 1: our houses, or at least we're gonna advise someone somewhere

911
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:51,799
Speaker 1: listening through your ideas. So please please please write to us.

912
00:56:51,840 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 1: Find us. You can find us all across social media. Yeah,

913
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:58,320
Speaker 1: where either conspiracy stuff conspiracy stuff show some combination of

914
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 1: those in Instagram and twitch, her and Facebook. You can

915
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,840
Speaker 1: find our Facebook group what's called Here's where it gets crazy,

916
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:09,279
Speaker 1: um a lot of fun activity on their UM. Just

917
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:11,520
Speaker 1: have to answer a couple of basic questions to just

918
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:14,879
Speaker 1: prove to us that you're not Russian bots, and then

919
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:17,120
Speaker 1: you're in. Like Flynn, you can also find this as

920
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:19,440
Speaker 1: individual human people on social media. I am at how

921
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,440
Speaker 1: now Noel Brown on Instagram and you can find me

922
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:25,680
Speaker 1: at Ben Bolan hsw on Twitter. Where you can find

923
00:57:25,720 --> 00:57:31,560
Speaker 1: me at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Anybody conspiracy realists, longtime listeners,

924
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:35,600
Speaker 1: first time listeners, anybody writing the email right now. I

925
00:57:35,760 --> 00:57:38,160
Speaker 1: usually never do this on the fly, but it was

926
00:57:38,240 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 1: important to figure it out. I know that the song

927
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 1: and the Ghostbusters to soundtrack when they're in the Statue

928
00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 1: of Liberty is higher and higher. Your love keeps lifting

929
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:50,920
Speaker 1: me higher and higher. Feel like you have to Yeah,

930
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,280
Speaker 1: don't feel like you have to send us the Ghostbusters

931
00:57:54,320 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 1: hate mail about it. We figured it out. The powerful

932
00:57:57,000 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: lobby guys. There are some things that even this show

933
00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:01,120
Speaker 1: is not gonna mess with. So you do you have

934
00:58:01,160 --> 00:58:04,120
Speaker 1: any idea how many people have not listened to this

935
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:11,040
Speaker 1: part yet, but have already written you a message. Oh God,

936
00:58:11,120 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 1: don't don't punish. Don't punish us collectively. We we got there.

937
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:16,840
Speaker 1: We got there at the end, and we do want

938
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:18,680
Speaker 1: to hear from you. We do want to hear from you.

939
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 1: If you don't care for social media, that's wholly makes sense.

940
00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 1: You can go old school with us. We have a

941
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:28,200
Speaker 1: phone number that you can call literally any any time,

942
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: that's right. Our number is one eight three three st

943
00:58:32,520 --> 00:58:35,160
Speaker 1: d w y t K. If you don't want to

944
00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:37,160
Speaker 1: do that stuff though, but you still want to write

945
00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:39,800
Speaker 1: to us with your amazing idea, we're ready for you.

946
00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:43,040
Speaker 1: Just send us a good old fashioned email. We are

947
00:58:43,360 --> 00:59:05,200
Speaker 1: conspiracy at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff they don't want

948
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:07,560
Speaker 1: you to know is a production of I heart Radio.

949
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:10,120
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i

950
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:13,120
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

951
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:13,960
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.