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Speaker 1: Fellow conspiracy realist in an earlier episode that we recorded.

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Speaker 2: We recorded just now.

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Speaker 1: Uh dolet you guys remember you were setting me up

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Speaker 1: for a classic like Jerry Seinfeld thing, Oh.

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Speaker 2: You know, a good old what's the deal with?

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Speaker 3: And Okay, the question came up as to whether he

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Speaker 3: ever actually said that, but I.

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Speaker 1: Think yeah, I think it was the sixty Minutes guy

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Speaker 1: Andy Rooney said, what's the deal with anyway?

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Speaker 2: Uh, what's the deal with gasoloid? Uh? It's expensive, that's

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Speaker 2: what Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Uh. Do you guys get gas on a regular basis

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Speaker 1: for your vehicles or endeavors.

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Speaker 4: It's usually after eating wealth of beans. That's when I

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Speaker 4: find it to be the worst.

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Speaker 3: Matt's Oh no, no, we're talking about the kind of

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Speaker 3: goes in your cah see that you pocked it habbit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I like to tie my gas trips with Costco because

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Speaker 3: the guess is maybe slightly less expensive there, though the

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Speaker 3: jury is maybe a little out on whether Costco is

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Speaker 3: a good deal or not.

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Speaker 1: Wait, do you have a cost Co membership?

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Speaker 2: I do.

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Speaker 3: I have an executive membership, Ben, What is it like

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Speaker 3: At the time I truly entered the ranks of adulthood.

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Speaker 3: I quite enjoy a good cost co adventure, and they

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Speaker 3: do have gas, and it does seem to hold to

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Speaker 3: a slightly different pricing model than what you might see

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Speaker 3: at the pump.

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Speaker 2: Which can be a little willy and or nilly.

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Speaker 3: And that's based on a lot of factors that we're

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Speaker 3: going to talk about in this classic episode.

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Speaker 5: Ooh, that's right.

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Speaker 4: What are the factors that go into that price at

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Speaker 4: the pump?

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Speaker 5: That's what this episode's about.

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Speaker 4: I know that it doesn't sound that exciting, but oh,

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Speaker 4: let's assure you it is.

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Speaker 3: It's also very topical given the political climate that we

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Speaker 3: find ourselves in and a lot of the promises about

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Speaker 3: how these prices can be controlled for the better and

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Speaker 3: whether or not they actually are.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is from twenty twenty However, now more

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Speaker 1: than ever you might be interested in this conversation. Also

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Speaker 1: check out our episode recently from twenty twenty five on

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Speaker 1: Russia's shadow Fleet.

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Speaker 6: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 6: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 6: learn the stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 1: A production of.

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Speaker 5: IHEARTRADI welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

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Speaker 5: My name is Nol.

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Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We are joined as always with

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Speaker 1: our super producer Paul. Mission control decands, most importantly, you

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Speaker 1: are you. You are here, and that makes this stuff

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Speaker 1: they don't want you to know. We hope that this

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Speaker 1: episode finds you well and relatively sane despite all the

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Speaker 1: plot twists of what is still somehow twenty twenty. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode is inspired by one of our fellow conspiracy realist

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Speaker 1: and Hello radio man, Come to find Mike out there

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Speaker 1: in Vancouver. Mike, you called us to say.

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Speaker 7: This, Hi guys, I like your show a lot. I

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Speaker 7: challenge you to do a show on the full true

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Speaker 7: cost of gas. For background, there was a time when

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Speaker 7: all our tanks and jeeps were painted green. We were

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Speaker 7: defending Europe and maintaining that ability. Then one day all

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Speaker 7: our tanks and everything started being painted sand tanned color,

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Speaker 7: indication that the military industrial complex was all about getting oil.

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Speaker 7: I am somebody who specializes and works in the field

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Speaker 7: of energy efficiency and thinks it's ridiculous that we're still

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Speaker 7: using oil for energy. Neil de Grassi Tyson has a

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Speaker 7: quote that said if aliens landed, it'd be embarrassed to

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Speaker 7: admit that we still use carbon energy from the ground.

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Speaker 7: The full true cost of gas on our healthcare system,

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Speaker 7: on our environment, on the taxpayer's checkbook is astronomical. I

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Speaker 7: challenge you to find that full true cost gas per

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Speaker 7: for a gallon of gas. It's around forty five dollars easily. Anyway,

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Speaker 7: Love your show, Love to listen to you guys, banter,

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Speaker 7: your great COVID companions, Take care and all the best

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Speaker 7: to all of you. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: So this is a fantastic question, Mike. As any economists

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Speaker 1: can tell us, the price at your local pump can

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Speaker 1: make a huge difference in the day to day function

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Speaker 1: of not just your town, not just your neck of

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Speaker 1: the global woods, but the state of your nation, and

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Speaker 1: on a macro scale, the state of the world empires

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Speaker 1: have collapsed if they have collapsed again, all to ensure

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Speaker 1: that when you roll up to our local speedway, as

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Speaker 1: the most common gas station in the US, by the way,

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Speaker 1: you'll be able to top off that car. And petroleum,

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Speaker 1: of course, isn't just used for gas. It's used for

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Speaker 1: a multitude of other things, and electric cars are an

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Speaker 1: increasingly viable alternative, but the world still has had serious

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Speaker 1: problems moving away from fossil fuels, and that's not a coincidence.

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Speaker 1: We have massively powerful vested interest and globe trotting institutions

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Speaker 1: dedicated to the maintenance and growth of the oil industry

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

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

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Speaker 1: been raising concerns about that Texas tee, that black gold

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

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Speaker 1: how much does gas actually cost? Here are the facts.

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Speaker 2: Well, as of.

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Speaker 3: Twenty sixteen, the United States consumed more gasoline than any

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Speaker 3: other country in the world, and the average household has

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Speaker 3: spent about two thousand dollars a year on gas. Individual

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Speaker 3: drivers used pre pandemic and average of five hundred and

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Speaker 3: fifty seven gallons of gas each year and today being

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Speaker 3: July tenth, as we record this, the average cost of

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Speaker 3: a gallon of gas, which is about three point eight

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Speaker 3: liters for our metric system folks out there, is two

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Speaker 3: dollars and eighteen cents two point one eighty four dollars.

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Speaker 3: That's according to Triple A. There's certainly a lot lower

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Speaker 3: than it's been in recent years. I think when we

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Speaker 3: saw a decrease in driving due to the pandemic. I'm

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Speaker 3: not sure exactly how that supply and demand system works,

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Speaker 3: but gas prices definitely went way down. So remember back

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Speaker 3: in twenty eleven when gas was about four dollars a gallon,

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Speaker 3: And you know, you guys all know that this definitely

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Speaker 3: varies from state to state, especially out west, where things

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Speaker 3: tend to be.

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Speaker 2: A good bit higher.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's so much variability in fact, just within

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Speaker 4: the United States, but there are a lot of other

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Speaker 4: things that affect that price. We're going to get into

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Speaker 4: a little bit later. Prices, you know, if you're out west,

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Speaker 4: tend to be about twenty percent higher than that national

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Speaker 4: average that we're talking about here. And specifically if you're

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Speaker 4: in California, and anyone who has lived there at any

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Speaker 4: point or lives there now can tell you and assure

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Speaker 4: you that those prices can be a lot higher, maybe

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Speaker 4: fifty percent higher than that national average. But you know,

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Speaker 4: and then again, if you're traveling around the country, let's

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Speaker 4: say you're in the Midwest or in the South, the

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Speaker 4: prices actually tend to be about five to ten percent

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Speaker 4: lower than what you'd find on the national average. You know,

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Speaker 4: I think the three the four of us here at

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Speaker 4: stuff they want, you know, can attest to that part.

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Speaker 4: If you go to the Northeast, though, prices are only

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Speaker 4: I mean, you're a little bit higher, maybe about five

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Speaker 4: percent higher than the national average. So you really tell

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Speaker 4: that there's a lot of variants. But there's also a

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Speaker 4: lot of other stuff, like we said, that goes into

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Speaker 4: that price.

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Speaker 3: It seems to kind of follow cost of living type things.

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Speaker 3: You know, are taxes, I mean, taxes in California are

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Speaker 3: higher in general, and cost of living in California in

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Speaker 3: general is a lot higher. I don't know, that's just observationally,

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Speaker 3: it seems to follow to follow those trends. But there

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Speaker 3: absolutely are a lot of other factors like economic unrest,

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Speaker 3: global shortages, and even seasonal variations that can really have

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Speaker 3: an impact on the price that you pay at the pump.

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Speaker 4: And yes, as you pointed out there we're going to

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Speaker 4: talk about later, offsetting the price by paying for gasoline

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Speaker 4: in essentially roundabout ways or other ways is a major

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Speaker 4: factor in how cheap gas is in the US. And

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Speaker 4: we're going to talk about that.

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Speaker 1: And let's let's let's admit this is going to be

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Speaker 1: a bit US centric because we have so much data there.

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Speaker 1: But we also have to acknowledge Europe. As you might

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Speaker 1: imagine or have unfortunately experienced, Gasoline or petrol, whatever you

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Speaker 1: want to call it in Europe tends to be higher

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Speaker 1: than gas in the States or in Canada. This is

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Speaker 1: due to higher rates of taxation, and it makes prices

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Speaker 1: historically around three to four times higher than in the US.

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Speaker 1: But we can flip it in other parts of the world.

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Speaker 1: Consider many oil rich countries. Some other countries have subsidized

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Speaker 1: gas costs. That makes it cheaper for people to buy

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Speaker 1: gas than taxation. You know, taxation makes it naturally more expensive.

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Speaker 1: Places like you know, you can already imagine some of

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Speaker 1: these places 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 4: In the US and the.

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Speaker 1: US, ecuadors on the list, Bolivia's on the list. But

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Speaker 1: these have subsidized more. Well, it's tricky. They have done

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Speaker 1: more direct subsidizzation than the US. Perhaps this makes sense

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Speaker 1: to the leaders of these countries because subsidizing this cost

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Speaker 1: makes it easier cough cough, cheaper cough cough to transport

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Speaker 1: people and goods. But it also means that people are

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Speaker 1: going to be less efficient with gas, and it can

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Speaker 1: spell huge problems down the line, both in terms of

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Speaker 1: the climate obviously, but also in terms of the economy.

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Speaker 1: We have to remember, a country too dependent on a

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Speaker 1: single resource is never truly safe. And then, of course,

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Speaker 1: we did US and Canada, we did Europe, we did

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Speaker 1: oil rich countries. We have to think about the rest

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Speaker 1: of the world because saying the cost of gas at

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Speaker 1: the pump is it feels safe and it feels correct,

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Speaker 1: but it's inaccurate.

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Speaker 4: It's correct been the price at the pump metric that

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Speaker 4: we're talking about here doesn't factor in all kinds of

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Speaker 4: things like let's say a person's income or a family's

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Speaker 4: a household's income. So let's let's make up an example

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Speaker 4: here with some made up numbers. Let's say gas costs

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Speaker 4: in some made up country ten dollars per gallon. Sounds

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Speaker 4: sounds intense, but let's say ten dollars per gallon for gasoline.

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Speaker 4: Let's say everybody in this country makes an exact wage

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Speaker 4: of four hundred thousand dollars a year. Woo, right, Okay,

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Speaker 4: that seems like a lot of money to me at least.

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Speaker 4: But if you're you know, if you make that much

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Speaker 4: money and you have to pay ten dollars per gallon,

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Speaker 4: that's not that big of a deal. It's not going

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Speaker 4: to break your bank. You're you're not going to be

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Speaker 4: worried about going into debt because you have to buy

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Speaker 4: ten dollars gas. Sure, it's all relative, and we really

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Speaker 4: do have to consider this relationship between how much in

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Speaker 4: this case we would say a household makes right because

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Speaker 4: there's going to be shared income, shared expenses, we really

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Speaker 4: have to consider that relationship between all the money that

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Speaker 4: a household takes in and how much they have to

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Speaker 4: expend on gasoline. So it may be more helpful, I guess,

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Speaker 4: in this instance to really think about gasoline in terms

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Speaker 4: of local affordability.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so's 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 back in twenty sixteen, 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 twenty sixteen, gas in Venezuela was

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Speaker 1: the equivalent of two cents a gallon two cents US

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: years have been to put it diplomatically, incredibly tough on

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: the price it is spoiler alert, it's definitely not that

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Speaker 1: person working behind the counter at your local sitco. Please

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Speaker 1: give them a break. Gas stations make most of their

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Speaker 1: money off of the snacks and other things that they

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Speaker 1: sell you. The gas is just to get you in

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Speaker 1: the door.

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Speaker 3: Have you guys ever seen that show Nathan for you?

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, there's a really great episode where he you know,

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Speaker 3: the whole conceit is that he's trying to, you know,

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Speaker 3: improve the earnings of like small businesses or whatever with

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Speaker 3: these hair brain schemes, And one of them is that

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Speaker 3: he goes to a gas station and gets them to

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Speaker 3: like offer an absurdly low gas price in California, as

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Speaker 3: we will flock to it. But you only get that

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Speaker 3: price with a rebate, so you have to pay the

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Speaker 3: full price. But to get the rebate, you have to

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Speaker 3: like do this like quest up to the top of

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Speaker 3: this mountain to find like this box where you put

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Speaker 3: in the rebate, and it ends up being like, you know,

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Speaker 3: people take this shuttle to the foot of the mountain,

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Speaker 3: and then people gradually drop off, and then it ends

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Speaker 3: with him and like three of the people that stick

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Speaker 3: around kind of becoming the best of friends, only for

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Speaker 3: him to come.

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Speaker 2: Clean and say there is no rebate.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, that's to your point, Ben, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 3: it's like it's all set. I actually worked at a

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Speaker 3: gas station, and you know how we would change our

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Speaker 3: gas prices.

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Speaker 2: We would look at the other gas station across the

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Speaker 2: street and just match it or make it like a

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Speaker 2: cent lower. It was very very rudimentary.

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Speaker 3: But no, it's definitely you know, determined by a whole

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Speaker 3: lot of factor's taxes, supply chain, supply and demand, capacity

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Speaker 3: of refineries, and even the time.

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Speaker 2: Of year all have huge impacts.

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Speaker 3: Our former parent company, how Stuff Works has a fantastic

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Speaker 3: article explaining this whole calculation and how gas prices work,

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Speaker 3: and here's a quote from that.

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Speaker 4: Price increases generally occur when the world crude oil market

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Speaker 4: tightens and lowers inventories. Also, growing demand can sometimes outpace

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Speaker 4: refinery capacity. In the spring, refineries perform maintenance, which can

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Speaker 4: place a pinch on the gasoline market. By the end

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Speaker 4: of May, refineries are usually back to full capacity.

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Speaker 3: Is it kind of a similar calculus to like the

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Speaker 3: way the Fed kind of controls interest rates and stuff, Like,

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Speaker 3: when you know, they make a decision to lower the

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Speaker 3: interest rate, you know, than that changes a lot of

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Speaker 3: things within the system. I mean, that's sort of a

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Speaker 3: rough example, but it's sort of a similar.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, they're definitely they're definitely interrelated because when the

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Speaker 1: FED considers that, they are also considering crude oil prices.

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Speaker 1: But it's sort of like, at the risk of offending economists,

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Speaker 1: predicting the actions and results of systems this large, it's

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Speaker 1: very similar to trying to figure out what the weather

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Speaker 1: is going to be like, if you're a meteorologist back

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Speaker 1: in the seventies, you can make good guesses, you can

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Speaker 1: have things you want to happen, but there's so many

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Speaker 1: intervening variables, and that's why it's tough to ask ourselves

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Speaker 1: what does gas actually cost? And then necessarily the question follows,

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: We'll dive into this after a word from our sponsor.

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Speaker 1: Here's where it gets crazy. So the true cost of

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

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

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Speaker 1: those factors can create a vast range of conclusions anywhere

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Speaker 1: from fifteen dollars per gallon to as you said, Mike,

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Speaker 1: forty five dollars or distressingly more. And there are powerful

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Speaker 1: forces that in the past and maybe even the present,

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Speaker 1: don't want you to know the full cost of gasoline.

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Speaker 4: And we do have to point out here we've talked

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Speaker 4: about it on this show before, We've talked with people

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Speaker 4: who know about this kind of thing. In the past,

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Speaker 4: we have seen that large oil interests have worked together,

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Speaker 4: whether it's you know, in something like opek where it's

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Speaker 4: a little more forward facing where you can, you know,

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Speaker 4: you can kind of see it happening, or if it's

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Speaker 4: you know, behind closed doors, they've worked together to downplay

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Speaker 4: the full cost all the other things that factor into

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Speaker 4: that oil price. I mean, if you think about it,

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Speaker 4: there are lobbyists out there, attorneys out there who have

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Speaker 4: made millions of dollars taking action like this, and they're

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Speaker 4: also an ethical scientists who've cherry picked data. We've seen

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Speaker 4: that before. We talked about it on a previous episode.

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Speaker 4: Politicians are out there on television and the radio, spinning

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Speaker 4: the language, spinning the facts like dervishes from that you

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Speaker 4: know that Madonna video you remember great, Oh it really

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Speaker 4: was great.

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Speaker 3: Tornado work actually wrote that song never mind, move on.

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Speaker 4: Yes, they they are tornadoes of slight misinformation.

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Speaker 2: Just as bulls. That's the word you're looking for.

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Speaker 1: So so let's let's consider this because if we think

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Speaker 1: about the true cost of casoline, we have to examine

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Speaker 1: what economists sometimes call externalities. Externalities is just a fancy

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Speaker 1: it's a fancy word. Wearing a tie that means this

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Speaker 1: associated costs that are borne by society at large but

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Speaker 1: are not directly included in the price you pay at

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Speaker 1: the pump. One of the first ones.

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Speaker 2: Obviously, would be.

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Speaker 1: The environmental costs. Let's take an example from California, since

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Speaker 1: we already mentioned some stuff about California's higher than average prices.

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Speaker 1: A single gallon of gas in California produces about twenty

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Speaker 1: five pounds of what are called greenhouse gases. Longtime listeners,

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Speaker 1: you've heard us talk about this before. These aren't a conspiracy,

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: water vapor. For a fun comparison, think about this five pounds.

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Speaker 1: It's about the same weight as a small to medium dog,

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Speaker 1: like a cocker spaniel.

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Speaker 3: It's also, it's always crazy to me to think about

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Speaker 3: these kinds of emissions measured in pounds. It's just like,

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Speaker 3: you know, because it's relatively If you think of like

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Speaker 3: the weight of a gas, you think it's like, okay,

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Speaker 3: that's basically.

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Speaker 2: Weightless, but it's not.

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Speaker 3: And it's massive amounts of impact on the environment and

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Speaker 3: on the atmosphere.

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Speaker 2: When you think about that number, it's pretty mind boggling.

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Speaker 3: And don't forget that the average US driver buys about

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Speaker 3: five hundred and fifty seven gallons of gas per year.

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Speaker 3: Multiply that by two hundred and thirty eight million cars,

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Speaker 3: you know, and not to mention like the much less

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Speaker 3: fuel efficient and more polluting trucks and SUVs and hummers,

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Speaker 3: and man, that's a lot of poundage of this stuff

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Speaker 3: being pumped out into into the atmosphere day in and

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Speaker 3: day out, an absolute crap ton of gas.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I just want to shout out Sarah Terry Cobo and

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Speaker 4: the Center for Investigative Reporting for making a video about

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Speaker 4: this topic where we're getting a lot of this information.

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Speaker 4: Is really just a great video you can check out

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Speaker 4: right now. It's called The Price of Gas. Check it

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Speaker 4: out when you get a chance.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So, with all of this driving, with all this gas buying,

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Speaker 4: a single driver on average within the United States creates

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Speaker 4: or generates, let's say, through that use, about ten thousand

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Speaker 4: pounds of greenhouse gas pollution each year.

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: it like, every every year, if you're an average driver

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Speaker 1: in the US, you're putting out a small elephant's weight

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Speaker 1: worth of greenhouse gas pollution. Doesn't matter where you drive,

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Speaker 1: how you drive, what kind.

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Speaker 3: Of vehicle you drive, and it takes almost an entire

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Speaker 3: acre of forests to absorb that level of pollution. So

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Speaker 3: for a cocktail Napkin estimate, let's say for Earth to

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Speaker 3: handle the annual gas related pollution from cars plus those

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Speaker 3: trucks and SUVs.

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Speaker 2: Let's keep in.

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Speaker 3: Mind that that's just the daily average of driving vehicles

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Speaker 3: in the United States. It could take a forest the

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Speaker 3: size of the entire state of California and Nevada and

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Speaker 3: another smaller state to absorb this level of pollution. So

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Speaker 3: the question becomes, if we're looking at this hypothetical gallon

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Speaker 3: of gas situation in California, how did we get here?

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Speaker 3: So why, Like all things that we try to do

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Speaker 3: on the show, let's take it back to the source,

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Speaker 3: the source of the oil itself. That crude in Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 3: According to the Center for Investigative Reporting. This is how

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Speaker 3: the process works. The crude oil, which is, like the

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Speaker 3: name implies, this has been unrefined raw material. You should

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Speaker 3: not put this stuff in your gas tank. It's pumped

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Speaker 3: into these gigantic, massive oil tankers. The biggest one holds

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Speaker 3: a believe up to two million barrels of oil. This

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Speaker 3: process releases about two pounds of greenhouse gas for every

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Speaker 3: gallon of what will ultimately become gasoline. That ship travels

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Speaker 3: about eleven thousand miles to California, the site of our

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Speaker 3: hypothetical situation here. When the crude reaches a refinery in California,

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Speaker 3: it's mixed with oil from other parts of the world.

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Speaker 3: Then it's heated, melted, burned to make different types of

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Speaker 3: fuel and other industrial products petroleum based products.

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Speaker 1: So this process creates about three and a half pounds

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Speaker 1: of greenhouse gas for every gallon of gas you get

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Speaker 1: at the pump. For comparison here, you know, I can't

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Speaker 1: come up with an animal off the top of my head,

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Speaker 1: but it's like the weight of a maybe a two

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Speaker 1: sliced toaster. So you get a toaster for every gallon

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Speaker 1: every one of those two million gallons now we're shipping

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Speaker 1: that refined gas from the refinery to the station, right,

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Speaker 1: Because it doesn't directly go through a pipe from a

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Speaker 1: refinery to your local stuckies. I'm just going to see

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Speaker 1: how many gas stations I can name in this episode.

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Speaker 1: You Instead, it goes through a tanker, right, It's transported

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Speaker 1: by a truck. You see them all the time. On average,

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Speaker 1: these tankers are going to travel about fifty miles in

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Speaker 1: the US to deliver the cargo. And when it's transferring

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Speaker 1: the gas from the tanker to the tank at the

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Speaker 1: gas station, some of that gas evaporates. It makes more

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Speaker 1: greenhouse gas as well as benzene, and benzene is one

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Speaker 1: of those things you smell when you pull up into

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Speaker 1: a gas station. When you remove the gas cap, there's

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

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

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Speaker 1: small 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.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you just you know, continue on down

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Speaker 4: the line because there's always more environmental cost to be

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Speaker 4: paid with this kind of thing. And it really does

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Speaker 4: depend a lot on what vehicle you've chosen to drive.

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Speaker 4: You may be essentially pre paying for some of the

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Speaker 4: environmental costs and the energy production for your electric car

439
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 4: or if you are in a you know, a gas

440
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 4: powered vehicle. There's going to be things like the weather

441
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 4: that are going to affect how you're driving, things like

442
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,240
Speaker 4: your mood even or the music you're listening to. I

443
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 4: know that sounds strange, but that might affect how much

444
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 4: it goes in to this. And also the type of gas, right,

445
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 4: how refined is it? Is it regular or is it

446
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:11,600
Speaker 4: that premium good stuff or what's the middling one called like, okay.

447
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 1: Mid grade, I guess.

448
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 4: The mid stuff. On average. When you're looking at this

449
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,720
Speaker 4: extra environmental cost, you're talking about a little over nineteen

450
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,399
Speaker 4: maybe twenty pounds of greenhouse gas pollution per gallon, And

451
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 4: this part, the driving around section, that's where you're actually

452
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 4: letting off the most pollution, around three quarters of the total.

453
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: Which is crazy because you know, often in the past

454
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 1: different factors have been blamed for the pollution, but we

455
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,120
Speaker 1: have to keep in mind it's the daily driver who

456
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: is burning the fuel, right, It's us. We are three

457
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 1: fourths of that cocker spaniel when we get behind the wheel,

458
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: which out of context is a very strange statement to say,

459
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: holds up. And so when we think about pollution, we

460
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:07,479
Speaker 1: have to remember we're talking about a long term price.

461
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:12,440
Speaker 1: It's almost like a layaway costs. Something everyone on earth

462
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,119
Speaker 1: has to pay for in some way over the course

463
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: of their time here, even if they never drive, never

464
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: touch a car, and you know, later generations descendants of

465
00:27:23,359 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: this species will pay some part of that price as well.

466
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 1: It just might not feel as steep right now because

467
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 1: the bill doesn't come due immediately, and it doesn't come

468
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 1: due through a single avenue.

469
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's like, you know, unfortunately, there are coalitions

470
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,880
Speaker 3: that would would have us take these hidden costs into account,

471
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 3: and the idea of you know, creating some kind of

472
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:50,040
Speaker 3: consensus globally about how much you know, we want to

473
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 3: put out there, how much greenhouse gases we want to

474
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 3: put out there, But a lot of that stuff is

475
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,080
Speaker 3: not enforceable. A lot of that stuff is just sort

476
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 3: of like an honor system kind of situation, and our

477
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 3: country in particular right now, because of leadership.

478
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 2: Is moving even further and further away from that.

479
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 3: So you know, to our callers point about aliens coming

480
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 3: and being embarrassed that we're still deriving our energy from

481
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 3: this dinosaur juice that comes out of the ground, It's

482
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:20,639
Speaker 3: kind of true. And it really does feel like a

483
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,840
Speaker 3: lot of it is just stacked against us because of

484
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 3: those corporate interests and because I mean, this is all

485
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 3: kind of statingly obvious. But yeah, and you know, Ben,

486
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 3: to your point, and once you wrote here in the outline,

487
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 3: this isn't just tree hugger kind of flim flammering.

488
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:37,639
Speaker 2: They should not be just dismissed.

489
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 3: There's absolutely a cost in terms of human lives, in

490
00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 3: terms of cost of our environment and the habitability of

491
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 3: our planet.

492
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and I think you make a good point

493
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 1: about the problems of cooperation. It also goes into the

494
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 1: problems of inequality. Imagine your developing nation, right, and other

495
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 1: developed nations like US or Western Europe are all of

496
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: a sudden changing the rules of the game. So now

497
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: you are not allowed the same industrial revolution that these

498
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 1: other countries encountered earlier. Of course you're going to be

499
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: irritated at that. That's halfway through the basketball game or

500
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: the football game. Someone moves the goalpost it feels a

501
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: lot like stacking the odds against you. This works on

502
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: a microeconomic scale too. It is deceptively easy for someone

503
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: in a higher socioeconomic status, someone who can individually bear

504
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: the increased costs of a fossil fuel free lifestyle, to

505
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: kind of look down their nose at the rest of

506
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: the world, a world I should mention in which, by

507
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 1: the way, the average household makes less than the equivalent

508
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:51,560
Speaker 1: of ten thousand dollars US a year, and look down

509
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: their noses people are less fortunate and say, well, just

510
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:58,479
Speaker 1: do better. First, that's a dick move, and worse than

511
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 1: being a dick move, it's incorrect. There has to be

512
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 1: some kind of transition, some kind of plan. A world

513
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: that found itself suddenly without oil would almost immediately collapse.

514
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 1: And even if you feel pretty secure right now, that

515
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: collapse is gonna rock your two. No one would be immune.

516
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: And honestly, the militaries of the world know this. That

517
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: is why, in a very real way, the modern history

518
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 1: of oil is also the modern history of war. What

519
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: are we talking about. We'll tell you after a word

520
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we're back.

521
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 4: So you know you've probably listened to this show once

522
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 4: or twice. Maybe this is your first time, congratulations, But

523
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 4: if you've been around for a while, you're probably familiar

524
00:30:53,280 --> 00:31:00,320
Speaker 4: with the concept that world militaries, governments, large corporations. There's

525
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 4: a lot of truth to the stereotype, specifically that governments

526
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 4: and militaries within those governments are controlled by those governments,

527
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 4: are pretty wasteful when it comes to spending at times.

528
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 4: Corruption it just runs wild within these organizations, and you know,

529
00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:23,400
Speaker 4: especially at the tops, and you know, one of the

530
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 4: we've talked about before, one of the major reasons for

531
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 4: that is the need to increase budgets over time. That's

532
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 4: why you'll see what we would consider maybe wasteful spending

533
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 4: because you always have to get a little bit more

534
00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 4: for the next time around. And you can really apply

535
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 4: this thinking and this observation when it comes to gasoline

536
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 4: and oil usage within militaries.

537
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:55,680
Speaker 3: It reminds me of, to your point, Matt, that story

538
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 3: about how the Air Force spent thirteen dollars apiece for

539
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 3: these like reheating coffee cups because because they were like

540
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 3: poorly built and their handles would break, so they just

541
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 3: dropped like hundreds and thousands of dollars hundreds of thousands

542
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 3: of dollars on these things with absolutely no oversight. And finally,

543
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:17,000
Speaker 3: of course, when it, you know, reaches the public, oh,

544
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 3: put the we'll put a stop to that or whatever.

545
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 3: But that's that kind of stuff unchecked happens, you know,

546
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 3: all the time. And I really want to refer back.

547
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 3: I've I've been wanting to mention this the whole episode.

548
00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 3: I thought our callers point about changing the colors of

549
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 3: the humvies and stuff was really interesting and I never

550
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 3: thought of it that way because I think he's really

551
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 3: saying more on the symbolic level. But it I think

552
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 3: it's it's apt, right, Like, so, you know, we used

553
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,760
Speaker 3: to go to war and like jungle regions and all

554
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 3: of that, and then our you know, in our in

555
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 3: our tanks and stuff, we're camouflaged green. And now that's

556
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 3: that that switch to the sand colored camouflage really has

557
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 3: signified the shifts towards where our motivations truly lie.

558
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 2: Which is what this section of the S is about.

559
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: I mean, it's beyond symbolism, right, because the green camo

560
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: won't work in the desert. They could spot you from

561
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: kilometers away. But it's I think it's a very I

562
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 1: agree with you, guys. I think it's a very astute observation.

563
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: Of course, it changed, and it changed for a reason,

564
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: and you know, think about this. So everybody listening now

565
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 1: has presumably survived April and May of twenty twenty, hopefully,

566
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: And if you are listening to this from beyond the grave,

567
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,760
Speaker 1: beyond this mortal veil, please send us an email where

568
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: conspiracy adiheartradio dot com. But if you're alive, then you

569
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 1: know full well that in April of this year, gas

570
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:50,479
Speaker 1: prices plummeted. Plummeted is not even an adequate word, and

571
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 1: in some cases crude for a time, crude oil took

572
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 1: on a negative value. This was a real problem for

573
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: speculators who control a lot of the oil and oil

574
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: futures market because they were starting to run out of

575
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: places to store all this excess oil. No one was

576
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: driving to your point Nol due to a pandemic, and

577
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 1: a lot of businesses were closed. In May of this year,

578
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: when a barrel of something like West Texas Intermediate Crew

579
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 1: cost around twenty bucks twenty bucks twenty bucks for a

580
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: barrel that works out to about fifty cents US for

581
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:31,359
Speaker 1: a gallon. Uncle Sam was still paying slightly over ten

582
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,279
Speaker 1: dollars per gallon for some types of fuel. Now hold on,

583
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: you might say, I see the three card Monte switcheroo

584
00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:44,360
Speaker 1: that you guys just pulled. Armies pay for different types

585
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 1: of fuel, right, some of which is specialized. This is

586
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,759
Speaker 1: therefore not a fair comparison. Hell yeah, okay, you caught us.

587
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 1: The military is paying ten dollars and four cents per

588
00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:00,239
Speaker 1: gallon for a type of fuel called JPL eight as

589
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:04,839
Speaker 1: jet propulsion fuel eight psyche as they used to say

590
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: in the nineties. Kidding again, the.

591
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 2: Rascal, we're the rascals.

592
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 1: The global average price for JPL eight isn't supposed to

593
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,479
Speaker 1: be ten dollars. It's supposed to be two to three

594
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:21,239
Speaker 1: dollars per gallon. And where does all this money to

595
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,719
Speaker 1: pay these inflated gas costs come from? If you pay

596
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 1: taxes in the United States, it comes from you.

597
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:33,359
Speaker 3: But unfortunately, while the the problem that we're dealing with

598
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty might just be a symptom of mismanagement

599
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 3: and of course corruption and a lot of these lobbies

600
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 3: that we're talking about, the long standing problem goes way

601
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:48,720
Speaker 3: way deeper, and it's at least in part a function

602
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 3: of all of those logistics and supply chains and opening

603
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 3: up the supply and closing it down like we were

604
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 3: talking about with that fed effect. So back in nine

605
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 3: the Pentagon report that the quote fully burdened cost of fuel.

606
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 3: I love that term burdened there. It's very telling, meaning

607
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 3: that cost once you factor in all of these things,

608
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:14,719
Speaker 3: including those I believe ben including those externalities, right like

609
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 3: the cost of hospital stays and things like that.

610
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 2: Or no, not necessarily, no.

611
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,839
Speaker 1: No, no, they were factoring that, or may they may

612
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: have factored it. Actually, they may have factored in maybe

613
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: cost of injury for people who are transporting fuel, but

614
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 1: probably not.

615
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:34,560
Speaker 2: Probably not.

616
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 3: So let's be conservative here and just assume that this

617
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,200
Speaker 3: refers mainly to the cost of the refinement process and

618
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,799
Speaker 3: for moving it from A to B from where the

619
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,680
Speaker 3: crude comes out of the ground to where it gets

620
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 3: refined to how it's then transported to the pumps and

621
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 3: an into your car.

622
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 4: I would say they might they might bring in the

623
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:58,800
Speaker 4: cost of securing certain areas maybe or military basis. I

624
00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 4: don't know, just saying that might actually be a part

625
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 4: of it.

626
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 3: It's a good point, and that's the kind of stuff

627
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 3: that we probably aren't gonna see like in ledgers. You

628
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,400
Speaker 3: know what I mean, because to your point been earlier,

629
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 3: there is so much stuff that I want you to

630
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 3: know about this whole process. Uh, for good reason as

631
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 3: far as Uncle Sam's concerned. But that number, to backtrack

632
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:20,840
Speaker 3: a little bit, cost of refinement, transport and.

633
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:23,240
Speaker 2: Who knows what else.

634
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,759
Speaker 3: But let's just assume that this refinement transport and you

635
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 3: know the process of getting it from the refineries to

636
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:33,240
Speaker 3: the actual point of sale, would be four hundred dollars

637
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:33,760
Speaker 3: a gallon.

638
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:40,240
Speaker 4: Wow, sikes well, and the you know, the the problem

639
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 4: here is if that is true, then how the heck

640
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:45,480
Speaker 4: is that paid for?

641
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 7: Right?

642
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 4: How does that four hundred dollars per gallon turn into

643
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 4: two fourteen at the pump near your house or something? Well,

644
00:37:55,640 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 4: it's it's America. It's the the financial systems within America

645
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,359
Speaker 4: that make it go around that who pays for it

646
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 4: and the average American through taxes in probably the easiest

647
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:13,520
Speaker 4: way to think about it, is paying for that bill.

648
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 4: And you know, the we haven't even gotten into the

649
00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 4: concept of the government subsidizing the oil through taxes to

650
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 4: get that gas at the pump price lower. This is

651
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 4: all this is all kind of a part of it.

652
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:31,560
Speaker 4: It's very very odd to imagine the way money essentially

653
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 4: just gets kind of moved around, and we pretend that

654
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 4: it's paying for one thing when it's actually paying for another,

655
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:42,279
Speaker 4: and we delay costs by paying in taxes once a year.

656
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,200
Speaker 2: Well, sure, it's just very strange.

657
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: Sure, I mean, corporations do this as well. That's why

658
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 1: different departments or different divisions have separate accounting lines on

659
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:59,120
Speaker 1: their spreadsheet. Right, you distribute the costs, or in the

660
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: case of many corporations, you distribute the losses and you

661
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: keep the gains for the profits. But just for some

662
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 1: quick math here, to pull a compared to walk these

663
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 1: numbers out so we can really feel the impact. Here,

664
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 1: a hum V has a twenty five gallon fuel tank capacity,

665
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: So if it's ever in a situation where the fully

666
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 1: burdened cost of the fuel is considered here, that means

667
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 1: that to fill up one hum V it could cost

668
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars US. And to your point, Matt, yeah,

669
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:42,800
Speaker 1: that money doesn't fall from the sky. It comes from

670
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: the taxpayers. And this is just an average. That's the

671
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 1: weird thing about the four hundred dollars mark in some

672
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:55,240
Speaker 1: places government officials themselves, people work for the US government,

673
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:57,960
Speaker 1: have noted that the price can climb as high as

674
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars per gallon, and you know, like something

675
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 1: you have to transport, maybe via helicopter, into inaccessible terrain

676
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. And look, yes we're using

677
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,640
Speaker 1: the United States as an example, but this, to be

678
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,320
Speaker 1: crystal clear, this is a problem common to any globe

679
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 1: trotting military, any Blue Water Navy, and longtime listeners you

680
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:27,399
Speaker 1: already know blue Water, Greenwater, Brown Water Navy. Blue Water

681
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:29,959
Speaker 1: is the one that goes around the world. So whether

682
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 1: we're talking about Russia, whether we're talking about China, whether

683
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:40,080
Speaker 1: we're talking about International Justice League type avenger coalitions like

684
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: or some would call them brotherhoods of evil mutants like NATO,

685
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 1: we're going to see the same pattern playing out. As

686
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, you won't see this on mainstream

687
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 1: news unless you dig in kind of deep into some

688
00:40:54,120 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: trade publications. But China just inked, or maybe reinvigorated is

689
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: a better word, a new leg of a secretive multi

690
00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 1: decade deal with Iran and essentially the too long, didn't

691
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: read version of it. Is this in exchange for what

692
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,200
Speaker 1: amounts to about a thirty to thirty two percent discount

693
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: on all fossil fuel resources produced by Iran. China is

694
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,760
Speaker 1: going to take an increasingly larger hold of infrastructure related

695
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: to refineries and transport of fossil fuels, as well as

696
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 1: having a closer military partnership. They're moving pieces on the chessboard.

697
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,160
Speaker 1: The great game never ever ended.

698
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:41,719
Speaker 4: But what in a similar way ben to the way

699
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 4: the United States has moved in Middle easterner countries for

700
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,839
Speaker 4: a long time, right, We're absolutely just briefly mentioned there,

701
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 4: the cost of securing oil supplies in other countries ends

702
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 4: up being a factor, and it's China making that move

703
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,239
Speaker 4: in Iran, one of the only places in the Middle

704
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 4: East where the United States hasn't officially invaded and inserted itself.

705
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, good point, Matt, And pull up the map, folks.

706
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:11,040
Speaker 1: If you're reading along at home, just just do a

707
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:16,480
Speaker 1: cursory Internet search on your OS demon browser choice and

708
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: ask how many US bases are bordering Iran. You'll see

709
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 1: it's literally a ring. The strait of horror moves is

710
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,839
Speaker 1: one of for a long time. That's what a lot

711
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: of people thought would be the flash point for World

712
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: War three again. As you know, World War three might

713
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:39,319
Speaker 1: end up being over water. Who knows. But this is

714
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,759
Speaker 1: just an example, right of a bigger issue, and it's

715
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:44,160
Speaker 1: not to pick on China, as you said, Matt, other

716
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:51,840
Speaker 1: countries have done this before, much more blatantly belligerent ways,

717
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 1: like the UK, like Britain in the Middle East. Right,

718
00:42:56,800 --> 00:43:01,120
Speaker 1: this all means that if we sincerely seek to understand

719
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: the true price of gasoline, at some point we also

720
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:08,759
Speaker 1: have to start factoring in the cost of regional instability,

721
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: and we have to factor in the price of war.

722
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 1: And this, I mean, this takes us. This is an

723
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:20,520
Speaker 1: incredibly important point that doesn't get talked about near often enough.

724
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,280
Speaker 1: But it's also not the only point. You know, they're

725
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:27,480
Speaker 1: hidden costs. We talked about these long term bills. What

726
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 1: happens when these bills come due, Like you know, you

727
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: mentioned a little bit about whether or not the Pentagon

728
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 1: factored in medical care and that fully burdened cost. Is

729
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:41,879
Speaker 1: that another externality? What else is out there?

730
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:47,760
Speaker 3: Yes, so we've talked about these hidden costs, these externalities

731
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,920
Speaker 3: and whether or not these are actually factored in a

732
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,920
Speaker 3: meaningful way, But there are other ones that we haven't

733
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,919
Speaker 3: mentioned too, that are much more difficult to quantify. Let's

734
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:01,240
Speaker 3: think about oil spills. I mean in a very callous

735
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:02,319
Speaker 3: and calculated way.

736
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:03,399
Speaker 2: I'm sure there are some.

737
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:07,040
Speaker 3: Money people that would consider these the cost of doing business.

738
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,160
Speaker 3: You know, the occasional disaster that you have to pay

739
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 3: a lot of money in pr and in cleanup efforts

740
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 3: to get rid of. It's ultimately worth it at the

741
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 3: end of the day, considering how much money is generated

742
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,719
Speaker 3: from that product that you're having to clean up. Let's

743
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:26,400
Speaker 3: think about things like respiratory illnesses. Let's think about loss

744
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 3: productivity when people in places like California, Los Angeles, Atlanta

745
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:35,280
Speaker 3: that have like things called orange small alerts that literally

746
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 3: the air quality is so bad that if you have

747
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:41,279
Speaker 3: a pre existing condition or some kind of respiratory sensitivity,

748
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,400
Speaker 3: you're not gonna be able to go outside. It's just

749
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,799
Speaker 3: the reality of the world we live in, and it's

750
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:49,719
Speaker 3: not something that's factored in. And if it is, it's

751
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:53,280
Speaker 3: certainly not factored in a meaningful way in my opinion,

752
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:55,759
Speaker 3: and I think in Matt and Ben's possibly as well.

753
00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:59,439
Speaker 3: But let's give a little bit of a snapshot here.

754
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 3: Let's talk about Los Angeles alone. Like I mentioned, the

755
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:06,000
Speaker 3: overall cost of air pollution adds up to something in

756
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 3: the neighborhood of one hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty

757
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 3: dollars per person per year, and that's because of things

758
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,920
Speaker 3: like emergency room visits, that loss productivity we talked about

759
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 3: lost work or missing school for children. So, Ben, you

760
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 3: want to let's extrapolate something from this.

761
00:45:26,239 --> 00:45:27,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, if we.

762
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:32,760
Speaker 1: Build out from these conclusions, a couple of different studies,

763
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 1: including Center for Investigative Reporting that we mentioned earlier, including

764
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:41,960
Speaker 1: some medical nonprofits and so on. It's not a surprise

765
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:45,799
Speaker 1: studies have such a wide range on the cost of

766
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: these externalities. One study, in fact, found they concluded that

767
00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 1: this per year cost five hundred and fifty billion dollars.

768
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: Throw up your what is it, doctor, evil pinky there

769
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 1: or as much as one point seven trillion dollars, which

770
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:07,880
Speaker 1: for most people is cognitively impossible to think of as

771
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: a real number. And that's in the US alone. If

772
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 1: you add that to the price of the pump, that's

773
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:18,040
Speaker 1: where you'll see the conclusions that the true cost breaks

774
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 1: down to something like fifteen dollars per gallon. But again,

775
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 1: like we said, it all depends on your methodology, what

776
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 1: variables do you admit and how do you factor them?

777
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: How do you weight them? In countries that appear that

778
00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:35,759
Speaker 1: appear to have a higher cost at the gas station, Yes,

779
00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 1: we're looking at you, Europe.

780
00:46:37,800 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 2: Hello.

781
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 1: Then part of that higher at the pump cost comes

782
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: from taxation, And that's interesting to the circle that you're

783
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 1: talking about, Matt, because some of those taxes are in

784
00:46:49,719 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: theory at least dedicated to fighting to mitigating the problems

785
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 1: we described above. So if you're in Germany, you're paying

786
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,319
Speaker 1: let's say you're paying eight dollars per gallon, pulling that

787
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:04,799
Speaker 1: out of the ether here, you're paying eight dollars per gallon. Well,

788
00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 1: a portion of that is not reflecting maybe the cost

789
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: of refineries. It's reflecting the cost of combating greenhouse gas emissions,

790
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:14,240
Speaker 1: for example.

791
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:18,240
Speaker 4: And it's interesting because that would theoretically at least reduce

792
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:22,400
Speaker 4: the demand for the gasoline, which should lower that price further.

793
00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 4: But you're still seeing, like you know, the equivalent of

794
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 4: eight dollars or more per gallon in a lot of

795
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 4: those countries. Again, the one of the major things here,

796
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:36,520
Speaker 4: in one of the last crucial things that we're going

797
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:41,280
Speaker 4: to be talking about in this episode, is that variance.

798
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:45,799
Speaker 4: There's so many factors that go into calculating how much

799
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:49,520
Speaker 4: gas actually costs, and when you're you know, especially when

800
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:52,200
Speaker 4: we're trying to research for this episode, you're looking at

801
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 4: contradictions made in how people and different organizations are calculating

802
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 4: these numbers and how they're getting there. It could be

803
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:02,840
Speaker 4: really tough when you're thinking about all of these different

804
00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:04,040
Speaker 4: possible factors.

805
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:11,200
Speaker 1: Agreed, this is an increasingly fluid situation. I'm sorry, that's terrible,

806
00:48:11,320 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 1: and and their indication fluid. Sorry, oh god, the reviews

807
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:23,120
Speaker 1: are going to kill us, you guys, before before the

808
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:27,719
Speaker 1: fossil fuel industry does what if we get disappeared by

809
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,719
Speaker 1: people who hate terrible jokes? What a way to go it?

810
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 2: Would? I would?

811
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:35,319
Speaker 3: I would honestly go into that good night, you know,

812
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:36,640
Speaker 3: knowing that we'd made a difference.

813
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:39,439
Speaker 4: I would just say, for being the one non Dad

814
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:41,760
Speaker 4: on this show as a host, you make the best.

815
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 2: Dad jokes Ben dad game, Sean.

816
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,359
Speaker 1: I learned it from growing up in the dad joke game.

817
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: Under you guys, Yeah, we're here for your dad joke needs.

818
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: As the world burns down, so there is light at

819
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel, though kind of electric vehicles

820
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,760
Speaker 1: are on the rise, and yet maybe they're not perfect,

821
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:05,319
Speaker 1: maybe they're not as much of a silver bullet or

822
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:09,279
Speaker 1: panacea as some people would claim. But the technology is there,

823
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 1: it's evolving at a significant pace. More importantly, the infrastructure

824
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:16,840
Speaker 1: to support those vehicles is evolving as well.

825
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 2: Dude.

826
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:19,399
Speaker 3: Remember just a handful of years ago, you wouldn't see

827
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:23,440
Speaker 3: charging stations at like grocery stores, you know, and like

828
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:26,200
Speaker 3: outside of Atlanta. You even see them in Georgia. Now,

829
00:49:26,280 --> 00:49:29,600
Speaker 3: you know, it's not as much of like a bougie

830
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:32,840
Speaker 3: kind of you know, only for the rich thing anymore.

831
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 3: And even Tesla, the prices are going down for like

832
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,439
Speaker 3: a nicer you know, a nicer electric car. And they're

833
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 3: faster now too, which I think was a big barrier

834
00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:44,120
Speaker 3: to some gear heads was like, oh, I don't want

835
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:46,399
Speaker 3: an electric car because it was like, you know, sort

836
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 3: of embarrassing and you couldn't really get a lot of

837
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 3: juice out of them. But some of these new ones

838
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 3: are super powerful.

839
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:56,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, but no where are you getting all that power

840
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:01,319
Speaker 4: to power them electrical vehicle batteries? Huh Oh, that's you're

841
00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 4: burning coal.

842
00:50:02,160 --> 00:50:02,399
Speaker 2: Son.

843
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:04,600
Speaker 3: That's a good point too. It's a good point you

844
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:06,800
Speaker 3: make it's all. I mean, that's the problem you guys.

845
00:50:08,200 --> 00:50:12,399
Speaker 3: With great power comes great responsibility or black there.

846
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:16,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it's true, that's a really that's that's a

847
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 1: really good point. You know, for for a long time,

848
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:21,800
Speaker 1: depending on where you were in the world, if you

849
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 1: drove an electric car, you were driving a coal powered car,

850
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,160
Speaker 1: and people didn't want to admit that. But also, I

851
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:31,080
Speaker 1: don't know about you, guys, I'm super envious of when

852
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: I see a Tesla drive by, especially when one of

853
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 1: the slick ones, but you know, the car car love aside,

854
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:43,799
Speaker 1: We're we're correct that forms of alternative energy are increasing

855
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 1: in countries across the planet. Yeah, a lot of them

856
00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 1: are developed countries, you know, the socioeconomic equivalent of the

857
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:57,160
Speaker 1: global one percent, and they can afford to subsidize research

858
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:00,880
Speaker 1: and subsidize infrastructure. But still it's a good time, you know,

859
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,399
Speaker 1: for for a long time. Here in the US as well,

860
00:51:03,480 --> 00:51:07,279
Speaker 1: research into these technologies, deployment of them is stymy by

861
00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:12,319
Speaker 1: a ton of factors, industrial political opposition, plain old hard

862
00:51:12,400 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 1: technological limits. Like you mentioned Nolan, who wants to buy

863
00:51:15,719 --> 00:51:20,120
Speaker 1: a car that doesn't car very well? Right, if we

864
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:23,359
Speaker 1: want to make that a verb, we also had had

865
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:27,000
Speaker 1: problems figuring out how best to store solar energy, make

866
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 1: a solar battery powering something, and also make it able

867
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:33,800
Speaker 1: to work at night with stored energy. There's this, there's

868
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:38,920
Speaker 1: also this huge tremendous cost of making large scale switches

869
00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: from fossil fuel to something new.

870
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 3: Quick question for you, gentlemen, is really quickly when you say,

871
00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:46,640
Speaker 3: you know, the processes that go into making the batteries

872
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:48,840
Speaker 3: of these electric cars, you know burns all kinds of

873
00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:52,240
Speaker 3: you know, fossil fuels as well. Is it so much

874
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:54,719
Speaker 3: that it's not worth the fact that you're not having

875
00:51:54,719 --> 00:51:56,759
Speaker 3: to burn it every time you use it? You just

876
00:51:56,800 --> 00:51:58,760
Speaker 3: have to like, you know, there's that, there's that sunk

877
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:01,880
Speaker 3: cost of making it, of the manufacturing process, and then

878
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:05,279
Speaker 3: you've got the thing that presumably will last you a

879
00:52:05,320 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 3: long time. I don't know the answer, and I don't

880
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:08,680
Speaker 3: know if you if you guys know.

881
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 4: We're not talking about manufacturing. We're talking about the actual

882
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 4: energy that goes from the outlet into the battery to

883
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:22,040
Speaker 4: charge the vehicle so that it can drive the energy.

884
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, I'm such a dummy, of course, yeah,

885
00:52:25,160 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 3: of course.

886
00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:28,360
Speaker 4: No, No, it's it's I mean, I can totally understand.

887
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:30,600
Speaker 4: Manufacturing the batteries is also not.

888
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:34,520
Speaker 2: And it's also problematic, right.

889
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:37,640
Speaker 1: Oh god yeah, oh the rare minerals.

890
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:37,960
Speaker 7: Uh.

891
00:52:38,560 --> 00:52:40,920
Speaker 1: One of the big things for electric vehicles right now

892
00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 1: is also just in terms of efficiency. It's trying to

893
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:46,920
Speaker 1: get the weight of that battery down. That was a

894
00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 1: huge problem and it's still you know, it's still a

895
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:53,359
Speaker 1: speed bump today. So all together, it seems like the

896
00:52:53,400 --> 00:52:59,680
Speaker 1: old theory of international politics from Wu Tang holds true,

897
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:04,799
Speaker 1: and geopolitics and international energy infrastructure as well as in

898
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: hip hop cream cash rules everything around me sounds so look, yes,

899
00:53:12,239 --> 00:53:15,960
Speaker 1: it's a fantastic song, but it also it's also true

900
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:19,840
Speaker 1: large scale moves away from fossil fuel and all the

901
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:23,239
Speaker 1: associated costs with fossil fuel and the associated costs with

902
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:26,600
Speaker 1: moving from it only become more and more likely when

903
00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: there is a financial benefit to doing so.

904
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 2: There's not.

905
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:36,600
Speaker 1: There might be a CEO somewhere who says, altruistically, I'm

906
00:53:36,640 --> 00:53:39,399
Speaker 1: gonna move away from fossil fuel because it's the right

907
00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 1: thing to do. I think Louis Pasteur was right to

908
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: spread his innovation around the world. I don't know, call

909
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:49,640
Speaker 1: me a pessman. I don't think it's gonna happen. I

910
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 1: think it's gonna have to be something in a budget medium.

911
00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 4: What do you guys think, Yeah, unlikely, that's what I

912
00:53:56,239 --> 00:54:00,880
Speaker 4: would say. Unlikely that somebody goes through just changes the

913
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:06,520
Speaker 4: world because it's the right thing to do. But it

914
00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 4: doesn't have to be the case. If you're listening to

915
00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:13,320
Speaker 4: this and you're running a multinational corporation and you've got

916
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:18,040
Speaker 4: love in your heart. Change The word.

917
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: Isn't that song from ghost But don't they use that

918
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: in Ghostbusters at the end of Ghostbusters two when the

919
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:30,040
Speaker 1: statue of Liberty is I'll take him from Vigo.

920
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:32,560
Speaker 4: Somebody check that and get back to us, please.

921
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm looking at Noel. Noel, I'm sorry.

922
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to like nominate you to be in

923
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: charge of knowing everything about Ghostbusters.

924
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:43,720
Speaker 3: I don't remember this song from the end of Ghostbusters.

925
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 3: I actually my memory recollections of Ghostbusters too are pretty spotty.

926
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 1: Uh, not a good.

927
00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 2: I liked the little I like his little What am

928
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:58,239
Speaker 2: I dead to you now? I like I like his

929
00:54:58,320 --> 00:54:58,920
Speaker 2: little toady.

930
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 6: Uh.

931
00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:05,440
Speaker 3: I'd like that character actor and his uh his Eastern

932
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:06,440
Speaker 3: European accent.

933
00:55:06,560 --> 00:55:07,720
Speaker 2: Is hilarious.

934
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 3: But no, I actually don't even know what song you're

935
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,839
Speaker 3: talking about. Ben, put a little love in your heart,

936
00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:16,239
Speaker 3: Put a little love in your heart.

937
00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:16,719
Speaker 4: I know.

938
00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:19,120
Speaker 1: Wait, oh wait, hang on, I think I might be

939
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 1: wrong in the world.

940
00:55:21,560 --> 00:55:21,759
Speaker 2: You know.

941
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: No, it's the end of Scrooge. Another amazing dil Murray.

942
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:31,319
Speaker 4: You know, genuinely, I was thinking about farting Preacher. I

943
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:33,279
Speaker 4: think he has a line where he says, if you've

944
00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:35,440
Speaker 4: got love in your heart, let it out.

945
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:38,800
Speaker 2: And then presumably he farts. Oh.

946
00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:41,600
Speaker 3: Speaking of which, you guys, everyone out there, pro tip

947
00:55:42,040 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 3: if you have an Alexa device, you can make.

948
00:55:45,719 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 2: Her fart go crazy.

949
00:55:49,280 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, And she gets into this like crazy fart loop

950
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:55,080
Speaker 3: uh and it's very it's very difficult to get her

951
00:55:55,120 --> 00:55:57,360
Speaker 3: out of it, like you'll be You'll be like, please stop.

952
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 3: She's like, would you like a wet fot? What kind

953
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:02,920
Speaker 3: of fart do you require?

954
00:56:03,239 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 2: Master, I'm not kidding.

955
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:06,799
Speaker 3: And then at the end she tries to sell you

956
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:10,759
Speaker 3: a premium bundle of farts. It's all like an upsell thing.

957
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:14,000
Speaker 3: I felt like I had stumbled upon some sort of

958
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:17,120
Speaker 3: hidden treasure, but then it just wouldn't stop.

959
00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:21,600
Speaker 1: So Jeff Bezos is trying to get into the professional

960
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:26,560
Speaker 1: flatgalism game. I'm not surprised. Don't let people fart shame

961
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:32,000
Speaker 1: you folks either. The average the average person emits seventeen

962
00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:35,120
Speaker 1: to twenty three farts per day, and you actually, you

963
00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:39,319
Speaker 1: actually probably don't notice several of them. Also, also in

964
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: your defense, so brain stuff things coming out. Also in

965
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:46,680
Speaker 1: your defense, it's not really you that's farting. It's your

966
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:50,319
Speaker 1: gut flora that lives inside you emitting gas. So if

967
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 1: you want to think about, you know, you hear the

968
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:56,960
Speaker 1: argument about farts from humans or cows or other mammals

969
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:58,280
Speaker 1: producing pollution.

970
00:56:58,360 --> 00:56:59,440
Speaker 2: It's the gut flora.

971
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:01,680
Speaker 1: It's not you, it's them.

972
00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 4: So speaking of emissions.

973
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,719
Speaker 1: And cycles and cycles like Alexa, right, we have to

974
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:15,920
Speaker 1: remember they're powerful invested interest, right, They're countries, empires, global corporations, and,

975
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:20,000
Speaker 1: in some cases not necessarily naming names in this episode,

976
00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:26,200
Speaker 1: impossibly wealthy individuals who owe their entire current status to

977
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:32,080
Speaker 1: the existing fossil fuel energy infrastructure. They will pay enormous

978
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:36,640
Speaker 1: cost to maintain that infrastructure. If they cannot secure a

979
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 1: comparable position in a new energy economy, they will fight,

980
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:43,960
Speaker 1: make no mistake, to keep the status they currently have.

981
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 1: It's kind of a rain in hell versus you know,

982
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:50,560
Speaker 1: having a middle class job in heaven kind of thing.

983
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So, first of all, thank you so much Mike

984
00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:57,600
Speaker 4: for sending us that message and getting us to look

985
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:01,560
Speaker 4: into this entire thing. I hope you are doing well

986
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 4: up there in Vancouver, Washington. Hey, so what do you

987
00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:09,040
Speaker 4: think about this whole subject? What do you think about

988
00:58:09,440 --> 00:58:11,320
Speaker 4: the true cost of gas? How much does it cost

989
00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 4: where you are, and what do you think it would

990
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:17,320
Speaker 4: actually cost if you were paying for everything at the pump.

991
00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 4: What's the future of gasoline? Do you think we're going

992
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 4: to continue to, you know, drive these cars around, especially

993
00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:28,080
Speaker 4: now after you know the pandemic situation and all of

994
00:58:28,120 --> 00:58:31,480
Speaker 4: our new at home lives that we've got going on.

995
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:35,240
Speaker 4: And also, what do you think should be factored in

996
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:38,000
Speaker 4: at the pump when you're paying. Is there anything specific

997
00:58:38,040 --> 00:58:39,720
Speaker 4: that we talked about today that you think is the

998
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:43,280
Speaker 4: most important thing and how would we pay for it?

999
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:46,200
Speaker 4: We want answers. We're going to change this whole system

1000
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 4: from our desks at our houses, or at least we're

1001
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 4: going to advise someone somewhere listening through your ideas. So

1002
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:57,720
Speaker 4: please please please write to us find us. You can

1003
00:58:57,720 --> 00:58:59,840
Speaker 4: find us all across social media.

1004
00:58:59,600 --> 00:59:03,439
Speaker 3: Ye, either conspiracy stuff, conspiracy Stuff show, some combination of those.

1005
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:06,800
Speaker 3: In Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. You can find our

1006
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:10,640
Speaker 3: Facebook group it's called Here's where it gets crazy. A

1007
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,720
Speaker 3: lot of fun activity on there. Just have to answer

1008
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 3: a couple basic questions to just prove to us that

1009
00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:19,000
Speaker 3: you're not Russian bots.

1010
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:20,080
Speaker 2: And then you're in.

1011
00:59:20,480 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 3: Like Flynn, you can also find this as individual human

1012
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:24,680
Speaker 3: people on social media. I am at how Now Noel

1013
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:26,760
Speaker 3: Brown on Instagram.

1014
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 1: And you can find me at Ben Bolan hsw on Twitter.

1015
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:33,080
Speaker 1: Where you can find me at Ben Bolan on Instagram.

1016
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:38,160
Speaker 1: Anybody conspiracy realists, longtime listeners, first time listeners, anybody writing

1017
00:59:38,240 --> 00:59:42,080
Speaker 1: the email right now. I usually never do this on

1018
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:44,160
Speaker 1: the fly, but it was important to figure it out.

1019
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:48,160
Speaker 1: I know that this song and the Ghostbusters too soundtrack

1020
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:51,840
Speaker 1: when they're in the Statue of Liberty is higher and higher.

1021
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:55,200
Speaker 1: Your love keeps lifting me higher and higher, like you

1022
00:59:55,240 --> 00:59:57,480
Speaker 1: have to Yeah, don't feel like you have to send

1023
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:00,560
Speaker 1: us the Ghostbusters hate mail about it. We figured it

1024
01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:03,360
Speaker 1: out a powerful lobby. Guys. There are some things that

1025
01:00:03,440 --> 01:00:04,960
Speaker 1: even this show is not going to mess with.

1026
01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:07,600
Speaker 4: So do you have any idea. How many people have

1027
01:00:07,720 --> 01:00:11,560
Speaker 4: not listened to this part yet but have already written

1028
01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 4: you a message.

1029
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:18,320
Speaker 1: Oh God, don't don't punish. Don't punish us collectively. We

1030
01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:21,120
Speaker 1: got there. We got there at the end, and we

1031
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 1: do want to hear from you. We do want to

1032
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:25,600
Speaker 1: hear from you. If you don't care for social media,

1033
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,800
Speaker 1: that wholly makes sense, you can go old school with us.

1034
01:00:28,840 --> 01:00:31,840
Speaker 1: We have a phone number that you can call literally

1035
01:00:32,000 --> 01:00:33,560
Speaker 1: any anytime.

1036
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:37,200
Speaker 4: That's right. Our number is one eight three three st

1037
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:39,960
Speaker 4: d w y t K. If you don't want to

1038
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:42,000
Speaker 4: do that stuff, though, but you still want to write

1039
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 4: to us with your amazing idea, we're ready for you.

1040
01:00:45,080 --> 01:00:47,240
Speaker 4: Just send us a good old fashioned email.

1041
01:00:47,440 --> 01:01:08,280
Speaker 3: We are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1042
01:01:09,160 --> 01:01:11,200
Speaker 4: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

1043
01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:15,840
Speaker 4: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1044
01:01:15,920 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 4: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.