The Green Revolution is Scientifically Impossible with Brian Gitt

Jerry speaks with Brian Gitt, an independent thinker in the energy arena.Show more

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Jerry Ewalt: Welcome to the first right podcast, a weekly conservative new show brought to you by restoration of America, Jerry UL, chief marketing officer for restoration America. Today, we are blessed to speak with Brian GI, an independent thinker in the green energy arena, like a growing number of voices. He has come to the realization that the coming green revolution is a scientific impossibility. Brian says wind and solar are not our future. Rather our best bet for sustainable energy is going to be nuclear and natural gas. Well, Brian, it's a, it's a true honor to have you on the show. Welcome.

Brian Gitt: Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat.

Jerry Ewalt: Absolutely. So you have had a fantastic career in the energy sector, energy tech, give us some highlights.

Brian Gitt: So at the core, I'm an energy entrepreneur, investor and writer, and I've spent the last 25 years working on various different types of energy technologies, everything from energy efficient lighting technologies and heating and air conditioning and, and buildings to solar panels, to fuel cell vehicles, to wireless power systems. So a whole variety of technologies, mostly all with the aim and the mission to reduce emissions and reduce environmental impact. And what I realized after many years is that I was really chasing that the wrong solutions and that these solutions really weren't working, they weren't scaling. And it really opened my eyes to the kinds of technologies I needed to focus on.

Jerry Ewalt: So you're a true environmentalist. You're, you're trying to use technology for the greater good. You had all the best intentions jumping into the energy industry, if you will.

Brian Gitt: Yeah. I mean, I got into this because I fell in love with the outdoors. I used to lead wilderness trips for teenagers in Alaska and the Southwest, and I wanted to do something to protect these beautiful areas that I enjoyed. So at my heart, I am an environmentalist and that's why I got into the energy business in the beginning.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. And so you've, you've spent your career in the, this energy field and, and you've done a lot of different technology and you mentioned something that you were focused on the wrong thing. And I, I call this the, the green, the renewable green energy fallacy. So tell us a, I, I have a, actually have a couple of questions on this one, particularly, and then you can help us maybe understand where we're going wrong here. So the first question is I've been told ever since I was in I don't elementary school, high school, that we're going to run out of fossil fuels and we have to find an alternative. Is this a true statement?

Brian Gitt: It's false. You know, 90% of the fossil fuels in a million years from now will still be in the ground. But this is a myth that I believe very deeply. There's a, there's a bunch of myths that, that unfortunately, myself and many others have been indoctrinated with and believe in are shaping our energy policy. And the, the idea that fossil fuels is running out is, is just the tip of the iceberg. Nuclear power is dangerous, is another myth. Solar, wind, and electric vehicles are the most effective way to reduce emissions. There's there's a whole bunch of myths that are pervasive in our culture and are really impacting our energy policy.

Jerry Ewalt: But myth number one, we're not in danger of losing or, or not having enough fossil fuels anytime soon, million years, maybe more

Brian Gitt: Well, we are in danger of not having enough because we're not allowing the companies to actually increase production. There's so many limitations and regulations and a lot of divestment from that industry on the, the finance side. So the reason why we're having the core reason why we're having a global energy crisis right now is lack of investment in fossil fuels. That is the core reason. Of course, the Russia, Ukraine war was a catalyst and is contributing and there's other confounding factors, but the root of this, well, before the war ever started, we had a huge deficiency in supply. And that is structural that's from years of under investment.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. So I, you know, that narrative of we're gonna run out, turned into, but the environment we need to do this because it's for, it's the right thing to do the en for the environment. So my next question for you is, are these renewable green energies actually good for the environment?

Brian Gitt: No solar and wind power are expensive, expensive wasteful add-ons to the existing power grid. And the irony is, is that they're harmful to the environment. When you look across all the environmental categories, you can't just look at CO2 emissions is your all encompassing metrics. You gotta evaluate these things clearly on a whole variety of metrics, including land use. So let's just take that one, for example. So a nuclear power plant consumes 75 times less land than a solar plant in 360 times less land than a wind farm. So when you're looking at the total cost in total environmental impact, you gotta look at land. You gotta look at materials, use, you know, a nuclear plant uses 18 times less materials, this, everything from steel and glass and aluminum, all of the various resources that go into making these things than these renewable energy technologies you. So you have to really consider all of these factors.

Jerry Ewalt: I, I think that that's an important point, right? Cause I, right now I think most Americans picture an electric car going down the road and there's no tailpipes on these. There's no emissions. We're saying, wow, this is completely green energy. It's not polluting at all, but you're telling me something different. I've heard you actually say that you're just shifting the pollution from the car source to the power plant. So can you talk a little bit about that?

Brian Gitt: Sure. I mean, energy just doesn't magically fall from the sky. It's gotta be generated somewhere. It's gotta be pulled outta the ground. And that's what electric vehicles are doing. They're shifting the emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant. Now you can reduce emissions overall, if you have an efficient power plan, if you're using, let's say a highly efficient, natural gas, power plant, or a nuclear power plant, then yeah, you're going to be reducing emissions using electric vehicles. So I'm not anti electric vehicles, but we have to be honest about what the overall impact is. And the reality is that the majority of new electric vehicles are in China, in China is mostly producing electricity via coal plants. So in many parts of China, you're actually emitting more emissions by using electric vehicle because coming out the, the factory, there's more embodied energy because all of, all of those critical minerals that go into the battery, the nickel, the lithium, all of those components, plus because the battery's so heavy, it's a thousand pound battery in the average electric vehicle. Well now you have to figure out other ways to reduce weight in the car. So they go to higher grade aluminum and carbon fiber and other alloys to basically reduce the weight all using more energy. So when you look at this holistically, you could actually be generating more emissions if you're driving an electric vehicle in China. And in most of the us, you're still generating, you're not really saving a considerable amount.

Jerry Ewalt: So, so Brian, you, you just blew my mind there, right? So you're telling me that driving electric car actually consumes more energy than driving a combustible engine car. That that's what you just said. Correct?

Brian Gitt: Well, it, it depends on the source of the power, right? Yeah. In some grids in some countries, yes, you're gonna generate more emissions, but, and even in a country like the United States, it varies depending on where your source of power is and the type of car you're driving overall. So some, some electric vehicles will have some marginal savings, but it's not cost effective at all. Let's zoom out. What's the goal. What are we trying to achieve here? And the bottom line is if the goal is to reduce emissions and reduce specifically carbon emissions, which is what the, a lot of the proponents of electric vehicle state, this is one of the most expensive ways you could possibly reduce carbon emissions. It doesn't make any sense. There's so many other ways that we could radically reduce carbon emissions without subsidizing electric vehicle use.

Jerry Ewalt: So, so I recognize that there is a massive debate around re it does reducing carbon emissions have any impact whatsoever on the environment. We'll save that for later. But the question here though, is what you're, I guess what you're telling me is that it is actually not reducing carbon emissions. In fact, it's increasing carbon emissions. When you have, when you use these renewable green technologies, such as electric cars, for example.

Brian Gitt: Well, it, again, it depends in China. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, in, unfortunately most of the new electric vehicles are in China. So in those situations you are going to be increased in emissions. And here's, here's something with solar and wind that people don't often think about because these are intermittent power sources, meaning they're obviously not generating power all the time. The sun's not always shining. The wind's not always blowing well, you need a thermal power plant, usually natural gas to be idling, ready to go to basically crank up immediately because we demand 24, 7 power. You don't just expect your power not to be available. When you, when you go to use your hot water to flip on a light switch or use your computer. So because of that, you need to have all of the existing infrastructure of thermal power plants. You need to be running them idling. So they have to maintain a certain amount of heat and a certain amount of inertia in the power plant. So they're still burning about, you know, 50% of the fuel just to keep it idling. So you need to account for those emissions as well as the whatever is embodied in the solar and wind farm to create those things. So oftentimes that gets left out of the equation. When people are calculating the true emissions of solar and wind,

Jerry Ewalt: You have to look at the, the whole picture is what you're saying. And that makes a lot of sense. So you could to summarize so far, plenty of fossil fuels available to us. We're not in any danger of running out. We, we know that what was it that it's not environmentally friendly as is it's being positioned? So if you put those two to the side, tell me, does, does the technology actually work? Is it generating the type of power that we want, right. The sustainable, renewable energy?

Brian Gitt: No, we're not. We're not meeting the goals at, at all. I mean, these were, I think Germany is the best example of this because they've spent the last 20 years over two decades, they've invested almost a half a trillion euros, or now it's almost one to one with dollars equivalent in these technologies. And what we found is we're actually increasing, we're going back to coal, increasing emissions, they've built a redundant power grid that doesn't have the inherent characteristics of reliability, affordability, resilience that is needed. And therefore when, when they need it. And we're seeing in real time, the de-industrialization of Germany, which is the heart of Europe's industrial sector, because they don't have access to low cost, affordable energy. They became, yeah, it's all due to energy. They became overreliant on Russian gas imports because they refused to produce domestic natural gas exploration in fracking. They shut down their nuclear power plants and they overinvested in solar and wind power.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. Especially, I mean, anyone who's been to Germany knows that it's not sunny every day of the year, maybe unlike California, but so you're investing in all these, especially solar it's, it's not gonna work. So the question is why would, why would they go in, why would they go in this direction?

Brian Gitt: You bring up a great point. I mean, it doesn't make any sense to invest in the technology. Let's take solar in Germany in a Northern latitude climate. That's only generating power 12% of the year, 12% of the time,

Jerry Ewalt: 12%.

Brian Gitt: Yes. 12% is when is the amount of time solar is actually generating maximum amount of power on the German grid. So why would you double down and put all your investment in there versus a nuclear plant that runs over 90% of the time that doesn't make any logical sense? Wow. These, these technologies are inherently limited by physics and the intermittency of those technologies.

Jerry Ewalt: Now, I, I heard you say in a previous article or, or right in a previous article that, that, that 12% in Germany turns into 24%, even in a place like California. So even in a place that's always sunny where you live, it's, it's only 24%. Is that right?

Brian Gitt: That's exactly correct. And look at the problems we're having here in California. We're basically barely able to keep the lights on in the summer because everyone's cranking up their air conditioners and we don't have enough power. You know, we've shut down our nuclear power plants in California. We, we import a huge amount of our energy, almost close to 30% from other surrounding states because we've shut down natural gas plants, we've shut down coal plants. And what are we left with? We're left with unreliable, wind and solar power that can't deliver when you need it.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. You know, I, I really believe the American population is starting to wake up to this fact. Right? All the stuff that you're talking about makes perfect sense. So then my question to you is why do so many politicians and the media outlets continue to hammer on the American people to go out and buy this technology that just doesn't work and it's not even good for the environment?

Brian Gitt: Well, they've been indoctrinated in these beliefs and they just like myself for many years. I, I, these were part of my identity. And for politicians, it's a little different because their incentive is to get elected, right? Every politician needs to get elected. They're gonna jump on whatever is trending in the moment and can get them votes. And right now solar and wind power and electric vehicles, it's trending, it's popular. It's, it's kind of the, the in thing. And they know that if they say the right words, they can get more votes. So you just have to look at the incentives. The problem is there's no accountability for this. So these politicians are gonna be, are going to be long gone. After all this money is deployed and invested in these technologies. And one we're left with a grid that's not working. And people are paying an Asal amount for energy. They're not gonna have to pay the price. It's the taxpayers that are gonna have to pay the price ultimately.

Jerry Ewalt: Well, and, and I think you're being kind about that, right? Because it's gonna be devastating for people, right? Look at, look at inflation and the recession that we're under right now, if you continue to subsidize this type of energy, right. It's, it's going to only exasperate the situation and people's lives will be ruined as a result.

Brian Gitt: Yeah. We're already seeing this all around the word. We're seeing riots. We're seeing energy rationing, even in the wealthiest countries, in, in Germany, in parts of Europe. If you live in a multifamily building some of these buildings, they're telling you, you can't take hot showers at certain times of the day, and they're turning off on, you know, any kind of public lighting or dimming the lighting, or they're not even heating swimming pools. I mean, you're seeing in wealthy countries, energy rationing due to these really poor decisions around energy policy. And this is only gonna get worse as they double down on these bad ideas.

Jerry Ewalt: And again, to reinforce the point that you made earlier, we have plenty of fossil fuels and if done correctly, it, it will actually better. You be better for the environment than most of these renewable sustainable green energy technologies.

Brian Gitt: If, if you care about the environment, the most effective ways to reduce emissions and to shrink footprint and preserve wild areas in natural habitat is to invest in highly efficient, natural gas and nuclear power plants. That that is the solution. It's, it's really that simple. We should not be investing in these unreliable intermittent power sources, such as solar wind that create that consume more resources. And that enforce us to use our existing energy system inefficiently.

Jerry Ewalt: And I, I want to come back to nuclear and natural gas in a little bit, but you are very articulate in this and you're very experienced. I have to, I have to know how do people react when you share this news with them that otherwise think that they're doing the right thing by buying electric vehicle or putting solar panels on their house?

Brian Gitt: Well, I think there's a range of reactions, right? I mean, it depends how, how much of their identity is tied to these beliefs. And I understand this. I used to be this way, so I, I can appreciate it. But you know, on one extreme, you have people that are completely irrational and you could give them every fact in the world backed up by credible third party sources. And they're not gonna believe you because the reality is they're gonna have to change their identity. These are not just a, a fact that you're potentially challenging. You're challenging who they think they are and how they see themselves in the world. And so it's not so easy just to flip a switch or flip, you know, turn on a dime. But, you know, I, I feel like there's more and more people that are starting to wake up to this reality. People like me, people that believe these things and over many years and experience see how hollow these technologies and the promises of them are and what we really need to do.

Jerry Ewalt: Well, I think that's very wise. You, you mentioned indoctrination and then it becomes part of who you are and that's, that's hard to change, right? If that's your identity and, and we're telling you to change or what you think you were, is wrong, that that's a hard thing to change. And that's, that's what we're up against is what you're saying.

Brian Gitt: Yeah. We need better storytelling. I mean, when, when you look at any successful campaign or brand like Nike, apple, these big companies, they don't pound you with facts to tell you how many tennis players are wearing Nike clothes, right? They tell you a story about Sereno Williams or, you know, a player overcoming adversity, tiger woods and, and rising to the top. It's all about storytelling. You can't just pound people. Of course, you have to have the foundation of facts there in relevant, but that's honestly not really what convinces people and changes mind. So you gotta win people's hearts through storytelling and really selling the emotional piece as well.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. It it's the emotional draw that, that works. I, I, I agree with you on that. So there's, there's another aspect to all of this that we haven't touched on yet. And that's the geopolitical aspect of these renewable energies. Mark Mills made a comment that said that China is the OPEC of renewable energy, right? Because of the production and refinement of all these renewable energies here, why would we wanna turn over the, the future of our energy production to a, to a foreign fo why would we do that?

Brian Gitt: We shouldn't do that. I mean, it's a, I mean, that would be a serious mistake. I mean, the reality is that China has a chokehold on the supply chain throughout the entire supply chain of wind solar and electric vehicles. When you take solar, for example, 97% of the solar wafers are the components that make up a solar cell that go into a solar panel are made in China. And you go all the way down the line in terms of how they're assembled and manufactured. All of these pieces are coming out of China, or they're coming outta Southeast Asia using core components from China. And so any country that is going to put their future in the hands of an adversarial country like China is, is at risk. I mean, it's the same situation. What we're seeing right now with Germany and Russia, like Germany put their future in Russia's hands by being so dependent on Russia for natural gas, we would be making the same mistake.
If we go all in on this renewables fantasy and put these essential components of our energy system in the hands of China, which they currently control. Now, some, some argue that, oh, well, we can onshore that. We can build that capacity here, maybe so, but that's gonna take many, many years well over a decade to really build up that kind of capacity. And quite frankly, I don't see it happening. We're we refuse to build new minds. We, we block all kinds of large infrastructure projects. It's almost impossible to build anything right now in the us, much less, these heavy industrial facilities and mining operations that just doesn't seem realistic at all. So we're gonna be stuck being relying on China and parts of Asia for these critical minerals and the manufacturing of these industrial processes to make these technologies and any country that relies on an adversarial country is, is not thinking clearly

Jerry Ewalt: Well, well, let's be clear. We are selling our future as a com a country for a technology that does not work and is actually not helping the environment at all. So I it's, it, it does. It's, it's unbelievable. Right. I, I, yeah. Anyway, thanks for sharing that. And I, I want to go now into some of the solutions, right? So what is the solution? You, you bring up that it's it's nuclear and natural gas, correct?

Brian Gitt: Yes. I mean, fossil fuels, aren't going anywhere. Let's be clear 97% of all of the transportation fuel in the world. I mean, every time you click that little Amazon buy button to get something shipped to your house, you know, you're triggering a supply chain that includes ships, trained trucks, you know, all kinds of vehicles to deliver that to, to you. And the reality is 97% of that is coming from fossil fuels. So fossil fuels, aren't going anywhere. We'll continue to burn lower emission fuels and come up with new technology to reduce emissions like we have. But I think the future is nuclear power longer term. Now that's not gonna solve all of these transportation applications. You're probably still not gonna be using using nuclear power to, you know, power trucks at a mining side or something like that. But unless

Jerry Ewalt: We certainly,

Brian Gitt: Yeah, but for electricity and for heat processes in industrial processing and stuff, nuclear power can, can solve that problem. And it has a teeny footprint of land. It has basically zero emissions. It enables our energy security because we are in total control of that. And we can onshore even the, the fuel for that process as well. So that I think is our inevitable future with a combination of fossil fuels in the mix in there as well. But I don't see a, a significant role for these other technologies. I mean, yeah, we're gonna use hydro and in somewhat geothermal energy, these are fine technologies, but they don't scale and they're not available everywhere in, in the United States. For example, geothermal energy has been stagnant, has been stuck for like 30 years. We haven't had any, any new development or, or new generation of it. And hydro is also, we're kind of at capacity in many places. So if we're gonna grow, which energy is the foundation of our economy, it's how we, we grow our civilization. We're gonna need more energy.

Jerry Ewalt: Yeah. You know, it's interesting when you think about innovation and making things better through technology, it almost feels like we've gone backwards here. Right? We, we had, we've had the technology for a very long time to produce all the energy that we need. Can we do it more efficiently? Can we do it in a way that's better for your environment? I'm hearing you say, absolutely innovations are here. They're coming on that, but the direction that we're heading right now on sustainable green energy is innovation. That's actually making things a lot worse.

Brian Gitt: It is. And we've done this before. I mean, look at the shell revolution in the us. This was Mo one of the most significant technological innovations. I think so far in the century we went from, we were worried about running out natural gas. We were building liquified natural gas import facilities on the Gulf coast because we, we didn't think we were gonna have enough and through innovation and through entrepreneurship in, in many years of hard work, we innovated and basically changed the entire global energy system. In a period of little, over 10 years, we went from being worried about running out to being the largest supplier in the world of oil and natural gas due to fracking innovations. And that really shows the power of the core principles that America has really runs on, which are, you know, freedom and Liberty and entrepreneurship to innovate and to come up with solutions to hard problems.

Jerry Ewalt: I, I love that, Brian, I think you're right on with that. So, so look, Brian, this has been really, it's very forward movement. I, I appreciate all that you're doing out there. Keep up the great work and we'll have to have you on again. Thank you.

Brian Gitt: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Jerry Ewalt: All right. Well, that's our show for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting conservative media. And don't ever forget that by working together and staying diligent, we conservatives can bring our country back true greatness until next week. Let's all keep praying that God will continue to bless America

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