Thu, 15 September 2022
Emma hosts Katherine Blunt, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, to discuss her recent book California Burning: The Fall Of Pacific Gas And Electric-And What It Means For America's Power Grid. First, Emma dives into updates on the Freight Rail strike, the unionization of Minor League Baseball, and DeSantis’ human trafficking stunt, also diving into the backlash to Lindsey Graham’s abortion ban as Jesse Watters criticizes him for giving away their game. Katherine Blunt then joins as she and Emma dive right into what PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) is (a California utility company), and how they came to achieve the status of gas and electric monopoly in the state. Next, they get into the disasters around this company, starting with the 2018 wildfire caused by their reckless negligence that destroyed the town of Paradise, killing 84 people, as they dive into the corporate failures that lead to a 100-year-old hook holding up transmission lines with no awareness from the company. Parsing through this, Emma and Katherine tackle the role of the profit motive in supporting disinvestment from self-regulation, with actual profit coming from the rate of return on capital investments that improve their overall value, also diving into the state and federal regulations that shaped the mass deregulation of the energy sector from the 1990s on. After an extended conversation on the role of climate change (and thus drought, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme cold, and more) in inflaming the already dysfunctioning grids across the US, and how California has put the liability on the shoulders of the utility companies, they wrap up the interview by assessing the role of Biden’s infrastructure package in rebuilding and reinforcing our electricity grids. And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Brandon and Matt as they tackle the absurdity of the British royal family and watch their police crackdown on someone pointing out that Prince Andrew is a pedophile, also watching a Newsmax host come around to see the horrible working conditions of Freight Rail workers and having another small discussion on Tim Pool’s music with Spencer from Utah. Ronald Raygun discusses Ron DeSantis’ disgusting human trafficking stunt, Matt Walsh breaks down trying to do a scientific racism on the live-action Little Mermaid, and Candace Owens discusses why Black people must take responsibility for slavery, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out Katherine's book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670012/california-burning-by-katherine-blunt/ Check out ESVN's YouTube channel here! https://www.youtube.com/c/ESVNShow Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattBinder @MattLech @BF1nn @BradKAlsop Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie. https://discourseblog.com/ Check out Matt Binder’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon’s show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/ |