EPA Rollbacks and Ukraine's Grind: Deregulation Wins vs. Nuclear Brinkmanship
Jerremy and Dave expose Trump's EPA climate rollbacks, slamming wasteful solar and wind grants in mismatched spots while advocating nuclear pushes and grid overhauls amid "drill baby drill" rhetoric. They highlight Ukraine's brutal conscription scraping 60-year-olds, Russia's nuclear stockpile, and the "no military solution" reality—rejecting escalation for negotiated peace, with territorial swaps as a wildcard in foreign policy stakes.
Timestamps:
- (00:00) EPA Climate Rollback and Deregulation Push
- (00:01:36) Solar Farms North of the Line: Economic Mismatch
- (00:02:18) Wind Farms in Windless Spots: Grant Grabs Exposed
- (00:02:57) Drill Baby Drill vs. Energy Independence Reality
- (00:06:53) Trump–Putin Territorial Swaps: Historical Precedent
- (00:14:11) Ukraine's Draft Age Hike to 60: Desperation Mode
- (00:15:27) Nuclear Risks with Russia's 9,500 Warheads
- (00:16:26) No Military Win: Push for Negotiated Peace
- (00:16:50) Conclusion and Final Thoughts
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Transcript
“Energy choices at home, ripple effects abroad—today’s
2
:stories prove they’re inseparable.
3
:From solar farms in unlikely places to a
high-stakes Trump-Putin meeting and the
4
:brutal math of the Ukraine war, Dave and
Jerremy pull the thread on how one policy
5
:decision can echo across the world.”
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:Dave Conley: Here's one
I wanted to talk about.
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:EPA climate rollback, bush draft
moves would unwind clean energy grants
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:and emission rules pitched as growth
friendly deregulation, opponents see
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:long run costs and science sidelined.
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:Okay, so actually.
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:I'm gonna just speak off the cuff on
this one because I don't know anything
12
:more than this because I was talking
to my sister yesterday and she was like
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:quite informed on this and she's very
much a, a New York Times cover to cover
14
:reader and I said, man, everything
that I've heard about this is twofold.
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:One is that the administration
very much campaigned on,
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:look, let's get clean water.
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:Let's get clean air.
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:Let's be actually conservative
around these things.
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:These are the, gonna be the environmental
pushes that we are on, and we
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:wanna reform the electricity grid.
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:That's something we need to do in all
sorts of ways, not only for energy
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:transmission and saving energy and all the
energy we need for ai but also if we get
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:like a solar flare, then we're screwed.
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:So we need to do this anyways.
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:Big push on nuclear.
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:Like these were the big things and
that solar and wind, like they're
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:not continuous and they're a problem.
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:And this was the piece that I really
keyed on was not so much that was,
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:she was driving back from Vermont.
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:She was driving Vermont to
Washington, DC and I said, how
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:many solar farms have you seen?
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:He said, and she said,
they're all over the place.
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:And I'm like that's a problem.
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:Because solar you need to draw a line
on a map basically in North Carolina,
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:South Carolina, and then like down
and over across the United States.
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:These are the places
where solar makes sense.
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:And she goes, what do you mean?
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:I said, above that line, you're too
far north and the weather isn't right.
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:And she's what?
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:He's they don't get enough solar.
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:And so like they've gotten all these
federal grants to put all these solar
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:farms up way too far north where they
don't make any economic sense unless
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:the government is actually supplying
the cash to make 'em make sense
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:Jerremy Newsome: yeah.
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:Dave Conley: There's literally
not enough light, and they're
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:putting them up everywhere.
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:They're putting up wind farms in places
that don't have wind because there's
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:only actually a few places in the United
States where it actually makes sense, or
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:offshore, which is like its own big deal.
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:So this is just this money grab
of these companies and counties
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:to get all these funds for things
that don't make much sense.
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:And I'm like, okay, that
sounds like the right thing.
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:But on the other side of this is the
chaos of I'm not seeing the nuclear push,
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:I'm not seeing the reforming the grid.
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:I'm not seeing like the clean
air, clean water, clean stuff.
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:So it's like all the environmental
stuff that they said that they
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:were gonna do, I'm not seeing,
and the environmental stuff that
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:they are doing seems like chaos.
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:You've got, what you've gotta say to that.
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:Jerremy Newsome: yeah.
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:I was say you summed it up.
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:There's, I don't think there's any real
surprise that that's gonna be definitely
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:lower on his item list of things to
accomplish is gonna be the energy piece.
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:Trump's never been a huge
advocate for amazing energy, clean
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:Dave Conley: It's like drill, baby drill,
and I'm like, do we need any more oil?
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:We are actually the largest
oil producer on the planet.
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:We are completely energy independent.
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:We are completely energy independent.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
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:Tons and tons of oil.
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:So yeah, I don't think we need a lot.
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:And again, there was a lot of
people that are like, oh man,
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:that's gonna make oil stocks go up.
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:And I was like, maybe short
term, 'cause it's a hype and it's
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:excitement, but if you have more
supply, prices is gonna go down.
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:Or it's supposed to.
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:So you would think that the
stock prices would go down also.
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:But from the perspective of wind farming,
I think it's a really fascinating piece.
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:'cause I have heard that a lot
from relatively closely connected
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:individuals who work on renewable
energy systems, or it's like wind.
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:As we have it right now, people
always talk about solar and how
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:inefficient it is generally, no
one really ever craps on wind.
83
:But the five or six guys that I've
talked to that are very scholared in this
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:field are like, yeah, man wind's awful.
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:Dave Conley: I just know
that they look awful, right?
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:Like down in southern California,
like driving just about anywhere
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:I going from LA to, where was it?
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:Palm Springs.
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:It's, like every time I see these
giant things, I'm like, oh my God,
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:they look and I'm like, I dunno.
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:Jerremy Newsome: that great.
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:Dave Conley: And they're not that
great, is what you're saying.
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:Jerremy Newsome: they're not that great.
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:They take a lot to maintain.
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:They're very hard to fix.
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:They're always moving, right?
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:So it's like a,
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:Dave Conley: Right.
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:Jerremy Newsome: gonna have things that
break down, but the other fun part is
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:they're not always moving because we can't
really determine when the wind blows.
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: The hilarious
part about energy and Elon said
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:this like probably two years ago.
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:goes, this whole solar clean
energy thing is very easy to solve.
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:If you take, it was like 14,000
hectare, which is essentially
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:like a small corner of Utah,
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: and he goes, just put
it all with the entire thing with solar,
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: the entire country
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:Dave Conley: And it's sunny.
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:Jerremy Newsome: It's always sunny,
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:Dave Conley: yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: like 99%
of the year sun is rampant
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:Dave Conley: Love it.
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:Jerremy Newsome: going anywhere
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:Dave Conley: Love it.
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:Jerremy Newsome: for the next
4 billion years at least.
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:Yeah.
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:So like the whole wind thing
is, but anyway, saying all
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:that to your point correct.
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:Like think that anyone that works on the
energy piece and I do have a lot of really
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:interesting connections in the energy
field because in my opinion, I do think.
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:The reason that most of it is done
improperly or poorly is very close to
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:what you said is it's a money grab,
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: because we could change
so many policies right now, but those
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:policies, they're being paid for by big
oil, and they're being paid for by the
129
:same individuals that are essentially
labeling oil as a fossil fuel and saying
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:that, oh, we have a very small amount
because dinosaurs died for this, 35
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:Ago.
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:And we have this tiny, itty bitty little
line on the earth that has oil, when
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:in reality it's probably of miles.
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:Like the Earth's crust
is only 16 miles thick.
135
:Everything under below that you
can start getting access to oil on.
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:Like we have so much.
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:So they're working on limiting the supply.
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:They're working on limiting the price.
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:The ironic part is I think we have
tons and tons of supply out there
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:for all kinds of different things.
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:should we do something that's
dirty, that is, invasive?
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:That is dangerous, right?
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:Dave Conley: Yeah.
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:Jerremy Newsome: there's a lot of oil
spills that happen all the time, but
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:like you can just do clean energy.
146
:Put Utah the very bottom of Utah.
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:Boom, solar field done.
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:No one lives there anyway.
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:now the entire US
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:Is fed by solar energy.
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:Dave Conley: Love it.
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:I, yeah, I don't get it.
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:That'll be our energy
series that we'll do 'cause
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:Jerremy Newsome: We got
some good energy series.
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:That's gonna be fun.
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:Dave Conley: and we got some
great people in that space.
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:We've already interviewed some of them
who are in, like solid in that space.
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:Okay.
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:Trump.
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:Putin Alaska Summit.
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:Now I, again, I've been out of
the news cycle and like I wrote
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:you political briefs on this.
163
:I don't know, this has been
going on for three years.
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:I probably wrote the first brief
on this two years ago for you.
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:Okay.
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:So what's, what is this thing?
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:Putin's coming to Alaska.
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:That's all I really know.
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:He's coming to Alaska.
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:He's wanting to talk about the war.
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:I have very strong opinions on this,
but what do you know about this
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:Jerremy Newsome: I don't know very much.
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:I can say this, it was not in my bingo
card of things I would've said Putin
174
:Trump, Alaskan Energy Peace Summit.
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:That wasn't on my list.
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:Yeah, I think it's this week, man.
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:He's meeting Putin,
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:Dave Conley: Friday?
179
:Yeah.
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:Putin meets Trump to end Ukraine,
war with territorial swaps.
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:Translation Ukraine loses
Donbas and Crimea forever.
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:Zelensky warns of nothing
without Ukraine present.
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:European allies.
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:See Munich 1938.
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:Oh my God.
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:Ah,
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Dave Conley: all right.
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:I could talk about this for days.
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:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
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:Gimme your brief overview on
what your thoughts are on it.
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:Dave Conley: Okay.
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:Ultimately, it comes down to this.
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:There is no military solution to this.
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:There never has been, period.
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:You cannot solve this with bullets.
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:There are not enough bullets that you
can possibly do in order to solve this in
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:any, this always would've been negotiated.
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:And it, shame on us.
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:There's a great book called Unpro
provoked, which is gonna be on your
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:reading list, on my reading list that
really outlines the history of this
202
:going back at least to the nineties.
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:That has caused this disaster
and created a lot of tension
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:where it didn't need to happen.
205
:And yes this invasion was absolutely
illegal and it didn't ever need to happen.
206
:So NATO and European countries are
freaked out that the Russians are
207
:going to take Ukraine and then they're
just gonna roll through Europe.
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:And I'm like this demonstrates an absolute
lack of understanding of Russian mentality
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:and what Russians actually are like.
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:Russians love figuring out a way to do
something and they keep doing it forever.
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:If you look at any kind of current
technology for Russian, if they, if
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:they show you a, a, a control room
of their state-of-the-art thing,
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:they'll have these old switches and
be like, man, when was that built?
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:And they'll be like, oh, I don't know.
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:2020.
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:It'll be the old switches like, you,
you, in films of, the Apollo crews, it
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:looks like it's built out of the 1950s
because Russians have a technology.
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:Is bulletproof.
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:And they're like, we're gonna use this.
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:We're gonna keep on doing it.
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:They love that.
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:And when it they profoundly dislike,
uh, continuing evolution of things
223
:because they're like, okay, if we
keep on evolving this, then it's
224
:just gonna break in the future.
225
:It's like, we don't know
if this works or not.
226
:We know that this works in the keep doing
it and this is the mentality the Russian.
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:Controlled all of Eastern
Europe for 40 years.
228
:It cost an enormous amount of money
a enormous amount of horsepower,
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:a lot of people, and they failed.
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:They have no desire to go back in there
because it is like, it didn't work.
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:And when the Russians run up against
something that doesn't work, they stop.
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:They're like, ah, we're
not doing that again.
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:The Russians find something that
does work and then they go harder.
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:And then when it doesn't seem like
it's working, they keep going harder.
235
:They throw people at it and they
have unlimited numbers of people.
236
:That's what's going on in Ukraine right
now is like it's working because they
237
:can grind down this area by throwing
more and more people at it, because
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:they have an unlimited number of
soldiers to throw at this for years.
239
:And they can just grind through.
240
:The area and basically leave
it completely failed state.
241
:So this always had to be negotiated and
it always had to be negotiated where the
242
:Eastern Donbass the eastern part which
was primarily aligned with, you know,
243
:Russian and Russian values anyways, right?
244
:Like they're historically Russian,
they're gonna be left independent
245
:like, look, you're not gonna line
yourself with the east, you're not
246
:gonna line yourself with Russia.
247
:You're gonna be independent and
you're just gonna do your thing.
248
:Uh, and you're gonna act as
a buffer because this is what
249
:freaks out the Russians, right?
250
:Like it's their, their soft underbelly
because the geography is completely
251
:flat between Ukraine and Moscow.
252
:And the Russians are like, ah, we don't
want anything rolling through there.
253
:And there's like a natural choke point
right there on the Eastern Ukraine border.
254
:So that's why they are so hell.
255
:On this particular area.
256
:And Ukraine to begin with, they
do not care about Western Ukraine,
257
:which is actually much more Western.
258
:But they are worried about nato.
259
:They're like, look, this nuclear
threat, and like getting all the NATO
260
:countries, it's like, we don't need that.
261
:So they're like, look,
don't put 'em in nato.
262
:You can put 'em in in, in the eu.
263
:We don't give a shit about that.
264
:You know, you can have the economic ties.
265
:We don't give a shit about that,
but just leave them neutral.
266
:This has always been on their tip.
267
:And the Ukrainians right now are like,
no, we're gonna be a part of nato.
268
:No, we're gonna be part of
Europe and we want all of it.
269
:And they're like, the Russians are like
yet, and we're just gonna keep, you
270
:know, like we're gonna just keep on
grinding it, you know, screw you guys.
271
:You know, and there's nothing they
can do because they can't throw
272
:enough bodies at it in Ukraine.
273
:Easiest, you know, best estimate that we
got is a million people have already died.
274
:So we have routed the best.
275
:Youngest and brightest of
Ukrainian youth and the rest of
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:them are scattered into Europe.
277
:They're here in Miami.
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:They're they're, they're
hiding out, right?
279
:Like they fled the country if they
could, and they are partying it up.
280
:They, you would have to cancel all
of the green cards, all of the, the
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:visas all over Europe, all over the
United States, and send everybody back
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:to Ukraine in order for Ukraine to
actually hold on for a little bit longer.
283
:And the Russians will be
there and just grind it out.
284
:Never has been a military solution.
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:They need to be they
absolutely have to be talking.
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:The Europeans don't clearly
don't understand the Russians.
287
:Uh.
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:It's madness madness, madness.
289
:And a million people have died
unnecessarily because it was
290
:always gonna end up in negotiation.
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:So I'm optimistic that
at least they're talking.
292
:I don't know if anything's gonna happen
of it, because right now Ukraine has
293
:their own internal politics and they
haven't had an election in a long time.
294
:You know, the most of the, the last
opinion polls came out and said, look,
295
:we do, you know, like the population
really wants to, end this, the Ukrainians
296
:are now drafting the draft age.
297
:I'll give you gimme a wild guess.
298
:What do you think the draft age
meaning like they're going and
299
:finding these people and saying,
okay, we're giving you a gun.
300
:What do you think that age is right now?
301
:Jerremy Newsome: By the tone of
your question, it can't be 18,
302
:so it has to be lower, but God,
I hope it's not lower than 16
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:Dave Conley: Other direction?
304
:Jerremy Newsome: higher.
305
:Okay.
306
:Dave Conley: They already
got the 18 year olds.
307
:So how high do they go?
308
:This is, yeah,
309
:Jerremy Newsome: Got it.
310
:Dave Conley: is right Rules here.
311
:Jerremy Newsome: Oh, man.
312
:Dave Conley: what's,
313
:Jerremy Newsome: high?
314
:Dave Conley: high
315
:Jerremy Newsome: No, wait.
316
:They could be go, they're going over 45.
317
:Dave Conley: They already hit 45.
318
:That was already their number.
319
:Jerremy Newsome: 65.
320
:Dave Conley: 60, 60 years old.
321
:If you are 60 years old, they're
putting a gun in your hand and they're
322
:already, they've already cleaned
out, like the folks that are mentally
323
:disabled, you know, like, it is like,
oh shit, you don't wanna be giving
324
:them a a, that's sad, you know, like
they're already scraping that out.
325
:So there's only three
options on the table.
326
:The first is keep.
327
:Feeding this beast.
328
:We sent $250 million worth of high
quality American arms over there in the
329
:last few weeks, meaning patriot missile
batteries, like very high end stuff.
330
:Stuff that the previous administration
refused to do because they were offensive
331
:weapons that could reach Moscow.
332
:We just loaded it up and
sent it over and here you go.
333
:Keep on feeding the beast and
grinding Ukraine into oblivion.
334
:The second option, is getting
NATO involved with a nuclear power
335
:that has 9,500 nuclear weapons.
336
:Like we are so close
to nuclear Armageddon.
337
:I can't even tell you, this was one
of my big deals of being like, okay,
338
:Jerremy Newsome: Yep.
339
:Dave Conley: like Biden and Harris
were awful at this and I couldn't
340
:believe it could get worse, and
it actually has gotten worse,
341
:but at least now they're talking.
342
:So it's completely ciph.
343
:Your third option is negotiated peace.
344
:Uh, so you choose one.
345
:I think the first two suck.
346
:And right now that's
exactly where we're at.
347
:Jerremy Newsome: Got it.
348
:Dave Conley: That's what I got.
349
:Jerremy Newsome: You.
350
:That was a great debrief.
351
:I appreciate that.
352
:I'm
353
:Dave Conley: can't know.
354
:There is no military solution
and there never has been.
355
:And that's what is so upsetting to me
356
:Jerremy Newsome: And there,
would you say there, there never
357
:would be either though, right?
358
:Dave Conley: There is no military
solution other than getting NATO involved.
359
:Boots on the ground, a European
war, and it was like, we've
360
:already had two of those.
361
:They didn't end up very well.
362
:A lot of people got killed.
363
:The only big difference here is that
everybody has nuclear weapons now.
364
:I'm not touching that.
365
:I'm not going into a shooting
war with a nuclear power.
366
:That's bonkers.
367
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
368
:Dave Conley: John Heimer he is
my favorite, best, most amazing
369
:political, and he keeps on being right.
370
:He's been right for 30 years.
371
:Professor of political science the
University of Chicago, one of the youngest
372
:tenured professors back in the eighties.
373
:He's my man.
374
:I just nod vigorously every
time he opens his mouth.
375
:Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.
376
:Dave Conley: All right.
377
:What's our next topic?
378
:Jerremy Newsome: Two other things because
yeah, to your point, extremely interested
379
:to see how the that conversation goes
380
:Dave Conley: Yeah.
381
:Jerremy Newsome: Let's just hope
for the best in that situation.
382
:I just got an alert from
CNBC that Trump is extending.
383
:The 90 day tariff pause truths with China.
384
:So that was a real update.
385
:Dave Conley: Okay.
386
:Jerremy Newsome: We said it was gonna,
it was over tomorrow, and they're like
387
:we're gonna keep pushing it for 90 days.
388
:So again, this is game that he's playing.
389
:So that's fun.
390
:Alex: “A million lives lost,
energy decisions echoing across
391
:continents—those are big stakes.
392
:Now, we bring it home: safety nets
under fire, fresh urban solutions,
393
:and the reforms that test what
government truly owes its people.”
