Well, hello, ladies and hello, gentlemen, and welcome to Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Alas, there is no Victor with us. As you all know, he's recovering from major surgery and he is indeed recovering, but he has asked that this show continue. And he said, Jack, only have important people on that could talk about important things. So pinch hitting today for Victor Davis Hanson is the great congressman from Ohio, Troy Balderson, who is the energy man in the House of Representatives. And we're thrilled to have him here with us. We're recording on, by the way, on Wednesday the 4th. This episode will be up on Tuesday the 10th. And we're going to I have five questions. That's our format, I might stumble into six or seven. You never know. But I'm going to ask Congressman Balderson five questions about energy. And I will introduce him formally and we'll get to the questions when we come back from these important messages. Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed, but some things never do. The commitment of husband and wife the importance of passing along our values to our children, the faithfulness of God. Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive. As long as we keep first things first, we've only just begun. America the Beautiful. We are back with Victor Davis Hanson in his own words and Congressman Troy Balderson of the 12th District in Ohio. Congressman, by the way, you won a special election, yes? Is that how you got into Congress? I did. Good morning. Thanks for having me, Jack. Yes, I won a special election in 2018. Was that a nail-biter? Pardon me? Was that a nail-biter or was it? Yes, every special election is a nail-biter. It's challenging to get turnout. And ours was a little bit even more unique because we had four elections in six months. I had two. I had a special primary. Then I had a normal primary. And then I had a special general election and then a general election in November. Well, wow. Well, you are, I'll let our listeners, you're a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That's the only committee you're on. But if I was going to be on only one committee, I think it would be that one because you cover energy, health care, telecom. Yeah, it's the broadest jurisdiction committee in Congress. And we're very honored and blessed to serve on the greatest committee in Congress. Yes. You're the pride of Zanesville, Ohio. You worked on the family farm. And as you know, Victor Davis Hanson is a farmer. He grew raisins. I don't think you grew raisins. I did not. Cattle. It's a little different. Yeah. And I think most importantly, you are the chairman of the House Energy Action Team, known as HEAT. You are considered the leading voice on energy policy for House Republicans. And that's pretty dang important given how vital energy is to absolutely everything in this world, economy, flourishing, national security, et cetera. So I have a couple of questions here, as you know, and we're going to do have to read one ad, folks. We have some bills to pay, but that's a good thing. But let's get started with a question. So, Congressman, your district includes the Marcellus Shale, which has been a boon for the Ohio economy and the world and the American economy, of course, because of hydraulic fracturing. And your friend, my friend, the late Karen Wright, who ran Aerial Corporation, the world's greatest manufacturer of gas compressors in your district, she hated the word fracking. That's how we all, well, most people use the term, hated it for good reason because it sounds like you're breaking or it sounds like some other naughty thing. So it's a leftist term, but I will not use fracking. We use hydraulic fracturing. So you know the Marcella Shale extends from Ohio through West Virginia into Pennsylvania, and even as a significant part of it in New York State. But exploration of that great resource is banned there for ideological reasons, keeping the local economy poor there. Anyway, Congressman, about your district, can you tell us how energy extraction benefits the local economy, as is the case in Ohio? And if you can share anything that you know, people living on one edge of Marcellus exploration versus others, how the economies differ from those who take advantage of it and those who do not. Yeah, Jack, it's pretty significant difference from southeastern Ohio to central Ohio, which that's what makes this district really unique. We represent, you know, from the Columbus and the center of the state, and we go all the way to the Ohio River, where predominantly the Utica Shale and Marcellus Shale is in play right now. The, you know, the boom started in 2010. That was during the timeframe that the Biden, excuse me, the Obama administration was starting to close coal mines and coal-fired plants. So these communities in that Southeast Appalachia region were greatly impacted by the job loss. And in 2010, when the Utica and Marcellus was founded to be there, it brought back great pride to those communities. As local producers were starting to get into the chale and play, and it just expanded from there. and starting to give back to everyone. And it's just not the drilling that is the economic process. There's the restaurants, we talked about my past, having automobile dealerships, the repair shops, the tire shops, all those things, the hotels, everything started to come into play and started to boom and bring it back. I mean, I remember I thought like, wow, we're building too many hotels here. I mean, hotels were going up everywhere along Interstate 70, and Interstate 77. But it was for good reason. I've shared with you in the past, talking about there was a lady that, it brings out entrepreneurship and what they do. There was a lady that, I can't remember the exact name of it, but it was a maids, something, oil rig maids or something, but they would go to the drill sites and make sure that The workers there had clean beds, clean sheets, all their laundry was done. And it was really nice. So those were some of the really positive things that happened during the play when it first started. Nobody would have thought of Ohio as a bastion of world energy before this was discovered. Were you representing—I know you served in the state legislature before. Were you serving in the legislature at the time this discovery happened? I know you're from the area anyway, so at some point it becomes news to the locals, like we're sitting on this monstrous opportunity here. So, yeah, and, you know, where I grew up predominantly, and as I said, you know, we were a Chrysler Dodge dealership, so we sold a lot of Dodge trucks to producers there. But it was predominantly Clinton Wells, which are, you know, a little bit more shallow and Rose Run Wells. But, yeah, in 2010, I was in the state legislature, had the opportunity to serve on energy. I was the chair of energy and utilities for eight years in the state legislature and the Ohio Senate. And the growth period of that time really enabled me to be part of everything that was happening. And you brought up Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Myself and the PUCO chairman, the Department of Natural Resources, the high EPA. I mean, we traveled to Pennsylvania. We traveled to West Virginia, you know, working with those states to making sure, you know, we didn't duplicate or making sure that we didn't overregulate what was happening in Ohio. So it been a blessing for me to be part of this from the very beginning from the deep well drilling as to where we are now as we move forward and now being a member of Congress and as you said serving as chairman of the House Energy Action Team. Well, we're going to get a little more into that a little later. I do have to tell people about water now. We're talking about natural gas and oil, but I'm going to talk about water. By the way, I came home very late last night. I don't drink. I do not drink. When I came in my home at 1130, I was at an event in New York City. What I wanted was water. And if you're watching this on YouTube as opposed to listening, maybe you can see behind me over my left shoulder, there's a kind of machine there. And that's a Cove Pure machine. And it's become my go-to for everything. Most people have it in their kitchen. I have it in my office because that's where I want it. That's where I want to drink. And when I get the water, there's a reservoir in that thing, and I pour water into a kettle in the kitchen sink, and you can smell the chloride and whatever funk coming out of the water we have here in Connecticut. But when it comes out of the Cove Pure, it's delicious. So I want to tell folks, you know, everyone jumps into the new year, and we're still early in 2012, 2026, excuse me, 2012. Everyone jumps into the new year buying new supplements, trying a new diet, workouts, but they completely ignore the most important basic thing, and that's water. Even mild hydration impacts energy, focus, and metabolism. And when you think about all the garbage that's in our water, you're starting behind the curve even before you begin. But CovePure changes that immediately. Their Clearwave technology is certified to remove up to 99% of contaminants, pretty much anything that isn't water, PFAs, microplastics, pharmaceutical residue, fluoride, for all I know, sticks, twigs, grass, all of it, anything, it gets removed. It's the purest water you can get. The water here in Connecticut, it's funky. This is what I love about Co-Pure. You know, they say water is supposed to taste delicious. I like water that doesn't have any taste. It's certainly refreshing And by the way, cold water, hot You want to make tea? It makes tea Press the button, size, you want to change how much water you want Six ounces, one ounce, 16 ounces Cove Pure is the thing to get Okay, now, I have to read the final note here Shouldn't have put my paper down, Congressman Yeah, Cove Pure makes it so easy to get water With the push of a button So this year, make a New Year's resolution That sticks, improve your health With clean water right now You can get $200 off for a limited time if you use our link. That's covepure.com slash VDH, which stands for Victor Davis Hanson. Let me spell that, covepure, C-O-V-E-P-U-R-E dot com slash VDH to start the new year right. We thank the good people from Cove Pure for sponsoring Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Congressman Troy Balderson, deeply appreciative again that you're here with us, pinch hitting for Victor, who, by the way, I told him yesterday you were going to be doing this, and he is very appreciative, and I know he's a fan of all that you've done. We've talked about some of your legislation on previous episodes. We're going to talk about him again later. But I have one of these long-winded type of Jack Fowler questions you're just going to have to endure here. So here it goes. It seems lost on the left that with energy comes actual generated power, and with power comes economic growth. And with that comes an escape from poverty and oppression. And you could see instances, everyone's seen these satellite images, South Korea, North Korea, one's black, the other's a blaze. Then we look at, say, South Africa, generally, it has relative impoverishment. And there are a number of factors for that. But surely cheap, accessible, reliable energy is top of that list. So, Congressman, you know, recently, and we had recorded this. Folks, you got to know, we recorded, and the gods of high tech killed the podcast gods. Yeah, he killed it. But when we first recorded this, Davos had just happened, and I want to present to the congressman this idea of being able to speak to a crowd of these kind of influencers, not to chastise them. Look at you, fat cats and your private jets, and you're complaining about, you know, green stuff. But if you could talk to them as a happy warrior, not hectoring, what would you tell the assembled elites, elites of the world about the broad benefits of unleashed energy, of drill, baby, drill, but not only drill, baby, drill? How would you educate the assembled at Davos or some such kind of a forum about the profound consequence of the kind of energy America produces? It's a great question. And, you know, I've taken much thought into this and how we've changed the narrative and what we talk about when we talk about energy, energy dominance. I mean, it's more than just drill, baby, drill. I mean, there's a whole lot more to it than just that phrase. Obviously, that phrase is very important. But we've been having communications with the AI boom that's happening here. I talked about part of this congressional district that we represent. You know, Central Ohio is now becoming, you know, there's a lot of data center activity there. We also have the Intel facility that is being built as we speak in the 12th congressional district. And, you know, the discussions that we've been having with those, we have an investment of $300 million of an Amgen, which is a pharmaceutical company, all right there. Those need a lot of power. Or Andrill is building a manufacturing base there for the military drone operations, big up and growing company there. So, you know, all the data centers and some of those that go to Davos, the Googles of the world, the Microsofts of the world, you know, they kept saying we want clean energy. Well, we're giving them clean energy, natural gas. And natural gas is 98% carbon free. You know that I'm probably speaking to the choir here with the audience that you are speaking to today, but making them understand that and to change that narrative. Look, we can say we want all of the above. That's great. But what the bottom line is, is we need 24-7 baseload energy. And natural gas has changed all that. Nuclear is now becoming part of that conversation. There's been some nuclear investment also in the 12th congressional district right now with some of those data center, you know, people that are companies that are coming in and building these facilities. So that would be my conversation to them. And the reduction that we have dropped in the United States from carbon is three times the world combined of what we've dropped. And, you know, we need to talk about that and share that story. and it's starting to have a concept of that. You know, you also have to talk to the constituencies and making sure that we provide them with clean, affordable energy too and making sure that when that light switch comes on, the lights come on, when the heater needs to kick on for this very extreme cold weather that we're dealing. We were 16 below last week in the 12th congressional district and making sure that heat comes on for our elderly. I use my mom. I mean, my mother's on oxygen. She needs that oxygen tank to kick on 24-7. So those are some of the stories that I would share with the Davos group, you know, having those discussions. There's a lot, there's several organizations called the conservative climate groups who, you know, want to believe, you know, that clean energy can do its piece. Well, I talk to them about clean energy and natural gas is clean energy. Right. And just making sure that we educate people what that is. You're sitting on top of there, Marcellus and is it Utica? Is that the other? Yes, it's Utica and Marcellus. And I will add before, Jack, not meaning to interrupt you. No. Between western Pennsylvania, western West Virginia and southeastern Ohio, we are sitting on 40% of where natural gas will come from right now. That's larger than the Permian Basin here in due time. And that's what's happening. In Ohio alone, in the Southeast region, we have 100 years of natural gas below our feet. And that 100 years that could satisfy the projected needs of the United States for 100 years I think you know interestingly yesterday We had FERC in front of us for our subcommittee on energy And we talked about you know even exporting I mean, there's enough to export also. So there's plenty here. You know, we need to get the infrastructure set up. Obviously, you know, there's been some permitting bills that have passed the House here. They've all moved on to the Senate. So we're going to continue working on some of those things so we can get this infrastructure built. I went and spoke to the American Gas Association yesterday and talking about that. And the infrastructure piece is very big as we move forward. So getting some of this permitting legislation that we have and getting it moved forward and getting it passed. By the way, infrastructure has many offshoots. Shipbuilding would be one, correct? I mean, we're talking about exporting. So this is a boon to the American, could be a boon to the American shipbuilding industry also, I guess. Well, something that was announced this week, 48 hours ago, in fact, and it's pretty neat that we're actually getting to have to do this podcast. Siemens out of Germany is investing $1 billion in the United States to open manufacturing facilities for their gas turbines. So the states that were named yesterday were Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, I believe. But, you know, those are heavily needed jobs in those states. Now, you know, my question, first question, what happened to Ohio here, guys? I mean, we forgot about Ohio. What do we chop liver here? But, you know, as they go forward. So, you know, even outside the United States, companies are seeing the availability and the manufacturing advantage that they will have here as they move forward. Well, we're going to talk about some of the legislation you have introduced and sponsored, and we'll do that when we come back from these important messages. We are back with Congressman Troy Balderson of the 12th District of Ohio. He is the head of the heat. This is the House caucus on energy. He is the House Republican point man. And I would dare say the Capitol Hill's point man, regardless of partisan affiliation, regardless of which side of the House on energy. And it's great that you're with us so we can talk to you about this important issue. So about some of the legislation, Congressman, you are the author of the Affordable, reliable clean energy security act it aims to restore common sense to american energy policy i find that one of the most important things you're trying to achieve through this legislation is to formally define such terms as affordable as reliable as clean in order to impact our regulatory standards which can be hamstringing as you know so tell us about this legislation and why it is important for America that Congress adopt it not only for our economy, but also for national security. You know, Jack, this is one of the things that we could use when we talk to the Davos guys, the CEOs there, is, you know, getting these definitions in place because it seems like, you know, affordable, reliable claim. Let's get the definitions with that. Let's put that in statute. So each different administration that comes in changes everything That's what's important is for us to get that in statute And look, this is a four-page bill This is simple with these definitions And making it very clear and precise of what those definitions are It doesn't change I mean, this will be very doable for bipartisan support I have spoken with other members of Congress to talk about that And it just clarifies everything. And that's what people – they need that clarity and they need that understanding of what those definitions of affordable, reliable, and clean energy are. But if you're particularly – if one is particularly ideological, maybe a congresswoman who represents where I used to grow up in the Bronx, her name AOC by initial – you might think defining natural gas as clean is a threat to energy – their version of energy policy. windmills and solar advocates. I mean, they should, I assume that is in the bill, but the people who want to just say that is our energy future would be in opposition to what you're trying to do here. Would that be true? Yeah. I mean, that's true. And, you know, we'll manage that. That's what we're here to do. And we'll communicate that. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that, you know, I have great respect for Alexandria. I won't, you know, I don't think that I'll be able to sell her to vote for this package, but I can communicate that and I can communicate her district of what it actually means. And so then at that time frame, you know, just like any other member of Congress across this great country, you know, we can talk about that and we have, you know, our version of what clean energy, affordable energy is, and they can have their opportunity to speak what they feel like is clean, affordable, reliable energy. I didn't. I wasn't trying to create her as a piñata for you. Oh, no, no, no, no. We would not do that. Yeah, yeah. Well, let's talk about another bill. You're the author of the Guaranteeing Reliability Through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act, which is a mouthful and it's better known as the GRID Act. The major motivation for this is bureaucratic delays that for years stall the adoption of new power projects. So give us a hypothetical example of a company wanting to create, say, a new power plant. Could be nuclear, could be natural gas, maybe one to supply electricity for all these EVs that the green energy advocates are demanding. And right now, what is the bureaucratic process that an energy company might come up against as they're trying to build some new energy supply for America? So the Grid Power Act is something that we introduced last Congress. It did pass the House with bipartisan support, Jack. So there were Democrats that also voted for the Grid Power Act. It's, again, a very simple piece of legislation. The regional transmission operators, the RTOs is what their acronym is referred to. An example would be the PJM, which provides power to 13 states. They're the ones in charge of distributing the power. And their concern was the interconnection queue to get this power out is plugged up, and it averages anywhere from six to eight years of projects. Right now, that interconnection queue is 97%, 98% full. Nothing's moving. It's just stagnant sitting there. And what do we need right now? We need power, especially during these winter months. It's been a very hard winter, something that more so than what we've seen in the past. But the Grid Power Act says your project is in the queue. If you are financed, it is planned. Everything is ready to go. If that project does not get released and put out there within one year, you're out. And you've got to go back and start over again. Now, some of the discussion that we were having, they were saying like, well, you're trying to eliminate renewable energy. No, I'm not. That is not the case at all because there's renewable projects in that interconnection queue that need to get moving forward also. And I'll go back even. This became, and President Trump did an executive order. He used some of the language that we had with this bill probably three months ago now before we got it passed out of the full House. And it moves on to the Senate. But the FERC actually did it. They were trying to expedite 50 projects to get moving, to get power out to these RTOs. They asked for 50. They received 94 projects, both baseload energy and renewable energy. They awarded 54 projects is what ended up being 54 or 58 projects were going to be distributed It included both renewable energy projects natural gas projects new projects I mean it included all of the above And that's our goal here, and to get these projects moving. So that's the basis in the most simplified terms I can do for the Grid Power Act. It's getting that interconnection queue unplugged. Like a pipe, and it's all plugged up. And that's where we are trying to get our power out. I'm just curious if 20 years from now, given all the projected needs, these data centers alone, do we need to double our power production, our output, triple it? How vast is the expectation? I mean, look, I'm not a scientist by any means. I think we do need to get it moving. Look, we were shutting down under the past administration. administration. We were shutting down coal fire plants quickly. And PJM came out, and I don't mean to keep going back to PJM, but PJM came out two years, two and a half years ago now and said, hey, time out. We're shutting off our baseload energy. We don't have enough renewable to take up the space for this to provide that energy 24-7, that baseload energy. I think the people are starting to figure that out as they move forward, knowing that we just can't cut this baseload energy off. So I think there's a dire need to try to catch up right now. That's why, you know, getting this interconnection queue, I'm loved and getting these projects move faster. Look, my hope and prayer is, is that we will catch up. There's no reason for us not to catch up. And the state legislatures, Ohio just did a big energy bill there, you know, and we monitor that. And that's something else that I really try to be mindful of. And that's working with state legislatures and working with other organizations as we move forward, changing the rules, you know, on the federal side of it, but also keeping states independent of the energy needs that they want. I have one big last question to ask you, but a little corollary here before we go to a break. And then that last question, one other bill that you've introduced is the CLEAR Act. It seems like much of what you're comprehensive about what we need, what we are, and how do we remove roadblocks? So this seems CLEAR Act. Would you tell us what this is about? Yeah, the CLEAR Act, Senator Cotton is carrying it in the Senate version of that. And going back, I do need to say that this is the big thing about the legislation that we're getting passed. It has companion legislation in the Senate, which rarely happens in the House. But the CLEAR Act is, we have so many, I mean, processes for infrastructure projects, pipeline projects, it's lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. We're trying to eliminate all these frivolous lawsuits that happen with these projects. So the CLEAR Act is giving a much more streamlined process. You know, once you get that hurdle done, you're going to start moving again. And that's what we need to do and to get done. And it's just become, I mean, kind of ridiculous to where we are. I mean, and this just isn't an energy project. It's in highway projects. I mean, there's a lot of things, you know, that happened during this process. So this CLEAR Act will work on all that. And there's hurdles for, you know, the renewables can say the same thing. Man, it's just lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit for a solar facility or windmill project. So I want baseload energy is my main focus for this. That's my hyper focus on that. So that's what we want this to be walking towards. Well, we have one final big question for Congressman Troy Balderson. And I'm going to ask that, hopefully not mumblemouths, when we return from these final important messages. We are back. Victor Davis Hanson, in his own words, recording on Wednesday, the 4th of February. This episode should be up on Tuesday the 10th. Thank you again, Congressman Troy Balderson, for a pinch hitting. final question, if America could unleash its full potential when it comes to creating energy, what kind of a world would we be living in? What kind of economy would we be realizing? And what would the benefits be of America unleashed for the rest of the world? I think, Jack, you're starting to see under this administration, you're starting to see that happen. We talked about earlier in the podcast about Siemens coming here from Germany and investing a billion dollars in manufacturing. We're talking about all the manufacturing that's coming back here to this country. We need the energy to provide to these manufacturing facilities that are coming back here. And it inspires everybody to do that because people take great pride. They can put food on their table. They can go on vacation. They can buy the vehicles that they want to buy. They can provide for their families. And it's big to be able to do that. And it's important to do that. I mean, at one time we had 42 employees at the automobile dealership. And that doesn't seem like a lot, but that's a lot. But they took great pride in doing customer service and making sure that the truck or the car or whatever was in operating order and it was safe. people want that. And by unleashing this energy dominance that we could have is very empowering of what it can do. And we talked about, again, early in the podcast, from 2008 to 2010, there were some low times in Southeast Ohio. And we want to make sure that we uplift these people to provide them the jobs. And a coal plant that closed that's now currently in the 12th congressional district back in 2010, 20, well, a little bit later than that, you know, those were 360 jobs of health care provided to them, pensions, retirement. I mean, and that was gone in one swoop. You know, now with the energy coming back and the energy dominance coming back that we have here in this country and in the state of Ohio and with 100 years of natural gas below our feet, we're providing those jobs back to those folks. I'd love to have another show with you, Congressman, to talk a retrospective on cash for clunkers since you had experience. You don't want to get me started on that, Jack. You would need another show to get that started. I experienced that in my dealership. My father's dealership was heavily impacted by that. Yeah, some of America should—we should revisit that from the abuse of the regulatory and capricious regulatory state and how it can harm local businesses. But another time. Congressman, I really, truly appreciate you doing this for the second time. We pray to the gods of podcasts that this will download appropriately. As a conservative, I just applaud everything you're doing. And as you know, I've told you before, I love your district. I've spent a lot of time in beautiful Mount Vernon, Ohio, with our friends there at Ariel. Great people, just true, true patriots and helping to keep that. I want to recommend folks to self-serving here. Go to Philanthropy Daily and Google Karen Wright. And I've written a couple of pieces about this great philanthropist and how she's invested in her hometown. It's a beautiful story. And we need more of that in America. And you're blessed to have that as part of your district. I am. And you go back to that. That's what they provide jobs, that private company. And that community has been blessed to have them in their community and for the jobs they provide. And aerial outreach is more than just Mount Vernon. It goes a little bit around Central and several different counties. Yeah, yeah, it's a great blessing. Well, thanks so much again, Congressman Balderson. Thanks, folks, for watching. Thanks for listening. You're most welcome. We'll be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Bye-bye. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. 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