Podcasts about mountain valley

In this episode Will sits down with Dr. Alison LaFollette, the Clinical Director of Mountain Valley Treatment Center. Alison shares her journey from conducting neuropsychological evaluations in several of Utah's wilderness therapy programs to leading the clinical team at Mountain Valley. She discusses the integration of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy with outdoor experiential activities at Mountain Valley, highlighting how natural settings like the Zen Garden, farm, outdoor climbing wall and hiking trails enhance therapeutic outcomes for adolescents and young adults struggling with anxiety and OCD. The conversation delves into the rising levels of social anxiety among young people, the impact of the pandemic on mental health, and the importance of family involvement in treatment. Alison also explores the similarities between ERP and adventure therapy, emphasizing the value of taking committed action in accordance with one's values. She reflects on the challenges facing behavioral healthcare organizations, including staff burnout and program sustainability, offering insights into how Mountain Valley addresses these issues. The episode concludes with Alison sharing how she utilizes the outdoors for her own mental well-being and her excitement about future innovations at Mountain Valley, such as expanding experiential components and fostering team synergy.

We take the show to Mountain Valley of the Ozarks in Mountain Home.

In this episode of The MHP Broker's Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed MHP broker Paul Schaaf  about his Adventure RV Park close in West Virginia.     As with every Tips and Tricks podcast episode, this one is brought to you by The MHP Broker's proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Call Max for details. Here Are the Show Highlights: Adventure RV Park in West Virginia had a nice mix of mobile homes, RVs and cabins, but one of its leading challenges was its 30 percent year-round occupancy. It was a mom and pop operation whereby the original owners had sold it to a party that failed, and then those original owners had gotten it back. They invested some capital in upgrades, but there was still plenty of “meat on the bones” for the right buyer. (Paul, 1:03) The park had some things going for it, including the fact that there was a new gas line project bringing in workers to the area, and a ski resort in close proximity. (Max, 1:48) The Mountain Valley pipeline project kept bringing in workers in need of housing. Even before closing, the park went from about 30 percent occupancy to nearly 100 percent RV occupancy. (Paul, 2:01) The park's business was improving so quickly that the buyer actually snipped the closing timeline by about 30 days. (Paul, 2:32) The buyer refinanced some of their existing parks so they could present an all-cash deal. (Paul, 3:05) The lesson buyers might learn by this deal is to not be threatened by low occupancy. There are often things you can do to improve occupancy figures and increase the value of your new park. (Max, 3:22) The park sale was a win-win situation, with the buyers getting plenty of potential and the sellers being able to retire with an all-cash closing. (Paul, 4:07) Whatever challenges your RV or mobile home park might have, let Paul Schaaf and The Mobile Home Park Broker team will find you a qualified buyer and maximum value. Call Paul of Max at (678) 932-0200 or drop us a line at info@themhpbroker.com. Power Quotes in This Episode: “I think we actually improved the closing timeline by about 30 days so (the buyers) could capitalize on that fresh income.” (Paul, 2:34)  “We'll figure out a way to find the right buyer for you and get you as much money as we can and, you know, just give us an opportunity to consider…what your goals are and I'm pretty sure we can obtain them. So, just give us a shout when you get a moment.” (Paul, 4:07)

Bryan and Marcia Mussard own and operate Reminisce Angus in Dillon, Montana. They founded Reminisce Angus in 1984 after Bryan purchased two registered cows. As their breeding program evolved, they launched and successfully ran the Mussard Bull Development Center in 1991 for nine years. Since then, they have dedicated themselves to cattle ranching, prioritizing high-quality beef and supporting the ranching community. With the help of their family, the Mussards ranch in high mountain valleys at altitudes over 7,000 feet, managing 600 registered cows and selling 180 Angus bulls annually.

In this episode, we listen in on a conversation between Mountain Valley Hospice Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation, Maria Hayes, and CHESS Health Solutions Senior Director of Clinical Operations, Dr. Kim Vass Eudy, about End of Life Care, the difference between palliative care and hospice care, and how Providers can utilize these services.KVE: Well, thank you and welcome to the Move to Value podcast. I am really excited to bring a guest with me today. Her name is Maria Hayes. She is the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Mountain Valley. I am excited to speak with her because in my clinical team, we are working towards bringing advanced care planning to our value partners and their patients. And Maria and I have been working kind of behind the scenes talking about this. So I really want to bring that conversation out forward Maria and I'm really glad to have you here today.MH: Thank you. I'm super excited to be here. Thank you for the invitation.KVE: I was hoping you could kind of kick this off by telling us a little bit about palliative care and Hospice care. I know as a clinician, when I make a referral, sometimes I just do a bucket referral, I say just give them palliative or give them Hospice, whichever one this patient qualifies for. So maybe you could help me understand and our listeners understand the difference between the two.MH: Absolutely. And I can actually start off by kind of giving you a little bit of an overview about Mountain Valley, if that will be helpful. And then I'll kind of go into Hospice versus palliative care. So, Mountain Valley is a Hospice and palliative care organization serving 18 counties across North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. We were established in 1983, so we just celebrated our 40th anniversary. Headquartered in Dobson, NC, we provide care in a large service area with six Hospice offices, 4 serious illness specialist locations and two inpatient Hospice care centers. We also have two Hospice thrift stores. We call them the Humble Hare and those stores actually benefit our charity care programs.Palliative care is a little bit different than Hospice care. So palliative care is a specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This can be cancer, heart failure, lung disease, dementia, Parkinson's disease or ALS. Patients in palliative care may receive medical care aimed at easing their symptoms along with treatment intended to be aggressive or curative. Palliative care is meant to enhance a person's current care by focusing on quality of life for them and their family. In addition to offering support to ease symptoms, the palliative care provider also specializes in leading and navigating the goals of care discussion, which we kind of referenced earlier. We help patients consider or even complete their advanced directives as well. Our palliative care providers are serious illness specialists who add another layer of support and work as a part of the patient's medical team. So that's kind of how palliative operates in, in that form or fashion.KVE: I was going to ask you a lot of times, I know that a patient may start in palliative care and then transition to Hospice is and I know you're going to explain a little bit more about Hospice. Is that a pretty natural transition for a lot of patients?MH: It is sometimes for patients. We see a lot of patients that truly can be Hospice, but they actually choose palliative because they feel more comfortable still kind of seeking their curative approaches, still seeing their medical doctors still treating their heart failure with the heart failure medications and they really kind of they're just not ready for that Hospice conversation. And but typically I would say palliative and Hospice, we really like to focus on the six months or less for their life span kind of looking at all those factors and then...

On this week's edition of Everything Under the Sun the Sopris Sun hosts interview the Executive Director and Greenhouse Manager of Mountain Valley Developmental Services.

On this episode I'm joined by Reverend Angie Buchanan, Founder and Spiritual Director of Earth Traditions, a Pagan church, and of Gaia's Womb, an interfaith spirituality group that has been producing spiritual retreats for women since 1998. Angie is a life-long pagan, an animist, and has been an experienced magical worker and ritualist for over 40 years. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Parliament of World Religions from 2002 – 2010, offering programs internationally at convenings in Barcelona, Melbourne, and Toronto, and nationally in Salt Lake City and Chicago. Rev. Buchanan is currently a Spiritual Advisor for Pagan students at the University of Chicago, Campus Ministry, and a Certified Death Midwife.During this episode we discussed:Angie's experience growing up in a pagan, animistic household, and how it gave her a grounding in the Sacred Feminine from an early ageHow she relates to the Sacred Feminine via archetypes as opposed to through specific deitiesWhy she views birth and death as the two most important human rites of passage, as well as the similarities between them and how the Divine Feminine intertwines with bothAngie's own practices for honoring the deadWhy she feels strongly that the “veils” between the living and dead are thinner at certain times of year, such as Samhain and BeltaineShow Notes If you'd like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history.Please check out my latest course offering! Returning to the Well: Sacred Feminine Wisdom  for Your Motherhood Journey, begins Sunday, October 29! This 5-week online course explores the divine journey of motherhood and what it means to parent in partnership with the Sacred Feminine,  and is offered via Home to Her Academy, a school dedicated to seekers of Sacred Feminine wisdom! Learn more and register here: https://www.hometoheracademy.com/course/returning-to-the-well.   And while you're there, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming classes.My book, “Home to Her: Walking the Transformative Path of the Sacred Feminine,” is available from Womancraft Publishing! To learn more, read endorsements and purchase, please visit  https://womancraftpublishing.com/product/home-to-her/. It is also available for sale via Amazon, Bookshop.org, and you can order it from your favorite local bookstore, too.Please – if you love this podcast and/or have read my book, please consider leaving me a review! For the podcast, reviews on iTunes are extremely helpful, and for the book, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are equally helpful. Thank you for supporting my work!You can watch this and other podcast episodes at the Home to Her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hometoherGot feedback about this episode or others you've heard? Please reach out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hometoher/ ), Facebook  (https://www.facebook.com/hometoher)You can learn more about Angie and her work at the following websites: www.giaswomb.com; www.earthtraditions.org and www.deathmidwife.orgAngie mentioned Margot Adler, a Wiccan priestess and NPR correspondent. This obituary provides more details about her life: Margot Adler was a Wiccan priestess and author of Drawing Down the Moon; more info here: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/07/28/336081618/margot-adler-an-npr-journalist-for-three-decades-diesYou can learn more about the Mountain Valley pipeline, which I mentioned, here: Mountain Valley Pipeline information: https://appvoices.org/pipelines/mountain-valley-pipeline/You can also learn more about the concept of providing legal rights to rivers here: https://www.equationcampaign.org/dispatches/the-river-is-my-kinfolk-it-deserves-more-rights-than-dirty-pipelinesAngie mentioned India guaranteeing rights to dolphins; more details here: https://www.dw.com/en/dolphins-gain-unprecedented-protection-in-india/a-16834519More info on the dumb supper, or silent supper, here: https://www.crowsbone.com/blogarchive/the-silent-supper

In this enlightening episode of "Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors," we sit down with Zack Schafer, the Executive Program Director at Mountain Valley Treatment Center. With a rich background in occupational therapy, Zack opens up about how the center uniquely addresses the challenges faced by young people battling anxiety and OCD. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding exposure response prevention (ERP) therapy, as Zack shares stories aboout this technique as well as juxtaposes ERP with adventure therapy and other ways to address anxiety. The conversation also delves into the intricacies of school phobia and the anxiety maintenance cycle, topics that resonate with many parents and young adults. As a special treat, Zack shares "Fear Less," his brand-new podcast co-hosted alongside Mountain Valley, CEO, Will Laughlin. Tune in to acquire invaluable insights, learn about transformative therapeutic methods, and understand the profound impact of ERP and the great outdoors on mental health. Season 17 of Stories from the Field is focused on Anxiety and is underwritten by Mountain Valley Treatment Center.   

In this episode, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project shares a progressive vision for permitting reform and the factors that could speed up the US clean-energy buildout.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsTo achieve its Paris climate targets, the US is going to have to build out an enormous amount of clean energy and clean-energy infrastructure in coming years. But that buildout is going slowly — painfully, excruciatingly slowly — relative to the pace that is necessary.This has given rise to considerable debate on the left over what, exactly, is slowing things down. Much of that debate has come to focus on permitting, and more specifically, on permitting under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA.A deal that would have put some restrictions on NEPA in exchange for reforms to transmission planning was effectively killed by progressives toward the end of the last congressional session, leading many people inside and outside the climate movement to accuse progressives of being The Problem. They are so attached to slowing down fossil fuel development with NEPA, the accusation goes, that they are willing to live with it slowing clean energy. And that's a bad trade.Progressives, not surprisingly, disagree! Their take on the whole permitting debate is summarized in a new paper from the Roosevelt Institute and the Climate and Community Project: “A Progressive Vision for Permitting Reform.”The title is slightly misleading, since one of the central points of the paper is that permitting under NEPA is only a small piece of the puzzle — there are many other factors that play a role in slowing clean energy, and many other reforms that could do more to speed it up. I called up one of the paper's co-authors, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project, to ask her about those other reforms, the larger political debate, and the progressive community's take on speed. All right, then. With no further ado, Johanna Bozuwa from the Climate and Community Project. Welcome to Volts, and thank you so much for coming.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me, David.David RobertsThis is a hot topic, as you're well aware, permitting and the larger issues around it. And so, before we jump into specifics, I wanted to start with a few sort of broad, call them philosophical, questions.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsAs you know, progressives have been under quite a bit of fire lately, not only from their typical opponents on the right and in the fossil fuel industry, but from a lot of sort of centrists and even a lot of sort of allies in the climate movement. For — I think the general idea is they are too attached to stopping fossil fuels and not yet supportive enough of building out renewable energy. And the mechanisms that they rely on to slow and stop fossil fuels are also slowing and stopping renewable energy. And so I think the general critique is that they ought to swing around and be more pro-building and loosen these requirements, et cetera, et cetera. I'm sure you've heard all this.Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsSo I guess I'd just start with this question. Is, do you think the progressive — and by the way, I meant to say this by way of a caveat, I'm going to be sort of using you as a spokesperson for progressivism, which I think we both realize is ridiculous.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly.David RobertsProgressives are heterogeneous just like anybody else. There's no official progressive position. But as a crude, let's just say as a crude instrument here, we're going to ask you to speak for that perspective as you see it.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsSo in your opinion, do you think progressives have taken it into their heart that things are moving too slowly and they desperately need to move faster?Johanna BozuwaMy answer to that question is that I think speed is progressive. You know, David, I don't need to tell this to you or any of the people that listen to this podcast or even progressives. We're dealing with the existential threat of the climate crisis and lives are on the line. And so I think that as progressives, we do need to take the speed question seriously. And I think what I would push back on is the fact that people have this myopic focus on permitting as the thing that's slowing everything down. And especially when I'm talking about permitting, NEPA permitting.David RobertsRight. We're going to definitely get to that.Johanna BozuwaYeah. And I just think that when it comes to this question of "Do progressives believe in speed?" I think that they actually very much do. And one of the things that I get frustrated with sometimes, when I hear these arguments like "Oh, progressives don't want to build anything," I think what progressives are interested in is building the right thing. And if we think about the United States and how our energy system rolls out today, we have a real issue that fossil fuels can expand at the same time as renewable energy is expanding. Like when it comes to fossil fuels, we can actually export that.We are now the biggest net exporter of LNG and crude oil. And I think that progressives are particularly aware that if we do the wrong thing on permitting then we're actually not only expanding renewable energy — and maybe poorly done renewable energy — but also the fossil fuel industry knows how to use these tools so much better than our renewable energy developers. And we are going to see just a massive expansion that we absolutely don't need right now. If we think the climate crisis matters.David RobertsWhat about the argument which goes like this: Fossil fuels are reaching sort of a structural peak and decline. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. It's on the rise. So if you just, all things being equal, make it easier to build everything across the board, renewable energy will win that race and so it's worth doing.Johanna BozuwaI just don't think that argument is true, look at how much power the fossil fuel industry still has in making these decisions. Like if we look at who is behind the recent push for permitting reform: It was largely the oil and gas industry. There's definitely some more nuance that's there, but they have significant power to move things and move them faster than the clean energy world. It's a question of when you're rolling back some of these bedrock environmental laws that the pie — it's not that the part of renewable energy in the pie is getting bigger. It's that even if we are getting more renewable energy, the pie itself has expanded so that we're having fossil fuels and renewables expanding at the same time.And it's not fully pushing out the power of the fossil fuel industry.David RobertsWell, then, how about this? And this is the final philosophical question before we get down to some nuts and bolts. Do you agree that there are going to be trade-offs as we pursue speed? This is, of course, the big discussion right now is that if you really double down on speed, if you really pursue speed with everything you've got, there are inevitably going to be some trade-offs, some other progressive values that have to take a backseat. And that might be other environmental impacts. It might be impacts on communities. It might be, you know, name it. It might be that we have to loosen up a little bit on those other things.Do you think that there are those trade-offs?Johanna BozuwaI think that there are some trade-offs. You, I think, had my colleague, Thea Riofrancos, on the pod some time ago talking about lithium extraction, right? And the fact that if we are going to decarbonize our transportation sector, it is going to take extraction in order to accomplish that. Right. And there are substantial and significant impacts that has in terms of water contamination in some of the most drought-impacted parts of the United States, that is something that we need to be thinking about. And I think what my hesitation is when it comes to so much of this conversation is that we're talking about deregulation as the way to do speed instead of actually talking about planning and coordination.And from my perspective, it's the planning and coordination that allows us to think through the decisions we're making with a far better sense of what's happening instead of a "get government out of the way, we'll figure it out" project that — it didn't really do great things for the planet. Are we going to do that again and trying to fix it? That seems like a silly mistake to make.David RobertsYeah, that's a really important distinction. I'm glad we get that out up front. Because I hate when we go from, "Yes, there are trade-offs" to therefore "Let it rip, let everything go." As Thea said on the podcast, we can acknowledge those trade-offs and thoughtfully try to minimize them through planning.Johanna BozuwaExactly.David RobertsSo let's start with this. As you say, there's this sort of what we're calling the permitting debate, quote unquote. Permitting debate is actually a bunch of debates and they're all kind of getting squished together under this notion of permitting. But in fact, there's a lot of things going on here other than permitting. So maybe talk just a little bit about all the disparate things that are now sort of getting lumped together under that rubric.Johanna BozuwaExactly. So I think just to put a point on it, often when people are talking about permitting, they're talking about this unfocused conversation about cutting red tape. But really what it comes down to is where the fight is right now in particular on the national stage is around NEPA. So the National Environmental Policy Act, but wrapped up into all of their arguments are all these other pieces that actually are maybe more of the problem than particularly NEPA. So, you know, four of them, just to start us off, obviously we do have NEPA. That's part of the permitting process.We have local and state zoning permits, approvals, things like that. You know, going to Georgia County to make sure that you can put something through. Then you have third, these contracts or arrangements that are actually between private organizations. David, I know you had folks talking about internet connection queues — that often is part of the permitting debate, but it's actually about who gets to go onto the transmission that's being built.David RobertsLet me pause there because I want to make a point that I'm not sure everybody understands and I'm not even sure we made it in that pod. But the ISOs, the ...Johanna BozuwaIndependent service operators. I know I always mess it up. RTOs. ISOs.David RobertsYes, I know. ISOs and RTOs. I could never call that to mind. But anyway, the ones who are sort of running the transmission systems and running these queues are not public organizations. Those are not state organizations. They are private consortia of transmission organizations and utilities and things like that. So it's not something that the state can come in and just directly change. I just think that's worth sort of putting on the record.Johanna BozuwaI think that's a really important point and I think we'll probably dig into this further. But the idea that and I think you talked about this on the pod last time, but there are so many different kind of private actors that are operating within the RTOs and ISOs with not actually a huge amount of oversight, as it currently stands.David RobertsYes, or transparency.Johanna BozuwaOr transparency.David RobertsOr accountability, really.Johanna BozuwaYeah, exactly. And it turns out if we're looking at what's really miring the buildout of renewable energy, a solid amount of it is right there. Is in the interconnection queues. I think it was Southwest PowerPool — takes like eight years sometimes to get the developer to get their project through. And those are for projects that already have their offtaker and have all their permitting in place. So it just feels quite misguided for us to spend all of this time talking about permitting when we could be actually diagnosing the problem —David RobertsAnd you said there was a fourth.Johanna Bozuwa— and there's a fourth. The fourth one, I would say, is just operation and construction permits, like some of the pollution discharge stuff that is at some of these more local levels. And those four don't even include some of the other things that stop things, which is like access to capital, utility squabbles, supply chain slowdowns, these whole host of other issues that are just being swept under the rug because it's very alluring to say, guess what? I have the one quick fix to make sure that renewable energy gets built in the United States.David RobertsAnd local NIMBYism. I'd throw that in.Johanna BozuwaYeah, yeah, local NIMBYism, absolutely. Add it to the pile, exactly. So and NEPA's not going to do things about local NIMBYism in the same way that's the local and state zoning stuff.David RobertsYeah, I think people really want, for obvious reasons, they're frustrated by everything going so slowly and everybody wants there to be sort of like something to cut the Gordian knot, sort of one, as you said, one weird trick. And that's, I think, why people are grasping onto NEPA because it seems like that's one big thing we can argue about and change. But as you say, the reasons here are very disparate. But let's just take a second to talk about NEPA. I go back and forth on this, but is it, do you think the progressive position that NEPA is okay "as is" and doesn't need any changes?Like, do you think there are problems with NEPA and how it's administered?Johanna BozuwaOkay. My feeling on this is that the case about NEPA is overstated, especially as we describe so many other things, even outside of the permitting process that matters. But if we're going to talk about NEPA, I think overall the projects are going through pretty quickly. There was a new study, actually, this month by, I think, David Adelman that did a really comprehensive look at wind and solar NEPA reviews over the past ten years, and he found that less than 5% of Wind and solar projects required. The EIS, like the Environmental Impact Statement, which is the one that takes the most time usually, can be two and a half years or whatever, but they're going through with categorical exclusions or some of these faster ways to move wind and solar projects through, or just projects in general.And he found that there was very little litigation involved, which is often like the dog whistle, I feel like, of some of these folks who are calling for permitting.David RobertsYeah, I was surprised when I looked at that study. It's a relatively low percentage of those projects that get litigated after they're done.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly. And I think if I were to make any improvements to NEPA, the thing I would do is bulk up the administrative state. Jamie Gibbs Pleune wrote a kind of corresponding piece of research to our permitting report where she investigated and talked about NEPA in particular with Roosevelt. But she was looking at another paper and found of 40,000 NEPA decisions that the US Forest Service looked at, the biggest causes of delays were actually from a lack of experienced staff, budget instability, and honestly, delays from the applicants themselves not getting their stuff in on time. So I just feel as if we're going to do anything to make NEPA better, give the BLM, give US Forest Service, give EPA far more funds, training, staff empowerment that's going to actually move these projects even faster through the pipeline when they're actually moving relatively quickly.And these places have experienced chronic understaffing and lack of empowerment. So there is work to be done there. I don't want to understate that, but I think that it's a reasonable thing for us to accomplish without rolling back and applying a very neoliberal frame to how we get this job done.David RobertsYeah, I would say it does seem like NEPA has sprawled a bit since it was passed. Originally, it was supposed to be major projects that came under NEPA review, and the court basically decided that all projects were under NEPA review. And so there's just thousands and thousands now that just have these little sort of not very long delays because they get these categorical exemptions. But there's just a lot of — it's very sprawling, it seems like, and unfocused. This is one of those areas where I feel like there are procedures of the administrative state that could work better and more effectively.But at this point, liberals, they've just been under assault for so long. And liberals just know if you open this can of worms, if you open it up to review, there's just a pool of piranhas that want to go in and strip it bare. And so they just don't open it for review. Like, there's so many things like this. Like, if we could have a good faith process of actually trying to do what NEPA is supposed to do better than NEPA does it, I feel like, yeah, there's stuff we could improve, but Joe Manchin doesn't want to improve it.Johanna BozuwaWe don't want Joe Manchin in charge of what NEPA looks like and what's the more muscular version that takes into consideration the real-life climate impacts. Because I don't know when you're talking there, David, a thing that comes up for me is the reality that we will have more things happening on the ground. Like, let's say you put transmission in, we have a wildfire crisis. Now all of a sudden, the stakes are higher when it comes to these things like environmental review that are very material that I think also aren't talked about as much as they should be. And so, yeah, I can imagine things being shifted and changed within NEPA so that it works better for the current context.But I think that, as you describe it, could be a real political problem for us to do that type of work right now. And we have other mechanisms that can move us much more quickly in the interim. Like, is this really the thing we want to be spending our time on as progressives? The answer is no.David RobertsAnd I also think if you look at the reforms that were sort of ended up getting jammed through, like of all the thoughtful things you could do to NEPA to make it work better, just a sort of — page limit, like a page limit on reviews: Seems like it's such a blunt instrument. It's such a crude way of approaching this.Johanna BozuwaOh, and I think it's going to get them into serious trouble. If you want a thing that is going to increase litigation, try adding an arbitrary deadline and page limit to something with no administrative capacity.David RobertsOkay. We could do a whole pod on NEPA, but I don't want to get too — our whole point is it's not the sole or even main impediment here. So at a slightly more granular level, let's talk about what you think is actually slowing down clean energy infrastructure build out. And there's a few categories your report covers starting with transmission, which is, I think, the big one.Johanna BozuwaYeah, totally. And I would agree with you. I mean, transmission planning is kind of in shambles in this country. It's not up to the job.David RobertsYeah, I don't think literally anybody on any side of anything would disagree with you about that.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I think there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that multistate transmission buildouts are incredibly hard to do in a federalized system. We just have so many different actors that are vying to hold on to their particular part of the market, especially with our vertically integrated utilities that don't have much interest in allowing other utilities into their service territory. And in deregulated states, utilities are kind of out of the picture for deciding where new generation is being built. So there's not a lot of efficiencies that are built into that. So we just get this really haphazard development, if development at all, of our transmission system, which I think is just quite a failure.There are so many clear opportunities to do much more clear planning around this.David RobertsYes. And then what about big large-scale renewable energy projects like big solar, wind, geothermal, what is in practice, slowing down their build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so I think that when it comes to some of these larger scale projects around solar or wind, you're running again into projects that aren't thinking strategically about where they're being placed. So if we're looking at the amount of land that we're going to need with the energy transition right. Wind and solar take more space up than one natural gas plant. And I think that there's just like a clear lack of land use planning when it comes to these larger scale projects when we could be doing it far better. Right. And thinking about what are the areas that make sense and are going to limit the amount of impact on our landscape and on communities and actually deploy it in those areas.And I actually think there are answers to that question.David RobertsWell, we're not to answers yet. We're dwelling on problems.Johanna BozuwaOkay, all right —David RobertsSo how does that slow down? I mean, what does that manifest as? How does that slow down the build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, well, the way that that manifests is that you're putting big renewable energy projects in tension with things like agriculture. You're putting big renewable projects in tension with our biodiversity goals. And so those are the things that are going to potentially mire the development and deployment of these larger scale projects — in addition to getting them attached to the transmission and making sure that it's colocated with the transmission we need.David RobertsYes, the aforementioned interconnection queue issue, which alone is like, "That's a lot of years," which as you say, that's a lot of years tacked on the end of all the other stuff they have to go through. Like once they have to go through all that other stuff, then they get in the interconnection queue and wait and wither, etc. And then another thing you take on here is a big piece of the clean energy buildout, which I think a lot of people don't really think about as much, maybe don't enjoy thinking about as much, which is the sort of minerals and metals aspect of it. A big part of IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is an attempt to onshore supply chains so that China does not dominate them.But that means onshoring some mines and some minerals processing which are not necessarily environmentally friendly, not necessarily things people like having in their backyard. So what's slowing those things down?Johanna BozuwaI guess I would say there are two pieces that are happening. One is just that this is a pretty new area and there are so many price fluctuations that are happening. There's all of these big mining companies that are shifting ownership, trying to figure out financing. Right? So there's a lot that's happening there. And mining companies are not the best known for having perfect environmental impact statements or anything like that, that's going to get them mired right. And then you add in the fact that as we talked about earlier, a lot of where these lithium reserves are is also in extremely — like the likelihood for drought is a lot higher if you're looking, for instance, at the Salton Sea in California or, you know, over in Nevada, these are places that we actually have to be extremely careful about. And also it just takes a really long time to build a mine like this isn't something that happens the next day. Right. It's like 10 to 15 years in the future type thing. So it is a longer time frame that's going to be even longer if we aren't thinking, again, about who is impacted, how they are going to be impacted by the mining itself. What is that going to do to air quality, water quality, all of these different things?It's a really big part of the permitting discussion, or of the transition discussion in particular that is being discounted in the United States.David RobertsAnd one more bit on problems, before we transition to recommendations. I noticed that one thing you don't get into a lot in the report is the expression of those state and local level permitting issues. And a lot of those I think, are tied to environmental review. And a lot — like, for instance, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is just sort of like legendarily at this point, a tool for local NIMBYs to stop things happening. Like we just read a story that was bouncing around Twitter a few days ago about these wealthy people — I forget what county they were in — but they were suing because someone had moved a playground closer to their house.They didn't like the sound of the kids playing and so they sued. And part of it was that the city had not done a proper environmental review under CEQA of moving the playground. And you hear stories like that all the time. Do you think you said that NEPA is not as big a problem as people say? Do you think state level environmental review is a serious problem, a serious barrier, at least in some places?Johanna BozuwaI think it just really depends on the place. And I think that's part of why as we were writing a national paper, being able to dig into the detail and differentiations between all of these different places seemed like a big haul for a small paper. So yeah, I think that there are these pieces at the local level, the zoning things, right? People are historic preservation boards that are saying like, "No rooftop solar because we don't like the look of it." Yeah, that's some BS in my mind and I think we do need to figure out how to manage that.And I think what this comes into conversation with is a little bit of like, what is the community review process? What does that look like and how do we manage that?David RobertsContemplating the variety and number of those instruments at the state and local level is really overwhelming and really does make the problem feel so intractable because it's just like, as you say in a federalist system, it's like every bit of reform is not just one bit, it's 50 bits. Every bit is 50 fights.Johanna BozuwaTotally agree. And I think that's why we get stuck in these gridlocks sometimes. And also when we get to solutions, I think there are some examples that we can draw on and utilize our little multi tool of ideas of how to move this forward.David RobertsFinal thing before that, because I forgot about this bit, but actually it's worth making a note that it's actually easier for fossil fuel infrastructure to get NEPA permits than it is for clean energy projects. It's something you note in the paper. If anything, NEPA is easier on these pipelines and stuff. Even though Joe Manchin is complaining ceaselessly about it.Johanna BozuwaYes, and I mean, I think that's why in particular, people who have been fighting the fossil fuel industry for so long, look to this group of folks, more center left folks, that are saying "Repeal NEPA, let's do it, we want to build." They're saying, "Oh my gosh. What you're doing by saying that is saying that the West Virginian that I have been fighting alongside is going to be decimated by this pipeline that's being passed now." So there are really high stakes and in a lot of the permitting process that we saw at the federal level, it also implicated the Mountain Valley pipeline.Right. And that type of infrastructure getting a pass when it couldn't even get some of its permits at the state level to just go forth is a really, I think, scary potential because that locks us into decades of extraction.David RobertsYeah, I feel like that was not covered well when this whole thing happened. You know, the Mountain Valley Pipeline: It's not that it was like stuck unfairly in a bureaucratic tangle. It just sort of straightforwardly was polluting and so it couldn't get the permits, the permits were rejected. It wasn't like stuck in some queue or something. It was just straightforwardly a polluting project that could not qualify under US law to go on. And it was just like jammed through. So I feel like the outrage of that didn't really penetrate partially because everybody's on this like "everything needs to go faster tip" and so they just kind of slotted it under there.But we don't want things that straightforwardly fail environmental review going forward do we?Johanna BozuwaExactly, like, I would like, that the Cuyahoga River does not catch on fire again. And that's the reason we have environmental review and NEPA. And also I would like it to be able to stop more fossil fuel infrastructure.David RobertsYeah, I know. And this is the other thing too, as though we're supposed to have some sort of content neutral opinions about permitting as such. I'm just like, "Well, I want more good stuff and less bad stuff. Can I have that opinion?"Johanna BozuwaExactly. That's so crucial too, where there are ways for us to stop permitting new fossil fuel infrastructure and permit the hell out of good renewable energy projects. That's a political possibility that Biden actually had signed up for and now is stepping back on.David RobertsYeah, I mean, it's politically tough, but let's be positive here. You have a lot of recommendations in here, all of which are juicy, all of which could probably have a podcast of their own on them. There's no way we can cover them all. But you sort of have your principles and recommendations grouped under three headings. And the first one, which I think is the one that is most directly germane to the speed question, is enabling more coordination and planning. And I think this is a huge thing. This is one of my soapboxes I get on all the time.I really want the climate movement to take this up is that we've had decades and decades of for lack of a better term, neoliberalism and this sort of instinctive free market stuff. And it's not like any major developed economy actually stops planning. What happens when you claim you're not planning and you claim you're being a free market is you just move planning behind closed doors or bury it in the tax code where no one can see it or understand what's happening. And then that results in whoever has the most power and money winning the planning fights.So I'm done with my soapbox. Let's talk about restoring our ability to do public, transparent, cooperative planning. Let's talk about a few of the items under here. And first is just land use planning. What do you mean by that and what would it look like?Johanna BozuwaSo, land use planning, as we talked about earlier, it turns out that one fossil fuel plant is a lot smaller than the types of assets that we need to build. That's just a reality of what we're working with. And so that necessitates far more land use planning to think about how do we get the most out of the least amount of space that is going to do the best for keeping the lights on. And so there are examples of how we can do this type of land planning. And one example I want to bring up actually is in California.So there was the Desert Renewable Energy Plan that was basically where states and federal agencies came together and they were looking at the Mojave and Colorado desert area. It's like 22 million acres.David RobertsVery sunny.Johanna BozuwaYeah, very sunny, exactly. Very sunny, very good for some solar. And what they did is that they coordinated a plan for this entire region so that it was prescreened for issues. So they said, okay, we're going to look at the biodiversity impacts of things being put here. We're going to look at the cultural or tribal impacts, the environmental potential impacts. And so after they did that kind of, what's called often like a programmatic study, that meant that the developers that came in to build the stuff there don't have to go through some more involved environmental impact assessment or study because it's already done.And so that meant that because they had done all of that work ahead of time, projects are getting approved so much faster. They're getting approved in less than ten months. And have, I think it's been now this zone has been around for about ten years and I don't think there is one litigation case. So that is just such a good example of land use planning where it's like thinking ahead of what we need and how we're going to do it. And that still does allow for private developers to come in, even though I might even argue that we could do even more planning and fill in the gaps with some public transmission or public renewable energy.But we can get into that later.David RobertsAnd we did an example from California, so I think now we're constitutionally obliged to do one from Texas too.Johanna BozuwaAbsolutely. Well, exactly. Thank you for setting me up so neatly, David, for the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones of Texas, which was such a success. So this is a very similar situation where the legislature directed the PUC, the Public Utilities Commission to plan where new generation and transmission was going to be located, routed, all of this. And so by doing so, they allowed for this proliferation of wind in Texas, a place where you might not expect a massive amount of wind to be. And I was reading a study the other day that said that in the past ten years, the CREZ line, so the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, represents 23% of all new high voltage lines in the US.David RobertsGood grief.Johanna BozuwaRight?David RobertsYeah. They're actually building I mean, I don't know if people know this, they're actually building transmission in Texas. I'll just talk about how transmission never gets built. They're building it there because —Johanna BozuwaThey had a plan.David RobertsThey planned in advance. Yes, they had zones where it got approved and so you didn't have to then go there and do the entire like a transmission developer didn't have to go somewhere and then do the entire thing. Right. Do the entire review, do the entire land use review and the environmental review. They didn't have to start over every time that stuff was done in advance.Okay, point made. There more land use coordination and planning. That's the states doing it. But you could imagine the feds getting into that somewhat. You have these jurisdictional issues and federalism issues that are a bit of a tangle, but it does seem like the feds at the very least could do some informational, advisory planning and assessment on a bigger level, don't you think?Johanna BozuwaOh, absolutely. Actually, we do have a lot of private land in this country. Absolutely. But there is a lot of land that is owned by the federal government. So they're actually implicating a lot of this already. And it makes far more sense for an actor that has that kind of meso level understanding of what we need to build to be involved in those processes and be doing kind of a national assessment of where should those zones be. Like CREZ that's going to have all of these benefits and is going to allow for the most kind of efficient way for us to be deploying renewable energy while also taking into consideration these biodiversity, tribal nation relations and all of these things.That's a good role for the federal government to actually play.David RobertsOkay, we're going to pass quickly by two of these since I've done pods on them. But as you say, one is the interconnection process, which is probably the biggest thing right now, slowing down renewable energy getting built. I did a whole pod on that with RMI's Chaz Teplin a few weeks ago.Johanna BozuwaA fantastic one.David RobertsReally encourage everybody to go listen to that. There's a lot of recommendations in there for how to improve the interconnection process, how to improve things in batches. To return to a theme here, a lot of that has to do with just more and better planning on the ISO's parts.Once again, like, think in advance a little bit and you can skip some of this case by case stuff, but I encourage people to go listen to that pod. Another one, which we've touched on slightly, which I also did a pod on, is just and I think this is so important is just the capacity of the agencies that are doing these reviews. These are at the state level and at the federal level. These agencies have been cut to the bone. They're all, all understaffed, desperately behind, and that, of course, makes things go slower. So all these people who are whinging about reviews, if they're not talking about bulking up agency capacity, I just have trouble taking them seriously because that is the lowest hanging fruit you could do.But I did a whole pod on that several weeks ago about government capacity and about some of the provisions in the IRA that are meant to bulk up capacity at these agencies. It's just a matter of money and hiring. So we're going to check that one off the list. Let's talk a little bit about this next recommendation, which is about more publicly owned energy and transmission. What do you mean by that? What would that look like?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so this is kind of trying to answer the question of building where private companies will not, right? Like, we do have this problem of not having the long-range solution in the mind's eye, right? And we have this system in which there isn't a lot of this coordination that's in the mind's eye of a developer, right? Like, they're focused on their development, whereas the state government, federal government, has a little bit more of like, "Okay, what are we trying to accomplish? We are trying to handle the climate crisis. And that means we need to move as quickly as possible to deploy as much renewable energy as possible.And it turns out we actually do have some capacity and to actually build this ourselves." And we've done this in the past, admittedly, in a much less dense energy system. But the New Deal is a really good example of this, where the U.S. either directly financed or built itself a massive amount of transmission and energy infrastructure, like the Rural Electrification Administration that FDR put in place. It electrified 80% of the United States land mass in ten years. And when we're talking about the climate crisis, I would like to go at that clip. So I think if there are ways for us where we have a standstill where things aren't getting built fast enough, where can the federal government, the state government come in with a little political muscle and do that building?And I think that there are additional kind of benefits to doing this too, which include the fact that if you're building public renewables, for instance, you're also probably going to value having higher and better-paid jobs. You are probably going to, in comparison to a private developer, probably thinking a little bit more about some of those community benefits. And I think that there's a real win there that actually kind of creates a baseline for the rest of the private industry in a good way too.David RobertsInstead of just nudging and incentivizing private developers to do these things, we could just do them.Johanna BozuwaWe could just do them and we can also show them the way a little bit too. Right. Like right now, right. We just have the Inflation Reduction Act. Fabulous. We love the climate investments. It's so great. And also it just largely relies on tax incentives, right. And in those it's like you get a little bit more if you use local steel and if you have high wage jobs, all these things. And we could also just do that, build some public renewables and make it happen ourselves. And also when you have, particularly from a job perspective, right, like a public renewables entity that's building these developments with high wage work, that means that the private developers are afraid that they're going to lose all of their workers.So then they have to raise their wages too, which is a good thing.David RobertsRace to the top, I think they call that.Johanna BozuwaI would love a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom in our renewable energy world.David RobertsYes. Okay, we got to keep moving here. There's a long list. The next one is something we covered, I think, on the Thea Riofrancos post, which is just we know we have to build a lot of stuff, but that's not a fixed quantity of stuff we have to build. Right. We can be more efficient with how we use materials. We can try to build in a less material intensive way. So, you know, what Theo was talking about is encourage more walking and biking and multimodal transportation rather than cars, cars, cars. Like that's a choice. And there are other choices we could make to build a clean, but the less material intensive version of clean.There's a lot of different ways we can guide things in that direction.Johanna BozuwaOh yeah, absolutely.David RobertsEveryone should go listen to that podcast, too. This pod is like an advertisement for all my other pods.Johanna BozuwaI love it, I love it. Yeah. And just to kind of emphasize, the more that we can invest in efficiency, the fewer transmission lines we might have to build, right? Like if we have a bunch of houses that aggressively go in on multi units. Like, we're having more people housed in multi units. We're creating urban density. We're making the houses that we already have more efficient. All of those things accumulate and make it so that we actually don't have to do the same level of massive deployment, which is a huge win. So we have to — I think it's like questioning some of the assumptions, too, of how much do we need to build.David RobertsRight. Maybe not all our private vehicles need to be the size of military tanks and weigh three tons. This segues perfectly into the next one, which I feel like is underappreciated, which is supporting distributed energy resources. Talk about why that's part of going faster here. How does that fit into this picture?Johanna BozuwaSo let's say we're able to add rooftop solar to a lot of the rooftops that are around and implement microgrids and put in storage. These are all, again, things that are going to be a lot easier probably to deploy because they're smaller. There's less of this zoning permitting etc. that has to happen when it comes to some of the bigger stuff, where you're going to maybe need environmental review. And so by making those investments in distributed energy resources, you're actually lightening the load again on transmission development.David RobertsRight. It's kind of a piece of the previous one, really.Johanna BozuwaTotally.David RobertsIt's about being less material intensive.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I also think the added benefit of doing that, of course, is the fact that we live in unreliable times and it adds additional reliability potential by having things like microgrids deployed.David RobertsYes, many future pods on that particular subject are in the works, are cooking in the Volts oven. Let's go to the second big category here, and this is where I have a little bit of skepticism. So this category is "Enhance community participation and consent." So this is what I want to talk about: You say, let's bring communities in more and earlier. And of course, I think most people, at least most people in my world, when they hear "more community involvement," their palms start sweating. They envision these local zoning meetings with old people shouting at city officials.They envision nothing ever getting done, everything getting blocked, NIMBY's everywhere. You have this sentence where it says, "Strengthening community participation early in the process will likely move projects forward faster without as much community opposition." Do we know that to be true? I want that to be true. I like the idea of it. Do we know that?Johanna BozuwaGreat question. It's worth interrogating. I'm going to borrow a little bit from my colleague that we've already referenced today, Thea Riofrancos, that she often says which is "Sometimes going fast isn't actually fast." So, you know, if we streamline, right, or NEPA gets streamlined or many of these other permitting processes, you cut the red tape and therefore you are steamrolling communities affected by the infrastructure. You're potentially hardening them against the project. And when they feel mad or disenfranchised, chances are they're going to throw the book at you. They're going to throw the book to stop the project. We talked about these arbitrary dates set by some of the permitting system.You're actually putting yourself up for far more potential litigation and drawn out legal battles because you actually haven't done the work that's necessary to bring that group on side, nor do you have all of your ducks in a row. So I think that there is a justification for defraying conflict and making our odds better at doing that. I'm not saying that we're not going to run into problems and there isn't going to be this annoying mob of Karens that's going to show up every once in a while. But I do think that our odds do look better when we do involve community.David RobertsThere's a cynical point of view here which says communities are always going to have their Karens. There's always going to be somebody who objects, no matter how early, no matter how much you consult, there's always going to be somebody who doesn't want something near them. The only way in the end to overcome this problem is to take those instruments of delay out of their hands, including the litigation tool, including the environmental review tool, including the community review tool, and just get a little bit more Chinese about the whole thing. Just go do stuff, even if — bulldoze, basically.I know we want to resist that conclusion, but I wish we knew better. I wish we had better models of moving quickly.Johanna BozuwaSo I think actually, since you mentioned the Chinese, I'm going to mention the Danish. And I think that part of this is actually like — we have this problem, right, that we know that deploying renewable energy, deploying clean energy is just incredibly important for the climate crisis. But the benefits are diffuse where the potential negative is pretty concentrated when it comes to these things. And so I think one question we can ask or the permit reviewers or whatever it is, or how we're thinking about developing these projects, is getting in their shoes and asking, what is in it for me?We can pay people to have some of this stuff, right? So the Danish government in the 1990s was building out a bunch of wind. And so one of the ways that they incentivized this wind development was by incentivizing that part of it is owned by the local government to give them a revenue stream. And that actually helped to limit the controversy. And you'll see that in Denmark, people have kind of higher concepts or like the polling is better for wind. And I was talking with this professor, Nick Pevzner from University of Pennsylvania, who was discussing this really interesting particular instance in which in one of these towns where they were going to be around the offshore wind, they actually brought in landscape architects to design the offshore wind. So that it would be aesthetically pleasing.David RobertsThe Danes give a shi-, give a dang, about how things look like. What a thought.Johanna BozuwaHuge difference.David RobertsYes, I know. You look at what's the one waste incineration plant in the middle of the town that's like gorgeous. It's got a laser display, I think it's got a ski hill on it. All these kind of things. It seems like we don't care here in the US. How ugly things are. Witness any sort of midsize town or strip mall or the periphery of any city. Everything's just like plain and ugly. Like what if we made things look nice that might improve community —Johanna BozuwaWe deserve nice things. Communities deserve nice things.David RobertsWe can have nice things. And you talk about we should do what's called a "Cumulative impact analysis."Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsAgain, to me on first blush that sounds like oh, bigger and more analysis: Surely that's going to slow things down. So how do you see that working?Johanna BozuwaWell, again, this kind of takes us to our planning. Right. Like cumulative impact analysis which New Jersey and New York have put in place is this way to discern not just the impact of the project but the accumulated impact of that project and what's already come to date. And I think what you would find in cumulative impact in these places, is that actually it's doing some of what we were talking about before, which is trying to fight off the bad and build more of the good. So that's a way to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure but maybe see benefit around solar or something like that.These are actually tools that, yes, as you say, at first glance you might think, "Oh my gosh, more? Really?" But what it's doing is assuring some of that larger meso level discerning and also in a lot of ways these are environmental justice tools too. Right. The reason that they're doing that is because it has so consistently been the same community that has had to shoulder the coal plant, then the gas plant, then the pipeline, then another cement factory. Right. And so they're trying to say, "Okay wait, this is out of control. Let's think about where we're putting this and how that's going to burden people."David RobertsSo the last category here is "Empower a just transition." And I don't think we need to go piece by piece through here since these are very familiar asks from progressive climate people, which is just stop permitting new fossil fuel facilities. Protect the communities that are getting hurt by fossil fuel pollution and set emission reduction targets that will phase out fossil fuels. I think those are all pretty straightforward. I do think the point here, though the larger point you're making with this section is worth underlining because it seems obvious to me, but also frequently left out of this debate, which is if you want to get renewable energy built faster: One way you could do that is through statute and regulation forcing fossil fuel out. Like, nothing's going to speed up renewable energy more than forcing fossil fuels out. Right. It seems so obvious, but it's weirdly left out here.Johanna BozuwaVery weirdly left out. It's a bizarre kind of development that we've seen in the climate realm, right? The IRA, for instance, that is a bill that is great. It creates a lot of carrots, but basically no sticks. And the reality is we need sticks if we're actually going to do this, right, as we were talking about at the kind of outset of the show, we can't let just the entire pie keep on getting bigger and bigger. We actually need to get rid of the fossil fuels. That's the point of what we're doing here. They're the reason that we have the climate crisis.And so, the best way to get rid of them is to just regulate them out of existence, like eliminate them. And I also think there's a certain amount of private industry hates regulation, but they do love certainty. So what is more certain than a decarbonization mandate that says, like, well, you need to be done by this date? And that actually gets us to more of the displacement than when we just say "Build, build, build just hopefully build the right thing for us, please please."David RobertsYes, I think that's true on several micro levels and it's true on a macro level too. One thing that would help us go faster is if we could just clearly articulate our goals. But we're sort of just hampered by having to beg Joe Manchin for his vote. And to get Joe Manchin's vote, you have to pretend that the whole pie is going to get bigger, that everything's going to grow. That's explicitly the grounds upon which he voted yes on Iraq. He sets it outright. He's like, I voted yes because I thought it was going to grow renewable energy and fossil fuels.In some sense, politically, we can't just come out and say the goal is to get rid of fossil fuels. That's where we're headed. It would just help everybody, private developers, state and local governments, if we were just on the same friggin page. Instead of sort of like backing into this, we're just backing into everything we do. Trying to sort of like wink wink at one another. Like we know what we're doing, they don't know what we're doing. It's just a bunch of confusion.Johanna BozuwaRight? And I think that it's also a little bit laughable because they obviously know what we're trying to do, right? Like, we're not really hiding the bag. And I think that this speaks to the need for us to be like, this is a 20-year fight, we're not done with the fight the progressive left needs to keep — we can't just have IRA and think that we're done and can wipe our hands. I mean, even this conversation that has come up on permitting shows that people are hungry and need more. And the question is okay, how do we build the actual political power so that Manchin isn't the one that's in the driver's seat?David RobertsYes.Johanna BozuwaI think one kind of last thing on this kind of community consent piece or community engagement that makes me really nervous to tie us back to the permitting realm, right. Is that the people who are potentially going to be railroaded by infrastructure that they don't want is rural America. And if you are pissing off rural parts of the United States right now, that's a very short-sighted game to be playing, right. Because you are potentially taking these rural folk who have just been beaten back again and again, and you're turning them to the right, to a growing fascist right, and giving away a massive voting bloc that is going to be crucial for us to continue to win and win again and keep winning until we actually solve the climate crisis.So I think when it comes to this kind of larger political project that we're doing on from a progressive perspective, we have to be wary of this idea that this is — not a get it fixed quick scheme.David RobertsYes. We do not want to tick off these particular communities any more than they're ticked off. I think if you talk to Biden administration officials sort of behind the scenes, they will tell you that part of the design of IRA, part of the thinking behind it is we need to flood these areas of the country that were hollowed out by neoliberalism, hollowed out by globalism. We need to flood them with new economic activity and new development or else our democracy is screwed. But it is also the case that you can't just go stomping things down here and there, willy-nilly, without community consent.They need to have a feeling that they're involved in where and how this is done.Johanna BozuwaYeah, we're trying to bring them into the fight for a populist amazing future, and shoving this down their throats I just don't think is the most effective tactic. And if you look back to the New Deal, right, so much of it was workers. It was people that were in more of rural America. There were so many of these folks who were standing up and fighting. And if we're not setting ourselves up for that same kind of sea change, then I'm afraid we're not going to be able to win this thing.David RobertsOkay. We are just about out of time. So just to kind of review, this is just, I think the point of your report, point of all this is to say the question of speed is not the same as the question of permitting. Technically speaking, permitting is a relatively small piece of the puzzle here. There's lots of other things we could be doing to speed things up that have nothing technically to do with NEPA or even technically to do with permitting. And we've reviewed a lot of them here, and I would commend people to your report to get a fuller picture of them and to think about them.But let me finish, I guess with, this is all a vision. I love this vision, but politics are politics and we live in a fallen world, et cetera, et cetera. So toward the end of last session, there was this chance to have a permitting deal, and basically it was these sort of arbitrary caps on NEPA reviews, the length of NEPA reviews and the Mountain Valley pipeline in exchange for some pretty substantial transmission stuff, some pretty substantial stuff on transmission, federal transmission planning. The progressive movement rallied to kill that. They called it Manchin's dirty deal. They rallied, they killed it.And what ended up happening was the NEPA stuff squeezed through somewhere else. The Mountain Valley pipeline squeezed through somewhere else, and the transmission stuff died. Looking back on that, do you think that was the right political move for the progressive movement to fight that bill? And more broadly, do you think the progressive movement is prepared to sort of make the political trade-offs which are going to be necessary since a lot of this stuff that you list in your report is just going to be very difficult with today's current political distribution of power?Johanna BozuwaYeah, great question, and I think my answer is that the progressive movement still did the right thing. We needed to fight — or the progressive movement folks who were in those fights needed to fight off and make very clear the MVP is not something that we can have — this permitting that's going to expand. It was a big toad to swallow. And I think if we look at some of the transmission stuff, like, sure, it was fine. Was it the things that we were fully looking for? I think it was Hickenlooper's bill, big wires that was in some of those kind of final fights, right.With the Fiscal Responsibility Act, his bill included something like a 30% interregional transfer. The DOE says we need a 120% increase in interregional transfer. That's just not even at the scale that we need, and we'd be giving up so much for it. So, yeah, we didn't fully win that fight, but I think that from what I'm hearing, kind of at the congressional level, there is the potential for another bite at the apple on transmission. There is still some, as we said earlier, right, everyone agrees that transmission is a boondoggle right now and a hot mess. So I think that should be one of the things that we're thinking about as the progressive movement.How do we do that? Right? But I don't think I would go back in time and say "Eh, we should just accept Manchin's deal." I think that it was an important political flag to stamp in the ground that, no, we actually don't believe that we should be expanding fossil fuels and renewable energy at the same time because that's not what we need to do. Saying all that, I do think there are things that we can be doing right now to advance transmission. For instance, FERC is looking at some of these interconnection issues right now. Biden should not rest on his laurels until he gets someone approved and appointed to the FERC board.David RobertsHey, there's Joe Manchin again being a jerk.Johanna BozuwaI know, it's so true. But there are things and again, we've already talked on this pod about stuff that can be done at the state level, too. We still have some cards to play in our hand to accelerate and prove our case increasingly and build the case for more federal implementation, too.David RobertsJohanna, thanks so much for coming on. I feel like lately the progressive environmental left has appeared in mainstream media and social media more as a weird caricature viewed from a distance than been able to speak for itself. So I'm glad to be able to have you on so we can talk through a little bit about how progressives see this and the larger issues at play and their specific recommendations, all of which I think are great. So people should check out your report. And thanks for sharing your time with us.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me today, David. It's lovely.David RobertsThank you for listening to the Volts podcast. It is ad-free, powered entirely by listeners like you. If you value conversations like this, please consider becoming a paid Volts subscriber at volts.wtf. Yes, that's volts.wtf so that I can continue doing this work. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next time. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe

IT'S THE PURE MADNESS FINALE! A nine episode bracket to determine the best brand of plain seltzer. Ernest from We Bought a Mic, Kyra & Adam from The Zillennial Canon, and Skylar Verduzco join to discuss the winner of the bracket. It's Mountain Valley Sparkling Water VS. Topo Chico!!! Plus, we discuss bigfoot, our least favorite celebrities, and a video of otters drinking sparkling water! Be sure to listen to We Bought a Mic and follow them on Twitter. Be sure to listen to The Zillennial Canon, and follow them on Twitter! Follow Skylar at... https://www.skylarverduzco.com/ https://www.instagram.com/misnamedplants/ https://twitter.com/misnamedplants FOLLOW THE SELTZERCAST: http://twitter.com/seltzercast https://www.instagram.com/seltzer.cast/ THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SUPERYAKI http://superyaki.com/ https://twitter.com/SuperYakiShop https://www.instagram.com/superyakishop/ Narration provided by Tim Wells Art by Kyra Kaufer Music by Kevin MacLeod: Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobel License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3851-happy-alley License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Poppers and Prosecco by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4231-poppers-and-prosecco License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Entre las 100 páginas de la recientemente aprobada “Ley sobre el límite de la deuda” se ocultan auténticas “píldoras venenosas”. Una de ellas permite agilizar la aprobación y construcción del polémico gasoducto Mountain Valley, una tubería de más de 480 kilómetros de longitud diseñada para transportar gas extraído mediante fracturación hidráulica a través de los estados de Virginia y Virginia Occidental.

Highlights of the Podcast00:00 - Intro01:46 - As utilities switch from coal to natural gas, the Biden administration does not understand physics permitting or reform or planning04:33 - The Chevron, PDC deal about addition, not substitution06:21 - Biden, McCarthy debt deal would speed up Mountain Valley gas pipeline12:26 - Democrats sideline Newsom's plan to reform CEQA14:32 - Clean Tanker demand drop weighs on us Gulf rates17:12 - OutroFollow Stuart On LinkedIn and TwitterFollow Michael On LinkedIn and TwitterENB Top NewsENBEnergy DashboardENB PodcastENB Substack

Highlights of the Podcast00:00 - Intro02:15 - Biden, McCarthy debt deal would speed up Mountain Valley gas pipeline08:14 - Market Updates08:49 - Chevron PDC Deal About Addition, Not Substitution10:12 - OutroFollow Stuart On LinkedIn and TwitterFollow Michael On LinkedIn and TwitterENB Top NewsENBEnergy DashboardENB PodcastENB Substack

PURE MADNESS CONTINUES! It's a nine episode bracket to determine the best brand of plain seltzer. Frannie & Sophie from the podcast Girls Like Us return to discuss Mountain Valley Sparkling Water VS. San Pellegrino. Plus, there's talk about the film Nerve, room service sparkling water and Gwyneth Paltrow. FOLLOW THE SELTZERCAST: http://twitter.com/seltzercast https://www.instagram.com/seltzer.cast/ THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SUPERYAKI http://superyaki.com/ https://twitter.com/SuperYakiShop https://www.instagram.com/superyakishop/ Narration provided by Tim Wells Art by Kyra Kaufer Music by Kevin MacLeod: Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobel License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3851-happy-alley License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Poppers and Prosecco by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4231-poppers-and-prosecco License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hosts Elicia Morigeau and guest host Candace Devine cover this week's top local news, events, and updates from all across the Prescott area and beyond. This week they cover the Pure Imagination Festival and all the benefits that go with it, PV Mountain Valley Splash opens for summer, PV roadwork soon to start, and more.Buckle up and hold on to this episode of MyDrive - Prescott Area Weekly Update. Follow Cast11 on Facebook: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network/Listen to My Drive on Cast11: https://mydrive.buzzsprout.com/ or wherever you stream podcasts. MY Drive is part of the CAST11 Podcast Network of Prescott. Check out the podcast network website with ALL the shows at: https://CAST11.com

Prescott Valley Parks and Recreation is excited to announce that Mountain Valley Splash will officially open on Saturday, May 27, 2023. Parks and Recreation is looking forward to hosting the community over at the pool for many events and activities throughout the next few months! Activities will include night swim lessons, open swim, water aerobics, therapy swim, and more! The first open swim will also be the first Saturday Splash which will be Luau themed! Grab a lei and join in on the fun. Cost of Entry: Fee: per person, Children 1 and under and parents/guardians not swimming are... For the written story, read here >> https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/prescott-valleys-mountain-valley-splash-opens-may-27th/Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

PURE MADNESS CONTINUES! It's a nine episode bracket to determine the best brand of plain seltzer. Donell Clark AKA DJ returns to discuss Hal's New York Seltzer VS. Mountain Valley Sparkling Water. Plus, there's talk about Gwyneth Paltrow, bigfoot (again) and a surprise Jellybelly seltzer review! FOLLOW DJ AT... https://linktr.ee/fourtyorphans https://www.twitch.tv/donfourty https://www.instagram.com/thenomadofthought/ FOLLOW THE SELTZERCAST: http://twitter.com/seltzercast https://www.instagram.com/seltzer.cast/ THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SUPERYAKI http://superyaki.com/ https://twitter.com/SuperYakiShop https://www.instagram.com/superyakishop/ Narration provided by Tim Wells Art by Kyra Kaufer Music by Kevin MacLeod: Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobel License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3851-happy-alley License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Poppers and Prosecco by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4231-poppers-and-prosecco License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

PURE MADNESS CONTINUES! It's a nine episode bracket to determine the best brand of plain seltzer. The Overlook Hour Podcast returns to discuss Rambler ( sort of...) VS. Mountain Valley Sparkling Water. Plus, there's discussion about found footage, bigfoot and April Fool's jokes! Be sure to listen to The Overlook Hour Podcast and follow them on Twitter. FOLLOW THE SELTZERCAST: http://twitter.com/seltzercast https://www.instagram.com/seltzer.cast/ THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SUPERYAKI http://superyaki.com/ https://twitter.com/SuperYakiShop https://www.instagram.com/superyakishop/ Narration provided by Tim Wells Art by Kyra Kaufer Music by Kevin MacLeod: Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobel License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3851-happy-alley License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Poppers and Prosecco by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4231-poppers-and-prosecco License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A conversation with Stan Heller about efforts to reduce impacts of gas-powered leaf blowers and other small engines; plus good news on efforts to stop the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline through WV and VA.

Russian oil trade remains in ship-shape as the EU price cap has failed to stem Moscow's freight and insurance income, analyst sayshttps://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/russian-oil-india-china-not-cheap-shipping-fees-kpler-analyst-2023-1- "Debunking number one, no one really knows the price of Russian oil"- Urals blend may be priced at $38/barrel (less than half price of Brent) but now Russia is selling all these other services to go along with it like insurance, shipping, etc. so they could be making $60+/barrel with all the other services rolled in.Yellen says setting price caps on Russian refined oil products 'complicated'https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/yellen-says-setting-price-caps-russian-refined-oil-products-complicated-2023-01-21/- "Western countries are working to structure price caps on Russian refined petroleum products to ensure continued flow of Russian diesel, but the markets are complicated and there is a chance things do not go to plan" - Multiple different products make it harder to implement a price cap, apparently- European Union diesel ban comes into effect Feb 5- Yellen thinks crude oil price cap is successful so far because price for Russian crude oil dropped and Russia says its revenue is down -- but is it really?- There are so many ways to get around the price cap.U.S. energy head warns Republicans oil bill would lift pump priceshttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-energy-chief-warns-republicans-that-oil-bill-would-raise-pump-prices-2023-01-18/- Is this bill even a threat? This is posturing. Biden will just veto the bill and Republicans don't have veto-proof majority to override it.- Doesn't make sense to put SPR releases under purview of Congress. Congress would be a terrible body to have approval authority over SPR releases.- President should have authority to make these decisionsWhite House Aims to Reflect the Environment in Economic Datahttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/business/economy/economic-statistics-climate-nature.html- Idea put forth at the WEF by John Kerry, so it's unlikely to go anywhereDr. Dean Foreman from API: Monthly Statistical Report AND Quarterly Industry Report- US consumed 25 million bpd of petroleum- Part going into materials and petrochemicals was up- EIA growth estimate up to 1 million bpd but IEA now estimating 1.9 million bpd of demand growth: different expectations for China's growth. Europeans anticipating shortage of natural gas and expectation they will replace this with diesel- EIA estimates growth from US primarily. But API says growth flatlining. No tailwind coming from DUCs. How will we get 1million bpd growth? ANd where is growth from other non-OPEC countries? Less clear when this oil will come online.- Less international drilling, more investment but costs are up. Despite weaker economic forecasts, oil demand is still strong- API data focused on why production has been held back. Comparison with natural gas. Nat gas production is at all time high, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Why? Gas has been led by Louisnana and Texas, which are conducive to gas drilling. Oil has more headwinds. Colorado stifling, New Mexico, Wyoming, North Dakota - drilling is all weak compared to pre-pandemic. Federal moratorium is a big issue for NM, WY, ND. Inability to build intrastate pipelines is hitting oil production.- Appalachia should be the largest source of natgas in US but can't get Mountain Valley pipeline online even though it's mostly built! Finishing the pipeline would totally.- Marcellus area natgas is prices nearly a dollar less than Henry Hub for next year. Why? This is big discount and is impacting the economics of natgas development.- DUC issue is indicative of workforce limitations. limited completion crews so people making decision to keep completion crews on rigs that are operating because they might lose it?- DUCs are theoretically the cheapest way to get product to market. News from Permian - changing how they are drilling, reshuffling. Is it economic?- Distillate stocks increased for 3rd straight month. Are we in the clear? Concerns aren't totally alleviated but we are 33 days of supply as a nation (was 25 in October). Real question is how to get distillate to Northeast. Relatively warm winter has helped because more time to get diesel by rain and truck from midwest to northeast. Especially since imports from Europe are down.- US net exports (crude oil and refined products) record for December - EIA projections for exports think that US will have surplus in Q1 2023 despite huge exports every month in 2022. How does this work?- Fundamentally, the market is tight. US products are in demand, let's make sure we are supporting US production in ways that are consistent with the promises we've made to our allies.https://www.api.org/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit energyweek.substack.com

In this episode Nicole and Sarah host Tracy Keller, ski mom, and Head of School at Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS) in Waitsfield, Vermont. Tracy shares her ski and career journey with us from racing at Dartmouth to her first job at Sugar Bowl Academy and finally to GMVS where she is the Head of School.Tracy learned to ski when she was six at Pico Mountain in Vermont and started ski racing at a young age.  She went on to ski at Dartmouth College and after college took a job teaching, coaching and dorm parenting at Sugar Bowl Academy in California.  Tracy clearly defines a ski academy - a high school (and in some cases middle school) designed for and to serve the needs of competitive ski racers. Most are independent schools, many have a boarding component. Tracy gives some great advice on how to check out what a ski academy is like by attending a ski camp.  While students can enroll as early as 7th grade at GMVS, many students do not start attending full time until 9th grade.  Many academies offer winter term programs (typically 6th, 7th, 8th grade) starting in November through the ski season. A ski academy is a good fit for a student that is passionate about skiing - they ski every day, in all weather, and you really need to love it. Students need to be resilient, hard working and have the ability to recognize that competitive skiing is a process. Another key factor is that the desire to ski competitively needs to be driven by the athlete and not their parents. We also learn about a typical year at a ski academy - which can consist of international and domestic camp travel, on-site physical conditioning and local training.  Keep up with the Latest from GMVS:Website: https://gmvs.org/Instagram: https://instagram.com/gmvsskiFacebook: GMVSGMVS Ski CampsGMVS 7th Grade Winter TermResources:Sugar Bowl AcademyWaterville Valley Academy (NH)Rowmark Academy in Park CityThe Winter Sports School Park CityOkemo Mountain SchoolUSCSA (college ski racing)NCAA College SkiingPlease Help Support our Podcast:Mabels Labels at www.mabelslabels.com and use code SKIMOMS for 15% off your first orderShop our Ski Moms Stocking Stuffer Gift GuideCheck out the Ski Pack at www.puremountainfun.com and use code SKIMOMS2022 for 20% off your orderJoin the Ski Moms Fun Community! Follow us on Instagram @skimomsfunCheck out the Ski Moms Fun Store at www.skimomsfun.comContact us sarah@skimomsfun.com

Rather than doing our regular monthly solocast, we decided to mix it up and try something a bit different today. This is our first AMA (ask me anything) show, co-hosted by our Associate Producer, Bailey, in which I answer a slew of questions posted in the Life Stylist Podcast Facebook group. After you listen, please send me a note on Facebook or Instagram with your feedback. Remember, this show is for you, so I deeply value your preferences and feedback and always do my best to provide what you're looking for. 00:03:20 — Meeting Bailey & Launching a New Format Going from listener to producer  Luke Storey: Return of the Jedi, The Life Stylist #1 Expanding as a person through vulnerability  00:19:36 — Water is Consciousness  Pellegrino or Mountain Valley?   Real spring water  Celebrating the bounty of the earth Findaspring.com  Reinvigorating, restructuring, and remineralizing tips 00:35:13 — Surrendering to the Highest Good for All Recommended readings on surrender? The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer  Letting Go by David Hawkins Repeating the readings  Luke's acceptance ladder  Surrendering to the duality  The perfection of anything that is Finding your flavor of the universal truth 01:01:48 — Generating Your Own Power EMF and solar panels? Testmyhome.com  Shieldedhealing.com  01:10:09 — Circumcision As An Adult Yes or no? And Why? The War Against Boys: Ending The Torture Of Circumcision In America #192 American Circumcision (2017) Luke shares his personal thoughts on the subject  01:22:23 — Home Security, Detoxing Fluoride, Biohacking for Women, etc. Low EMF security cameras?  Wifi in your home  How to detox from fluoride?  Upgraded Formulas iodine Activation Products iodine Biohacking tips for women preparing for reproduction? Biohacking Women's Biorhythms for Performance & Peace w/ Kayla Osterhoff #415 The Myths Of Infertility + Primemester Power & Creating Superbabies w/ Dr. Cleopatra (& Alyson) #378 Biohacking For Women: Red Light, Hormones, Fasting & Fitness w/ Kristin Weitzel #383 Energetics of hair loss and surrender? Natural ways to clean kids' ears? Ozone Generator Kit by SimplyO3 Best time of day to take methylene blue? MitoZen Scientific Recommended red light therapy? FlexBeam recovery device  01:52:47 — Dedicated Sleep-Focused Content Claus Pummer: Sleep, The Smartest Drug? #16 Samina Sleep System Safe Sleeping: The Ultimate Guide to Organic Mattresses & Why It Matters w/ Jack Dell'Accio #443 Essentia organic mattress Sleep Or Die: Becoming The Best At Hardcore Rest w/ Harpreet Singh Rai #172 Master Your Sleep—Master Your Life: Top Tools & Power Practices w/ Todd & Tara Youngblood #405 ChiliPAD Sleep Systems Luke's tips for a good night of sleep Dock Pro from chili sleep More about this episode. Watch on YouTube. THIS SHOW IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: SIMPLY O3. Ozone therapy has a long history of use in chronic disease, especially for things like cancer, Lyme, autoimmune infections, and mold toxicity. And now, Simply O3 is bringing expensive ozone treatment directly to your home with their ozone kits. Get 35% off during their Black Friday sale at simplyo3.com/luke. AND... BEE PATAGON HONEY. Honey is a top superfood and has been documented in the world's oldest medical literature since ancient times. And honey from the pristine Patagonia forest of Chile has measured higher than Manuka for antibacterial activity and immune support. You can get 30% off Bee Patagon Honey with code LUKEBP at BeePatagonHoney.com. AND… INSIDE TRACKER. When you do what you love – like running, like racing, like enjoying the great outdoors – you want to do it for life. InsideTracker can help. InsideTracker was founded in 2009 by leading scientists in aging, genetics, and biometrics. Using their patented algorithm, InsideTracker analyzes your body's data to provide you with a clear picture of what's going on inside you and to offer you science-backed recommendations for positive diet and lifestyle changes. Then InsideTracker tracks your progress every day, every step of the way toward reaching your performance goals and living a longer, healthier life. You can get 20% off the entire InsideTracker store for a limited time by going to: insidetracker.com/luke. Resources: Join The Life Stylist Facebook Group to submit your own questions! Are you ready to block harmful blue light, and look great at the same time? Check out Gilded By Luke Storey. Where fashion meets function: gildedbylukestorey.com Join me on Telegram for the uncensored content big tech won't allow me to post. It's free speech and free content: www.lukestorey.com/telegram Related: Luke Storey: Return of the Jedi, The Life Stylist #1

An interview with Drew Hudson about stopping Sen. Joe Manchin's dirty deal to turbocharge fossil fuel production, including the Mountain Valley pipeline, and and interview with Leif Taranta, a staffer for the Climate Disobedience Center and a coordinator with the campaign No Coal No Gas about their New England-wide effort to shut down fossil fuel plants.

Valleys need a new publicist- they always seem to get negative PR. We tend to talk about how beautiful and majestic mountains are, but don't pay much attention to valleys. But both are essential. In fact, things generally grow better in the fertile ground of the valley rather than the stony ground of the mountain. The valleys provide us with an elevation to measure the mountains against. In this series we're going to look at how we should embrace both (+) in our lives as followers of Jesus. 

Valleys need a new publicist- they always seem to get negative PR. We tend to talk about how beautiful and majestic mountains are, but don't pay much attention to valleys. But both are essential. In fact, things generally grow better in the fertile ground of the valley rather than the stony ground of the mountain. The valleys provide us with an elevation to measure the mountains against. In this series we're going to look at how we should embrace both (+) in our lives as followers of Jesus. 

Valleys need a new publicist- they always seem to get negative PR. We tend to talk about how beautiful and majestic mountains are, but don't pay much attention to valleys. But both are essential. In fact, things generally grow better in the fertile ground of the valley rather than the stony ground of the mountain. The valleys provide us with an elevation to measure the mountains against. In this series we're going to look at how we should embrace both (+) in our lives as followers of Jesus. 

Freeda Cathcart who is the Mothers Out Front Team Coordinator. We talk all about the Manchin Bill which is proposed by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin. It's a bill with an outline of tax, climate, energy, and healthcare measures that speeds up fossil fuel and clean energy projects. In the episode we will focus on its effects on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, MVP. Manchin's bill includes a mandate for agencies to approve the contentious Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline project. Many Virginia communities have revolted against the venture. The pipeline, proposed will run through West Virginia, Virginia and a sliver of North Carolina, has had multiple permits repeatedly struck down since it was initially approved in 2017. It is now expected to cost more than $6 billion to complete, more than double the original cost estimate. The Manchin bill would move the legal venue for challenges to Mountain Valley from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond to the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit. The bill text also includes a provision imposing a two-year deadline on permitting reviews for major projects under NEPA, and one year for projects with less impact. With Freeda we talk about the work she does, the bill, the effects it has on the MVP, how the MVP effects communities and energy permitting provisions. Contact and connect with Freeda: contactfreeda@gmail.com Voting: https://www.coxenterprises.com/cox-conserves/cox-conserves-heroes/vote/freeda-cathcart Manchin Bill: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/21/joe-manchin-energy-bill-fossil-fuels https://www.elliottdavis.com/whats-in-the-manchin-shumer-bill-on-taxes-climate-energy-and-healthcare/

Valleys need a new publicist- they always seem to get negative PR. We tend to talk about how beautiful and majestic mountains are, but don't pay much attention to valleys. But both are essential. In fact, things generally grow better in the fertile ground of the valley rather than the stony ground of the mountain. The valleys provide us with an elevation to measure the mountains against. In this series we're going to look at how we should embrace both (+) in our lives as followers of Jesus. 

Valleys need a new publicist- they always seem to get negative PR. We tend to talk about how beautiful and majestic mountains are, but don't pay much attention to valleys. But both are essential. In fact, things generally grow better in the fertile ground of the valley rather than the stony ground of the mountain. The valleys provide us with an elevation to measure the mountains against. In this series we're going to look at how we should embrace both (+) in our lives as followers of Jesus. 

We talk about the problems that arise from staying at home all day (even with remote work) and why you should make a conscious effort to spend as much of the day outside of the house. We also cover student loans and other topics. TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) The finer things in life (0:50) How time operates (2:20) Student loan rant (8:30) Humility (13:00) Social media & invisible ink (15:15) Women not needing men (17:30) A shower thought (20:35) Working from home (28:20) Mountain Valley spring water (30:00) Turkish hairlines (32:30) Awkward haircuts (33:50) Theo Von is a G (36:05) Outro   FOLLOW THE 2AM PODCAST: VISIT OUR WEBSITE  FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM  SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL GRAB SOME MERCH

At a time when low census and shifting payer mixes are making it harder than ever for some providers to focus on quality, Mountain Valley of Cascadia has kept beds full, retained staff and poured resources into promoting resident care. The Idaho skilled nursing facility recently was named a Gold winner in the American Health Care Association QualIty Award program — for the second time.On this episode, Mountain Valley CEO Emilee Kulin and McKnight's Long-Term Care News Senior Editor Kimberly Marselas explore what it takes to be a Quality Award winner, and why integrating improvement efforts into everyday culture must be about more than the recognition. From a senior leader rounding program to infection control management and pursuing technology grants, Kulin shares strategies that helped Mountain Valley maintain its performance goals during the pandemic and beyond. www.mcknights.comFollow us on twitter:  @mcknightsltcnFollow Mountain Valley of Cascadia on Social media:Instagram: mtvalleyjourney Facebook: Mountain Valley of Cascadia

Senator Joe Manchin has been Congress's largest recipient of money from natural gas pipeline companies. He just reciprocated by gaining Senate support for the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia and expedited approval for pipelines nationwide. Senator Krysten Sinema is among Congress's largest recipients of money from the private-equity industry. She just reciprocated by preserving private-equity's tax loophole in the Inflation Reduction Act. We almost take for granted big corporate money in American politics. But it started with the Powell memo. In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, then an attorney in Richmond, Virginia (and future Supreme Court justice) to report on the political activities of the Left. Richard Nixon was still president, but the Chamber (along with some prominent Republicans like Powell) worried about the Left's effects on “free enterprise.” Powell's memo — distributed widely to Chamber members — argued that the American economic system was “under broad attack” from consumer, labor, and environmental groups. In reality, these groups were doing nothing more than enforcing the implicit social contract that had emerged at the end of World War II — ensuring that corporations were responsive to all their stakeholders, not just their shareholders but also their workers, their consumers, and the environment on which everyone depends. But Powell and the Chamber saw it differently. Powell urged businesses to mobilize for political combat.Business must learn the lesson . . . that political power is necessary; that such power must be assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination—without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.He stressed that the critical ingredients for success were organization and funding. Strength lies in … the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.On August 23, 1971, the Chamber distributed Powell's memo to leading CEOs, large businesses, and trade associations. It had exactly the impact the Chamber sought — galvanizing corporate American into action and releasing a tidal wave of corporate money into American politics. An entire corporate-political industry was born — including tens of thousands of corporate lobbyists, lawyers, political operatives, and public relations flaks. Within a few decades, big corporations would become the largest political force in Washington and most state capitals. Washington went from being a rather sleepy if not seedy town to the glittering center of corporate America — replete with elegant office buildings, fancy restaurants, pricy bistros, five-star hotels, conference centers, beautiful townhouses, and a booming real estate market that pushed Washington's poor out to the margins of the district and made two of Washington's surrounding counties among the wealthiest in the nation. I saw it and lived it. In 1976, I began working at the Federal Trade Commission. Jimmy Carter had appointed consumer advocates to some regulatory positions (several of them influenced by Ralph Nader). My boss at the FTC was Michael Pertschuk, an energetic and charismatic chairman. Joan Claybrook chaired the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission. Other Naderites were spread throughout the Carter administration. All were ready to battle big corporations that for years had been deluding or injuring consumers. Yet almost everything we initiated at the FTC, and just about everything undertaken by these activists elsewhere in the administration, was met by unexpectedly fierce political resistance from Congress. At one point, when the FTC began examining advertising directed at children, Congress stopped funding the FTC altogether, shutting it down for weeks. I was dumbfounded. What had happened? In two words, the Powell memo. The number of corporations with public affairs offices in Washington had ballooned from one hundred in 1968 to over five hundred by the time I joined the FTC in 1976. In 1971, only 175 firms had registered lobbyists in the nation's capital. By 1982, nearly 2,500 had them. The number of corporate Political Action Committees mushroomed from under three hundred in 1976 to over 1,200 by 1980. Between 1974 and 1980, the Chamber of Commerce doubled its membership. (And remember, this was still thirty years before the Supreme Court's infamous Citizen's United decision.) It didn't matter whether a Democrat or Republican occupied the White House. Even after George H.W. Bush became president, the corporate-political industry continued to balloon. By the 1990s, when I was secretary of labor, corporations employed some 61,000 people to lobby for them, including registered lobbyists and lawyers. That came to more than 100 lobbyists for each member of Congress. Corporate money also supported platoons of lawyers who represented corporations and the very rich in court, often outgunning the Justice Department and state attorneys general. Most importantly, corporations began inundating politicians with money for their campaigns. Between the late 1970s and the late 1980s, corporate Political Action Committees increased their expenditures on congressional races nearly fivefold. Labor union PAC spending rose only about half as fast. By the 2106 campaign cycle, corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 for every $1 donated by labor unions and all public interest organizations combined. Wealthy individuals also accounted for a growing share. In 1980, the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans provided 10 percent of contributions to federal elections. By 2012, they provided 40 percent. Although Republicans mostly benefited from a few large donors and Democrats from a much larger number of small donors (more on this to come), both political parties transformed themselves from state and local organizations that channeled the views of members upward into giant fundraising machines that sucked in money from the top. Never in the history of American politics has one document — the Powell memo — had such nefarious consequences. *****For those of you who'd like to read it — and I recommend doing so, to get a full sense of its scope — I've included it here in its entirety:**CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUMAttack on American Free Enterprise SystemDATE: August 23, 1971TO: Mr. Eugene B. Sydnor, Jr., Chairman, Education Committee, U.S. Chamber of CommerceFROM: Lewis F. Powell, Jr.This memorandum is submitted at your request as a basis for the discussion on August 24 with Mr. Booth (executive vice president) and others at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The purpose is to identify the problem, and suggest possible avenues of action for further consideration.Dimensions of the AttackNo thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack. This varies in scope, intensity, in the techniques employed, and in the level of visibility.There always have been some who opposed the American system, and preferred socialism or some form of statism (communism or fascism). Also, there always have been critics of the system, whose criticism has been wholesome and constructive so long as the objective was to improve rather than to subvert or destroy.But what now concerns us is quite new in the history of America. We are not dealing with sporadic or isolated attacks from a relatively few extremists or even from the minority socialist cadre. Rather, the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.Sources of the AttackThe sources are varied and diffused. They include, not unexpectedly, the Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic. These extremists of the left are far more numerous, better financed, and increasingly are more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history. But they remain a small minority, and are not yet the principal cause for concern.The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities. Yet, these often are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.Moreover, much of the media — for varying motives and in varying degrees — either voluntarily accords unique publicity to these “attackers,” or at least allows them to exploit the media for their purposes. This is especially true of television, which now plays such a predominant role in shaping the thinking, attitudes and emotions of our people.One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own destruction.The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii) contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive.Tone of the AttackThis memorandum is not the place to document in detail the tone, character, or intensity of the attack. The following quotations will suffice to give one a general idea:William Kunstler, warmly welcomed on campuses and listed in a recent student poll as the “American lawyer most admired,” incites audiences as follows:“You must learn to fight in the streets, to revolt, to shoot guns. We will learn to do all of the things that property owners fear.” The New Leftists who heed Kunstler's advice increasingly are beginning to act — not just against military recruiting offices and manufacturers of munitions, but against a variety of businesses: “Since February, 1970, branches (of Bank of America) have been attacked 39 times, 22 times with explosive devices and 17 times with fire bombs or by arsonists.” Although New Leftist spokesmen are succeeding in radicalizing thousands of the young, the greater cause for concern is the hostility of respectable liberals and social reformers. It is the sum total of their views and influence which could indeed fatally weaken or destroy the system.A chilling description of what is being taught on many of our campuses was written by Stewart Alsop:“Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores of bright young men who are practitioners of ‘the politics of despair.' These young men despise the American political and economic system . . . (their) minds seem to be wholly closed. They live, not by rational discussion, but by mindless slogans.” A recent poll of students on 12 representative campuses reported that: “Almost half the students favored socialization of basic U.S. industries.”A visiting professor from England at Rockford College gave a series of lectures entitled “The Ideological War Against Western Society,” in which he documents the extent to which members of the intellectual community are waging ideological warfare against the enterprise system and the values of western society. In a foreword to these lectures, famed Dr. Milton Friedman of Chicago warned: “It (is) crystal clear that the foundations of our free society are under wide-ranging and powerful attack — not by Communist or any other conspiracy but by misguided individuals parroting one another and unwittingly serving ends they would never intentionally promote.”Perhaps the single most effective antagonist of American business is Ralph Nader, who — thanks largely to the media — has become a legend in his own time and an idol of millions of Americans. A recent article in Fortune speaks of Nader as follows:“The passion that rules in him — and he is a passionate man — is aimed at smashing utterly the target of his hatred, which is corporate power. He thinks, and says quite bluntly, that a great many corporate executives belong in prison — for defrauding the consumer with shoddy merchandise, poisoning the food supply with chemical additives, and willfully manufacturing unsafe products that will maim or kill the buyer. He emphasizes that he is not talking just about ‘fly-by-night hucksters' but the top management of blue chip business.”A frontal assault was made on our government, our system of justice, and the free enterprise system by Yale Professor Charles Reich in his widely publicized book: “The Greening of America,” published last winter.The foregoing references illustrate the broad, shotgun attack on the system itself. There are countless examples of rifle shots which undermine confidence and confuse the public. Favorite current targets are proposals for tax incentives through changes in depreciation rates and investment credits. These are usually described in the media as “tax breaks,” “loop holes” or “tax benefits” for the benefit of business. * As viewed by a columnist in the Post, such tax measures would benefit “only the rich, the owners of big companies.”It is dismaying that many politicians make the same argument that tax measures of this kind benefit only “business,” without benefit to “the poor.” The fact that this is either political demagoguery or economic illiteracy is of slight comfort. This setting of the “rich” against the “poor,” of business against the people, is the cheapest and most dangerous kind of politics.The Apathy and Default of BusinessWhat has been the response of business to this massive assault upon its fundamental economics, upon its philosophy, upon its right to continue to manage its own affairs, and indeed upon its integrity?The painfully sad truth is that business, including the boards of directors' and the top executives of corporations great and small and business organizations at all levels, often have responded — if at all — by appeasement, ineptitude and ignoring the problem. There are, of course, many exceptions to this sweeping generalization. But the net effect of such response as has been made is scarcely visible.In all fairness, it must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system, seeking insidiously and constantly to sabotage it. The traditional role of business executives has been to manage, to produce, to sell, to create jobs, to make profits, to improve the standard of living, to be community leaders, to serve on charitable and educational boards, and generally to be good citizens. They have performed these tasks very well indeed.But they have shown little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics, and little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate.A column recently carried by the Wall Street Journal was entitled: “Memo to GM: Why Not Fight Back?” Although addressed to GM by name, the article was a warning to all American business. Columnist St. John said:“General Motors, like American business in general, is ‘plainly in trouble' because intellectual bromides have been substituted for a sound intellectual exposition of its point of view.” Mr. St. John then commented on the tendency of business leaders to compromise with and appease critics. He cited the concessions which Nader wins from management, and spoke of “the fallacious view many businessmen take toward their critics.” He drew a parallel to the mistaken tactics of many college administrators: “College administrators learned too late that such appeasement serves to destroy free speech, academic freedom and genuine scholarship. One campus radical demand was conceded by university heads only to be followed by a fresh crop which soon escalated to what amounted to a demand for outright surrender.”One need not agree entirely with Mr. St. John's analysis. But most observers of the American scene will agree that the essence of his message is sound. American business “plainly in trouble”; the response to the wide range of critics has been ineffective, and has included appeasement; the time has come — indeed, it is long overdue — for the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshaled against those who would destroy it.Responsibility of Business ExecutivesWhat specifically should be done? The first essential — a prerequisite to any effective action — is for businessmen to confront this problem as a primary responsibility of corporate management.The overriding first need is for businessmen to recognize that the ultimate issue may be survival — survival of what we call the free enterprise system, and all that this means for the strength and prosperity of America and the freedom of our people.The day is long past when the chief executive officer of a major corporation discharges his responsibility by maintaining a satisfactory growth of profits, with due regard to the corporation's public and social responsibilities. If our system is to survive, top management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself. This involves far more than an increased emphasis on “public relations” or “governmental affairs” — two areas in which corporations long have invested substantial sums.A significant first step by individual corporations could well be the designation of an executive vice president (ranking with other executive VP's) whose responsibility is to counter-on the broadest front-the attack on the enterprise system. The public relations department could be one of the foundations assigned to this executive, but his responsibilities should encompass some of the types of activities referred to subsequently in this memorandum. His budget and staff should be adequate to the task.Possible Role of the Chamber of CommerceBut independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations.Moreover, there is the quite understandable reluctance on the part of any one corporation to get too far out in front and to make itself too visible a target.The role of the National Chamber of Commerce is therefore vital. Other national organizations (especially those of various industrial and commercial groups) should join in the effort, but no other organizations appear to be as well situated as the Chamber. It enjoys a strategic position, with a fine reputation and a broad base of support. Also — and this is of immeasurable merit — there are hundreds of local Chambers of Commerce which can play a vital supportive role.It hardly need be said that before embarking upon any program, the Chamber should study and analyze possible courses of action and activities, weighing risks against probable effectiveness and feasibility of each. Considerations of cost, the assurance of financial and other support from members, adequacy of staffing and similar problems will all require the most thoughtful consideration.The CampusThe assault on the enterprise system was not mounted in a few months. It has gradually evolved over the past two decades, barely perceptible in its origins and benefiting (sic) from a gradualism that provoked little awareness much less any real reaction.Although origins, sources and causes are complex and interrelated, and obviously difficult to identify without careful qualification, there is reason to believe that the campus is the single most dynamic source. The social science faculties usually include members who are unsympathetic to the enterprise system. They may range from a Herbert Marcuse, Marxist faculty member at the University of California at San Diego, and convinced socialists, to the ambivalent liberal critic who finds more to condemn than to commend. Such faculty members need not be in a majority. They are often personally attractive and magnetic; they are stimulating teachers, and their controversy attracts student following; they are prolific writers and lecturers; they author many of the textbooks, and they exert enormous influence — far out of proportion to their numbers — on their colleagues and in the academic world.Social science faculties (the political scientist, economist, sociologist and many of the historians) tend to be liberally oriented, even when leftists are not present. This is not a criticism per se, as the need for liberal thought is essential to a balanced viewpoint. The difficulty is that “balance” is conspicuous by its absence on many campuses, with relatively few members being of conservatives or moderate persuasion and even the relatively few often being less articulate and aggressive than their crusading colleagues.This situation extending back many years and with the imbalance gradually worsening, has had an enormous impact on millions of young American students. In an article in Barron's Weekly, seeking an answer to why so many young people are disaffected even to the point of being revolutionaries, it was said: “Because they were taught that way.” Or, as noted by columnist Stewart Alsop, writing about his alma mater: “Yale, like every other major college, is graduating scores' of bright young men … who despise the American political and economic system.”As these “bright young men,” from campuses across the country, seek opportunities to change a system which they have been taught to distrust — if not, indeed “despise” — they seek employment in the centers of the real power and influence in our country, namely: (i) with the news media, especially television; (ii) in government, as “staffers” and consultants at various levels; (iii) in elective politics; (iv) as lecturers and writers, and (v) on the faculties at various levels of education.Many do enter the enterprise system — in business and the professions — and for the most part they quickly discover the fallacies of what they have been taught. But those who eschew the mainstream of the system often remain in key positions of influence where they mold public opinion and often shape governmental action. In many instances, these “intellectuals” end up in regulatory agencies or governmental departments with large authority over the business system they do not believe in.If the foregoing analysis is approximately sound, a priority task of business — and organizations such as the Chamber — is to address the campus origin of this hostility. Few things are more sanctified in American life than academic freedom. It would be fatal to attack this as a principle. But if academic freedom is to retain the qualities of “openness,” “fairness” and “balance” — which are essential to its intellectual significance — there is a great opportunity for constructive action. The thrust of such action must be to restore the qualities just mentioned to the academic communities.What Can Be Done About the CampusThe ultimate responsibility for intellectual integrity on the campus must remain on the administrations and faculties of our colleges and universities. But organizations such as the Chamber can assist and activate constructive change in many ways, including the following:Staff of ScholarsThe Chamber should consider establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars in the social sciences who do believe in the system. It should include several of national reputation whose authorship would be widely respected — even when disagreed with.Staff of SpeakersThere also should be a staff of speakers of the highest competency. These might include the scholars, and certainly those who speak for the Chamber would have to articulate the product of the scholars.Speaker's BureauIn addition to full-time staff personnel, the Chamber should have a Speaker's Bureau which should include the ablest and most effective advocates from the top echelons of American business.Evaluation of TextbooksThe staff of scholars (or preferably a panel of independent scholars) should evaluate social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology. This should be a continuing program.The objective of such evaluation should be oriented toward restoring the balance essential to genuine academic freedom. This would include assurance of fair and factual treatment of our system of government and our enterprise system, its accomplishments, its basic relationship to individual rights and freedoms, and comparisons with the systems of socialism, fascism and communism. Most of the existing textbooks have some sort of comparisons, but many are superficial, biased and unfair.We have seen the civil rights movement insist on re-writing many of the textbooks in our universities and schools. The labor unions likewise insist that textbooks be fair to the viewpoints of organized labor. Other interested citizens groups have not hesitated to review, analyze and criticize textbooks and teaching materials. In a democratic society, this can be a constructive process and should be regarded as an aid to genuine academic freedom and not as an intrusion upon it.If the authors, publishers and users of textbooks know that they will be subjected — honestly, fairly and thoroughly — to review and critique by eminent scholars who believe in the American system, a return to a more rational balance can be expected.Equal Time on the CampusThe Chamber should insist upon equal time on the college speaking circuit. The FBI publishes each year a list of speeches made on college campuses by avowed Communists. The number in 1970 exceeded 100. There were, of course, many hundreds of appearances by leftists and ultra liberals who urge the types of viewpoints indicated earlier in this memorandum. There was no corresponding representation of American business, or indeed by individuals or organizations who appeared in support of the American system of government and business.Every campus has its formal and informal groups which invite speakers. Each law school does the same thing. Many universities and colleges officially sponsor lecture and speaking programs. We all know the inadequacy of the representation of business in the programs.It will be said that few invitations would be extended to Chamber speakers. This undoubtedly would be true unless the Chamber aggressively insisted upon the right to be heard — in effect, insisted upon “equal time.” University administrators and the great majority of student groups and committees would not welcome being put in the position publicly of refusing a forum to diverse views, indeed, this is the classic excuse for allowing Communists to speak.The two essential ingredients are (i) to have attractive, articulate and well-informed speakers; and (ii) to exert whatever degree of pressure — publicly and privately — may be necessary to assure opportunities to speak. The objective always must be to inform and enlighten, and not merely to propagandize.Balancing of FacultiesPerhaps the most fundamental problem is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this is indeed a long-range and difficult project. Yet, it should be undertaken as a part of an overall program. This would mean the urging of the need for faculty balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees.The methods to be employed require careful thought, and the obvious pitfalls must be avoided. Improper pressure would be counterproductive. But the basic concepts of balance, fairness and truth are difficult to resist, if properly presented to boards of trustees, by writing and speaking, and by appeals to alumni associations and groups.This is a long road and not one for the fainthearted. But if pursued with integrity and conviction it could lead to a strengthening of both academic freedom on the campus and of the values which have made America the most productive of all societies.Graduate Schools of BusinessThe Chamber should enjoy a particular rapport with the increasingly influential graduate schools of business. Much that has been suggested above applies to such schools.Should not the Chamber also request specific courses in such schools dealing with the entire scope of the problem addressed by this memorandum? This is now essential training for the executives of the future.Secondary EducationWhile the first priority should be at the college level, the trends mentioned above are increasingly evidenced in the high schools. Action programs, tailored to the high schools and similar to those mentioned, should be considered. The implementation thereof could become a major program for local chambers of commerce, although the control and direction — especially the quality control — should be retained by the National Chamber.What Can Be Done About the Public?Reaching the campus and the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking, the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most effectively to communicate with the public. Among the more obvious means are the following:TelevisionThe national television networks should be monitored in the same way that textbooks should be kept under constant surveillance. This applies not merely to so-called educational programs (such as “Selling of the Pentagon”), but to the daily “news analysis” which so often includes the most insidious type of criticism of the enterprise system. Whether this criticism results from hostility or economic ignorance, the result is the gradual erosion of confidence in “business” and free enterprise.This monitoring, to be effective, would require constant examination of the texts of adequate samples of programs. Complaints — to the media and to the Federal Communications Commission — should be made promptly and strongly when programs are unfair or inaccurate.Equal time should be demanded when appropriate. Effort should be made to see that the forum-type programs (the Today Show, Meet the Press, etc.) afford at least as much opportunity for supporters of the American system to participate as these programs do for those who attack it.Other MediaRadio and the press are also important, and every available means should be employed to challenge and refute unfair attacks, as well as to present the affirmative case through these media.The Scholarly JournalsIt is especially important for the Chamber's “faculty of scholars” to publish. One of the keys to the success of the liberal and leftist faculty members has been their passion for “publication” and “lecturing.” A similar passion must exist among the Chamber's scholars.Incentives might be devised to induce more “publishing” by independent scholars who do believe in the system.There should be a fairly steady flow of scholarly articles presented to a broad spectrum of magazines and periodicals — ranging from the popular magazines (Life, Look, Reader's Digest, etc.) to the more intellectual ones (Atlantic, Harper's, Saturday Review, New York, etc.) and to the various professional journals.Books, Paperbacks and PamphletsThe news stands — at airports, drugstores, and elsewhere — are filled with paperbacks and pamphlets advocating everything from revolution to erotic free love. One finds almost no attractive, well-written paperbacks or pamphlets on “our side.” It will be difficult to compete with an Eldridge Cleaver or even a Charles Reich for reader attention, but unless the effort is made — on a large enough scale and with appropriate imagination to assure some success — this opportunity for educating the public will be irretrievably lost.Paid AdvertisementsBusiness pays hundreds of millions of dollars to the media for advertisements. Most of this supports specific products; much of it supports institutional image making; and some fraction of it does support the system. But the latter has been more or less tangential, and rarely part of a sustained, major effort to inform and enlighten the American people.If American business devoted only 10% of its total annual advertising budget to this overall purpose, it would be a statesman-like expenditure.The Neglected Political ArenaIn the final analysis, the payoff — short-of revolution — is what government does. Business has been the favorite whipping-boy of many politicians for many years. But the measure of how far this has gone is perhaps best found in the anti-business views now being expressed by several leading candidates for President of the United States.It is still Marxist doctrine that the “capitalist” countries are controlled by big business. This doctrine, consistently a part of leftist propaganda all over the world, has a wide public following among Americans.Yet, as every business executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of “lobbyist” for the business point of view before Congressional committees. The same situation obtains in the legislative halls of most states and major cities. One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence with respect to the course of legislation and government action, the American business executive is truly the “forgotten man.”Current examples of the impotency of business, and of the near-contempt with which businessmen's views are held, are the stampedes by politicians to support almost any legislation related to “consumerism” or to the “environment.”Politicians reflect what they believe to be majority views of their constituents. It is thus evident that most politicians are making the judgment that the public has little sympathy for the businessman or his viewpoint.The educational programs suggested above would be designed to enlighten public thinking — not so much about the businessman and his individual role as about the system which he administers, and which provides the goods, services and jobs on which our country depends.But one should not postpone more direct political action, while awaiting the gradual change in public opinion to be effected through education and information. Business must learn the lesson, long ago learned by labor and other self-interest groups. This is the lesson that political power is necessary; that such power must be assidously (sic) cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used aggressively and with determination — without embarrassment and without the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.As unwelcome as it may be to the Chamber, it should consider assuming a broader and more vigorous role in the political arena.Neglected Opportunity in the CourtsAmerican business and the enterprise system have been affected as much by the courts as by the executive and legislative branches of government. Under our constitutional system, especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic and political change.Other organizations and groups, recognizing this, have been far more astute in exploiting judicial action than American business. Perhaps the most active exploiters of the judicial system have been groups ranging in political orientation from “liberal” to the far left.The American Civil Liberties Union is one example. It initiates or intervenes in scores of cases each year, and it files briefs amicus curiae in the Supreme Court in a number of cases during each term of that court. Labor unions, civil rights groups and now the public interest law firms are extremely active in the judicial arena. Their success, often at business' expense, has not been inconsequential.This is a vast area of opportunity for the Chamber, if it is willing to undertake the role of spokesman for American business and if, in turn, business is willing to provide the funds.As with respect to scholars and speakers, the Chamber would need a highly competent staff of lawyers. In special situations it should be authorized to engage, to appear as counsel amicus in the Supreme Court, lawyers of national standing and reputation. The greatest care should be exercised in selecting the cases in which to participate, or the suits to institute. But the opportunity merits the necessary effort.Neglected Stockholder PowerThe average member of the public thinks of “business” as an impersonal corporate entity, owned by the very rich and managed by over-paid executives. There is an almost total failure to appreciate that “business” actually embraces — in one way or another — most Americans. Those for whom business provides jobs, constitute a fairly obvious class. But the 20 million stockholders — most of whom are of modest means — are the real owners, the real entrepreneurs, the real capitalists under our system. They provide the capital which fuels the economic system which has produced the highest standard of living in all history. Yet, stockholders have been as ineffectual as business executives in promoting a genuine understanding of our system or in exercising political influence.The question which merits the most thorough examination is how can the weight and influence of stockholders — 20 million voters — be mobilized to support (i) an educational program and (ii) a political action program.Individual corporations are now required to make numerous reports to shareholders. Many corporations also have expensive “news” magazines which go to employees and stockholders. These opportunities to communicate can be used far more effectively as educational media.The corporation itself must exercise restraint in undertaking political action and must, of course, comply with applicable laws. But is it not feasible — through an affiliate of the Chamber or otherwise — to establish a national organization of American stockholders and give it enough muscle to be influential?A More Aggressive AttitudeBusiness interests — especially big business and their national trade organizations — have tried to maintain low profiles, especially with respect to political action.As suggested in the Wall Street Journal article, it has been fairly characteristic of the average business executive to be tolerant — at least in public — of those who attack his corporation and the system. Very few businessmen or business organizations respond in kind. There has been a disposition to appease; to regard the opposition as willing to compromise, or as likely to fade away in due time.Business has shunted confrontation politics. Business, quite understandably, has been repelled by the multiplicity of non-negotiable “demands” made constantly by self-interest groups of all kinds.While neither responsible business interests, nor the United States Chamber of Commerce, would engage in the irresponsible tactics of some pressure groups, it is essential that spokesmen for the enterprise system — at all levels and at every opportunity — be far more aggressive than in the past.There should be no hesitation to attack the Naders, the Marcuses and others who openly seek destruction of the system. There should not be the slightest hesitation to press vigorously in all political arenas for support of the enterprise system. Nor should there be reluctance to penalize politically those who oppose it.Lessons can be learned from organized labor in this respect. The head of the AFL-CIO may not appeal to businessmen as the most endearing or public-minded of citizens. Yet, over many years the heads of national labor organizations have done what they were paid to do very effectively. They may not have been beloved, but they have been respected — where it counts the most — by politicians, on the campus, and among the media.It is time for American business — which has demonstrated the greatest capacity in all history to produce and to influence consumer decisions — to apply their great talents vigorously to the preservation of the system itself.The CostThe type of program described above (which includes a broadly based combination of education and political action), if undertaken long term and adequately staffed, would require far more generous financial support from American corporations than the Chamber has ever received in the past. High level management participation in Chamber affairs also would be required.The staff of the Chamber would have to be significantly increased, with the highest quality established and maintained. Salaries would have to be at levels fully comparable to those paid key business executives and the most prestigious faculty members. Professionals of the great skill in advertising and in working with the media, speakers, lawyers and other specialists would have to be recruited.It is possible that the organization of the Chamber itself would benefit from restructuring. For example, as suggested by union experience, the office of President of the Chamber might well be a full-time career position. To assure maximum effectiveness and continuity, the chief executive officer of the Chamber should not be changed each year. The functions now largely performed by the President could be transferred to a Chairman of the Board, annually elected by the membership. The Board, of course, would continue to exercise policy control.Quality Control is EssentialEssential ingredients of the entire program must be responsibility and “quality control.” The publications, the articles, the speeches, the media programs, the advertising, the briefs filed in courts, and the appearances before legislative committees — all must meet the most exacting standards of accuracy and professional excellence. They must merit respect for their level of public responsibility and scholarship, whether one agrees with the viewpoints expressed or not.Relationship to FreedomThe threat to the enterprise system is not merely a matter of economics. It also is a threat to individual freedom.It is this great truth — now so submerged by the rhetoric of the New Left and of many liberals — that must be re-affirmed if this program is to be meaningful.There seems to be little awareness that the only alternatives to free enterprise are varying degrees of bureaucratic regulation of individual freedom — ranging from that under moderate socialism to the iron heel of the leftist or rightist dictatorship.We in America already have moved very far indeed toward some aspects of state socialism, as the needs and complexities of a vast urban society require types of regulation and control that were quite unnecessary in earlier times. In some areas, such regulation and control already have seriously impaired the freedom of both business and labor, and indeed of the public generally. But most of the essential freedoms remain: private ownership, private profit, labor unions, collective bargaining, consumer choice, and a market economy in which competition largely determines price, quality and variety of the goods and services provided the consumer.In addition to the ideological attack on the system itself (discussed in this memorandum), its essentials also are threatened by inequitable taxation, and — more recently — by an inflation which has seemed uncontrollable. But whatever the causes of diminishing economic freedom may be, the truth is that freedom as a concept is indivisible. As the experience of the socialist and totalitarian states demonstrates, the contraction and denial of economic freedom is followed inevitably by governmental restrictions on other cherished rights. It is this message, above all others, that must be carried home to the American people.ConclusionIt hardly need be said that the views expressed above are tentative and suggestive. The first step should be a thorough study. But this would be an exercise in futility unless the Board of Directors of the Chamber accepts the fundamental premise of this paper, namely, that business and the enterprise system are in deep trouble, and the hour is late. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe

A trusted meteorologist in Illinois has jumped into the race for Congress. He's been talking about climate change for years. Plus, talks by local advocates in WV and VA working to stop the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline.

Three voices of people I met on my two-week Walk for Appalachia's Future against the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline along its route in WV and VA.

Interviews and recordings of people I met fighting the incomplete fracked gas Mountain Valley pipeline through WV and VA.

Interviews and recordings of three of the people I met on a walk/drive along the route in WV and VA of the unfinished fracked gas Mountain Valley pipeline.

Host: Jay Newz talks with Peter Jackson   New Single With Trey Songz  . All on Eps: 013  Not Rated Radio.www.NotRatedRadio.comYoutube Search: Not Rated RadioJay Newz Outfits:www.ExpensiveParadise.comInstagram: @NotRatedRadio x @JayNewz x @ParadiseIsExpensive 9-0-NICKEL ENTERTAINMENT'S PETER JACKSON RELEASES NEW SINGLE AND MUSIC VIDEO “MOUNTAIN VALLEY” FEATURING TREY SONGZ  “Mountain Valley” will premiere on BET Soul, eTalk & CHR Radio nationwide. Watch the music video  here.Toronto, ON (February 16, 2022) - Award-winning rapper and iHeart Radio Future Star Winner, Peter Jackson is thrilled to release his new single and music video, “Mountain Valley featuring Trey Songz”. Notable for his pop/ hip-hop track “On a Wave”, Peter Jackson has become a rising North American hip-hop artist who has collaborated with some of the best recording artists in the business. During the span of his impressive career, Jackson has toured with some of the world's leading hip-hop artists such as French Montana, Sean Kingston, 50 Cent, Akon, Juicy J, Waka Flocka, Jadakiss, Machine Gun Kelly, Wu-Tang Clan, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, D-Block and more.The album and single is now available on all streaming platforms including Apple Music and Spotify.This year, Peter Jackson is making waves with the release of “Mountain Valley”, in collaboration with Virginia-born contemporary R&B singer Trey Songz. Peter Jackson looks to recreate the success of Marvin Gaye's 1967 classic duet, “Ain't no Mountain High Enough”, with his own new modern day take on the hit.Produced by KeanuGoinStoopid, JBat, and Pilot Beats, “Mountain Valley” is an upbeat track that features a slick production beat and vocals, and is the first of several new singles on the way to support Jackson's next album, slated for the second quarter of 2022.The song is about believing in yourself, and remembering that no matter what you dream of, no  mountain is too high. It's a testament to Jackson's self-made success in the entertainment business, and his ability to overcome the obstacles that have been thrown in front of him, no matter how big the challenge."It started as just a gift for my mentor and friend, but he saw it as a lot more, and wanted to see it come to life for me. I've spent this last year working on myself and bettering my life. Music will always be first and foremost to me, but I had to get my mind, and soul correct. My mentor helped me do that, so, in return, seeing this song come out as the album's first single and really succeeding means absolutely everything to me." said Jackson of the release.Along with the new song, "Mountain Valley" will be released with video support directed by Shawn Thomas of Canadian Film Coalition. The vibrant and energetic clip was shot over the span of a few days between Los Angeles and Malibu, California, and comes as Jackson's first visual offering since tapping Jim Jones for "Fell" back in February 2021.Peter Jackson's new album In God's Hands will be his first project since releasing his 23 & A Half EP in June 2020. Along with Trey Songz, it will feature 2021 BET Hip Hop Award-winner Yung Bleu, and more.

Kate from @seltzerflavors joins the pod to discuss her seltzer inspired art, the history of Mountain Valley Sparkling Water, and a secret seltzer society! Follow @seltzerflavors on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/seltzerflavors/ FOLLOW THE SELTZERCAST: http://twitter.com/seltzercast https://www.instagram.com/seltzer.cast/ THIS PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SUPERYAKI http://superyaki.com/ https://twitter.com/SuperYakiShop Narration provided by Tim Wells Art by Kyra Kaufer Music by Kevin MacLeod: Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobelLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3851-happy-alleyLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Poppers and Prosecco by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4231-poppers-and-proseccoLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Big Rock by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3436-big-rock License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

MVMD Takes Existing Vaccines and Drugs - And Delivers Them Better. Both Into The Body and By Transportation To The World. Way Better. For the purposes of introducing you to Mountain Valley MD (MVMD), we'll use vaccines as an example given the state of the world since COVID-19 arrived. Specifically, we've all heard more about vaccines in 12 months than we have in the last 12 years. One thing we all know about vaccines is that vaccination is the safest way to protect people against infectious diseases. BUT One thing we don't know or understand about vaccinations is that they are only as good as: 1. The global physical delivery system that actually gets them from the manufacturer to the hands of nurse who injects the vaccine; 2. The delivery system into your body (i.e. injection) If either parts of these delivery systems are weak, or even fail, a vaccine loses some or even all of its potency - and that's not good. This is where MVMD comes in. They don't make the vaccines, drugs or pharmaceuticals. What they do is make their delivery better. Their physical delivery until their ultimate delivery into your body - and that is very good. By doing so, they help save lives and they help manufacturers be more profitable - and that is very good for humanity and shareholders. A “magic bullet” is of little use without a “magic gun” - Mountain Valley MD Is The Magic Gun. Check out these Trials & Research MVMD is accomplishing with their Vaccine technology to improve our lives: * Expanding Oncology Work for BreastCancer using Quicksol™ technology applications * Farm Animal Trials Using Solubilized Ivermectin * Discovering Immediate Demand for Generic Ivermectin Uses The latest news Involves utilizing their vaccine technology to address & develop products for the Medical Sleep Market in the U.S. strictly using cannibinoids. Sit back and enjoy the great interview with President & CEO Dennis Hancock as he explains the developing relationship with Red White & Bloom to create products for the US sleep market.

Agoracom interviews CEOs of small cap companies. In this episode of the Small Cap CEO Interviews podcast, AGORACOM speaks with Mountain Valley MD Holdings (CSE:MVMD) President and CEO, Dennis Hancock. MVMD Takes Existing Vaccines and Drugs – And Delivers Them Better. Both Into The Body and By Transportation To The World. Way Better. For the […]

Mountain Valley MD CEO Dennis Hancock joined Steve Darling from Proactive to bring news the company has entered into a letter of intent for a licensing agreement with Red White & Bloom Brands, which is a multi-state cannabis operator in the United States. Hancock telling Proactive, the agreement will have Mountain Valley develop one or more formulas using MVMD's QuicksomeTM technology so Red White and Bloom can apply it to various cannabis product applications. The licence will be exclusive initially in Florida, Michigan and California to manufacture products in exchange for payments, including research and development fees and royalties.

2020 Maine Basketball Hall Of Fame Inductee Andy Bedard joins the podcast breaking down his legendary career.  Widely considered one of the best players to ever be produced in Maine, we went back and covered his upbringing in Rumford, the state championship for Mountain Valley in 1994, setting the Maine State Championship game scoring record, MCI, the Big East, UMaine and more all on this weeks episode of Big Time Hoops The Podcast

GET READY ANIMÁLS! Babbs and Maria are here with help, advice and TRICKS! (And okay, yeah, some TIPS too.)THIS WEEK, we get into HYDRATION, the timeless battle of WINE VS LIQUOR, and HOW TO BITE YOUR TONGUE in a bad situation. NEW SEGMENT ALERT --- TIPS AND TRICKS. This episode we're tackling HAIR DYING.  (HINT: BE PREPARED TO STAIN EVERYTHING)PLUS, Ports O'Call is the best place on earth,  Maria saved a man who fainted and almost killed him, and Mountain Valley sparkling water is the best water. SEND IN SOME QUESTIONS OR QUICKFIRE TOPIC IDEAS! WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!CAN YOU GET BABBS AND MARIA ON CHEATERS?  GET IN TOUCH FOR GOD'S SAKE WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??• FOLLOW BABBS AND MARIA ON INSTAGRAM – DM QUESTIONS!• FOLLOW BABBS ON INSTAGRAM @BABBSLOPEZ• FOLLOW MARIA ON INSTAGRAM @REDLIPPEDRIA• FOLLOW BABBS AND MARIA ON TWITTER• EMAIL US – WHATSYOURPROBLEMA@GMAIL.COM

*Investigating Trump's Attempted Coup, Protecting Democracy Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale Univ and author of “How Fascism Works” Producer: Scott Harris *World Must Unite to Address Global COVID Vaccine Access Gap Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the Jubilee USA Network Producer: Scott Harris *As Scientists Predict Devastating Climate Change Impacts, Activists Block Construction of Mountain Valley pipeline Andy Hinz, climate activist, arrestee in direct action at Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline Producer: Melinda Tuhus

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is being built across 400+ miles of rural West Virginia, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of residents who have lived there for generations. In May 2021, three runners trekked the entire pipeline to raise awareness and give these communities a louder voice. Dr. Mark sits down with two of those runners to learn about the cause and their experience. Of course, running over 400 miles came with its fair share of mishaps and the kindness of strangers. More about the pipeline here: https://mvpprotestrun.org/

Jasmine shares with me more than just her story. When preparing for the episode Jasmine gives me a taste of what her business is all about with a one-on-one pole lesson. She not just tells me but shows me what it's all about. She also shares the struggle of how despite having a lifelong muscle disease she defied what was expected and went into the fitness industry in a uniques and ambitious way. You'll be charmed by Jasmine's quiet confidence and courage.

In this Episode of Discover Hood River podcast Vanessa and William sit down with Toria from Mountain Valley Meat. We talk about the 4H program and how important it is for kids to learn where meat comes from as well as learn about the interesting and fascinating world of farm to table living and we ask questions about being a butcher here in the Hood River area. Join us for this fascinating chat with local entrepreneur, farmer, butcher, and Hood River local Toria. Recorded April 1, 2021. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/discoverhoodriver/support

Mountain Valley MD takes existing Vaccines & Drugs and delivers them better. Into the body better and by transportation. MVMD’s solubility technology applied to the Ivermectin drug is the only form in the world that are currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), making it a leading candidate for human injection and sublingual applications. To this end they have created Ivectosol™ and it could be a massive disruption in the Vaccine Industry. If you are looking to learn more about vaccine technologies. This video is a must watch with Dennis Hancock & Mike Farber of MVMD. See how Mountain Valley MD is doing more with less.

We DiscussAn introduction to Elyse and her career background (01:36);Elyse’s main passions as an SLP (04:38);Deciding to travel for the Clinical Fellowship year (07:01);Elyse’s biggest challenges during her CF (14:01);Elyse’s biggest successes during her CF (16:43);Earning CF hours through teletherapy (19:10);Elyse’s experience with COVID-19 during her CF (20:23);Advice for upcoming graduates who are considering a travel CF year (26:09); 29:28Elyse’s adventures in New Mexico (29:52); About Elyse Rucker MS, CF-SLPElyse is a travel SLP who started her Clinical Fellowship in August 2020 and is currently on her first assignment in New Mexico. She is originally from the Mountain Valley of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas and attended the University of Central Arkansas for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.Elyse has a Corgi named Guster (Gus for short), who joins her on her travel adventures. To learn more about Elyse’s travels around the country, check out her stories and amazing photos on her blog and her Instagram!  About the ShowProduced by Jonathan Cary
Music and Editing by Aidan Dykes
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Welcome back to another episode! This Week, Mark and Paige hit the following: * Russian Power Plant Spills Thousands Of Tons Of Oil Into Arctic Region * US fracturing slowdown led to DUC wells pile up   * Strike secures rig for Q3 spud of West Erregula 3  * Mountain Valley gas pipeline to enter service early-2021  * Top Oil Refiners Aim To Boost Synthetic Fuel Sales  * EIA Raises Oil Price Forecasts  * Corpus Christi oil export terminal comes online as shipments fall  * Neptune Reports North Sea Permit Win, Executive Update  * Oil and Gas Conversations Surge on Twitter  * SparkCognition and Siemens team up on AI-driven cyber defense system for endpoint energy assets  * OPEC's No.2 Is Planning To Develop Huge Gas Reserves  * JP Morgan Predicts $100 Oil  * Norway Sweetens Deal In Latest Mature Oil Area Offering  * Aramco completes acquisition of 70% stake in SABIC  * U.S. EPA receives 52 new petitions for retroactive biofuel blending waivers  If you want to get a question answered for next month's FFQA, click the link below. Enjoy! Have a question? Click here to ask. As of 6/14/2020 - The American Rig count is 266 active rigs. IBM Giveaway Enter to Win Here! Sign-up for your chance to win a T-shirt with a unique serial number. This means each shirt is different making it an awesome collector's item! Plus it comes inside an official OGGN insulated tumbler. At the end of the year we will have a drawing to win our grand prize! This will be a pool of all of the serial numbers on the t-shirts! The grand prize will be announced a bit later in the year! Leave a Review Enjoy listening? Support the show by leaving a review in iTunes. Street Team If you're interested in joining the street team, join our Facebook Group here. Interested in Sponsoring??  If you would like to get your company in front of our  professional audience, please contact our Director, Kathryn Mills More Oil and Gas Global Network Podcasts Oil and Gas This Week Podcast | Oil and Gas HS&E Podcast | Oil and Gas Industry Leaders | Oil and Gas Legal Risk | Oil and Gas Onshore | Oil and Gas Offshore  | PITCH Engage with Oil and Gas Global Network LinkedIn Group | Facebook | modalpoint | OGGN Get Mark's Monthly Events Email