Podcasts about utilities

**California's Wildfire Liability System Under Fire**California's wildfire season is in full swing, and the state's liability system is under scrutiny. This episode delves into the proposed changes to the system, which would limit the amount that private utility companies pay for causing catastrophic wildfires. The governor's plan has sparked a heated debate, with some arguing that it would unfairly shift the burden to insurance companies and taxpayers.The discussion centers around the governor's proposal to limit the liability of utility companies like PG&E and SoCal Edison, which have been responsible for several devastating wildfires in recent years. Critics argue that this would lead to higher insurance rates and reduced compensation for victims. On the other hand, supporters claim that the current system is broken and needs to be reformed. The episode explores the complexities of the issue and the potential consequences of the proposed changes.The conversation also touches on the role of the California Public Utilities Commission and the state's history of wildfires. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and insights from experts in the field, providing a nuanced understanding of the issue. The episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in California politics and the ongoing battle against wildfires.Tune in to this episode to hear the full discussion and learn more about the proposed changes to California's wildfire liability system. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on the issue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From June 2025 to May 2026, 344,589 Ohio households had their electric turned off for lack of payment.

Adam Butcher joins Brian Nichols to reveal what's actually driving your electricity bill higher and why blaming data centers and AI misses the real story about America's energy supply.Everybody's pointing at the data centers. Adam isn't.He's the President and Managing Partner of Basin Ventures. He's managed over $1.25 billion in oil and gas projects for more than 50 players in the industry and deployed over $500 million into minerals and royalties. He's a land guy - leases, title, ownership - which means he sees the part of this story nobody on cable news covers.And he came on with a number that stopped me cold. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1983. Roughly 35 days of cover. Draining every single week. Adam's take? Cheap oil is a mirage... and we've been hiding that with artificial levers instead of taking our medicine.So I brought him the stat sheet. Retail electricity up 7% in 2025. Up roughly 40% since 2021. Utilities requested $31 billion in rate hikes in 2025 versus $15 billion the year before. Another $9.4 billion in Q1 of 2026 alone. Virginia has 663 data centers, Texas has 405, together over a quarter of every data center in the country.And Adam looked at all of it and called data centers the new boogeyman.We get into Venezuela and why 2028 is the real timeline. We get into why he says he's always made more money under Democrats than Republicans. We get into the LNG export shutdown, ERCOT's grid math, Zuckerberg's city-sized facility outside Shreveport, and why he moved his fund to 50/50 oil and gas betting on a 2027 boom.Meet people where they're at. Most folks don't care about megawatts... they care about the number at the bottom of the envelope. So that's where we started.CHAPTERS00:00 Somebody's Paying For The Wires02:26 Billy Bob Made Us Famous03:35 The $60 Call He Made In June04:05 Cheap Oil Is A Mirage08:03 Venezuela Won't Save Us Until 202811:48 I Make More Money Under Democrats13:23 The LNG Shutdown Nobody Talks About15:24 The Snake Problem18:27 What Oil Should Actually Cost22:11 We Have To Take Our Medicine22:46 Your Bill Went Up 40 Percent25:05 Data Centers Are The New Boogeyman29:15 Texas Needs 5X Its Power31:06 Final ThoughtsCONNECT WITH ADAM BUTCHERBasin Ventures: https://www.basinventures.comAdam's bio: https://www.basinventures.com/team/adam-butcherLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbutcherSUPPORT THE SHOWCardio Miracle - https://cardiomiracle.com/TBNS - use code TBNS for 15% offCONNECT WITH BRIANhttps://www.briannicholsshow.combrian@briannicholsshow.comX, Facebook, Instagram: @BNicholsLibertyRecorded at Cardio Miracle Studios in eastern Indiana. New episodes Thursdays.Educated. Enlightened. Informed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam Butcher joins Brian Nichols to reveal what's actually driving your electricity bill higher and why blaming data centers and AI misses the real story about America's energy supply.Everybody's pointing at the data centers. Adam isn't.He's the President and Managing Partner of Basin Ventures. He's managed over $1.25 billion in oil and gas projects for more than 50 players in the industry and deployed over $500 million into minerals and royalties. He's a land guy - leases, title, ownership - which means he sees the part of this story nobody on cable news covers.And he came on with a number that stopped me cold. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1983. Roughly 35 days of cover. Draining every single week. Adam's take? Cheap oil is a mirage... and we've been hiding that with artificial levers instead of taking our medicine.So I brought him the stat sheet. Retail electricity up 7% in 2025. Up roughly 40% since 2021. Utilities requested $31 billion in rate hikes in 2025 versus $15 billion the year before. Another $9.4 billion in Q1 of 2026 alone. Virginia has 663 data centers, Texas has 405, together over a quarter of every data center in the country.And Adam looked at all of it and called data centers the new boogeyman.We get into Venezuela and why 2028 is the real timeline. We get into why he says he's always made more money under Democrats than Republicans. We get into the LNG export shutdown, ERCOT's grid math, Zuckerberg's city-sized facility outside Shreveport, and why he moved his fund to 50/50 oil and gas betting on a 2027 boom.Meet people where they're at. Most folks don't care about megawatts... they care about the number at the bottom of the envelope. So that's where we started.CHAPTERS00:00 Somebody's Paying For The Wires02:26 Billy Bob Made Us Famous03:35 The $60 Call He Made In June04:05 Cheap Oil Is A Mirage08:03 Venezuela Won't Save Us Until 202811:48 I Make More Money Under Democrats13:23 The LNG Shutdown Nobody Talks About15:24 The Snake Problem18:27 What Oil Should Actually Cost22:11 We Have To Take Our Medicine22:46 Your Bill Went Up 40 Percent25:05 Data Centers Are The New Boogeyman29:15 Texas Needs 5X Its Power31:06 Final ThoughtsCONNECT WITH ADAM BUTCHERBasin Ventures: https://www.basinventures.comAdam's bio: https://www.basinventures.com/team/adam-butcherLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbutcherSUPPORT THE SHOWCardio Miracle - https://cardiomiracle.com/TBNS - use code TBNS for 15% offCONNECT WITH BRIANhttps://www.briannicholsshow.combrian@briannicholsshow.comX, Facebook, Instagram: @BNicholsLibertyRecorded at Cardio Miracle Studios in eastern Indiana. New episodes Thursdays.Educated. Enlightened. Informed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeWhen it comes to innovative new grid technologies, every utility wants to be the third in line to try them. None of them want to be the first to take risks and iron out new processes. That's one reason grid-enhancing technologies, better software, and smarter internal procedures stay stuck in pilot purgatory, even as the industry faces the biggest buildout since rural electrification. PG&E's Quinn Nakayama and Microsoft's Hanna Grene discuss what's actually blocking utility innovation — and Quinn offers a novel proposal for paying someone to go first.Chapters:00:00 – Introduction03:44 – Why grid-enhancing technologies stall in the US07:54 – Selling grid software into utilities: what goes wrong11:08 – From a pipes-and-wires company to a technology company12:38 – Pilot program hell and the last 30 percent15:04 – Innovation as a bolt-on, and the three muscles17:47 – The digital spine, data quality, and smart meters23:56 – Org chart versus work chart25:09 – Strategy, structure, people, process, technology29:24 – Build, buy, and the ecosystem skill set36:15 – Data leakage, shadow AI, and paying twice41:12 – Why utility product cycles run five to seven years46:27 – Human in the loop, and EPRI's SAFERai.power49:06 – Advanced market commitments and the kingmaker problem53:22 – EPIC, and whether software counts as infrastructure01:00:05 – The CapEx incentive problem and final advice1:04:34 – Digital Infrastructure as Capital Spend1:06:53 – Final Advice

Adam Butcher joins Brian Nichols to reveal what's actually driving your electricity bill higher and why blaming data centers and AI misses the real story about America's energy supply. Everybody's pointing at the data centers. Adam isn't. He's the President and Managing Partner of Basin Ventures. He's managed over $1.25 billion in oil and gas projects for more than 50 players in the industry and deployed over $500 million into minerals and royalties. He's a land guy - leases, title, ownership - which means he sees the part of this story nobody on cable news covers. And he came on with a number that stopped me cold. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at its lowest level since 1983. Roughly 35 days of cover. Draining every single week. Adam's take? Cheap oil is a mirage... and we've been hiding that with artificial levers instead of taking our medicine. So I brought him the stat sheet. Retail electricity up 7% in 2025. Up roughly 40% since 2021. Utilities requested $31 billion in rate hikes in 2025 versus $15 billion the year before. Another $9.4 billion in Q1 of 2026 alone. Virginia has 663 data centers, Texas has 405, together over a quarter of every data center in the country. And Adam looked at all of it and called data centers the new boogeyman. We get into Venezuela and why 2028 is the real timeline. We get into why he says he's always made more money under Democrats than Republicans. We get into the LNG export shutdown, ERCOT's grid math, Zuckerberg's city-sized facility outside Shreveport, and why he moved his fund to 50/50 oil and gas betting on a 2027 boom. Meet people where they're at. Most folks don't care about megawatts... they care about the number at the bottom of the envelope. So that's where we started. CHAPTERS 00:00 Somebody's Paying For The Wires 02:26 Billy Bob Made Us Famous 03:35 The $60 Call He Made In June 04:05 Cheap Oil Is A Mirage 08:03 Venezuela Won't Save Us Until 2028 11:48 I Make More Money Under Democrats 13:23 The LNG Shutdown Nobody Talks About 15:24 The Snake Problem 18:27 What Oil Should Actually Cost 22:11 We Have To Take Our Medicine 22:46 Your Bill Went Up 40 Percent 25:05 Data Centers Are The New Boogeyman 29:15 Texas Needs 5X Its Power 31:06 Final Thoughts CONNECT WITH ADAM BUTCHER Basin Ventures: https://www.basinventures.com Adam's bio: https://www.basinventures.com/team/adam-butcher LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwbutcher SUPPORT THE SHOW Cardio Miracle - https://cardiomiracle.com/TBNS - use code TBNS for 15% off CONNECT WITH BRIAN https://www.briannicholsshow.com brian@briannicholsshow.com X, Facebook, Instagram: @BNicholsLiberty Recorded at Cardio Miracle Studios in eastern Indiana. New episodes Thursdays. Educated. Enlightened. Informed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From chocolate and sugar prices to energy markets and inflation, El Niño's impacts may soon reach far beyond the weather forecast. Our Latin America Agribusiness Analyst Julia Rizzo maps out where the pressure could emerge first.Read more insights from Morgan Stanley.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Julia Rizzo, Latin America Agribusiness Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Today: how El Niño could move from the Pacific into commodity markets, grocery prices, and investor portfolios. It's Wednesday, August 19th, at 10am in Sao Paulo.You may not follow rainfall patterns in Brazil or cocoa-growing conditions in West Africa. But you immediately notice when chocolate, groceries, or electricity cost more. And you can connect the dots to El Niño -- a warming cycle in the Pacific Ocean that disrupts weather globally. It changes where rain falls and shapes the outlook for crops, power markets, transportation, and inflation. There is now a 95 percent chance of a very strong El Niño in the fourth quarter of 2026. It could end up being among the most powerful events in more than 75 years of recorded history. Timing and location matter greatly. Crop damage often depends on whether heat or heavy rain arrives during a narrow planting, flowering, or harvest window. The most direct effects are likely to appear first in commodities. Sugar is on the list of commodities most exposed to favorable price dynamics from weather conditions. Cocoa also looks tight. Grains are more complicated. Soybeans need evidence of a net South American production loss. Problems in northern Brazil may be offset by stronger crops in Argentina or Brazil south. Corn is even more dependent on timing. The key near-term catalyst remains U.S. weather and crops. What happens next matters well beyond agricultural markets. Food is the main channel through which El Niño reaches the broader economy, and the effect usually appears after a one-year lag. That makes inflation primarily a 2027 story. In Latin America, the largest incremental inflation risks are concentrated in Peru, Brazil, and Colombia, with most of the pressure arriving in 2027. That matters for central banks. Weather shocks can fade. So, policymakers often look through an initial rise in food prices. The greater concern is that higher food costs may begin to influence inflation expectations, wages, rents, or other prices across the economy. Colombia stands out as the clearest case where those second-round effects could complicate monetary policy. India and Indonesia also face meaningful economic exposure. Agriculture accounts for a large share of output and employment in these countries. India is especially sensitive. Agriculture represents about 18 percent of the GDP, 43 to 45 [percent] of jobs, while food makes up roughly 36 percent of the consumer price basket. Record food reserves may provide some protection, though a poor growing season could still weigh on rural incomes and keep food inflation elevated. The economic consequences will vary widely. Higher agricultural prices can support farmer income and benefit some parts of the food and agricultural supply chain. They can also raise costs for households, food producers, and businesses that depend on grains and sugar. Utilities may benefit in markets where hotter or drier conditions lift electricity prices, while heavy rainfall could disrupt transport routes and airports in those exposed regions. Historical asset-price signals are limited, so this is less of a broad macro trade than a detailed assessment of local exposure. Rainfall, crop timing, inventories, and the ability to pass higher costs on to consumers will determine where the pressure lands. El Niño may begin in the Pacific, but its market footprint can travel from cocoa farms in West Africa to a grocery aisle, a power grid, or a central bank meeting. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

JPMorgan's stark warning about 2027 blackouts is spurring a 28% surge in home battery installations—and it's reshaping how Americans think about energy security. Steven Wang, CEO of Jackery Americas, stops by the Energy News Beat podcast.The United States faces an unprecedented energy challenge. Electricity demand is surging at a pace the nation's grid infrastructure simply cannot match. JPMorgan Chase recently issued a dire warning: rolling blackouts are coming to America by 2027. But unlike previous energy crises that left consumers helpless, a quiet revolution is underway in garages and basements across the country—one that's putting power literally back into people's hands.The numbers tell the story. Home battery installations surged 28% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, a remarkable growth rate that defies conventional wisdom. This isn't happening because of government mandates or renewable energy subsidies—in fact, it's accelerating after those subsidies began phasing out. Instead, Americans are waking up to a simple reality: energy security starts at home.https://www.jackery.com/Why Now?The convergence of three forces is driving this shift. First, grid instability is no longer a theoretical concern—it's a lived experience. Natural disasters, wildfires, and typhoons are causing increasingly frequent blackouts. Second, electricity costs are climbing, making backup power economically rational even for middle-class households. A single blackout that spoils a refrigerator's worth of food can pay for a home battery system. Third, the technology has finally matured. Modern power stations are reliable, safe, and genuinely user-friendly—no engineering degree required.Beyond Tesla: The Untapped MarketWhile Tesla's Powerwall has become synonymous with home energy storage, it's designed for larger homes (1,200-3,000 square feet) and carries a premium price tag comparable to a car. This leaves vast segments of the market underserved: apartment dwellers, renters, owners of smaller homes, and those seeking affordable backup for critical appliances.Companies like Jackery are filling this gap with innovative solutions. Their "Fridge Guard" product, for example, offers apartment residents their first real option for permanent backup power—something that was literally impossible just years ago. At $600-$1,000 per unit, multiple units can be deployed throughout a living space for under $2,000, providing comprehensive home backup power.A Global Problem Demands Global SolutionsThis isn't an American problem alone. Brazil, one of the world's most populous nations, faces even worse blackouts than the US. In parts of Africa, grid operators simply shut off power at predetermined times each day. Geopolitical instability is compounding these challenges worldwide. As battery costs continue their dramatic decline—dropping from nearly $1,000 per kilowatt-hour five years ago to just over $500 today—distributed energy storage is becoming economically viable in developing nations too.The Grid Gets SmarterPerhaps most intriguingly, home battery systems are evolving from individual backup solutions into a distributed network that can actually help the grid. Innovative programs like Jackery's partnership with Con Edison in New York demonstrate this potential. Consumers receive free power stations and subsidized electricity in exchange for allowing utilities to draw power during peak demand hours. During scorching summer days when everyone's air conditioning strains the grid, these home batteries discharge to the grid, preventing blackouts and reducing the need for expensive grid expansion.This is peak shaving—and it's a win-win. Utilities get demand flexibility without building new infrastructure. Consumers get free or cheap backup power. The grid becomes more resilient.What Comes NextThe next decade will be defined by three priorities: affordable self-sustainability (off-grid living for the masses), universal backup power (especially for underserved markets), and grid-scale peak shaving (turning millions of home batteries into a virtual power plant).The 2027 blackout warning isn't a death knell—it's a wake-up call. And Americans are answering it, one home battery at a time. The question is no longer whether you need backup power. It's how soon you'll install it.This podcast is with Steven Wang, CEO of Jackery Americas, on the Energy Newsbeat podcast, discussing the convergence of grid instability, technological maturity, and economic incentives driving the home energy storage revolution.We cover how Stu has been using Jackery products for years, and they are not only rock-solid; they can also save lives and money. A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Rod and Karen banter discuss Karen’s car going to the shop, Dr. Umar’s school, Mr. Waffle, Pizza Hut, burgers in boxes, Super Smash Burgers, country pride and very specific graffiti. Then they discuss Trump Administration Is Undoing Plans to Boost Workplace Heat Protections, Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House, In Trump's Economy, Companies Offer 'Buy Now, Pay Later' for Utilities as Costs Surge, Trump says Navy ship not deployed long enough, Luda gets hoed by Jason Beiber, Maya Boyd cast as “Storm” in the MCU, Darius Cooks is teaching, The National Association of Black Journalists gives Stephen A. Smith the “Thumbs Down” award and sword ratchetness. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theblackguywhotips Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@rodimusprime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SayDatAgain⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TBGWT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheBlackGuyWhoTips⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theblackguywhotips@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Blog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theblackguywhotips.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Teepublic Store⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- https://the-black-guy-who-tips-podcast.dashery.com/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Wishlist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1PDD9JUQUNVY5?ref_=wl_share ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crowdcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – https://www.crowdcast.io/theblackguywhotips Voicemail: ‪(980) 500-9034Go Premium: https://www.theblackguywhotips.com/premium/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have an update on the Sorrento Fire that's forced evacuaiton orders. Plus, county supervisors are set to vote on state bills that would reduce rising utility costs. And, a local non-profit that helps provide job training and support to entrepreneurs. NBC 7's Marianne Kushi has these stories and more, include meteorologist Sheena Parveen's forecast for Monday, August 17, 2026.

The latest figures from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities make for stark reading. More than 328,000 households are behind on their electricity bills, with almost 189,000 in gas arrears. Hundreds of households are also being disconnected for failing to pay.  With energy prices remaining high and further increases on the way, what should Government be doing when the Dáil returns from its summer break?  Joining Alan Morrissey earlier to discuss the growing pressure on families were Shannon Sinn Féin TD Donna McGettigan, and Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe / Fine Gael TD Joe Cooney. Photo (c) AndreyPopov from Getty Images via Canva

Plus: European vibe-coding startup Lovable notches $13 billion valuation. And rust-powered battery maker Form Energy raises $750 million to boost manufacturing. Danny Lewis hosts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Retiring as a Single Lesbian in Setúbal, Portugal: Finding Community Beyond LisbonGuest: Jules de Mello | Host: Mark GoldsteinWhen Jules de Mello retired after a 27-year career as a federal criminal investigator, she went looking for a sunny, walkable place near the water where she could build a full life on her own terms. Lisbon was the plan, until the rents priced her out. Then she discovered Setúbal, a working port city on the cusp of its own renaissance, and never looked back.In this conversation, Jules opens up about what it really takes to retire as a single lesbian abroad: finding her people, and often building community from scratch, navigating a country that is warmly accepting but culturally reserved, and weighing the honest trade-offs of starting over solo in a place where you do not yet speak the language. It is a warm, practical, and refreshingly candid look at one of Portugal's most underrated cities.Meet JulesJules spent 27 years as a federal criminal investigator across several U.S. agencies before retiring in 2022. With Azorean roots on her great-grandfather's side, Portugal had always called to her. She first scouted the country in 2018, arrived permanently in Setúbal in April 2023, and soon became a self-described "connector," co-founding the Setúbal Pride meetup to bring locals, women, trans, and non-binary folks together in a community that had mostly orbited Lisbon before.In this episode00:00 Introduction: from federal investigator to Setúbal04:02 The 2018 trip that planted the seed06:48 Priced out of Lisbon09:31 Renting vs. buying in Portugal13:41 What Setúbal is really like17:46 Climate and the seasons24:00 Building queer community and founding Setúbal Pride29:31 LGBTQ+ acceptance and local culture33:53 Cost of living: rent and housing44:55 Utilities, internet, and getting around48:30 Food, markets, and the daily lunch special55:16 Walkability and transportation1:06:06 Healthcare: public, private, and Medicare1:25:39 Dining, wine, and café culture1:31:14 Visas and residency1:39:18 Honest trade-offs and final adviceWhat you'll learnWhy Setúbal, and not Lisbon? A medium-sized port city of roughly 140,000 people, Setúbal sits on an estuary with the Arrábida Nature Reserve rising behind it. Jules compares the feel to standing at the water's edge in Seattle, looking back at the hills. Downtown is flat and walkable, the covered market is considered one of the best in Portugal, and you are a short drive or train ride from Lisbon without paying Lisbon prices.What acceptance actually looks like. Portugal is legally progressive, with marriage equality and legal abortion that both predate the United States, but the culture is reserved and private. As Jules puts it, you can show up exactly as you are and be accepted, without anyone needing to label it or make a fuss. Older generations who lived under the dictatorship tend to be more guarded, while younger people simply do not think twice.The reality of building community. Finding the LGBTQ+ community as a single woman took real effort. Jules and a friend started the Setúbal Pride meetup in early 2024, hosting tea dances, potlucks, film nights, and gatherings designed to be diverse and welcoming. Her honest take: lesbians and gay men often socialize differently, and the language and cultural barriers add another layer, so she had to become the initiator rather than wait for community to find her.Walkability with caveats. Downtown is flat, and you can reach the butcher, the market, the pharmacy, and your doctor on foot, supported by a strong local bus system. But the cobblestone calçadas are uneven and tough on anyone with mobility challenges, so comfortable, flat walking shoes are not optional.Healthcare, honestly explained. Once you live in Portugal, you are covered under the public system, and many residents also carry private insurance. The two systems run in parallel and do not really talk to each other. Trauma and emergencies are routed through the public hospital, while private insurance speeds up elective procedures that would otherwise mean long public waitlists. Almost every physician speaks English, though front-desk staff and nurses often do not, so a translation app becomes part of every appointment.A practical snapshotThese are the figures Jules shared from her own experience around the time of recording. Treat them as a starting point, not a quote: costs shift with the market, and euro amounts convert to dollars at the current exchange rate.Rent (1 to 2 bedrooms): roughly 700 to 1,200 euros per month, rising toward 1,900 for newer units with modern amenities like a garage and air conditioning. Many traditional apartments come without appliances or a dryer (clothes dry on the line).Internet, phone, and TV bundle: around 50 euros per month for high-speed fiber.Electricity: can climb to about 200 euros in the hottest summer month if you run air conditioning heavily. Electricity and gasoline are both expensive; gas runs roughly 2 euros per liter, which Jules estimates at nearly 10 dollars per gallon.The daily lunch special (prato do dia): about 12 to 13 euros for several courses, often including bread, olives, a main, dessert, coffee, and wine.Private health insurance: roughly 100 euros per month under age 60, climbing to around 200 in your sixties. Only one private insurer in Portugal will enroll people over 70, though existing policyholders are generally kept on.Visas and residencyJules came on the D7 visa, sometimes called the retiree or passive-income visa. Her path: initial approval valid for 2 years, followed by a 3-year renewal, with the option to apply for permanent residency after 5 years of legal residence. She applied through the VFS vendor that handles Portuguese consular appointments in the U.S., interviewed in Washington, D.C., and saw approval in about 60 days, though timelines vary widely by consulate and can stretch to many months if documents expire mid-process.Important accuracy note on citizenship. Jules mentions that the path to Portuguese citizenship was extended from 5 to 10 years. We confirmed this: Portugal's Parliament approved a revised Nationality Law on April 1, 2026, and the President signed it on May 3, 2026, raising the residency requirement for naturalization to ten years for most non-EU nationals and seven years for EU and Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) nationals, with the residency clock now counting from the issuance of your first residence permit. Some details, including the exact effective date upon official publication and how the change applies to people already in the pipeline, were still being settled at the time of recording, and a constitutional challenge had been filed. This is a fast-moving and consequential area, so if citizenship is part of your plan, please confirm the current rules with a qualified Portuguese immigration attorney before making decisions. Permanent residency after five years is a separate process from citizenship.Jules on the honest trade-offThe hardest thing she gave up was the ease of finding community. Back home, queer life came with built-in hiking groups, dinner clubs, and shows to attend together. In Setúbal, she had to build that herself, and she has, becoming the bridge-builder her Portuguese choir mates now thank for getting everyone out the door. Her advice for anyone considering the move: visit beyond the vacation version, stay in a real neighborhood, do your own grocery run, and feel what daily life is honestly like before you commit. And, in the spirit of a friend who lives by it, say yes to every invitation.Listen and connectListen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, and explore more LGBTQ+ retirement destinations at wheredogaysretire.com.Have a question about retiring abroad or a destination you'd like us to cover? Reach out through the website and join the conversation in our Facebook community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/GayRetirementPlaces"This was a wonderful, beautiful place to land. And I like sharing it with other people, because it's that good." — Jules de Mello

Retiring as a Single Lesbian in Setúbal, Portugal: Finding Community Beyond LisbonGuest: Jules de Mello | Host: Mark GoldsteinWhen Jules de Mello retired after a 27-year career as a federal criminal investigator, she went looking for a sunny, walkable place near the water where she could build a full life on her own terms. Lisbon was the plan, until the rents priced her out. Then she discovered Setúbal, a working port city on the cusp of its own renaissance, and never looked back.In this conversation, Jules opens up about what it really takes to retire as a single lesbian abroad: finding her people, and often building community from scratch, navigating a country that is warmly accepting but culturally reserved, and weighing the honest trade-offs of starting over solo in a place where you do not yet speak the language. It is a warm, practical, and refreshingly candid look at one of Portugal's most underrated cities.Meet JulesJules spent 27 years as a federal criminal investigator across several U.S. agencies before retiring in 2022. With Azorean roots on her great-grandfather's side, Portugal had always called to her. She first scouted the country in 2018, arrived permanently in Setúbal in April 2023, and soon became a self-described "connector," co-founding the Setúbal Pride meetup to bring locals, women, trans, and non-binary folks together in a community that had mostly orbited Lisbon before.In this episode00:00 Introduction: from federal investigator to Setúbal04:02 The 2018 trip that planted the seed06:48 Priced out of Lisbon09:31 Renting vs. buying in Portugal13:41 What Setúbal is really like17:46 Climate and the seasons24:00 Building queer community and founding Setúbal Pride29:31 LGBTQ+ acceptance and local culture33:53 Cost of living: rent and housing44:55 Utilities, internet, and getting around48:30 Food, markets, and the daily lunch special55:16 Walkability and transportation1:06:06 Healthcare: public, private, and Medicare1:25:39 Dining, wine, and café culture1:31:14 Visas and residency1:39:18 Honest trade-offs and final adviceWhat you'll learnWhy Setúbal, and not Lisbon? A medium-sized port city of roughly 140,000 people, Setúbal sits on an estuary with the Arrábida Nature Reserve rising behind it. Jules compares the feel to standing at the water's edge in Seattle, looking back at the hills. Downtown is flat and walkable, the covered market is considered one of the best in Portugal, and you are a short drive or train ride from Lisbon without paying Lisbon prices.What acceptance actually looks like. Portugal is legally progressive, with marriage equality and legal abortion that both predate the United States, but the culture is reserved and private. As Jules puts it, you can show up exactly as you are and be accepted, without anyone needing to label it or make a fuss. Older generations who lived under the dictatorship tend to be more guarded, while younger people simply do not think twice.The reality of building community. Finding the LGBTQ+ community as a single woman took real effort. Jules and a friend started the Setúbal Pride meetup in early 2024, hosting tea dances, potlucks, film nights, and gatherings designed to be diverse and welcoming. Her honest take: lesbians and gay men often socialize differently, and the language and cultural barriers add another layer, so she had to become the initiator rather than wait for community to find her.Walkability with caveats. Downtown is flat, and you can reach the butcher, the market, the pharmacy, and your doctor on foot, supported by a strong local bus system. But the cobblestone calçadas are uneven and tough on anyone with mobility challenges, so comfortable, flat walking shoes are not optional.Healthcare, honestly explained. Once you live in Portugal, you are covered under the public system, and many residents also carry private insurance. The two systems run in parallel and do not really talk to each other. Trauma and emergencies are routed through the public hospital, while private insurance speeds up elective procedures that would otherwise mean long public waitlists. Almost every physician speaks English, though front-desk staff and nurses often do not, so a translation app becomes part of every appointment.A practical snapshotThese are the figures Jules shared from her own experience around the time of recording. Treat them as a starting point, not a quote: costs shift with the market, and euro amounts convert to dollars at the current exchange rate.Rent (1 to 2 bedrooms): roughly 700 to 1,200 euros per month, rising toward 1,900 for newer units with modern amenities like a garage and air conditioning. Many traditional apartments come without appliances or a dryer (clothes dry on the line).Internet, phone, and TV bundle: around 50 euros per month for high-speed fiber.Electricity: can climb to about 200 euros in the hottest summer month if you run air conditioning heavily. Electricity and gasoline are both expensive; gas runs roughly 2 euros per liter, which Jules estimates at nearly 10 dollars per gallon.The daily lunch special (prato do dia): about 12 to 13 euros for several courses, often including bread, olives, a main, dessert, coffee, and wine.Private health insurance: roughly 100 euros per month under age 60, climbing to around 200 in your sixties. Only one private insurer in Portugal will enroll people over 70, though existing policyholders are generally kept on.Visas and residencyJules came on the D7 visa, sometimes called the retiree or passive-income visa. Her path: initial approval valid for 2 years, followed by a 3-year renewal, with the option to apply for permanent residency after 5 years of legal residence. She applied through the VFS vendor that handles Portuguese consular appointments in the U.S., interviewed in Washington, D.C., and saw approval in about 60 days, though timelines vary widely by consulate and can stretch to many months if documents expire mid-process.Important accuracy note on citizenship. Jules mentions that the path to Portuguese citizenship was extended from 5 to 10 years. We confirmed this: Portugal's Parliament approved a revised Nationality Law on April 1, 2026, and the President signed it on May 3, 2026, raising the residency requirement for naturalization to ten years for most non-EU nationals and seven years for EU and Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) nationals, with the residency clock now counting from the issuance of your first residence permit. Some details, including the exact effective date upon official publication and how the change applies to people already in the pipeline, were still being settled at the time of recording, and a constitutional challenge had been filed. This is a fast-moving and consequential area, so if citizenship is part of your plan, please confirm the current rules with a qualified Portuguese immigration attorney before making decisions. Permanent residency after five years is a separate process from citizenship.Jules on the honest trade-offThe hardest thing she gave up was the ease of finding community. Back home, queer life came with built-in hiking groups, dinner clubs, and shows to attend together. In Setúbal, she had to build that herself, and she has, becoming the bridge-builder her Portuguese choir mates now thank for getting everyone out the door. Her advice for anyone considering the move: visit beyond the vacation version, stay in a real neighborhood, do your own grocery run, and feel what daily life is honestly like before you commit. And, in the spirit of a friend who lives by it, say yes to every invitation.Listen and connectListen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, and explore more LGBTQ+ retirement destinations at wheredogaysretire.com.Have a question about retiring abroad or a destination you'd like us to cover? Reach out through the website and join the conversation in our Facebook community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/GayRetirementPlaces"This was a wonderful, beautiful place to land. And I like sharing it with other people, because it's that good." — Jules de Mello

Utilities used to plan around relatively predictable demand. That assumption is disappearing.In this opening keynote from Intersolar & Energy Storage North America Midwest, Nico Johnson sits down with 3 utility executives; Bria Shea of Xcel Energy, Andy Plenge of ComEd, and Brice Sheriff of Ameren Illinois to examine what happens when electricity demand can arrive faster than the infrastructure needed to serve it—and distributed energy resources increasingly change how power moves across the grid.The conversation explores the difficult balance between reliability, affordability, and investment; what rising electricity costs actually reflect; the practical constraints to deploying more DERs; and how utilities are rethinking planning for a system with far more uncertainty than the one they inherited.Three utilities operating in different markets arrive at a similar reality: planning the next grid will require more flexibility, better coordination, and new ways of thinking about both customers and the resources connected to the system.Are there other technologies you've scouted on the frontlines of the Clean Energy Revolution that you think we should be covering here on SunCast?Hit us up - team@suncast.me with your feedback & recommendations.If you want to connect with today's guest, you'll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.suncast.media/sponsors.Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today's guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 875 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.Subscribe to Valence, our weekly LinkedIn Newsletter, and learn the elements of compelling storytelling: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/valence-content-that-connects-7145928995363049472/You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on:Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeoLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus

Fiona Spruill is CEO of Overstory, a company helping electric utilities reduce power outages and wildfire risk using satellite imagery, aerial data, and AI-powered vegetation intelligence. Since joining as employee number 10 and later stepping into the CEO role, Spruill has helped Overstory evolve from a vegetation mapping startup into a resilience platform serving many of North America's largest utilities. In this episode of Inevitable, Spruill explains why vegetation management is one of the largest operating expenses for utilities and how improving grid resilience starts with better risk prioritization—not simply collecting more data. The conversation explores how Overstory combines satellite imagery, computer vision, and customer data to help utilities identify vegetation threats, wildfire fuels, and infrastructure risks before disasters occur. Spruill also discusses selling into the utility industry, the growing importance of resilience as climate risks expand beyond the western U.S., and how the company navigated an extraordinary leadership transition following the loss of co-founder and CEO Indra den Bakker. Note: Overstory is an MCJ portfolio company Episode recorded on July 22, 2026 (Published on August 11, 2026). In this episode, we cover:  (0:00) An overview of Overstory (4:44) Why vegetation management is one of utilities' biggest expenses (6:17) How Overstory helps prevent outages and catastrophic wildfires (7:33) From vegetation mapping startup to grid resilience platform (9:14) Why utilities need better prioritization (12:03) What utilities see inside the Overstory platform (14:12) How satellite imagery, aerial data, and AI power the product (17:31) Supporting wildfire prevention and public safety power shutoffs (19:16) Where Overstory fits within utility resilience strategies (21:21) Lessons from selling climate technology to utilities (25:18) Serving both rural co-ops and North America's largest utilities (28:21) How wildfire risk is expanding globally (30:26) Fiona's leadership journey and Overstory's evolution (34:44) Building a global remote-first company and culture (38:21) Overstory's fundraising journey and investor partnerships (42:09) Measuring climate impact through operational change Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Finding great tenants starts long before the application and screening process. It starts with your rental listing. In today's episode of the Canadian Real Estate Investing Morning Show, Wayne and Gabby break down how landlords and real estate investors should market their rental properties to attract more qualified applicants, avoid wasting time, and create enough demand that they can choose a tenant instead of settling for one. Wayne explains that real estate investors are also marketers. If your listing does not clearly communicate what your property offers, you may attract the wrong people—or nobody at all. The goal is to make it easy for prospective tenants to quickly determine whether your property fits their needs, while removing unnecessary friction that could cause good applicants to disappear before they ever reach the application stage. Wayne and Gabby also answer a listener's three-part question: Where should landlords advertise rental properties? What information should be included in the listing? What questions should you ask prospective tenants?

In the latest episode of Public Power Now, Michael Ball, CEO of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, discusses how E-ISAC helps organizations of different sizes improve their security posture, details the services and resources that public power utilities gain access to when they join E-ISAC and explains why information sharing is so critical for the electric sector.

Value investing spent fifteen years out of fashion. This year, it's beating the index almost everywhere you look — energy up roughly 20%, industrials 17%, healthcare 15%, utilities 14%, financials 12% — while the S&P 500 sits near 8–9%. This week we dig into the return of value investing and what the greatest investors of all time can teach us right now. On this week's Money On Tap, we go deep on the tradition that runs from Benjamin Graham through Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger: buying good businesses at sensible prices, collecting the dividends they pay you, and letting compounding do the heavy lifting. We explain why value went dark from roughly 2009 to 2025 — cheap money was rocket fuel for growth stocks — and why higher interest rates have flipped the script: growth borrows, value pays you. We connect the rotation to worn-out tech traders taking gains, the 401(k) flywheel, and the demographic engine underneath it all — roughly 10,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every day, all needing present-day income. Plus Pepsi's 53-year dividend streak and a candid conversation about when mutual funds and ETFs stop making sense and direct stock ownership starts. What you'll learn:The sector scoreboard: energy ~20%, industrials ~17%, healthcare ~15%, utilities ~14%, financials ~12%, staples ~9% — vs. the S&P 500 near 8–9%Graham vs. Buffett: buy cheap and sell at fair value, or buy outstanding businesses and hold for decadesMunger's rule: "The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the waiting"Why low interest rates buried value for fifteen years — and why higher rates brought it backMargin of safety: the idea that protects you when you're wrongWhy money is rotating into companies that pay you to own them — dividends over promisesThe demographic engine: 10,000 boomers a day retiring and the demand for present-day incomeThe compounding story: Buffett's American Express dividends now exceed his entire original investment — every yearWhen funds stop making sense: the case for direct stock ownership at higher net worthPlus Money In The News:SpaceX says it's coming for AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers — but does satellite cell service actually work?The Treasury has refunded $100 billion in invalidated tariff revenue to companies — and none of it is coming back to youA tale of two housing markets: luxury demand surges while starter-home buyers finally see inventoryWant a white paper on this week's topic? Email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com and we'll send it over. Read our most recent Blog Post on this topic here: https://www.fmgwebsites.com/d772de05-9833-44e4-9676-f510f85cef74/blog/the-return-of-value-investing-why-boring-profitable-companies-are-winninSchedule a free consultation: https://app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsultaBrowse the full Money On Tap library: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tap Contact UsPhone: 855-226-8551Email: info@yourmoneyontap.comOffice: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110Web: brayshawfinancial.comSecurities and advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Osaic Wealth, Inc. Osaic Wealth, Inc. and Brayshaw Financial Group do not provide tax or legal advice. Index and sector figures cited are approximate year-to-date values as of the air date, drawn from sources believed reliable, and subject to change. Dividend payments are not guaranteed and may be reduced or eliminated at any time. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.What is value investing and why is it working again in 2026?Value investing means buying strong, profitable, often dividend-paying companies at sensible prices and holding them patiently — the approach built by Benjamin Graham and made famous by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. It struggled while near-zero interest rates favored growth stocks, but higher rates flipped the equation: in 2026, value sectors like energy (~20%), industrials (~17%), and healthcare (~15%) are outpacing the S&P 500's roughly 8–9%. The appeal is simple — instead of borrowing to chase growth, these companies pay shareholders real income today, and reinvested dividends compound over decades.

PFAS rules from the EPA have been getting a lot of attention, as the Trump administration looks to make controversial adjustments. One recent rule change effected drinking water, but crucially, only impacted publicly owned municipal drinking water systems.  HRP's Bryan Massa, LSP, Regional Office manager for HRP Massachusetts, and PFAS expert, has worked closely with exactly the type of drinking water utilities that will have to be incompliance with these agency rules.  For today's episode of the PFAS Pulse Podcast, Bryan will walk us through the rules as they've stood and explain the nuances and complexities that come with utilities remaining in compliance.  Listen to learn more and subscribe to The Pulse for all the details.

Crystal Ball tells all about her background at the Bonneville Power Administration, PNUCC's Northwest Regional Forecast, gas-electric coordination, and how power is all about people.

Arch Rao is Founder and CEO of SPAN, the company behind the smart electrical panel that has expanded into utility grid management with SPAN Edge and distributed AI infrastructure with XFRA. What began as a smarter way to manage home electricity has evolved into a platform designed to digitize the electric grid, enable mass electrification, and unlock new AI compute capacity using existing residential infrastructure. In this episode of Inevitable, Rao explains why SPAN's vision has grown beyond the home electrical panel, how utilities are using software-defined power management to avoid expensive infrastructure upgrades, and why distributed AI inference could become a new class of digital utility. He also discusses the intersection of electrification, grid modernization, and AI demand, arguing that the next major energy transition is the digitization of the electric grid itself. Note: SPAN is an MCJ portfolio company  Episode recorded on July 8, 2026 (Published on August 4, 2026). In this episode, we cover:  (0:00) An overview of SPAN (1:53) How SPAN evolved from smart panels to grid infrastructure (3:41) The inspiration behind XFRA and distributed AI compute (5:21) What an XFRA node looks like and how it works (6:04) Why homeowners would host AI compute infrastructure (8:06) The homeowner business model: free panels, batteries, and lower utility bills (10:48) Why SPAN is focused on new home developments (11:56) How SPAN Edge helps utilities avoid costly service upgrades (16:35) SPAN's go-to-market evolution (17:16) Lessons from customer behavior and software adoption (20:53) How SPAN Edge creates value for utilities (26:16) Securing distributed AI infrastructure in residential neighborhoods (27:48) Who is buying XFRA compute today (29:45) Why distributed infrastructure offers flexibility over traditional data centers (31:04) XFRA as a new form of digital infrastructure (32:50) How SPAN differs from virtual power plants (VPPs) (34:56) Why the real energy transition is analog-to-digital (36:43) Why talent is SPAN's biggest hiring priority Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Derek Moore is joined by Mike Snyder and Shane Skinner this week to talk about the market tape defined by two things happening at once: a violent volatility shock concentrated in semiconductors, and an earnings season that is quietly the strongest in years. The Leopold liquidation drove SOX single-stock volatility to 75% much higher than the S&P 500 Index in general. With 305 of 498 S&P 500 companies reported for Q2 2026, sales are beating by 3.1% and earnings by 31.1%, and forward EPS is modeled to climb from trailing 294 per share to 374 per share, pulling the index P/E from 25.4 trailing to roughly 19.9 forward PE. Looking ahead to SpaceX earnings and discussing Kevin Warsh telling reporters let the market decide!     Leopold liquidation pushed SOX single-stock volatility to 75%, only the third time ever per Warren Pies. The prior two 75% readings, March 2020 and April 2025, led to big gains per Warren Pies Semis inside the S&P 500 carry a median 30-day implied vol of 87.5% versus 36.1% for the index. Q2 2026 earnings season: 305 of 498 S&P 500 names have been reported. Aggregate earnings are beating by 31.1% and sales by 3.1%, the biggest surprise in recent quarters. Consumer Discretionary (+121%) and Communications (+99%) led the earnings surprises. Utilities were the only sector with a negative sales surprise, at -1.5%. S&P 500 forward EPS is estimated at 374 versus trailing 294 actual, up 27%. That earnings growth takes the index P/E from 25.4, trailing down to 19.9 on forward estimates. Apple traded down about $26 on the day to roughly $307.55. Apple's combination of falling price and slightly lowered guidance still compressing its P/E to 32.5. Jurian Timmer at Fidelity notes that the Mag 7 payout ratio has been falling and now sits at +17%. What is the payout ratio and how do buybacks plus dividends account for percent of EPS paid out Week 32 earnings include Palantir, Toyota, Caterpillar, AMD, Disney, Uber, Shopify and Airbnb. Also reporting: Lilly, Novo Nordisk, McDonald's, Pfizer, CVS, DoorDash, Lyft and Take-Two. Did Apple get cheaper? Is Apple sandbagging to help the new CEO? (a sarcastic take)   Mentioned in this Episode     Derek Moore's book Broken Pie Chart https://amzn.to/3S8ADNT

July 31, 2026 - Oneida-Madison Electric Cooperative CEO Brian Bell discusses the work of rural electric cooperatives and legislation intended to deter the theft and vandalism of utility infrastructure.

Your S&P 500 fund says 7% — but over 300 of its stocks are beating the index. This week we dig into the massive broadening of the market that almost nobody in the financial media is talking about, and why we think it's the healthiest thing to happen to this bull market in years.For three years, seven stocks did all the talking. This year, the other 493 are answering. On this week's Money On Tap, we walk through the numbers behind the broadening: the Magnificent Seven still make up roughly a third of every dollar in a cap-weighted S&P 500 index fund — which is exactly why so many statements look stuck at 7% while the equal-weight S&P runs above 14%, the Russell 1000 Value nears 20%, and healthcare and industrials each post roughly 24% year to date. We connect it to the 100-year-old Dow theory (industry makes goods, transportation moves them — and both are near highs), unpack the defensive-stock paradox (staples rallying while nobody calls a recession), revisit the historical pattern from 1983, 1995, 2003, 2013, and 2020 where tech blows out and then leadership broadens — and get practical about what a broadening market rewards most: rebalancing, equal-weight exposure, sector and international diversification, and knowing what your 401(k) actually owns.What you'll learn:Why a third of every S&P 500 index-fund dollar sits in just seven stocks — and what that's done to your return this yearThe breadth numbers: 300+ stocks beating the index, roughly seven in ten S&P names up on the yearThe sector scoreboard: healthcare ~24%, industrials ~24%, staples ~11.3%, financials ~9.7%, utilities ~7.6%Why money is rotating, not leaving — and why that's the opposite of how crashes startDow theory at 100+: what industrials and transports near highs historically signalThe defensive-stock paradox: staples leading without a recession call anywhere in sightThe rebalancing playbook: taking profits without apology, calendar discipline, equal-weight funds (11.9% vs 10.9% over 20 years)How to broaden with new contributions instead of selling your winnersTarget-date fund warnings: layered fees, hidden allocations, and no way to rebalanceWhy this is not a reason to dump technology — proportion, not exitPlus Money In The News:A property-management company bets $200K on AI to make the trades more efficient — filling a labor gap instead of cutting jobsApple set for its strongest June-quarter sales growth in five years — flat iPhone pricing, a $5 trillion moment, and sitting out the AI arms raceThe 100-year-old Dow theory says this market isn't done climbingWant a white paper on this week's topic? Email us at info@yourmoneyontap.com and we'll send it over.Read the companion blog: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/blogSchedule a free consultation: https://app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsultaBrowse the full Money On Tap library: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact UsPhone: 855-226-8551Email: info@yourmoneyontap.comOffice: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110Web: brayshawfinancial.comSecurities and advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Osaic Wealth, Inc. Osaic Wealth, Inc. and Brayshaw Financial Group do not provide tax or legal advice. Index and sector figures cited are approximate year-to-date values as of the air date, drawn from sources believed reliable, and subject to change. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.Why is my S&P 500 index fund underperforming the market in 2026?Because the S&P 500 is cap-weighted: roughly a third of every dollar in the index sits in just seven stocks — the Magnificent Seven — and several of them are having an off year. Meanwhile the equal-weight S&P 500 is up more than double the cap-weighted index, and over 300 individual S&P stocks are beating it, led by healthcare and industrials near 24%. The fix isn't leaving the market — it's diversification: equal-weight exposure, sector funds, and a rebalancing discipline that trims concentration back to your plan.

Utilities profit by spending more. An independent distribution system operator could change that. Show page available: https://ilsr.org/article/energy-democracy/independent-distribution-system-operator-ler276/. Listen to all of our Local Energy Rules podcast episodes at our site: https://ilsr.org/energy/local-energy-rules-podcast/. Don't forget to subscribe, share with your friends, leave a recommendation on our podcast feeds, and join the conversation online using the #LocalEnergyRules hashtag!

Households will soon face higher electricity bills after the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities approved a new €41 network charge for this October. What does this mean for the consumer in the already most expensive country in Europe for electricity, and what else could we expect?Joining Ciara to discuss is Daragh Cassidy from the bill switching site Bonkers.ie…

How could El Niño affect Latin America's power sector? Fitch Ratings analysts Saverio Minervini, Marcela Araujo and Juan David Medellin discuss rising power prices, hydropower pressures and credit risks across Brazil, Colombia and Panama.  

Chair Tawney discusses her path to being a regulator, the challenges and opportunities of meeting rising demand in Oregon, and how it relates to knitting!

Trees are a major cause of power outages. They're also a wildfire risk—when branches hit a conductor, a small spark can become a big blaze. Lynn Petesch of Overstory joins thinkenergy to talk trees, exploring how AI, satellite imagery, and vegetation intelligence help utilities prevent outages and reduce wildfire threats. Including Hydro Ottawa, who saw a 44% drop in tree-related outages since partnering with Overstory. Listen in for how we work together to keep the grid safe in an era of extreme weather.   Related links    Overstory: https://www.overstory.com/ Lynn Petesch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnpetesch/    Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114    Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en      To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405 To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod --- Transcript: [00:00:00] Trevor Freeman: Hi everyone, and welcome to the summer edition of Think Energy. We are officially in podcast vacation mode. So while our normal day-to-day work continues, we're taking a brief pause from our kind of regularly scheduled episodes to recharge, to think about what's coming up in the year ahead content-wise, and just do some planning. But while we do so, we don't want to leave you without anything to listen to, so we look back at some of our favorite insights and episodes over the past year, and that is our summer rewind. So this summer, we're tackling a pretty significant and overarching theme that's really defining the current state of the energy transition, and that is the collision between digital infrastructure and physical infrastructure as it relates to our energy grid. It's this really kind of fascinating look at old versus new, traditional versus up-and-coming, and how we progress to meet the energy needs of our customer base, the growing energy needs as we electrify, as we, you know, expand, while also implementing new technology to protect our grid, protect our assets, to better manage things. So it's kind of a common theme in a lot of episodes that we have done in the last little while and a lot of the conversations that we're having. So in Part 1 today, we're kicking things off with a look at the physical world of our grid and how we're using new technology to protect it, and that is our conversation with Overstory. So we'll re-examine how we use high-resolution satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to act as kind of a shield almost, you know, helping utilities proactively manage our vegetation and reduce vegetation-to-powerline contact, which can reduce power outages, wildfires in many cases, and really has been an important tool for us here at Hydro Ottawa as well as in the utility industry more broadly. So sit back and have a listen to my conversation with Lynn Pedesch from Overstory, and enjoy this summer rewind.   [00:02:26] Trevor Feeman: Welcome to Think Energy, the podcast that dives into the fast-changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and people on the frontlines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional, and up-and-coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback, or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.   [00:02:58] Trevor Freeman: Hi everyone, welcome back. Today on Think Energy, we're going to be talking about trees. Yes, you heard that correctly—trees. I know this is a show about energy, but there's actually a very real connection between our electricity grid and those slow-growing, majestic givers of shade, lumber, fruit, and so many more benefits. Honestly, who doesn't love trees? But I'm not just kicking this episode off in my capacity as a tree hugger. Let's take a look at this through a utility lens, and I will use Hydro Ottawa as an example. Hydro Ottawa's service territory includes some very rural and very forested areas. Even our urban territory has a fairly extensive tree canopy. As a result, Hydro Ottawa trims about 60,000 trees each year. Now why? Because trees contacting power infrastructure is a big problem. Tree interference remains a leading cause of power outages for us. Strong winds force them onto our wires. Heavy snow or freezing rain builds up and weighs down branches, breaks limbs, and increases the risk that part of a tree may touch a line. And in some extreme cases, heavy storms can even send trees or branches crashing into our poles, damaging the poles. The struggle between power lines and trees—which again, don't get me wrong, we all love trees—has been going on for years. There is a constant struggle between trimming enough and getting the right trees trimmed and maintaining as much tree coverage as we can. In 2022, we identified a disruptor in this stance. The solution came through a partnership with Overstory, a company that uses satellite imagery, infrared technology, and artificial intelligence to help utilities manage vegetation and trim trees more efficiently. And the timing could not have been better. Just days after we started working with Overstory in the spring of 2022, the Derecho hit Ottawa. Our Ottawa-based listeners will remember this storm well. It was monumental in the history of our city and indeed for us as a utility. Winds reached 190 kilometers an hour. For our non-metric listeners, that's nearly 120 miles per hour. The storm ripped through poles, houses, and caused considerable damage to our city's urban forest. Overstory played a crucial role during the cleanup and in helping us level up our vegetation management strategies moving forward. We realized that the insights we got from Overstory would help improve our proactive approach to tree encroachment and hazard identification, and this is essential in this era of extreme weather events. We know that climate change is causing more frequent and more extreme weather events. According to Climate Central, the number of weather-related power outages in the United States increased by 78% between 2011 and 2021. And severe weather accounted for over a thousand outages across Nova Scotia just in the year of 2024. We want to keep you connected during these heavy storms, and that's why we're looking to organizations like Overstory. So what does Overstory do to help us keep the lights on? Well, without giving away too much, because we're going to get into the details shortly, Overstory, through a detailed analysis of the scans they do of our entire grid, identifies high-risk areas which we can then prioritize and better focus our resources when it comes to vegetation management. This level of monitoring and focus reduces the risk of trees from coming into contact with our poles and disrupting your connection to the grid. The results speak for themselves. Since partnering with Overstory, we've reduced vegetation-related outages by 44%. And that's only part of the story. As we'll discuss further, Overstory also plays a crucial role in helping utilities prevent wildfires in high-risk areas across North America. Similar to extreme weather, wildfire frequency and intensity is also increasing, in part due to climate change, expanding cities, and many other factors. And when wildfires do happen, these stories are heartbreaking. What many people don't realize is that lots of wildfires are sparked by trees making contact with power lines. And that is why Overstory plays a key role in tagging areas where those fires are most likely to ignite and spread, making it easier for utilities to prioritize trimming work and vegetation management in those areas. To dive more into how Overstory is helping us here at Hydro Ottawa and other utilities, helping us identify and act to mitigate risk associated with vegetation, I'm really excited to have Lynn Pedesch on the show today. Lynn is Overstory's Head of Customer Success and has spent the past 10 years building customer-facing teams with a specific focus on technologies that tackle the climate crisis. She began her career working for the United Nations and the diplomatic service of her home country Luxembourg, before moving into the tech sector to really work in environments where she could drive impact more quickly and at greater scale. Lynn Pedesch, welcome to the show.   [00:08:05] Lynn Pedesch: Thank you. Thanks for having me.   [00:08:07] Trevor Freeman: Okay, so let's start at the very top with a high-level look at what Overstory does and how the organization came to be.   [00:08:15] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, let me tell you about Overstory. I mean, we are a vegetation intelligence platform. We use remote sensing and AI to give electric utilities, including Hydro Ottawa and others, a clear system-wide view of their risk. They always do it because they want to address three things, or sometimes more, but kind of there's always a few goal posts, and it's either improving reliability, reducing wildfire risk if that is if they're in an area where that is a concern, and/or improving operational efficiencies. So Overstory very much becomes a decision-making tool for their programs. We're used mostly by the vegetation management people, operations people, wildfire mitigation teams, and they each time they want to either use a program that exists, prioritize it, reshape their work, they might be preparing for a storm, they might be working on a wildfire mitigation risk. So the company more broadly was founded in 2018 by Aniek Schouten and Indra den Bakker—this was back in the Netherlands. And they were leveraging or getting really interested in satellite imagery and were very initially using it for deforestation purposes. So the climate resilience DNA has always been with us, but like any startup, we were looking at that kind of target audience that was most interested in what we had to offer. And pretty quickly, we landed on the electric utilities. They had the most pressing need to use remote sensing at scale to solve very big problems, honestly. And so we pivoted into that space of electric utilities. And then in 2020, Fiona Spruill, who's our CEO right now, she joined us. She shaped the company into what it is today, and that is really around building safer and more reliable operations.   [00:10:14] Trevor Freeman: That's great, and I want to dive into some of the details. Our listeners will know that we talk a lot about grid modernization here and talk a lot about better intelligence of what's happening on the grid in all aspects. And something we haven't really talked about and I'm excited to talk to you about today is the sort of vegetation management side of it. So really excited to get into the details, but before we do that, I'm always really curious to understand, you know, the people behind the conversations. How did you get into this area of, you know, high-tech vegetation management? I touched a little bit on your bio in the intro, but give us a sense of, you know, how did Lynn come to be in the space that you're in right now?   [00:10:52] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I wouldn't say I grew up thinking I was going to work in this space, but I love working in it now. So actually right out of college, I went to work for the United Nations, but then in the last 15 years, I started working at high-growth tech companies, startups, and I've always been focused on leading and building CS operations, which is basically the customer success teams. They're the ones that are in front of the customers, implementing these software programs, kind of working very closely with customers, solving problems. And about four years ago, I decided that I did want to focus the rest of my career on solving the climate crisis more broadly. And I remember very clearly that I came across Overstory and there were two things that really resonated with me. One was hearing that utility-caused wildfires could be a thing of the past—like they are preventable—and the other thing was learning about this world where vegetation is the biggest cause of outages, which is, you know, I did not know before! And so I think, you know, having these very clear goals is very compelling to kind of work on something where it's so easy to understand what the big problems are. So I joined Overstory, and for the last couple of years, I've been building a team that gets really deeply embedded in these utilities, specifically with the vegetation management and the wildfire mitigation teams. And we work on their programs, we understand their programs, we help them reshape their programs, we roll out obviously the software element that is Overstory. It's been very fun and rewarding work.   [00:12:30] Trevor Freeman: That's great. And I really love, you know, talking to people from a variety of areas that touch on climate change and the climate crisis, and I think there's a bunch of us who share that passion of wanting to do something. I spoke with a group of recent grads about what a green career, what a career in climate change looks like, and really it looks like whatever you want it to look like. There are so many aspects that touch on this. So kind of neat to hear how that was your passion and then you figured out where it made sense for you to enter into the climate sphere, so that's great.   [00:13:06] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I guess when I was young, I thought you had to be a scientist to work on climate, and I think now anyone can find an angle on how to contribute to it, and I think everyone needs to help contribute.   [00:13:15] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, any job can be a green job if you care about it and if you make it that. Okay, so let me get back to Overstory. Tell us a little bit about the evolution of the company. You talked about it kind of founding about seven years ago. Tell us how it's evolved and progressed over those seven years.   [00:13:30] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, so when we started working with utilities, I think at that point everyone was kind of assessing whether satellites could be a good use case for analyzing vegetation. We're now talking about 30-centimeter imagery, so the resolution of satellites has become incredible. You can really see branches, you can detect species of trees, you can see if they're healthy or not. So initially that was kind of our MO. We really were the leading provider to find out where the trees are, how close they are in terms of proximity to your network, so to the conductor, which is the risk. You know, we're looking at the terrain. If you're looking in the mountains in Colorado, you have very different terrain than maybe in Ottawa. So, you know, detecting tree species has been really interesting, detecting the health of trees, and how that decline is furthering. A lot of utilities are experiencing a lot of tree decline, die-off right now. So that was how we started. And then we started working with the really big utilities, and you had to think about this problem at scale. Now we might be scanning with satellites tens of thousands of miles at a time. And some of these utilities, they might have thousands, if not tens of thousands of trees that could pose a risk to their network. They might have had a really big, large weather event, a storm that knocked over some of their system. So at that point, it all becomes about that decisioning tool. Everything starts becoming a priority. And I think that's now where we're really leaning into, is making not just surfacing the data, but making it very actionable. Utilities have a lot to deal with. They deal with very tight budgets, they deal with crew constraints, they might have an aging workforce, there's regulatory pressure, they're really vulnerable to storms, increasingly there's a lot of wildfire exposure. So everything becomes a decision of where should I focus my attention, where can I get the biggest bang for my buck, what should I do, what should I not focus on. And that decisioning is where we really want to be a key player in.   [00:15:47] Trevor Freeman: Absolutely. And looking forward, I know we're jumping the gun here, we haven't gotten into the details of what you do, but looking forward, what is your vision for kind of the future of this space and how it's going to continue to evolve? Are you mature as a company yet or as a sector, or is there still a lot of growth to happen?   [00:16:04] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I think the vast majority of utilities are now leveraging remote sensing. It could be LiDAR, it could be drones, it could be satellites, so that has become a pretty established tooling within the sector. I think what our vision really is, is providing utilities that share resilience-first picture of risk. So, you know, we imagine a world where you can kind of see the emerging risks and you can start becoming proactive. Being proactive in this space of vegetation management has been really challenging. You never know where the next tree is going to fall, and over the last couple of years, customers suddenly have access to this risk across the territory so they can start being proactive about it. As a matter of fact, that was a key use case also with the team at Hydro Ottawa, is to start launching these proactive programs. And I think when we think about it, we get very excited about the world in which anyone from the field crews to the vegetation managers to the operation folks to the execs to the regulators, the community partners who think about the safety of their communities, all have that kind of shared view of risk. Just imagine, they all understand the same risk, they operate off the same sheet, and they make the same data-driven decisions. That could solve a lot of problems, because right now the data is often scrambled across different people—certain people have access to it, and certain people don't.   [00:17:33] Trevor Freeman: Great. Okay, so let's get into the specifics here. I want to actually talk about specifically what Overstory does. How do you find—we've kind of talked about vegetation management, obviously you're supporting Hydro Ottawa and other utilities in our vegetation management programs—how do you find and tag high-risk vegetation? What is high risk? Like, what do you actually do on a day-to-day basis?   [00:17:58] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, that's the part that I deal with the most often! So excited to get into the specifics. Implementing with Overstory is actually pretty easy. I mean, when we start working with a customer, we need to know where your grid is, so we need to understand where your power lines are running. We need to understand the main configurations of them, you know, how tall are the poles, etc., so we can really compute that whole focus of where the trees are in relation to your power lines, to your conductors. That's all ultimately that we're focusing on. Increasingly, we're also focusing on the ground, I'll be talking about that as well. We then task these satellites over your territory. We do that during the leaf-on season, so that will be the summer, essentially. And then we run all these models. So we first need to understand where the trees are, what is their height, and what is their health. An unhealthy tree is much more likely to fall and cause damage to your power lines. We're looking at the fuels on the ground. We can help you determine what type of equipment you might need to attack certain types of vegetation, and we always compute that risk to the conductor, and we look at your right-of-ways. Now, I think the interesting part about your question is what is high risk, and that can be very different across different utilities. And I think that's the maybe unique part with Overstory, is that we can configure it to your standards. So every utility has very unique components. If you're on the West Coast and you're concerned about wildfires, your tolerance to risk will be very different than if you're on the East Coast where you're mostly concerned about not causing too many outages. Including that, you might have specific trimming specifications. The crews run around with chainsaws, they know exactly how far out they need to trim, how much they can trim, and there's a bit of a risk tolerance thing. So we build very configurable risk frameworks for all of our utility partners, so "high" means one thing to Hydro Ottawa, means something different to a customer in California that is facing a very different type of risk.   [00:20:04] Trevor Freeman: So you're out there assessing, essentially just for the context of our listeners, you know, we've got power lines that run overhead, they run through residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, but also forested areas, treed areas where there's lots of vegetation near our equipment. Your company really gets an understanding of the interaction between the vegetation and our lines, and says these ones are too close, or this is a tree that's, you know, not healthy and could come in contact with your lines based on your analysis. So help us, like let's paint that picture a little bit more detailed. How do utility companies take the information that you are coming up with, that your analysis is coming up with, and use that to run a vegetation management program more effectively? What does a utility do with that information?   [00:20:56] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, so we always center it around four main use cases. One is optimizing a program that already exists, it's creating a targeted program for you, it's quantifying your work, and risk reporting. And I'll dive into each and every one of them a little bit to illustrate a bit more what that could mean. So when we think about program optimization, a lot of utilities have existing vegetation management cycle, they might have a regulatory obligation to visit their territory every four years, for example. Now a lot of times, they've been doing their program the same way for the last 10, maybe 20 years, but the conditions in their territory are different, right? I mean, the things we're seeing, the storms are heavier, there's more tree decline that we're seeing right now. So they know they need to adapt and they need to adjust it, but it's big programs with lots of budgets attached to it, a lot of crews running around, so starting to think about how you can start pulling a circuit that you're meant to trim forward, or starting to tackle an area where you say is more residential, there's fewer trees, focusing on your high-risk areas first, re-managing these programs is one key component that we work with a lot of companies on, and thinking about Oklahoma Gas and Electric, for example, that they have a budget and they can only do that much with the budget, and it was really about reinventing where they can get the biggest impact. The second use case is this targeted program creation, and I'll use the Hydro Ottawa use case for that. You know, they suddenly had a view about where all of their hazard trees are. Hazard trees are these trees that are declining, they're dying or they're dead, and they could have an impact on your system. Now suddenly you know where they are, so you can start building a targeted program about dedicating some time and budget and crews to actually going and addressing those trees. That has a big impact on your reliability and on reducing tree-caused outages. And there's many others, sort of like hot-spotting is a very common term about starting to become proactive and doing something for a specific program. The third use case is work quantification, and I think there, when you think about it again, there's large contractors that are running around managing your territory, and now utilities for the first time often have that data to actually assess how much work there is. So that's really helpful in terms of negotiating your contracts, getting better bids. Some utilities say it's pretty hard to find contractors that want to work on their system because it's very hard to estimate how much work there is. Or they might have a budget to mow certain vegetation along a transmission corridor. Just knowing how much vegetation there is is a really helpful tool to address it and prioritize it in the right way. And then the fourth use case is risk reporting, and that is about getting that baseline view about your risk and tracking it year-over-year. And this is really where we want utilities to have that data to report it out to their boards, insurers, regulators, and often it's used to defend your budget, secure your budgets, or really have some data to kind of back you up on what the problems are that you're facing.   [00:24:26] Trevor Freeman: Great. So you talk about data, and, you know, each of those use cases that you mentioned or strategies that you mentioned really are about getting the right information in the hands of the right people to make decisions and sort of more efficiently and effectively make decisions. But it's a lot of data. And so Hydro Ottawa has over 6,000 kilometers of lines, you know this of course as our partner. We have a big territory and we have a fairly treed territory. That's a lot of data points. You're collecting a lot of data from your satellites, you're doing analysis on that. How are you doing that analysis? Is it—you know, AI is kind of a buzzword in every sector right now, and the utility sector's no different. Are you using some form of AI or machine learning analytics? What are you doing in terms of, you know, crunching the numbers and coming up with the right actions?   [00:25:25] Lynn Pedesch: Totally. Yeah, AI is a buzzword, but it's also very exciting. I think utilities have really embraced it already. They're using it for demand forecasting, they're using it for customer service, they're using it for asset planning. I mean, at the core, Overstory has been using AI to turn remote sensing data into operationally useful intelligence about their vegetation. So when you say, yes, Hydro Ottawa has that many thousands of kilometers of overhead lines, we need to rank it to them: This is your worst circuit, this is your worst area, this is the area where you have the most hazard trees, for example. So we can really rank order on a span level from the worst to the best, right? So that could be one thing. It's still an overwhelming amount of data. So where we started by using AI to kind of predict where the trees are, how tall are they, what was their relation to the conductors, now what we're really excited about or kind of leaning into with AI is how to intelligently kind of assess and prioritize risk. So not every hazard tree has the same impact. If a hazard tree falls on a line where more houses are dependent on, you will knock out the power of more people. So it's always a prioritization exercise, and leveraging AI for that is what is most exciting to us right now. And I think it's important to note that we also don't just want it to be a black box. All of the models we've built, they're always validated by certified arborists and kind of our utility partners, and I think at this stage, this is very important, because every tree that we find exists in the real world, and so validating this AI with ground-truthing has been really important for us to also build that trust in the technology.   [00:27:14] Trevor Freeman: That's great. And I do think it's helpful for our listeners to kind of understand the context before this. This work is sort of done—you know, in the absence of a tool like yours, it's sort of done, you know, there's a degree of manual effort here. There's a degree of patrolling the lines, there's a cycle of vegetation management. So if you've done a line this year, in three years or four years or five years, you want to be looking at it again. This takes a little bit of that—I don't want to call it guesswork, but it takes a little bit of that manual effort out of the equation and really focuses efforts in the right way, and it's only with the tools that, you know, you folks are using that you're able to do that volume of analysis and get that pinpoint accuracy. So that's fantastic. Let me get into the success of it all, like the big picture. We've obviously talked a couple times here that you're our partner here at Hydro Ottawa, so I know the success that we're having with you, but, you know, tell us some of the great success stories with other utility partners. Are you actually reducing weather-related outages? Are you seeing the impact of using the Overstory tools and methodology to support utility partners?   [00:28:28] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah. I mean, weather-related outages can mean many things. You have trees knocking over, like the pole might crack, etc. You know, those, there's a lot of things that can happen during a storm, and I've heard a lot of stories about some of the storms that Ottawa has experienced in the past years where, you know, you could have had anything and they're just heavier and the consequences are really strong. But what we can impact is the tree-caused outages. And that we've proven with Hydro Ottawa where, within a year, by focusing that targeted program on going to an area where you had a massive amount of these trees that were dying off, and at any point with just a little bit too heavy wind could be toppled over and fall on the line, we had a 44% reduction in tree-caused outages. That's a real, tangible number you can see. I'm thinking about a utility as well on the East Coast, a co-op that runs through very rural areas. In those areas, you have trees outside of the right-of-way that are toppling over onto lines, so tree-caused outages are a huge issue for them and it's really impacting their SAIDI and SAIFI, those key KPIs that utilities are always tracking. And by us just giving them a rank order of which hazard tree—they had so many of them—which hazard tree to even go to first, because if that hazard tree were to fall on a line, a ton more people are going to be out of power than if the other one were to fall on the line where you will have like one rural cabin that will not have power. That led to a reduction of something around 90% of tree-caused outages to 70%. It's still a long way to go, but it was a really tangible number that you can see, and it shows that if you then do that proactive work, you have a real impact on your tree-caused outages. And if I think about our customers in California, Pacific Gas and Electric for example, it's a lot about helping them understand where they don't need to go. So it's kind of doing something of a visual inspection and actually skipping certain spans. That can be in itself a really big use case, because right now, if you don't have an understanding about where your risks are, you might be sending trucks to roll for hours around areas where there is not really any tangible work to be done. So redirecting them to the right areas is where we've seen a lot of success there, and that obviously leads to budget wins, right? You'll be saving a lot of money by doing that, and those are kind of the use cases that we chase and that we kind of help prove the cases on.   [00:31:07] Trevor Freeman: Absolutely. Yeah, there's only so many resources you can throw at this, and making sure that we prioritize and focus those resources in the right spot is absolutely critical. You were just talking about the West Coast and you mentioned this earlier, I know wildfires is an area that is obviously of great interest for your organization. We're fortunate here at Hydro Ottawa in that we haven't really had to deal with that much, but anybody who's, you know, following the news knows this is a major problem for us. So how, what is your role in helping those utilities prevent wildfires? Maybe give us a very quick primer on why utilities are a factor when it comes to wildfires first, and then how your organization is supporting that.   [00:31:52] Lynn Pedesch: So unfortunately, utility-caused wildfires tend to be the most catastrophic wildfires because they're critical infrastructure, and we've obviously seen that happen across the world and in the US recently again and again. But utility-caused wildfires, as I said at the beginning, are also the actual wildfires that are preventable. So that's really where we're lying into. A lot of the forests right now, they've become tinderboxes. That is obviously because of fire suppression policies, that's because of forest management techniques that have been leveraged in the last couple of hundred years that are slowly changing at a different pace. Canada's had some, unfortunately, some really bad fire seasons recently as well. And so where Overstory wanted to place itself is in that prevention space—to even not get to the point where you have a spark, because there's a lot of tools out there that focus on mitigation and what do you do when you see that first plume of smoke coming up, and so we've landed in kind of really focusing on the prevention side so that utilities are hopefully in the future not the ones that spark any of those catastrophic wildfires. We've already always been looking at the vegetation that could touch your conductor, right? That I've been speaking about a lot. But now we're really excited for the first time and we recently announced that we launched a fuel detection model. So that's us looking at the ground fuel conditions, and those are actually usually the key contributors to the spark that spreads the fire. We're now providing that to utilities as a much higher resolution than ever before. For me, it's interesting cause I've spent a lot of time looking at trees, and now I'm going into the field and I'm looking at the ground, and it's a new perspective! But yet again, we could just, you know, we don't want to overwhelm our customers with a lot of maps and showing the fuel conditions necessarily, we can really help them identify those spans where a single failure would have the greatest consequence. So yet again, it's about how to make that data—there's a lot of wildfire risk maps out there—but make it a very actionable list of spans that if they were to tackle those, they are very proactively reducing the risk of igniting a fire and as a result obviously protecting their communities.   [00:34:10] Trevor Freeman: Got it. So it's not just about the overhead trees, branches, etc., contacting the line, it's, you know, if a switch goes, if an insulator pops, if something happens that will cause sparks, what's happening on the ground below that line, and how do we make sure it is able to withstand sparks that might happen.   [00:34:29] Lynn Pedesch: Exactly. If you have dry grasses, if you have sagebrush, if you have certain types of fuels, they're just much more likely to spark a fire and then spread out without there even being any trees. You have these prairies along Texas that can blow up in a fire very quickly, and the fires can spread to tremendous sizes. And so understanding the fuels on the ground is really important.   [00:34:55] Trevor Freeman: Super interesting and fascinating, fascinating work to get involved in. As you mentioned, this is obviously an area of, I don't even know if I'd call it growing concern anymore, great concern for the utility industry and all of us. So with the technology that's, you know, we talked about AI a little bit ago, it's literally growing before our eyes, it's really evolving fast. Do you see your technology evolving along with it? What's kind of next for your organization? You talked about getting into sort of the ground vegetation management—what comes next? How do you see it evolving as AI and tools evolve?   [00:35:32] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I mean, if we see that the future is where we want to support a grid that is much safer and reliable as I mentioned, we also want to make sure it's resilient to the climate and the economic pressures that there are. So our initial focus and our continued focus and where we have a lot of our expertise has been with vegetation. Now we're starting to look at the ground fuels, then that naturally evolves into looking at the asset vulnerabilities, so, you know, the actual poles and if there's any failures potentially on those, as well as further weather exposures, right? It becomes then about the soil moisture, it becomes about the wind speed, it becomes about the rain precipitation, etc. So there's a myriad of things that we can start looking at and that we want to start looking at in order to get that more holistic view of risk and go beyond just vegetation. Right now where we're investing most heavily in is that wildfire risk. There's also the resolution that we see with satellites right now is at 30 centimetres, that might drop down to 15 or 10 centimetres, so the resolution will get higher. There's other sources that we're exploring already, sometimes flying aerial imagery that is at 5 to 15 centimetres. Then you really start seeing—then you can start seeing a leaf on a tree! It gets really impressive. There's LiDAR, there's lots of other kinds of remote sensing technologies that we're looking to leverage in the future. And then as a company as well, we're starting to obviously also expand internationally. We started working with utilities in New Zealand that have very similar problems and various regulatory changes, they also have a problem with wildfire risk. So that is another angle that at Overstory we're chasing right now.   [00:37:18] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that understanding of other assets beyond just vegetation has kind of been running through my head of—we talk about, and I think we've talked about it here on the show, if we haven't I should do an episode on that, like a digital twin. A digital twin of our grid, and really having a good understanding of not just, you know, a line drawn on a map of, "Hey, your circuits run this way," but really physically what's happening out there and it being able to sort of model that, interact with it in a digital way to understand if we do X, Y, and Z, what happens. So the technology that you guys are using to really get good imagery and understanding of what's out there, I think what I'm hearing from you is that could potentially be leveraged in that next level to understand what poles do we have, what health are they in, what's happening with that conductor, is it sagging too much, is it in good health, like there's all this opportunity. That's really fascinating to hear.   [00:38:15] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, already now when we look at transmission corridors, we look at the sag of these lines, and the terrains are also really challenging things to look at. So there's a lot of factors that need to be taken into account, and that can only expand as we want to look at risk more beyond just the vegetation element.   [00:38:34] Trevor Freeman: Very cool. Well, Lynn, very, very interesting to hear this. I'm really glad you came on the show today to talk to us. Fascinating to hear what Overstory's up to. I know that we're super excited to be working with you here at Hydro Ottawa, and excited for what comes next. We always end our interviews with a series of questions, so I'm going to dive into those, and here we go. What is a book that you've read that you think everyone should read?   [00:39:00] Lynn Pedesch: I was thinking about an author more than a book. My favorite author is Jonathan Franzen. If I would recommend one book, it'd probably be The Corrections, his most famous one, I believe. But they're like these chunky 800-900 page books where you kind of get immersed in these families and you feel like you know them at the end, and then they kind of, I think about them for like months afterward! They're really good reading, at least for the winter when it's cold and you spend a lot of time inside, so probably Jonathan Franzen's books, yeah.   [00:39:31] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, we're recording this just before the holidays and I think we'll be releasing the episode after, but winter is such a great time to curl up with a book and it's awesome to have a good recommendation of a nice thick book.   [00:39:41] Lynn Pedesch: It'll still be cold in January, especially in Ottawa!   [00:39:44] Trevor Freeman: Absolutely, absolutely. So, same question, but a movie or a show?   [00:39:49] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I'm not a big movie buff, but I recently rewatched What's Eating Gilbert Grape. I don't know if you've seen it, with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, and I always felt like Leonardo DiCaprio should have received an Oscar for that performance back when he was 14, but yeah, it's a beautiful movie.   [00:40:07] Trevor Freeman: Oh, nice! Yeah, that's a bit of a blast from the past, but you're right, that is a fantastic one. If someone offered you a free round-trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   [00:40:17] Lynn Pedesch: French Polynesia, because it's so far, I've never been. I had a friend who went, and I'm sure it's very expensive to go there, so it'd be great for someone to pay! Yeah, no, that's a place I'll go one day, so yeah.   [00:40:31] Trevor Freeman: Fantastic. Who is someone that you admire?   [00:40:34] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, that's a tricky one because I was thinking about people in my family, etc., but if I were to think about a public persona—and also a bit of a blast from the past—I'll think about Tina Turner. She's been my icon since I'm a kid. I was always listening with my dad to Tina Turner. And I think the word that I've probably most used in today's episode was like "resilience," and I always think about her as like possibly the most resilient woman in the world who reinvented herself and her career in her 40s and 50s, and is this complete power woman, you know, always done everything at her own terms. So I get so much energy from, not just her music, I've seen so many documentaries about her, and she's always been this kind of woman that fills you with energy and kind of drives you. So, I'm a big, big fan of Tina Turner.   [00:41:28] Trevor Freeman: That's fantastic. I have to say, that's never come up on the show before, and now I need to go and dive down a rabbit hole of learning about Tina Turner and listening to some music. That's a really good answer. Last question: What's something about the energy sector or, let me expand that to kind of the climate sector, that you're really excited about?   [00:41:47] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, I'm going to take a very high level, but I think the thing I've been following the most is like that broad topic of the energy transition, and I think the recent changes or like kind of the way we talk about it has become a lot more interesting because it used to be this kind of fluffy, big kind of vision, and now we're in that phase where it just has to be very practically implemented. And we're trudging along with it, no matter the political climate, etc., there is kind of a move forward. And I actually really like the way that, I think when I first started learning about it or getting interested in it, it was always about renewables, and now it's around just sort of like needing to build a system that is both like low carbon and climate resilient, and there's something in that like way we talk about it now that I find really interesting. There's immense amounts of innovation in it, so, yeah, I'm just enjoying following what's happening on that and how we are moving that direction no matter what's happening right now, so that's exciting.   [00:42:48] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, good one. I know my listeners are probably rolling their eyes because I say this all the time, but it's a very exciting time to be in this industry, and very exciting to kind of see the evolution of energy and how we're interacting with it, how it's impacting our society. It really feels like we're at an inflection point, and very great to have you working on one aspect of that that people probably don't think about a lot, so thanks very much for what you're doing.   [00:43:13] Lynn Pedesch: Yeah, exactly! When you start working for Overstory, the one thing that happens is wherever you go, you see trees and power lines, and I have a very keen eye for, unfortunately, trees that are in poor health right now, so that's one of the professional things I've developed.   [00:43:28] Trevor Freeman: You carry like a spool of red ribbon around, you can tie on the at-risk trees, just so someone could come along! Lynn, thanks so much for coming on the show today, really appreciate it. It's been great chatting with you.   [00:43:38] Lynn Pedesch: Thank you so much. Take care.   [00:43:40] Trevor Freeman: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Think Energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review—it really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback, comments, or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.  

WATCH the video on Substack by clicking the play button above or on YouTube (here).STREAM audio only on Apple Podcasts (here), Spotify (here), or your favorite podcast player app.DOWNLOAD a pdf of a moderately edited transcript and the slide deck using the blue Download buttons below.We continue our July series focused on Strait of Hormuz Crisis takeaways with a focus on energy and power sub-sector stock performance. We take a look back at growth and profitability since 2021, which has yielded some surprising results and areas for improvement. Our key messages from the four charts we go through this week are as follows: * Energy versus Tech has been inversely correlated since 2021, with Energy surprisingly having kept pace with the Mag-7 over this time frame. * Despite improving growth expectations Utilities have lagged on higher interest rates. The question is when does improving growth expectations for utilities overcome what might be an ongoing interest rate headwind. * Traditional energy equities are again discounting below normal oil prices…perhaps not quite trough conditions, but something only a little bit better. * There has been considerable sub-sector divergence on profitability and growth over the last 5 years, with some surprising winners, losers, and areas for improvement. LNG, IPPs, midstream, and downstream sectors are all winners. There is scope for improvement from IOCs, both oily and gassy E&Ps, and oil services. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:39 Energy and Tech Inversely Correlated Since 2021 5:16 Utilities Lag On Higher Treasury Yields 6:34 Forward Oil Outperforming Oil Equities 10:30 Sector Growth and CROCI Comparison 14;44 On A Personal Note

 In this week's episode, David and Ian discuss the continued chop fest, how the Magnificent Seven is a red flag, although at the same time Financials and Transportation stocks look good, which aids the bullish thesis that this consolidation resolves in the direction of the primary trend. They also discuss if the mega cap tech and Magnificent Seven era is over, what is going on with Consumer Staples, Utilities, and is it interest rate or inflation driven. Other topics discussed are tangible assets, the U.S. Dollar, the SpaceX IPO, and the next generation of market technicians. 

July 24, 2026 - Public Service Commission CEO and Chair Rory Christian visits the studio to explain how financial penalties are used to incentivize better customer service by New York's utility operators. We also discuss the state utility regulator's role in developing future nuclear power and data center projects.

It's Friday, July 24. Here are today's top stories around Central Indiana. Want to go deeper on the stories you hear on WFYI News Now? Visit wfyi.org and follow us on social media to get local news every day. WFYI News Now is hosted by Barb Anguiano and produced by Zach Bundy. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Industrial Talk is onsite at PowerGen and talking to Bill Kaewert, Strategic Advisor/Board Member with Stored Energy Systems about "Data Centers and DC Power Solutions". Bill Kaewert, a veteran of the power generation industry, discussed the challenges and innovations in maintaining electric power at the PowerGen conference in San Antonio. He highlighted the significant load growth due to hyperscale data centers, AI, population growth, and electrification, which has led to a 80-gigawatt reduction in dispatchable energy over the past decade. Kaewert emphasized the role of data centers in providing dispatchable power, noting they have 100 gigawatts of generators. He advocated for decentralized energy solutions, including storage and on-site generation, to address these challenges and suggested that individual and commercial entities should invest in their own power assets to mitigate rising electric bills. Outline Introduction and Overview of PowerGen Conference Scott introduces the episode of Industrial Talk, sponsored by the Propane Education and Research Council, highlighting their commitment to safety training and innovative propane-powered technology.Scott thanks listeners for their support and introduces the PowerGen conference in San Antonio, encouraging listeners to attend in 2027.Scott introduces Bill Kaewert, a power generation industry professional, and mentions his height as a joke. Bill Kaewert's Background and Role at PowerGen Bill Kaewert shares that he has been attending PowerGen for over 20 years and works for a manufacturing company specializing in power electronics.Bill discusses the primary reason for his attendance at PowerGen: the increasing demand for electric power due to load growth, hyperscale data centers, AI data centers, population growth, and electrification of transportation.He highlights the issue of retiring dispatchable generation while load growth continues, emphasizing the importance of maintaining uninterruptible electric power.Bill mentions his role at Stored Energy Systems LLC, which manufactures power electronics for critical power applications in hospitals, data centers, and government facilities. Challenges in Maintaining Electric Power Bill explains the challenges of maintaining electric power with the increasing demand and the retirement of dispatchable generation.He discusses the role of data centers in providing dispatchable power, noting that data centers have around 100 gigawatts of generators ready to rock and roll.Bill emphasizes the importance of using data center generators before an outage to prevent serious problems, such as those seen in Texas during the winter storm.He mentions the need to readdress EPA and other regulations to allow the use of standby generators before an actual outage. Innovation and Solutions in Electric Power Bill discusses the potential for innovation in electric power, with individuals and businesses using storage batteries and on-site generation.He describes the concept of prosumers, who sometimes use grid power and sometimes produce their own power for export.Bill highlights the need for experimentation and failure to find the best practices for electric power management.He mentions the role of states as laboratories of democracy in finding solutions that work best for different geographic areas. The Role of Utilities and Market Dynamics Bill and Scott discuss the inefficiencies and limitations of the existing grid and the need for more dynamic and efficient management.Bill emphasizes the importance of individual experiments and innovations in bringing your own power (BYOP) to address the challenges of the electric grid.He mentions the Texas Senate Bill Six, which incentivizes large loads to take responsibility for financing new assets and avoid stranded assets.Bill highlights the potential for revolutionizing electric power through BYOP and the role of states in implementing their own regulations. The Impact of Data Centers and Electrification Bill provides statistics from Grid Strategies LLC, showing that 35-40% of demand growth is due to population and economic growth, not data centers.He explains that only 20-25% of the demand increase is attributable to hyperscale data centers and AI, with the rest coming from electrification of transportation and other factors.Bill argues that data centers are unfairly blamed for rate increases, as they are easy targets and not the primary cause of the demand growth.He advises residential and commercial customers to take charge of their electric power and invest in on-site assets to reduce or even zero out their electric bills. Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources Bill discusses the challenges of coordinating distributed energy resources, particularly inverter-based resources, which are becoming a majority of power generation.He mentions a massive power outage in Spain last April, where inverter-based resources were a significant factor, and the ongoing investigation into the cause.Bill highlights the complexity of managing distributed energy resources and the need for coordination to avoid stability issues.He emphasizes the importance of individual commercial enterprises in contributing to the problem or averaging out the impact on the grid. Conclusion and Contact Information Bill provides his contact information, encouraging listeners to reach out to him on LinkedIn.Scott thanks Bill for the conversation and highlights the importance of the PowerGen conference for the power generation industry.Scott encourages listeners to connect with him and other industry professionals to share their stories and innovations.The episode concludes with a reminder to listeners to stay tuned for more conversations and updates from the Industrial Talk podcast. If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2026. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy! BILL KAEWERT'S CONTACT INFORMATION: Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-kaewert/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stored-energy-systems-llc-sens-/ Company Website: https://www.sens-usa.com/ PODCAST VIDEO: https://youtu.be/bwdRLWfLJVw THE STRATEGIC REASON "WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST": OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES: NEOM: https://www.neom.com/en-us Hexagon: https://hexagon.com/ Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ Fictiv: https://www.fictiv.com/ Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/ Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/ Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/ We the 15: https://www.wethe15.org/ YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX: LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/ Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/ Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free License For Future Industrial Leader):

July 22, 2026 ~ Jim Runestad, State Senator R- White Lake and chairman of the Michigan Republican Party discusses the newly signed budget and a ballot proposal that would prohibit political contributions from utilities and government contractors. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PFAS regulation now has more moving parts, deadlines, and compliance pathways than ever, but the bottom-line advice for water utilities is simple: keep moving.In this episode, Amanda Canida of Black & Veatch explains how utilities can navigate the regulatory complexity while advancing the treatment projects needed to meet federal drinking water standards.Federal monitoring data indicates that roughly 10 percent of public water systems could be affected by the four-parts-per-trillion limits for PFOA and PFOS. Utilities can pursue cleaner water sources or blend supplies, but many are preparing to install treatment at a central plant or directly at an individual well.EPA has proposed retaining the PFOA and PFOS limits while restarting the regulatory process for several other PFAS compounds and creating a streamlined exemption pathway for systems that need more time. Once that exemption rule is finalized, utilities would have 180 days to apply and may need interim measures such as temporary treatment, alternate water supplies, source-control planning, or public education.The challenge is increasingly financial, as construction costs have risen and demand has grown for the equipment and treatment media needed to remove PFAS. Utilities are already slowing other capital projects, shifting money between priorities, and setting aside contingency funds to cover emerging treatment needs.Canida outlines how desktop evaluations and laboratory testing can help systems compare granular activated carbon and ion exchange before committing to longer pilot studies. Utilities must also calculate when treatment needs to be operating—not merely completed—to keep their annual PFAS averages below the federal limit by April 2029.The path forward is to pursue funding now, prepare customers for difficult decisions, and design treatment systems that can adapt as regulators address more of the thousands of PFAS compounds under review.Learn more about PFAS from Black & Veatch.waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them. Gov. Sherrill Tries to Control NJ's Utility Bills (First) | What's Unseen at the Grocery Store (Starts at :18) | 10-Question Quiz: 2026 World Cup (Starts at :45) If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.   Image:  The New Fred Meyer on Interstate on Lombard (7404 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR 97217). This version has additional correction to correct for poor white balance and slight counterclockwise rotation, 23 December 2004 (Original:  lyzadangerDerivative work:  Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every morning, Gary Siders Jr. left a house where sixteen children were confined to a single room and went to work delivering food to strangers. He had a phone. A car. Customer ratings. Small talk at restaurant counters. Then every night he drove back to Ohmer Street and walked into the other reality. He held both, simultaneously, for years — and never cracked in public.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott examines the compartmentalization that makes that possible, and what it says about the minds inside that house. Because nothing about the Siders operation was falling apart. Taxes paid. Utilities running. Regular shopping trips. This was a managed household — organized around confinement instead of care — and three generations participated in the management.The conversation turns to Elizabeth Siders, married at fifteen while pregnant, cut off from her family for fifteen years, possibly pregnant twenty times starting at age thirteen. Scott works through whether a person shaped by that kind of control from childhood can meaningfully be called a decision-maker — and what the DNA testing investigators are now running on the older children could reveal about how far inward this family collapsed.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#SidersFamily #GarySiders #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #OhioHouseOfHorrors #16KidsOhio #FamilyPsychology #Compartmentalization #CoerciveControl #VintonCounty

It's Thursday, July 16. Here are today's top stories around Central Indiana. Want to go deeper on the stories you hear on WFYI News Now? Visit wfyi.org and follow us on social media to get local news every day. WFYI News Now is hosted by Barb Anguiano and produced by Zach Bundy. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

At midnight on 16 July 2015, 140 workers at the state-owned Qulliq Energy company in Nunavut, Canada, walked out on strike demanding pay increases to keep up with rising prices. The strike, by members of the Nunavut Employees Union who maintained power lines and plants in the region, continued for three weeks until the local government offered them a new three-year pay deal which included pay rises of 2% in the first year and 1.5% in each of the subsequent years, which the workers accepted.More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7352/nunavut-power-workers-strikeOur work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on patreon. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at patreon.com/workingclasshistory.See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/todayBrowse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/dateCheck out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.comCheck out books, posters, clothing and more in our online store, here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.comIf you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, Working Class History

Living the Slow Life: Retiring in Cuenca, Ecuador with William HutterWhat if the secret to a fulfilling retirement was simply slowing down? William Hutter didn't plan to fall in love with Cuenca, Ecuador. He went to visit his husband's hometown and kept crying every time he had to leave. Eventually, he stopped leaving.In this episode, William shares what life is really like in one of South America's most livable cities for LGBTQ+ expats. A therapist and educator by training, William brings both personal warmth and honest reflection to everything from the $235-a-year private health insurance to the night watchmen who bicycle through his neighborhood blowing a whistle. This is one of the most grounded, real-world conversations we've had on the show.What We Cover:* How William ended up in Cuenca and why it felt like home from the very first visit* The city's geography, elevation, and why "eternal spring" is more than just a marketing phrase* Cost of living in 2024, including what's changed as more expats have arrived* Housing options, from renting in the city center to buying a two-bedroom condo for under $180,000* The healthcare system, including $235-a-year private insurance that covers dental and vision, no questions asked about pre-existing conditions* LGBTQ+ life, visibility, and safety, including holding hands in public and a brand new Pride parade* Visa and residency options for retirees, with a look at the investment visa, marital visa, and path to citizenship* Walkability, the 35-cent tram, and why Uber doesn't exist in Cuenca* Food culture, from fresh markets and guinea pig to the best pistachio ice cream you'll ever have* The honest trade-offs, including inconsistent sidewalks, occasional brownouts, and the need for flexibilityTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction to William Hutter and his unexpected path to Cuenca02:13 - Why William cried every time he had to leave04:02 - What most people get wrong about Cuenca05:00 - Three words that describe Cuenca: relational, walkable, grounded06:00 - Who thrives in Cuenca and who struggles09:33 - Geography, elevation, and surrounding landscape10:23 - Climate, green spaces, and year-round spring12:19 - Humidity, weather patterns, and proximity to the coast15:30 - Cost of living and how expat growth is changing prices17:15 - Rental and purchase prices, city center vs. outside19:18 - What a retired couple actually needs to live comfortably22:05 - Utilities, internet, and no heating or air conditioning25:16 - Housing market dynamics and neighborhood differences26:02 - Language, Spanish proficiency, and William's honest advice31:23 - Walkability, the tram, buses, and getting around without a car35:33 - Terrain and sidewalk realities for seniors with mobility concerns37:19 - Taxis, ride-share alternatives, and the cost of getting around39:10 - LGBTQ+ community, visibility, and safety as a same-sex couple45:21 - Pride events, gay bars, and expat community meetups46:35 - Visa options, residency, and the path to Ecuadorian citizenship48:44 - Taxes, private insurance, and the public healthcare system51:46 - $235-a-year health coverage and pre-existing conditions53:53 - Medications, same-day appointments, and what healthcare really costs56:07 - Crime, gun laws, and neighborhood safety59:19 - Night watchmen, safe streets, and walking home after dark61:02 - Arts, culture, museums, and why Cuenca is Ecuador's arts capital65:46 - Food culture, fresh markets, guinea pig, and dining costs71:14 - Cafe culture, ice cream, and coffee without free refills74:09 - Restaurant culture, tipping, and international cuisine78:29 - How Cuenca compares to Mexico and Portugal79:28 - One sentence: why retire in Cuenca?Resources mentioned in this episode:* Montanita, Ecuador, recommended by Brian Longstreth* Duolingo for Spanish practice* San Sebastian neighborhood in Cuenca, recommended for expat-friendly cafes and restaurants* Ecuador expat communities on FacebookThe information shared in this episode reflects the personal experience of our guest and is not intended as legal, financial, or medical advice. Please consult qualified professionals before making any decisions about international relocation, visa applications, healthcare, or financial planning.

This week on Mac Geek Gab 1150, Pilot Pete, Adam Christianson, and Dave Hamilton pack an Embrace Your Geekness Day episode with Quick Tips you’ll put to work immediately. You’ll learn how to schedule birthday messages so you never miss one, silence those pesky automatic Shortcuts notifications, and give Apple Intelligence the context it needs to actually help. From automating Theater Mode the moment CarPlay connects, to using your iPhone to check for ticks, to texting “Marco” so your lost iPhone sings until you find it, these are the tips that keep you sharp. You’ll also dig into searching Safari history to retrace your steps, building Smart Folders to hunt down space-hogging files, and using Photos’ Map utility to surface shots from wherever you are. Then it’s your questions, answered. You’ll find out how to identify and clear runaway RAM, where Messages in the Cloud actually lives, and how to reclaim iCloud storage with tools like PowerPhotos and Gemini 2. You’ll get the real story on Time Machine drives and Spotlight, plus how to speed up sluggish Notes syncing. In Cool Stuff Found, the crew serves up Catchin’ Sync, the OBSBOT Tiny 3 webcam, Hyperspace for reclaiming space with file clones, and imessage-exporter to back up your texts. It’s an hour-plus of geek gold, and if you tune in every week, you Don’t Get Caught missing the fix you needed. 00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1150 for Monday, July 13th, 2026 July 13th: Embrace Your Geekness Day MGG Monthly Giveaway – Win a license to Mole Quick Tips 00:00:01 Jim-QT-Schedule Sending of Birthday Messages 00:04:16 JT Ray-QT-Disable automatic Shortcuts notifications 00:06:33 QT-Apple Intelligence and its context 00:09:26 Todd-Automate Theater Mode when CarPlay is enabled 00:10:44 Troy-QT-Use your iPhone to check for ticks 00:12:49 Larry-QT-Text Marco to your lose iPhone and have it play a song until you find it 00:18:31 Andy-QT-Search Safari’s History to find places you’ve visited 00:20:12 KiwiGraham-QT-Setup Smart Folders to find large files 00:23:38 Greg-QT-Use Photos > Utilities > Map to find photos in your current location (and elsewhere) Sponsors 00:26:42  SPONSOR: Helix Sleep makes premium mattresses and bedding that are customized to fit your personal needs, and conveniently shipped to your door. Go to https://helixsleep.com/MGG for 27% Off Sitewide. 00:27:50 SPONSOR: CleanMyMac. Get Tidy Today! Try 7 days free and use our code MACGEEK for 20% off at https://clnmy.com/MACGEEK 00:29:02 SPONSOR: OneSkin. Born from over a decade of longevity research, OneSkin's OS-01 Peptide is proven to target the visible signs of aging, helping you unlock your healthiest skin now and as you age. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code MGG at https://www.oneskin.co/MGG  #oneskinpod #ad Your Questions Answered and Tips Shared! 00:30:31 Bill-1148-How do you identify and clear up RAM usage? iStat Menus Marco Arment's Quitter 00:39:23 Gary-1149-Where can I see Messages In The Cloud? 00:44:17 Roy-How can I clean up my iCloud storage? PowerPhotos Gemini 2, the duplicate finder (and “similar finder”) 00:53:25 Bill-1148-Turns out you can’t exclude Time Machine drives from Spotlight 00:56:51 Henry-1148-Speeding Up Notes Syncing Cool Stuff Found 01:01:20 Andy-1149-CSF-Catchin' Sync 01:02:15 Andy-CSF-Obsbot Tiny3 Webcam 01:08:53 Harvey-CSF-Hyperspace to use file clones to save space 01:11:44 Chris-CSF-1149–imessage-exporter to export your iMessages 01:17:42 MGG 1150 Outtro MGG Monthly Giveaway Bandwidth Provided by CacheFly Pilot Pete's Aviation Podcast: So There I Was (for Aviation Enthusiasts) The Debut Film Podcast – Adam's new podcast! Dave's Business Brain (for Entrepreneurs) and Gig Gab (for Working Musicians) Podcasts MGG Merch is Available! Mac Geek Gab iOS app Mac Geek Gab YouTube Page Mac Geek Gab Live Calendar This Week's MGG Premium Contributors MGG Apple Podcasts Reviews feedback@macgeekgab.com 224-888-GEEK Active MGG Sponsors and Coupon Codes List BackBeat Media Podcast Network

The big things you need to know:First, we are making several changes to our S&P 500 sector views with upgrades to Tech to overweight and Consumer Discretionary to market weight, alongside downgrades of Communication Services to market weight and Utilities to underweight.Second, the expected growth rate for 2Q26 S&P 500 EPS has continued to drift up ahead of reporting season, but trends in beat rates and EPS revisions have been mixed.Third, on our broader outlook we're on guard for a shift back into US and mega cap Growth leadership.

Industrial operations depend on water of a predictable quantity and quality, yet many organizations still treat that reliability as a given. Dr. Newsha Ajami joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to examine water security as a business continuity issue and resilience as the ability to withstand pressure, maintain operations, and recover quickly when systems fail.  Connecting Risk, Resilience, and Recovery  For industrial water users, water security means maintaining access to the quantity and quality required to operate without interruption. That reliability depends on more than the water source itself. Treatment systems require energy, critical processes need backup plans, and organizations must understand what happens when one part of the system becomes unavailable.  Dr. Newsha connects risk assessment directly to resilience planning. Organizations can reduce exposure by developing portfolios of water sources and solutions, building redundancy, preparing for power disruptions, and allocating resources before a crisis occurs. Recovery should also create an opportunity to reconsider infrastructure, governance, and institutional structures rather than automatically rebuilding the same system in the same way.  Investing Before the System Fails  Proactive water decisions often require leadership willing to invest before the immediate need becomes visible. Dr. Newsha highlights Arizona's decision to store Colorado River allocations underground, Yuba Water Agency's collaboration with Blue Forest to support watershed and infrastructure resilience, and San Francisco's on-site water reuse requirements for qualifying buildings.  These examples demonstrate that resilience can be strengthened through policy, financial models, external partnerships, water reuse, supply planning, and business model innovation. They also show why public agencies and private businesses may approach risk differently—and why each can learn from the other.  Data Centers as a Water Challenge and Opportunity  Data center development places new attention on water availability, cooling demand, energy use, and community infrastructure. Rather than treating these facilities only as a threat to local resources, Dr. Newsha encourages water professionals to examine where they are built, how they are cooled, and what innovations could reduce their water and energy requirements.  Potential strategies include more efficient computing models, chip-level cooling, heat-absorbing materials, recovered-heat applications, water recycling, and co-location with facilities that can use excess heat. Collaboration between data center developers and host communities could also direct new investment toward aging or inadequate water infrastructure.  Making Water a National Priority  The Aspen national water strategy initiative brought together participants from agriculture, industry, energy, transportation, engineering, technology, rural and urban communities, Native American communities, and different political backgrounds. The goal was to identify shared principles and actions that could guide water decisions across national, state, and local levels.  Dr. Newsha argues that water must be managed as a national security issue. That requires investment not only in technology, but also in institutions, policies, business models, research, natural infrastructure, and the governance structures that shape decision-making.  Industrial water professionals can contribute by helping clients identify vulnerabilities, challenge assumptions, and make reliability investments before an interruption forces the decision.  Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!    Timestamps  01:19 — Trace Blackmore shares highlights from the previous week, including the Fourth of July, the daytime edition of The Hang with AWT Young Professionals, and the Scaling Up Nation's role in raising the bar across industrial water treatment.  03:05 — Trace recognizes several July 10 observances before turning the spotlight toward the water treatment industry's own annual celebration.  04:36 — Industrial Water Week 2026 returns October 5–9 with dedicated episodes covering pretreatment, boilers, cooling, wastewater, and careers in industrial water.  06:38 — Words of Water with James   09:15 — Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals 11:01 — Interview with Dr. Newsha Ajami, founding director of the Risk Resilience and Recovery Program at Stanford University, about water security, resilient infrastructure, risk planning, recovery, and the policies and financial systems that shape water decisions 12:17 — Dr. Newsha explains how her engineering and hydrology background expanded into water policy, regulation, and infrastructure finance.  13:50 — Water's everyday invisibility can create a false sense that reliable access will always continue without deliberate planning or investment.  15:35 — Water security for industrial users means maintaining the quantity and quality required to operate reliably and avoid business interruptions.  16:23 — Resilience requires systems that can tolerate pressure, maintain operations through redundancy, and recover quickly after failure.  17:45 — Risk, resilience, and recovery connect through better vulnerability assessment, diversified water sources, backup plans, and improved rebuilding decisions.  21:26 — Utilities, insurers, financial institutions, nonprofits, and government agencies all influence how resilient water systems become.  22:09 — Reactive business models and inflexible funding structures often delay resilience investments until after a disaster has occurred.  25:51 — Arizona's groundwater storage, Yuba Water Agency's watershed investments, and Moulton Niguel Water District's operational changes demonstrate different approaches to long-term resilience.  29:45 — San Francisco's onsite water reuse requirements show how policy can support development while reducing pressure on centralized water supplies.  38:32 — The Aspen National Water Strategy seeks to create a nonpartisan roadmap shaped by diverse regions, sectors, communities, and political perspectives.  41:13 — Dr. Newsha explains why water should be treated as a national security issue and why innovation must extend beyond technology to policies, institutions, and business models.  43:44 — Stanford's Risk Resilience and Recovery Program examines how governance, insurance, finance, and legislation affect preparation for natural hazards and disaster recovery.  45:46 — Dr. Newsha invites listeners to connect through Stanford and LinkedIn to follow the program's research, partnerships, and future events.  47:51 — Trace summarizes the conversation, emphasizing risk awareness, system redundancy, improved recovery planning, and collaboration among all stakeholders.  51:00 — Trace encourages professionals to apply past operational data, involve every relevant stakeholder, and help more water treaters discover the Scaling UP! H2O podcast.    Quotes  "And even when they break, be able to bounce back quickly."  "Data centers, a challenge and an opportunity."  "But we use we have to use this opportunity to, we have to use this as an opportunity to change, to do better, to build our infrastructure."  "Water is an invisible connector across everything we have, we do, we depend on."  "We do talk about water, but we do not manage water as a national security issue. And water is a national security issue."    Connect with Dr. Newsha Ajami Email: newsha@stanford.edu   Website: Stanford University   LinkedIn: Newsha Ajami, PhD | LinkedIn    Guest Resources Mentioned   ASPEN – National Water Strategy  Governance for Risk, Resilience, and Recovery (GR3)  Aspen National Water Strategy Initiative  Arizona Water Banking Authority — Water Storage  Blue Forest — Yuba I Forest Resilience Bond   Dr. Newsha Ajami — Stanford Profile  Article 12C of the San Francisco Health Code  San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — Onsite Water Reuse   Yuba Water Agency — Forest Resilience Bond    Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned  AWT (Association of Water Technologies)  Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses  Submit a Show Idea  The Rising Tide Mastermind   Words of Water with James McDonald Today's definition is water lost from a cooling tower as liquid droplets entrained in the exhaust air. It is independent of water lost by evaporation.    2026 Events for Water Professionals  Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.    This episode made possible through our valued partners at: 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeMinnesota regulators Sydnie Lieb and Pete Wyckoff on why utility distribution spending — now a third of capital budgets and the biggest driver of rising bills — escapes the scrutiny the rest of the grid faces, and how to fix that.00:00 - Introduction04:23 - How distribution is regulated differently than generation and transmission09:25 - Why distribution matters now: an aging system and the build-more incentive14:00 - Contestable “mandatory” spending: undergrounding, DERMS software, capitalization22:19 - Reliability standards and the cost of chasing 100 percent28:42 - The MISO comparison: valuing a lost hour, and the scale of the numbers35:12 - Non-wires alternatives: batteries, the Xcel project, and modeling gaps40:31 - What regulators should require: AMI forecasts and beyond the prudence test47:22 - The speed objection: does more analysis slow things down?50:10 - Why spending caps and rate freezes are the wrong fix52:40 - Spending more anyway, and recent Minnesota PUC disappointments55:09 - Restructured markets: does the same logic apply?58:38 - The vision of a well-functioning process and scaling it nationally

Here's obvious: Hotel energy prices aren't coming down. Rick West, CEO at Commercial Green Solutions, and Kenny Weston, VP at Commercial Green Solutions, explained why hoteliers need to stop treating utility costs as fixed. ⚡ The "double whammy" is real: your kWh costs are up AND your demand charges are through the roof. But there's $50 billion in rebates sitting in utility programs that most hotels don't even know exist.

Industrial Talk is onsite at Octave Live and talking to Tobias Pforr, Principal Business Strategist at Octave about "Unleashing technology to improve the utility markets. Overview Tobias Pforr discussed his role at Octave, a company focused on network intelligence systems for utilities. He highlighted the importance of accurate asset documentation and the challenges of managing dynamic elements like weather and electric vehicle consumption. Pforr emphasized the need for clean, high-quality data to ensure system resilience and actionable insights. He shared his background in utility operations and innovation, including his experience with a Swiss utility and the establishment of a startup incubator. Pforr also touched on the regulatory complexities and the evolving demands on utilities, stressing the importance of managing complexity and maintaining system reliability. Outline Barcelona Cyber Security Congress Announcement Scott introduces the Barcelona Cyber Security Congress, emphasizing its importance for cybersecurity professionals.The event is scheduled for November 3-5 in Barcelona, with networking opportunities and expert discussions.Scott mentions their own participation and encourages listeners to mark their calendars.Contact information for the event is available on Industrial Talk. Introduction to Industrial Talk Podcast Scott welcomes listeners to the Industrial Talk Podcast, celebrating industry professionals and their contributions.The podcast is broadcasting live from Octave Live in Austin, Texas, featuring various industry guests.Scott introduces Tobias Pforr, who has a challenging last name to pronounce. Tobias Pforr's Background and Role Tobias Pforr explains his name origin and its French and German roots.Tobias shares his experience with Hexagon, joining in 2022 and working with laser scanners and asset management.He discusses his transition to the enterprise software division and his current role at Octave.Tobias highlights his background in industrial engineering, MBA, and new business development. Challenges in the Utility Space Tobias describes his experience working at a utility in Switzerland, focusing on corporate development and innovation.He discusses the challenges utilities face, including energy price fluctuations, regulatory requirements, and market dynamics.Tobias mentions the startup incubator he established within the utility to foster innovation.He explains his role at Octave, focusing on networks and services, and the importance of understanding customer problems. Octave's Solutions for Utilities Tobias explains Octave's strong documentation solution, emphasizing the importance of accurate data.He discusses the transformation of network information systems (NIS) into network intelligence systems.Octave's solution helps utilities manage dynamic elements like weather, production surpluses, and electric vehicle consumption.Tobias highlights the need for actionable insights to keep the system resilient and functioning. Data Quality and Real-Time Updates Scott and Tobias discuss the challenges of maintaining accurate data in utilities.Tobias suggests using mobile devices to check the accuracy of asset locations in real-time.He emphasizes the importance of continuous data cleaning and validation during daily operations.Tobias shares personal experiences with operators and grid owners to illustrate the need for high-quality data. Impact of Storms and System Resilience Scott and Tobias discuss the impact of storms on utility systems and the need for real-time updates.Tobias explains the importance of prioritizing challenges and focusing on core value in utility operations.He highlights the role of documentation in ensuring system resilience and managing dynamic elements.Tobias emphasizes the need for a collaborative approach between developers and users to create effective solutions. Future of Utilities and Regulatory Requirements Scott and Tobias discuss the future of utilities, emphasizing the increasing complexity and regulatory requirements.Tobias explains the importance of managing complexity and ensuring system reliability.He highlights the challenges of remote work and the need for digital skills in utility operations.Tobias discusses the role of technology in helping utilities navigate regulatory requirements and maintain system resilience. Octave's Role in Utility Modernization Tobias explains Octave's role in helping utilities modernize their systems and manage dynamic environments.He discusses the importance of documentation and data quality in ensuring system reliability.Tobias highlights the need for a collaborative approach between developers and users to create effective solutions.He emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and adapting to changing market dynamics. Conclusion and Contact Information Scott thanks Tobias for the insightful conversation and encourages listeners to connect with him on LinkedIn.Tobias provides his contact information and invites listeners to reach out for further discussions.Scott wraps up the podcast, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and human interaction in business success.The podcast concludes with a reminder to visit Industrial Talk for more insights and connections. If interested in being on the Industrial Talk show, simply contact us and let's have a quick conversation. Finally, get your exclusive free access to the Industrial Academy and a series on “Why You Need To Podcast” for Greater Success in 2026. All links designed for keeping you current in this rapidly changing Industrial Market. Learn! Grow! Enjoy! TOBIAS PFORR'S CONTACT INFORMATION: Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-pforr/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/octaveintelligence/ Company Website: https://www.octave.com/ PODCAST VIDEO: https://youtu.be/OfvvE__546I THE STRATEGIC REASON "WHY YOU NEED TO PODCAST": OTHER GREAT INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES: NEOM: https://www.neom.com/en-us Hexagon: https://hexagon.com/ Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ Fictiv: https://www.fictiv.com/ Hitachi Vantara: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/home.html Industrial Marketing Solutions:  https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-marketing/ Industrial Academy: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial-academy/ Industrial Dojo: https://industrialtalk.com/industrial_dojo/ We the 15: https://www.wethe15.org/ YOUR INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TOOLBOX: LifterLMS: Get One Month Free for $1 – https://lifterlms.com/ Active Campaign: Active Campaign Link Social Jukebox: https://www.socialjukebox.com/ Industrial Academy (One Month Free Access And One Free License For Future Industrial Leader): Business Beatitude the Book Do you desire a more joy-filled, deeply-enduring sense of accomplishment and success? Live your business the way you want to...

US residential electricity prices have risen by more than 40 per cent since the start of 2021, which is much faster than general inflation. Utilities requested a total of $31 billion in increased rates last year, double the amount in 2024. And investor-owned utilities are planning to spend $1.4 trillion on capital projects over the next five years – enough on one calculation, to build almost 2,000 Hoover Dams at today's prices. So why are American electricity bills going up, and what can be done to provide some relief for hard-pressed consumers?In this episode, host Ed Crooks and regular contributor Dr Melissa Lott are joined by Charles Hua, founder and executive director of PowerLines, a nonprofit launched in 2024. Charles's focus is on US states' Public Utilities Commissions: the roughly 200 commissioners across the country who oversee around $200 billion in annual spending and ultimately determine what consumers pay. He calls them the “US Supreme Court justices of energy”.The discussion opens with questions of consumers' perceptions, and how they align with reality. The data show that in the past few years, electricity bills have been rising, on average, explaining why the issue has been rising up the political agenda.Recent Ipsos polling commissioned by PoweLines found that four in five Americans feel powerless about energy costs. The proportion who believe their state officials are serving their interests as consumers fell from 38 per cent to 29 per cent in a single year. Charles calls this "a new politics of electricity." It is a domain that until recently sat outside mainstream political attention, but now reaches governors' offices and the White House.Charles and Melissa then unpack what is actually driving the increases. Melissa walks through the top five cost drivers identified in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's analysis: fuel and wholesale supply, distribution costs, generation capex, transmission costs, and cost recovery from extreme weather events. Charles points beyond the line items to a fundamental issue: the traditional utility business model, which structurally rewards capital spending. The question about the impact of data centers is unavoidable. Charles breaks it down: until now, data centres have not been a meaningful driver of price increases across most of the country. But that does not mean they will not be in future. PJM's capacity auction, where prices have rocketed, is one early signal that the picture is starting to change.Charles offers three solutions. First, get more out of the existing grid, which is currently running at roughly 50 per cent utilisation, through technologies he describes as "ibuprofen for the grid." Second, modernise the utility business model, potentially drawing on the UK's totex approach, where utilities can earn a return on operational as well as capital spending. Third, improve grid planning, particularly how load is forecast and how integrated resource plans are built.Melissa zooms out to remind listeners what is actually at stake. Borrowing a line from Amory Lovins, she says: "I don't care about my electrons. I care about cold beer and hot showers." The question is not just about price, but about whether households can keep their homes safe and liveable year-round. You can learn more about PowerLines at PowerLines.org. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mike gets a tutorial on The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.Inside California's Gay-Certification ProgramThe state is pressuring utilities to award $633 million in contracts to “LGBT” businesses.The scheme operates through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates privately owned utility companies. California utilities spent more than $43 billion in 2024 on contractors—fuel suppliers, surveyors, engineers, and others—whose work helps deliver water, gas, electricity, and internet service to California's 39 million residents.In 1986, Governor George Deukmejian signed Assembly Bill 3678, which required certain CPUC-regulated utilities to submit annual “plans” for buying goods and services from woman- and minority-owned companies. Two years later, CPUC created its “Supplier Diversity Program,” which would enforce the law and set contracting “goals” for large utilities.After hours of public comment and sometimes heated debate at the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board meeting on Wednesday, board members voted to begin decommissioning the Minnehaha off-leash recreation area. All but one board member supported the decision, which is part of the Minnehaha Regional Park long-term plan.The board heard from dozens of people, including many dog owners who said they have been using the park for more than 30 years. Members of the Indigenous community argued the land is a sacred Dakota site with thousands of years of history.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.