The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
514. How to Solve All of America’s Energy Problems | Alex Epstein
Mon, 13 Jan 2025
Jordan Peterson sits down with philosopher, podcaster, and author Alex Epstein. They discuss the unprecedented need for energy to fuel the AI boom, the potential for abundant energy to outpace the problems it could create, the failure of the net-zero agenda, the necessity of a pro-human, pro-fossil fuel world, and the governmental policy ideas that would ensure an energy rich future.Alex Epstein is a philosopher and energy expert who argues that "human flourishing" should be the guiding principle of energy and environmental progress. He is the author of the new bestselling book, “Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less.” He is also the creator of EnergyTalkingPoints.com — a source of powerful, well-referenced talking points on energy, environmental, and climate issues. This episode was filmed on December 14th, 2024. | Links |For Alex Epstein: On X https://x.com/AlexEpstein?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorOn YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ImproveThePlanet/videosSubstack https://alexepstein.substack.com/AlexAI https://alexepstein.ai/Energy Talking Points website https://energytalkingpoints.com/“Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas–Not Less” (Book)https://a.co/d/3KCssrr“The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” (Book) https://a.co/d/9Vw7NAQ
Full Episode
There's much more practical things that we can do to keep people safe from climate change, let's say, than making everybody poor by making fossil fuels impossible to access.
You know, we have this clear demand that fossil fuels are needed for and then we restrict fossil fuels some and we start getting these big problems when we were told we would get big wealth.
Well, why would we take off the table any potential source of innovation that would make energy more plentiful and more reliable.
We haven't even reduced the supply of fossil fuels in the world. We've just slowed the growth and we're having all these problems. There's no single town on the planet that runs entirely on renewables.
Poor ones do, they run on wood and metal.
Even if it creates something like an air pollution challenge, it can also create the technology that can filter the air. And if anyone happens to get sick, it can also create the whole medical industry.
I really like your emphasis on the nexus between energy provision and human flourishing. So I had the good fortune to speak again today with Alex Epstein, who I spoke with two years ago, almost to the day. Alex is the author of two influential books. One, the first one, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, and the second one, Fossil Future. And Alex has been beating the pro-human era.
energy slash environment drum for some 17 years. And with increasing effectiveness, I would say he's one of the people at the forefront of the dawning realization that impoverishing humanity and destroying the industrial infrastructure of the West while making energy spectacularly expensive and unreliable
and simultaneously increasing our dependency on, let's say, dictatorial governments, is not really very wise policy, all things considered. And Alex has been an icebreaker in that regard, pointing out to everyone who will listen and listen carefully that...
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