Energy Policy Goes to the Movies
Okay, maybe not movies, but documentaries and online videos. Still, these can be an engaging way to survey ongoing debates over current and future energy technologies.
The hundreds of thousands migrating north to cities in the U.S. and Europe are drawn by better access to energy, especially electricity. Not much energy is needed for camping… wood or propane for coffee, cooking, and heat, and a battery or solar panel to power phones and flashlights.
Though Americans think of camping and boating as summer vacations, billions around the world live their lives on extended rural “camping trips,” with similarly limited access to energy.
Energy technologies enable us to discover, produce, distribute, and consume energy. State and federal energy policies impact each of these steps with rules, regulations, mandates, subsidies, and taxes. As energy technologies race forward, state and federal energy policies help or hurt, push or pull, direct, delay, or divert.
Electricity and energy access videos provide some background:
• Poverty is Energy Poverty (Texas Public Policy)
• Energy Solutions: Who Chooses? (Izzit.org)
• Power to the Planet (izzit.org)
• How Electricity Explains The World – Juice Full Documentary (Robert Bryce)
Energy Videos by sources…
• Geothermal energy is renewable and powerful. Why is most of it untapped? (DW Planet) And To Save the Planet, Start Digging (Wired, June 21, 2023)
• How to Make Nuclear Innovative (Breakthrough Institute 2017) Also, Why Nuclear Is the Best Energy (Uncharted Territories, Jan, 12, 2024)
• Fusion power: how close are we? | FT Film, Innovative incremental fusion at SHINE. And 5 Reasons Wisconsin is Leading the Way for Fusion (SHINE)
• Thorium energy videos: Can thorium nuclear energy make a comeback? (DW Planet), THORIUM: World’s CHEAPEST Energy! [Copenhagen Atomics], Thorcon Just OBLITERATED Nuclear Energy’s Biggest Problem (Tech for Luddites), ThorCon: Cheap, Reliable, CO2-Free Electricity by Lars Jorgensen @ ThEC2018.
• NATURAL GAS Documentary: Science, History and Future Outlook (Commodity Culture). Overview video. NET Power: burn O2 instead of air, so no CO2 emissions: How Revolutionary NET Power Technology Works, And NET Power Consolidates… (Power, De. 22, 2022)
• Are CO2 emissions a problem? If so, just capture them with cheap solar panels and water: Solar Energy Solves Global Warming (Uncharted Territories, July 11, 2023). More details at Terraform Industries Blog.
• Wind and Solar documentaries? There are so many. I’m not sure which to recommend. Many, many debates on benefits, costs, trade-offs, and grid impacts from increasing intermittent energy sources.
• My two IPS First Look energy presentations: First Look Energy One – Greg Rehmke (play at 1.5x for shorter video!), and The Energy Race, Part Two. First Look.
• Sign up for an online Economic Thinking Workshop (Flyer pdf): Thursday Jan. 18, 2024, 7-9 pm Central. Pay/Donate/Register ($20) via Venmo or Paypal at Economic Thinking Donate page.