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DB David Blackmon 40 year veteran of the oil and gas industry.

“People pretend that electricity isn't generated by something. It's just there. Just turn your lights on. You don't need to burn coal or natural gas or oil. … We pretend that you can just go about electrifying everything and that eliminates emissions. And it doesn't. The more you electrify things, the more demand you create for coal and natural gas.”

Energy News Beat · Climate & Energy · November 2026

“People pretend that electricity isn't generated by something. It's just there. Just turn your lights on. You don't need to burn coal or natural gas or oil. … We pretend that you can just go about electrifying everything and that eliminates emissions. And it doesn't. The more you electrify things, the more demand you create for coal and natural gas.” — David Blackmon, Energy News Beat

Context

The hosts were reacting to a new IEA electricity report released ahead of the COP31 climate summit. Blackmon gives his objection to the push to electrify everything.

Transcript

Energy News Beat
David Blackmon

Domenico has the right idea for that IEA report, by the way. I'll reach for it if I run out of toilet paper. Oh, goodness.

Stu Turley

See, I got air sick. I like Robert. Robert's solution was even better. I just got air sick and threw up on the dog.

David Blackmon

So the whole electrification thing. I just, I just, my, my eyes, my brain just shuts down when I start reading this crap because, you know, people pretend that electricity isn't generated by something. I mean, these people, it's just there. It's just there. Just turn your lights on. You don't need to burn coal or natural gas or oil or, you know, do anything like you don't need nukes. Just turn your switch on, electrify it. I mean, there are people at that conference who really believe that. And there's, you know, I mean, hell, probably half the U.S. population thinks that way, at least. Probably, that's probably a gross underestimation of it. It's like we pretend that you can just go about electrifying everything and that eliminates emissions. And it doesn't. I mean, it just, the more you electrify things, the more demand you create for coal and natural gas. Dr.

Stu Turley

Yeah, Dr. Gene Nelson is a rock star. When he first showed up on my podcast with a green headband, I was like, holy cow, Batman, I'm in trouble. And when he started articulating facts, I'm like, I'm going to go buy me a green headband. Suddenly I'm going to be like, A rock star. And the man…

Tammy Nemeth

Yep.

Stu Turley

He's one of the PhDs out there that I actually was like, that dude earned his PhD.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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