The State of Energy · Rocky Mountain Propane Association

Special Guest Robert Bryce: Energy Realism is Energy Humanism

·25 min·1 clip

3.1 million deaths yearly from cooking with dung—more than hurricanes kill.

The show starts with Randy Witt playing around with propane wordplay. Tom Clark is right there with him. The tone stays loose before Robert Bryce even joins in. Then the conversation tightens up fast. Bryce brings his usual energy-politics edge and goes straight at the electrify-everything push. He frames it as a fight over law, cost, and common sense. Berkeley comes up as the main example, with the Ninth Circuit ruling against the city on the issue. New York follows, where Mulhern Gas is fighting a similar battle in the Second Circuit. Sarah Jorgensen, who led the Berkeley case, is part of that New York argument too. The legal hook is the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. Bryce says the propane industry is under pressure from groups that want hydrocarbons gone altogether. He thinks the legal case is strong, though he says the Supreme Court may still need to step in. Denver makes the point sharper. The hosts talk through the oddness of forcing electrification in a place where Denver's electricity can carry higher carbon emissions than the natural gas or propane grid. Colorado's status as a major gas producer makes that look stranger still. The conversation keeps circling back to consumer impact and energy security. Bryce cites Bloomberg New Energy Finance and says hydrocarbon consumption is growing three times faster than wind and solar combined. That is where the slogans start falling apart. He uses that reality to push a sober view of what the U.S. and the West can actually do when many people are living in dire energy poverty. The last note is simple: people need energy that works when the weather does not. Clark closes by pointing listeners to Bryce's writing and the free five-part docuseries Juice, Power, Politics and the Grid.

As heard by us

A blunt propane-and-policy conversation about court fights, grid realities, and weather-resilient power.

Robert Bryce joins The State of Energy for a loose, talk-radio conversation that ties propane, building codes, and energy policy together. It starts with a propane joke, then moves through Berkeley, a New York case in the Second Circuit, and a Denver lawsuit.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the grid fight without the polish, this one goes straight for the throat.

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