The President's Daily Brief - June 24th, 2022. Amidst Record High Gas Prices, the President of the Nation With the Highest Gas/Oil Exports Wants to Double Down on Renewable Energy

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

It’s June 24th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ First up, A new argument yesterday from Joe Biden that renewable energy is really about national security. But will solar and wind energy really keep us safer from foreign influence? I have the answer, coming up. As always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. Word out of Mexico this morning that the Biden Administration has offered up 300,000 new visas to hopeful migrants, many of whom are waiting on the border. We’ll discuss. Finally, I have your emailed suggested on how we get Putin to the negotiating table. Plus a fairly audacious idea from some of my former intel friends. All up next on the President's Daily Brief. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's June 24th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. The brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events in the past 24 hours, all delivered to the President each day by the nation's spymasters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy and this is your brief. Here's what we're going to be talking about this morning. First up, a new argument, yesterday from Joe Biden that renewable energy is really about national security. But will solar and wind energy really keep us safer from foreign influence? I have that answer coming up. As always,

I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. Word out of Mexico this morning that the Biden administration has offered up 300,000 new visas to hopeful migrants, many of whom are waiting on the border. We'll discuss. Finally, I have your emailed suggestions. on how we might get Putin to the negotiating table. Plus, a fairly audacious idea from some of my former Intel friends. All up next on the president's daily brief. First up this morning on the PDB, there was a big push for renewable energy yesterday from the Biden administration. The president himself was at the White House talking about offshore wind energy and how absolutely important it was, but not for environmental reasons, but rather national security reasons.

Here's what he said to wind developers, quote, this is a real boost to our energy security, end quote. Meanwhile, his energy secretary kept up the same kind of rhetoric saying that traditional energy is bad because, quote, the next time that there's a war, that will impact the access that we have to fossil fuels. In other words, the Biden administration is pivoting because now it's less about the environment or climate change and it's more about security. and frankly, it makes sense why they're doing this, because as I briefed you on previously, Europe is losing about half of its natural gas supply because the Russians are shutting them off, and Europe is looking at a very big recession very soon. So it makes political sense anyway to tie a crisis there to energy development here.

But the fundamental assumption that Biden is making is flawed. America is actually the biggest oil and gas exporter in the world. world, or has been in recent years. In other words, because of fracking, we are energy independent. But for argument's sake, let's just suspend reality for a moment, toss aside facts, and say that we don't have an oil and gas industry. And that is why we need to develop our own solar and wind industries, all because we can better control that to keep foreign influence out of our country. But is that true? Do we really have control over those two industries? Well, let's start with offshore wind because that's what Biden was promoting yesterday at the White House.

Now, it's true that most of America's wind blades are made in America. General Electric has a pretty good selection, actually, but there's a big problem. Those offshore blades are so big and so specialized that they require a very special ship and a very special crew, all to take those blades out to sea and install them. But America doesn't control those ships, and we don't have any of those crews. So here are the facts. Globally, there are just over 30 of these very specialized vessels. And of those 30, there are only four in the entire world that can carry and install those big blades like the ones from GE. And those four ships, all foreign with foreign crews. And for what it's worth, they cost about $180,000 a day to operate. But with such a little supply,

just four ships, it's hard to book any of those vessels. They're tied up for months to years in advance, mostly in Europe, by the way, and some in Asia. Now, America does have one ship that's being built. It's by the Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy. But that ship won't be ready until next year, hopefully, and at a cost of $500 million. One more piece of bad news here. You might be thinking that, well, we could just have some of these foreign companies install those offshore wind projects, and hopefully they won't turn against us. But there's something called the Jones Act, and it's a 1920 law that says that ships moving between two ports in the U.S., like they would be in this case, in these offshore wind deals,

well, those ships have to be built, owned, crude, and registered in the United States. Now, it's true that you could amend that law, of course, because we have no. ships that match that requirement. But putting aside the whole national security issue here, you know, we're trying to become more independent. And that obviously doesn't work in this case. There's a big debate right now on whether or not to amend this 1920 law because unions actually want to keep it. And that's a big issue, most especially for the Democratic Party who controls both the House and the Senate. And they can't figure out what to do. They're still fighting. So the bottom line, folks is this. Offshore wind farms do not come with the national security benefits. So on the facts,

Joe Biden is just flat out wrong to suggest otherwise. Now, we could keep talking about the pros and the cons of offshore wind projects. So for instance, they keep getting canceled off of the East Coast because people there don't like looking at the wind towers. Or there's an environmental cost to all the fish in the ocean. Or sometimes the wind just doesn't blow. But the point here is that you can't make the argument, as Joe Biden did yesterday, that offshore wind projects are good for America's national security. The data, once again, just don't support him. So meanwhile, let's talk about solar. For those of you who are regular PDB listeners, you know already about this issue.

I've briefed you on it previously. But let's recap. America used to have solar panel manufacturers, but years ago, China stole their designs, their intellectual property. through cyber attacks or recruiting spies. And now they dominate the solar panel market. There is an American ban on those panels, but the Chinese government got very sneaky years ago, and they moved their manufacturing operations to Cambodia and Thailand and Malaysia,

pretending not to be Chinese. Now, there was a big investigation into that by the Commerce Department, and that likely would have led to a ban on solar panels from those countries too. but Joe Biden effectively canceled that investigation about two weeks ago, along with some related tariffs, all so that he could get solar projects going here, albeit with foreign parts. So once again, you may want to promote solar power for lots of reasons, but one is not because of national security. China and its friends own that industry. Plus, in both the case of solar and wind, there are many days where the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow, so you need batteries,

industrial grade batteries, to store up energy for the off days. Well, three quarters of lithium ion batteries are made in, you guessed it, China. And the minerals that go into those batteries, things like cobalt, lithium, and nickel, well, they are in short supply in the U.S. because we generally don't mind those things. So let's take an example, cobalt. The debt, Democratic Republic of Congo is home to half of the world's known resources, and it accounts for around 70% of global supply. And that's why, as you'll recall, I briefed you on the brewing war in eastern Congo. It's really important. And by the way, of those cobalt mines in the Congo, half of them are owned by, yeah, China. So if I were briefing you this morning in the White House

and you wanted me to review your speech on renewables with this suggestion, that you're that solar and wind are better for our national security, here's what I'd say. Don't do it. Because the data don't support your argument. You will absolutely look silly. Not to me, but to the world. And it's very obvious why. America does not control the solar panels. We don't have the right ships, and we don't mine the right minerals. But China does. And that means that we'd be knocking on Beijing's door every time that we wanted to build out. a new solar project or a wind farm. That is quite obviously not a smart move for our national security. So the upshot I think, ladies and gentlemen, is that we need to go back to the future for America's

energy mix. Ten years ago, we had an all the above approach where we encouraged oil and gas and solar and wind, all of it, because we knew that we needed to diversify and that the new industries of solar and wind would take decades to develop and mature, but still, we should support them. So my counsel to you is, let's go back to that. And not just the rhetoric, but the policies, because all the above is a good argument to make for national security. Coming up, a closer look at what's on my radar. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T mobile bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon.

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Restrictions apply. As always, I'm watching a few other stories this morning. Put these two on your radar. Some very interesting information coming out of Mexico this morning. The Interior Minister of Mexico, a fellow named Adam Augusto Lopez, confirmed rumors that I've been hearing that the Biden administration is increasing the visas available to those caravan members from Central America and others who are all waiting in northern Mexico. So here's what Lopez said.

Quote, every day we're talking with the American government. And they have agreed to grant 300,000 temporary work visas, 150,000 of which will be for Mexicans or foreigners who are in Mexico waiting for the possibility of migrating north. Now, subsequent information out this morning confirms that the other 150,000, would actually be split amongst Central American nations for people who have yet to leave but want to. So lots of questions about this. There are journalists press outlets who are pushing for more information.

Biden has not said a word. His administration's quiet. The U.S. embassy in Mexico, not responding either. Well, rest assured that I will be following up on this and will relay details as soon as they're available because the question that this raises is this. as America looks to be entering a pretty big recession, is it smart to import cheap foreign labor, which in turn pushes down wages, most especially for our most vulnerable people? Well, that is something for you to reflect on over the weekend.

Finally, how do we get Russia to the negotiating table and end this war of attrition with Ukraine? That was the question that I proposed to you on Monday. And since then, the issue has only grown more. more stark. An example, Russia's revenue from natural gas exports to Europe is soaring, even though they're cutting off supplies. So listen to this. The Kremlin is still getting about $100 million a day from Europe, all because of those gas exports. And that is according, by the way, to the Independent Commodity Intelligence Service. Now, that's pretty remarkable because supplies are down about 75% since Moscow launched its invasion. Clearly, Russia is benefiting from skyrocketing gas prices,

which are up about 118% from a year ago. So with that in mind, that Russia is well-funded to win its war of attrition, let's go through some of your ideas on what we should do with this mess. First, a couple of you, Mike G, and there was another fellow who was a former command sergeant major. Well, they both said basically, Putin is a bully, and America sounds really weak right now. And as we all know, bullies don't listen to weak people. So we have a problem in this country that we have to fix first. Well, amen, my friends. If there is one thing that I learned while working at the CIA, it's that the world is run by a bunch of really nasty people. So you've got to learn how to punch a guy in the face and go a few rounds, or you just have no business running a country. But nevertheless, several of you said that America should start pumping a lot more oil to drive down prices, and that would then put Russia in a pretty big financial pinch. So that idea came from Dan and Philip, also from Jeremy and Camus Washington, who by the way, what a great note. Thank you so much for that. It was very, very thoughtful. Thank you all. Third, a number of you felt like there might

be some sort of big land swap idea to consider. So for instance, Ukraine could give up part of that eastern section that's currently under occupation for maybe a bunch of money or just peace. Or maybe and this is interesting, maybe the central and western parts of Ukraine could actually become a part of Poland, which is a NATO member. Obviously, a lot of challenges there, but nevertheless, that's a pretty fascinating play. Joe, Adrian, great ideas. Very, very interesting. Now, so others of you felt like, look, it's time to get rough. In other words, we need to start blowing up some Russian oil and gas wells, maybe some of their refineries, blow up a couple of critical factories. And you do that, as cyber attacks like maybe they did in Texas to us, or you use special operators at the CIA

or the military with some of their drones, for instance. Those ideas from Mike G, Bill I, and Alice W. Finally, Michael E. You made the argument that it's time to escalate, not behind the scenes, but it's time to just throw all of our cards on the table. So if I can paraphrase Michael's argument, let's stop acting like we're not really at war and just make the commitment. You know, in our troops, no fly zones, give Ukraine the migs that they want. Let's just see how Putin responds. Well, there you are. Now, one final idea, it came from a conversation that I had with some old friends. We were spitballing what I think is a pretty risky move, and here it goes. What if you had an American president who one morning showed up in Kiev, not by himself,

but with most of his cabinet spread throughout Ukraine? and you announced that not only were you all there, but so too were a number of our nuclear weapons. And if one hair on any of their heads were touched, it would be war. Then you launched some covert action operations designed to get Moscow's attention. But no troops, no more sending weapons that we lose control of, just a very cranky president with a very unwelcome surprise. And then you invite Putin to a peace conference, probably in Turkey or Turkey. Israel. And you work out a reasonable deal. And then you tell Zelensky of Ukraine and the entirety of Europe of whatever result you come up with. And if they don't like it, okay, America's out. No more money,

no more weaponry, and not one drop of natural gas to Europe. In other words, take it or leave it, because we are done messing around. So there you are, perhaps the most unconventional and risky of options. Anyway, a whole bunch of things for you to consider this weekend. I hope it spurs conversations and solutions because this is your country. Your blood and treasure will be spent if things go south. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American.

It's from John chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava

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