I sat down with energy economist and CEO of PetroNerds Trisha Curtis to learn about the oil and natural gas industries, the global energy market, and how the war in Iran affects gas prices at the pump.

Trisha breaks down how fracking revolutionized American energy production, reinforcing the petrodollar as the global reserve currency. While states like California have turned away from the energy security of fossil fuels in favor of unreliable, renewable “green energy,” the U.S. still is the top player on the global stage compared to Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iran.

The Biden administration bet everything on a net-zero future of solar and wind, undermining American energy security in the process. Under the second Trump administration, the U.S. is rebuilding the energy abundance that made it a global power in the first place.

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Follow Trisha Curtis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-curtis-petronerds/

Follow Trisha Curtis on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/TrishaJCoffee?s=20

Watch PetroNerds on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@petronerds633?si=4L6gSOePdngmeG-L

Learn more about PetroNerds: https://petronerds.com/

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Outline:

[0:00] Why oil and gas matter in our everyday lives

[14:25] The link between GDP and oil consumption

[21:43] Why coal is still relevant in 2026

[27:24] Is natural gas safe?

[29:56] Energy density and transportation costs

[36:42] Food production, fertilizer, and ethanol

[45:53] The reality of “drill baby drill”

[58:21] What is “fracking”?

[1:07:31] How do we know how much oil there is?

[1:16:50] What is the “petrodollar”?

[1:19:02] Oil drilling is different in Canada

[1:22:21] The different flavors of oil

[1:30:30] California’s assault on oil

[1:33:24] The petrodollar is the global reserve currency

[1:41:39] Renewable “green energy” fails on the physics

[1:55:58] The oil subsidy myth vs inflation reality

[2:01:47] Monopolies come and go in the oil industry

[2:05:47] Why don’t people notice when prices go down?

[2:11:41] The war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz

[2:22:55] Selective focus in geopolitics

[2:30:24] Can we stabilize the Middle East?

[2:36:18] Utopianism can’t solve real problems

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