DOE's $1B Nuke Bet, China’s Coal Loop, & Al Gore’s COP Circus | 11.21.25

Chuck and Mark crank up the camp as they riff on the Landman season two premiere, bouncing from the show’s oil-patch chaos to the real-world energy circus. They torch the DOE Loan Programs Office’s messy reputation while breaking down its latest billion-dollar moves, like the $1B revival of Three Mile Island for Microsoft and AEP’s $1.6B transmission upgrade, along with its surprisingly strong 3.3% default rate and Tesla’s quick 2013 repayment. Then it’s off to China, where a coal-to-liquids boom big enough to replace 1.3 million barrels a day pairs with thorium molten-salt reactors and plans for a 200-MW nuclear-powered mega-ship by 2035, all signaling Beijing’s trademark long-game dominance. And in peak absurdity, ManBearPig strolls into COP30 as media fawns over Al Gore’s “climate rockstar” entrance, even as new studies warn of a potential Gulf Stream collapse that could freeze Europe like Arctic Canada. All the chaos, all the laughs, all the BDE energy.

Join the conversation shaping the future of energy.
Collide is the community where oil & gas professionals connect, share insights, and solve real-world problems together. No noise. No fluff. Just the discussions that move our industry forward.
Apply today at collide.io

00:00 - Intro
02:43 - DOE LPO Funding
12:15 - China Energy Policies
19:59 - Energy Tariffs Impact
23:15 - Thorium Molten Salt Reactors
26:17 - Closing the Energy Loop
28:17 - Al Gore COP26 Speech
34:14 - MIT Gulf Stream Collapse
36:00 - Episode Wrap-Up

https://twitter.com/collide_io
https://www.tiktok.com/@collide.io
https://www.facebook.com/collide.io
https://www.instagram.com/collide.io
https://www.youtube.com/@collide_io
https://bsky.app/profile/digitalwildcatters.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/company/collide-digital-wildcatters
DOE's $1B Nuke Bet, China’s Coal Loop, & Al Gore’s COP Circus | 11.21.25