Last week on their Jolley Marriage Show, Dr. Willie and Dee Jolley asked, “Have you ever said anything to your spouse or partner you regretted later?

“The words we use can significantly impact the health and longevity of our relationships. Statistically 50% of marriages end in divorce. Of those who remain married, 40% of couples are miserable.

“Do you want to be happily married or miserable?

“The one word we should never use is ‘whatever.’ It is dismissive and disrespectful. It is a personal affront. It devalues people. We should never devalue people, especially those we care about. ‘Whatever’ ends communication without solving the problem.”

Every relationship has challenges. There will always be disagreements. Lynnda and I have been married for 49 years. We don’t always agree. Fortunately, we have common values.

One of the most important values we have is the importance of our relationship. We care about each other enough not to disrespect one another and work from common ground to find a solution we both agree on. Our goal is always a win-win solution.

My way or the highway solves nothing and the relationship ultimately ends. Respect and treating people, especially those we care about, with human dignity is essential.

Our country and world have problems to solve. Effective communication is essential and starts with treating people with dignity and respect. The Baptists and Bootleggers I wrote about recently, respected each other enough to find a common goal and agreed on how to reach it.

In Peter Zeihan’s daily U-Tube video on May 1st, he said Texas is already experiencing brownouts. Peter commented, “Over the weekend, some Texans had a not-so-friendly reminder that their power grid doesn’t work well under stress. This is just one of many outages and electricity challenges that Texas will face in the coming years.” According to Peter climate change (increased temperatures), increasing population and increased industrial demand are increasing demand for electricity in Texas. Peter says Texas’s problem is regulatory not resourced based.

Texas has plenty of power resources, abundant natural gas, nuclear power and coal. Texas gets a lot of sunshine and has consistent wind particularly in west Texas. At night these intermittent power sources go away. My major concern is closer to home. The new U.S. EPA new power plant emissions regulations will shut all coal power plants down by 2040. It will also impact natural gas power plants. Lynnda and my electricity come from John Amos, a 3,000 MW coal power plant. We are not hearing what will replace John Amos’ 3,000 Mega Watts. People like Peter Zeihan, Bill Gates and others expect power demand to increase by 50% or more by 2040. Increased electrification, data centers, AI, EVs, and increased population all contribute to increased power demand.

The EPA forcing the shutdown of baseload power like coal and natural gas without a dependable baseload replacement is terrible public policy, malpractice and immoral, especially when people die. Blackouts and brownouts aren’t just inconvenient they can be deadly.

The 2021 Texas freeze killed 246 people. The John Amos power plant can’t be replaced by intermittent wind, solar or battery power. John Amos powers numerous hospitals and nursing homes. If the EPA regulations are allowed to take effect, our region could be in worse shape than Texas.

Unlike Europe or Asia, the USA and the Shale Crescent Region have resources to power the region and the country for centuries even with projected increased demand. The Shale Crescent USA has hundreds of years of natural gas supply based on today’s technology.

It has hundreds of years of coal that could burn cleaner with technology. Small reactor nuclear power could become an option. The drilling technology used in the Marcellus and Utica could be used to access geothermal energy like Iceland.

Wind, solar and new battery technology can help to meet new demand. Common sense dictates we use all available sources.

If Peter Zeihan is right, the USA is key to filling in the manufacturing gap expected from Europe and China. Europe doesn’t have economical/ dependable energy and has environmental regulations that add cost and are difficult or impossible to meet.

Total fertility rate estimates how many children the average woman has over her lifetime. China’s one child per couple policy for over 40 years reduced their birthrate to 1.16.

The replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman is required to maintain population. Chinese population is dropping fast. Their demographic situation is catastrophic. The Chinese population is aging fast and their workforce is shrinking.

Peter Zeihan predicts an imminent collapse of the Chinese economic system leaving the USA to pick up the pieces. The good news is, this will finally begin to reduce global emissions. Moving manufacturing to the USA will reduce emissions but requires a significant increase in energy, raw materials, electricity and workforce in the USA. We can’t continue to shut down base load power.

We must have elected leaders who respect people and can work together to solve our problems. “We the People” need to elect more leaders who are not on either extreme of energy and environmental issues. Extremists are so far apart it is difficult to find common ground. Someone who is adamant about getting rid of all fossil fuels right now is almost impossible to work with.

Peter Zeihan believes in climate change and knows getting rid of fossil fuels immediately is a disaster.

Dignity and respect are the basis for effective communication. Never use “whatever”. This is important in all relationships especially marriage. It is also essential for our elected leaders.

Primary elections are important. Can we elect leaders who have integrity? Who treat people with dignity and respect. Leaders who are flexible enough to think win-win and solve problems. Extremists can never agree because they are so far apart. Agreement always comes from the center. We get to choose. We need to vote and choose wisely.

Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing and sales for Shale Crescent USA, www.shalecrescentusa.com. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and over 40 years’ experience in the energy industry. He is a professional speaker and author of four books and numerous published articles.