Source: YouTube
Legendary Minnesota radio host Jon Justice was joined on Monday August 5th by Policy Fellow for Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Darren Nelson on The Jon Justice Show presented by American Experiment.
Topics included economics, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Australia, woke, energy affordability, climate change, the UN, renewables, natural monopolies, free markets, Big Tech, nukes, River Monsters, The Simpsons as well as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the DFL and GOP energy policy platforms.
Energy related highlights, from the YouTube generated transcript, follow next:
Jon Justice (JJ): “Joining me in the Center of the American Experiment studio is policy fellow Darren Nelson. His first appearance on the show. Good morning, Darren, and thank you so much for coming in.”
Darren Nelson (DN): “Thank you for having me. I’m very much focused on energy because we’ve had some recent polls done by the American Experiment showing affordability, no surprise, is the top issue, and energy is a big contributor to that, particularly electricity. Electricity’s often been quite ignored in Minnesota, and other states, because it’s so heavily influenced by the Public Utilities Commission , and that process that really no one pays any attention to. And fair enough, it is pretty boring. I’ve been to a couple of their meetings and it was hard to stay awake for the entire time I was there. And I’m an economist.”
JJ: “What’s been the most surprising aspect of Minnesota’s economy?”
DN: “It’s like a little piece of the West Coast shoved in the Midwest. This reflects in the electricity policies as well, like Minnesota embraced the renewable stuff before pretty much most of the blue states did except for California, Oregon, and Washington. So culturally and economically they’re always looking there for their bad ideas.”
JJ: “But with that, you have a piece available now at americanexperiment.org, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the 2026 energy policy platforms of the DFL and the GOP. So let’s talk a little bit about this.”
DN: Look, I understand government’s got to do certain things. One thing they don’t need to do is to intervene in electricity markets to the extent they do. In particular, you mentioned the renewable energy mandate. That’s really the crux. That’s why electricity prices…over the 21st century in Minnesota have just jacked up by 118%. And that’s driven by renewable energy coming [off] the grid and at the same time coal going away. And and I’ll throw in a third thing, and at the same time nuclear not allowed to expand.”
Note: See the two charts at the end of the transcript highlights.
JJ: “I’ll quickly pivot to the DFL. You said [you had an] open mind.”
DN: “I was kind of optimistic a little bit with the DFL. Thought, okay, at least they’re kind of re-embracing nuclear energy, it seems. But on their platform they point blank state that basically nuclear power is not a viable energy source. Which is actually weird [as] they obviously haven’t discussed this with Governor Waltz because [he] signed off on this study [to look at ending the ban on no new nukes].”
JJ: “Let’s go back to the rise in energy cost really quick.”
DN: “You want prices to go down and consumption of energy to go up, particularly in a digital age where everything uses electricity. So you’re getting hit by [high] prices and we’re reducing the use of electricity as well. So, that’s a a double whammy to affordability and wealth.”
JJ: “So, we kind of gone through the good, the bad and the ugly, let’s touch upon the the bold and the beautiful in your piece, in the closing minutes of the show here this morning at American Experiment.”
DN: “I thought the GOP was quite bold, because often the GOP is so wimpy. They’ll attack renewables etc from an economic perspective, but the reason we even have this is this belief in man caused climate change and [that] it’s going to be catastrophic. So, I thought it was very bold of them to actually state, we oppose this, we think this theory is garbage. In fact, as a side note, the UN has actually backed off their catastrophic predictions on climate change. The UN has, yet Minnesota is still sticking with it.”
DN: Then the beautiful I thought was, as a free market guy, they went further to oppose any sort of government mandate in any area, and subsidies and monopolies. Why does Excel Energy have to get a monopoly on electricity? In fact, [elsewhere] in the US they’ve moved away from this sort of approach, and they certainly moved away from this approach in other parts of the world a long time ago. Australia, to its credit, decided [to test whether] these natural monopolies [are] all that natural. No, they’re not actually, they’re just government fictions essentially.”
JJ: “Are you seeing a trend of individuals coming around on climate change? Is it less popular of a means to push energy policy than it has been in the past?”
DN: Sadly, no, actually. These were always kind of like ideological stances in a sense. On the right, a lot of people just embrace being against it because that’s what our tribe does. Fortunately, they’re also on the side of good facts and good science. The left are just sticking to it no matter what, as you can see in Minnesota. What has changed is just the reality of the data centers. The Big Tech leftists apparently like making money more than they like their ideology, which is actually a surprise to me. Actually, it’s a refreshing surprise.”
JJ: Darren Nelson, certainly not the last time that we’ll have a discussion with you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I encourage everybody to head on over to americanexperiment.org and check out the good, the bad, and the ugly, the 2026 energy policy platforms of the DFL and the GOP. Fantastic reading, especially ahead of next week’s primaries, as are all of the pieces that you’ve been putting up at American Experiment.org. And again, Darren, thank you so much for coming across the hall and joining us on the sofa here at the American Experiment Studios.”
DN: “Always a pleasure.”
Note: “Always a pleasure.“ In memoriam of Dr. Yukio Hattori.
Source: US Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Source: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)