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Last week tonight, I'm John O'Reilly. Thank you so much for joining us. Just

time for a quick recap of the week, which has been busy. The House finally

passed the big infrastructure bill.

ABBA released its first album in 40 years, so you know your parents are

fucking tonight.

And the Democrats had a rough time in Tuesday's elections. They lost the

governor's race in Virginia and nearly lost the governorship of New Jersey. But

perhaps the clearest sign of just how much voters have turned on them was

this. A truck driver with no prior political experience has defeated one of

the most powerful Democrats in New Jersey. He is Republican Edward Durr,

and he has won the District 3 Senate seat over incumbent Steve Sweeney, the

state Senate president.

Okay, hold on. I know that there is a lot to process there, from a surprise

upset by a man with no political experience to someone being called one

of the most powerful Democrats in New Jersey while looking like Daddy Dinosaur

from Dinosaurs. But what I did not... What needs to be told there is that the

name of his vanquisher, this man, is Ed Durr. Because when you look like this,

the Ed Durr is very much assumed.

I see this image, and I immediately know three things. He's a white, middle-aged

guy, his style icon is Larry King, and his name is, unavoidably, Ed Durr.

Now, this was a huge upset, and if you're thinking, well, maybe Ed Durr

simply captivated people with his unique and powerful vision for New Jersey, good

luck landing that argument.

Ed, what's the first thing you're gonna do when you get to the Capitol in

Trenton?

Uh, I really don't know.

That's-that's the key factor. I don't know what I don't know, so I will learn

what I need to know.

Oh, come on, Ed, duh.

You could have answered anything there. You could have said, oh, I'm gonna lick

every door handle, or I'm gonna get to the bottom of this Epstein thing. Or you

could have just said, duh.

Any of which.

would have been better than I don't know. Also, what is he wearing there?

Black on red?

He looks like he's auditioning to be the newest member of My Chemical Romance.

The only time that color combination is remotely acceptable is if you're a

middle school boy who wants his classmates to know that he's gonna buy a

gun as soon as he's old enough.

And it is not just Durr's lack of experience that's troubling here. He's

compared COVID mandates to the Holocaust and tweeted that the Prophet Muhammad

was a pedophile and Islam is a false religion, all of which suddenly makes me

a lot less concerned about the things Ed Durr doesn't know and way more concerned

about the things he thinks he does.

Now, meanwhile, President Biden traveled to the COP26 climate summit this week,

where world leaders met to tackle the most urgent issue of our time. And Biden

didn't get off to a great start.

President Biden is at the UN Climate Summit in Scotland today, and during

today's opening session, you guessed it, he appeared to fall asleep there.

Yeah.

That's not ideal, is it?

This conference is one of the most important meetings in history. It's one

of the worst things someone can say as you nod off.

It's right up there with, you may now kiss the bride, or in one mile exit

highway, or welcome to Last Week Tonight, I'm John Oliver.

The conference was full of reminders, both big and small, of just how serious

this situation is, from the massive protests outside to some of the displays

within. For example, the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, which may soon be

flooded out of existence thanks to climate change, installed this exhibit

depicting polar bears in life vests and a penguin in a noose, which is a

striking image and either suggests Tuvalu's plight or some kind of tragic

situation where a group of polar bears committed a crime so... They were so

heinous, they had to kill the only witness, an innocent penguin, and make

it look like a suicide before popping on their getaway life vests and escaping to

start newer, happier lives.

It's one of those two things.

But the main attraction was clearly the world leaders, many of whom made some

big promises, like cutting back on coal and methane emissions and committing to

ending deforestation.

And cumulatively, those promises could have some effect.

The International Energy Agency says if all the pledges from COP26 are fulfilled

as promised and on schedule, global warming can be limited to 1.8 degrees.

Right. 1.8 degrees, which sounds okay until you remember the scientific

consensus is that the rise needs to be limited to 1.5 degrees.

And beyond that threshold, there is a far greater likelihood of devastating

consequences. And it actually gets worse because that already insufficient target

is predicated on every single country living up to its pledges, which seems...

Very unlikely, because their track record isn't great here. At the COP15

conference 12 years ago, rich nations promised to channel $100 billion a year

to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change. But they

are nowhere close to that. And look, there are things that it's okay to take

a decade on and not deliver. The Avatar.

sequels, for instance.

Take your time on those, James Cameron. No one gives a shit.

I will give anyone in this audience a thousand dollars right now if they

remember either of these characters' names.

Exactly. AIDS to fight climate change, though, is something people actually

need. The truth is here, while world leaders may be loudly patting themselves

on the back for pledging a better future this week, the last decade of broken

promises should serve as a warning that we have to keep pushing them. Because

this next decade is it.

Everything is on the line. Your life, mine, those sadistic polar bears. All of

it. And we all need to take an active role in waking world leaders up.

Figuratively, and sadly, in one case, literally.

And now, this.

And now, people on TV saying things wrong.

Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is a board-certified internist, and...

A viralist. Am I saying that right? A virologist.

A virologist. You can now listen to Taylor Swift's new album. It's titled,

Fork Lawyer. Now, Fork... Fork... Can you help me out?

Forklift. Am I saying that incorrectly?

You are looking live right here at Cape...

Cannaveral, am I saying that right? Where an Atlas V rocket is set to take

off. He's always been chivalrous. Oh, nice. Did I say that right? Yeah, you

said it right. It was right. Steve Dooley, the director of workers for

opportunity at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Am I saying that right?

Back and all, but thanks for having me. Okay, trending this morning, a work of

art by Bansky. Am I saying his name right?

Banksy. Banksy?

Banksy. Have you not heard of Banksy? Yeah, he painted that one thing up in

Park City.

It's the row kind of street. On the walls and stuff.

Okay, Banky fetches a high... Banksy.

At an auction in London.

Banksy.

Banky? Whatever.

Moving on.

Our main story tonight concerns electricity.

It's like Oscar Isaac in that without its involvement, nothing in my house

gets turned on.

Electricity is such an integral part of modern life, it is hard to believe that

we used to have to sell people on the idea of electric appliances with ads

like this.

When you step inside the total electric home, you step into an entirely new

concept in living, organized around electric centers, such as this

entertainment center.

The pride and joy of the man of the house is the weather control center, a

center that puts you in charge of the electric heating and air conditioning

and the electronic air filtering of the entire house.

Yes, the pride and joy of the man of the house is, of course, the temperature

control system. Just invite all your thermo bros over on a Sunday, crack open

a few brews, and watch the temperature for hours. Sorry, ladies, you wouldn't

understand. It's a guy thing.

Specifically tonight, we're gonna talk about the power grid, the system of

generators that produce electricity, and the vast latticework of wires that get

it to our homes.

The grid is something that you probably don't think much about until it goes

down, which unfortunately has been happening more and more in recent years.

Millions of Texans woke up to cold homes when the power grid failed. This video

shows lights going out as parts of the power grid failed. Now, that power grid

failed yesterday when Hurricane Ida ravaged parts of Louisiana.

The lights went out across downtown Detroit, cutting power to 1,400

buildings. Watch as the lights go out during a murder trial these lawyers left

in the dark. Holy shit!

When the lights go out during a murder trial, one of two things is happening.

You've either got a power grid deeply in need of repair, or the murder victim has

come back as a ghost and is seeking revenge.

Either way, your priorities have shifted, and it's time to focus on a

much bigger problem.

If it feels like there have been more outages than usual recently, that's

because there have.

By one estimate, from 2015 to 2020, the number of annual blackouts in the US

doubled. And that is not good for numerous reasons, the most obvious being

sitting around without power for any period of time absolutely sucks.

What are you supposed to do without TV and the internet?

Go outside?

That's where snakes live, you idiot.

So... What else are you supposed to do? Read a book?

That's where snakes sleep, you idiot.

Why do you think we invented Kindles?

But it is not just inconvenience. Losing electricity wreaks havoc on everything

from sewage treatment plants to water purification systems, and can be life

-threatening to people who rely on medical equipment like ventilators and

powered wheelchairs.

It's traumatizing. It's terrifying.

For Terhorst, an outage is more than just an expensive inconvenience. This

isn't like I'm gonna lose a casserole in my fridge.

You know, this is I may not be alive tomorrow.

Exactly. This is clearly about much more than just lost casseroles. Especially

because, and let's be honest here, all casseroles are shit. They don't rely on

specific ingredients so much as whatever's in someone's house.

Casseroles are a sad smorgasbord of other leftovers desperately cobbled

together to make a pathetic almost meal with names like Tuna Surprise and

Chicken I'm Sorry.

But to have a casserole leftover?

That is abandoned food that didn't make the cut two rounds in a row. I'm sorry.

But if that is your only option, there are genuinely worse fates than being

dead. And look, while things are bad now, they could get a lot worse in the

future, because the U.S. has a goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which

we absolutely must meet.

But one study estimates that that's gonna require a 40 to 60% increase in

peak electricity consumption, which, when you think about it, does make

sense. If we are switching to electric cars, cooking, and heating...

all that electricity is gonna have to come from somewhere.

And the truth is, if everyone suddenly had an electric car tomorrow, that might

be great for the planet, but it could push our grid to its absolute limit.

So tonight, let's talk about the power grid, the current state that it's in,

and what we can do to fix it. And let's start with the fact that while I'm

saying grid singular, our system is actually made up of three grids. There

is the eastern interconnection, the western... and the Texas

interconnection. It's basically like Major League Baseball in that there are

two dominant groups and then assholes in Texas who'd rather make up their own

rules. And it all started in 1882, right here in New York, when Thomas Edison

unveiled the country's first central power station on Pearl Street.

Interestingly, it was then Edison's sometime rival, Nikola Tesla, who helped

develop the technology enabling electricity to travel for long

distances, something...

all the more remarkable given Tesla's, let's say, eccentricities.

Tesla suffered from bizarre compulsions, like his consuming need to rescue

injured pigeons and nurse them back to health.

He has an infirmary for them right outside his bedroom window where he's

trying to heal, you know, some that have broken wings, broken legs. And, in fact,

at one point, he actually referred to one bird as his wife, and he said, you

know, when she died, the inventive spirit left him.

Did it now.

Look, this isn't the point of this story or really anything, but if Tesla were

alive today, I genuinely wonder which would upset him more. The fact that his

name has been co-opted by history's first edgelord billionaire, or the fact

that modern pigeons have just gotten so unfuckable. Listen, I said no,

respectfully. Thank you for your attention, but I'm not interested.

Please leave me and my friends alone.

And when it was built, our power grid wasn't just a technical marvel, it was a

civic one.

Until the 1930s, electricity was a luxury, mainly for dense urban areas of

the country. But after FDR created the Rural Electrification Administration in

1935, that began to change.

The REA was set up by the President and the Congress in 1935 to help farmers to

get the power and light at a price they can afford.

Here is the first thing women ask for after light itself.

If you have ever ironed for an hour, you'll know why.

An electric iron may not look important to a man, but it lightens one whole

day's burden for a woman.

Yes, don't worry, ladies. With Hubby naturally busy staring at the

thermostat, you'll have plenty to do to occupy your time, like ironing his

clothes or teaching a different woman to iron his clothes.

And if there is still time, pressing the iron to your neck just for a moment

simply to feel something.

You thought getting likes would make things better, but it only made things

clearer, didn't it?

Didn't it?

Now, in the end, we wound up with 600,000 miles of transmission lines and

around five and a half million miles of local distribution lines, like the ones

that you might see outside of your house. All of which form our modern

electrical grid. It has been called the supreme engineering achievement of the

20th century.

Which is not to say that it is completely invulnerable. Of course not.

When you string wires in the air, they're going to be subject to

interference from all sorts of things. A website...

that tracked disruptions found that there have been over 600 outages caused

by squirrels, over 200 by birds, 53 by raccoons, and a number of others caused

by everything from snakes to slugs. And let me just quickly say here, kudos,

slugs.

Out of everything on that list, you are honestly the ones that I underestimated.

The nicest thing I can say about you is that on your best day, you look like

sassy poop, but you really showed us something by disrupting our power, so

once more, slugs.

Kudos. But it is not just animals that can wreak havoc. There have also been

multiple balloon-based disruptions. And if you're wondering how on Earth a

balloon could cause a power outage, the answer is like this.

Oh, shit!

Oh!

Excellent.

Not one single nudge. I hope... No one standing there was hurt, but honestly,

even if someone was, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me.

But disruptions have always been an issue for the power grid. What makes it

especially vulnerable now is a combination of two key factors. The

first is old age.

Most power lines were constructed in the 50s and 60s with a 50-year life

expectancy, which they're clearly now...

well past, and the second is climate change.

Meaning there's now more danger posed by extreme weather like hurricanes,

tornadoes, and abnormally hot or cold temperatures.

And that combo of old equipment and new climate threats has been disastrous.

The massive campfire in California a few years ago happened because there was a

drought in the area, making it essentially a tinderbox, and in intense

winds, some Pacific gas and electric equipment failed, and for a pretty

infuriating reason.

This is the hook that killed 84 people.

That groove took about 98 years to wear in. It's not a defect.

These hooks are what are holding the electrical lines off the ground.

And PG&E's decision was simply just to let these things hang until they broke.

When this old hook did break, the power line made contact with the metal tower,

showering the ground in sparks.

That's how PG&E started the campfire.

Yeah, and let that be a lesson to you. You can't just keep something that old

in place and expect it to keep working forever.

PG&E basically took the same approach to their equipment as Democrats did with

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and in both cases, it didn't end well.

So... Basically, we've got a power grid built in the 20th century that is not

equipped to deal with the needs and stresses of the 21st. And if you think,

well, okay, let's upgrade it then. Yeah.

Absolutely right, but that is also a massive undertaking, because there are a

lot of fixes, both small and huge, that the power grid badly needs. The small

ones we don't have time to get into tonight, like investing in microgrids

and weatherproofing, as well as better storage capabilities so the excess power

we generate doesn't go to waste. But we're going to focus on the huge one

here, because our shift to renewable energy is going to require a fundamental

shift in what our grid looks like. One of the few benefits of... fossil fuel

plants is that you can put them anywhere. That is why most are located

near densely populated areas close to the people that they serve.

But you can't just replace every coal plant with a wind farm, because that is

not necessarily where the wind is strongest.

And that fact alone changes everything.

This is a model created by Princeton, mapping out possible places in the

continental U.S. where wind and solar projects could, in theory, be built.

Aside from some offshore wind farms, it's mostly in the middle of the U.S.

Another study found that these states have most of the wind and solar

potential, yet the people living there would only make up 30% of the

electricity demand.

In a decarbonized future, we're going to need to get electricity from here to

here. Right.

And you probably don't even need me to tell you why this is going to be an

uphill battle, because as soon as you saw that graphic and realized updating

the grid was going to require a Princeton researcher telling a

Midwestern farmer, we need to build something in your backyard so someone in

California can power their electric car, you already called the next eight

election cycles for Republicans.

But there is actually some good news here.

because we've already made considerable progress in building out renewable

energy power sources.

Last year, for the first time ever, renewables like solar, wind and

hydropower accounted for the largest portion of new generating capacity.

And that is good...

not just for consumers, but in many cases, for the communities where those

facilities are built. In 2019, wind energy projects alone provided $706

million in land lease payments to rural landowners. So entire towns and areas

can benefit from the money and the jobs renewables can bring, as this mayor in

Wyoming can attest.

My personal belief is it provides money. It provides jobs, taxes.

And then I look at the towns that they're by and just think of what people

have that they wouldn't have had.

A lot of infrastructure, police cars, those kind of things.

When I look at a wind farm, all I think about is cha-ching.

And that's great. Well, to be clear, when you look at a wind farm, you can't

think cha-ching because that's the cash register noise. I know you're trying to

make a different point, but this is important, too. Wind farms go... That's

how wind farms go. A cash register goes cha-ching. A solar farm goes...

A cat on the day everyone forgot its birthday goes... A horny cartoon wolf

goes... And again, wind farms go... Just so we're clear about how things

go.

So the physical generation of renewable energy isn't really the problem here.

The key issue is the transmission of it.

Basically... How do you get that energy from where it's made, like a wind farm

in Wyoming, to where it is needed, which could be a thousand miles away? And that

brings us to transmission lines, because they are at the absolute heart of our

grid, and we're going to need a lot more of them, partly because, due to

limitations of our aging transmission infrastructure, in some places, we

actually have more electricity than we have the capability to transport.

For instance, in Vermont, they had to put a moratorium on new solar and wind

projects, because the... transmission lines couldn't carry any more

electricity. So building out newer, higher capacity lines is crucially

important. But so far, we haven't done nearly enough. And that is for a couple

of reasons. And the first big one is location.

Stringing power lines out across the country is a logistical nightmare.

Unlike interstate gas lines, which only require approval from the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission, with power lines, you must secure the buy-in from multiple

state and local agencies in every state you pass through, alongside all the

individual landowners whose property you need to use. And look, there are

legitimate reasons for people to not want power lines in their backyard. For

instance, if it disrupts their farming operation or goes through

environmentally... sensitive areas or cultural or sacred sites for Native

Americans. Other objections are simply aesthetic.

The fact is, high voltage lines capable of carrying more electricity require

bigger towers than their predecessors, and some people just don't want to see

them. This is such an issue that some countries have actually made efforts to

beautify their towers. In Hungary, they decided to build ones that look like

jesters. In Iceland, they proposed these designs for a project called Land of

Giants. And in Argentina, there is Colosso, the giant transmission line

robot. At night, Colosso lights up and can even smile and wink.

And look.

I get the smile part.

You want Colosso to come off as friendly so children aren't terrified of the

giant electrified robot with glowing monster eyes.

But why does it need to wink?

What is it trying to communicate there? Is it coming on to us?

Because I feel the same way about Colosso as I do about that pigeon.

Never in a million fucking years. No, thank you.

Please stop looking at me like that. It's making me uncomfortable.

It's my friend's birthday.

We're just trying to give her a nice evening, although I will keep the Long

Island iced tea. Thank you.

And good night.

And the thing is, local opposition can be very effective in killing

transmission line projects.

A few years back, a company proposed plans to build 16 miles of new lines

through Pennsylvania, but local landowners formed a grassroots group to

push back, even releasing videos like this one to detail their objections.

I understand everybody needs electric, and everybody has to have electric. I

wouldn't want to be without electric, but from what I understand, you know...

This is only going to help people in western pa maryland and virginia And

what's it doing? You know, I mean I I chose to live here And they chose to

live there. So don't make your problem my problem That's that's how I feel

Okay, I mean that is a little bit maddening the mirrored sunglasses

definitely don't help but it's a lot more than that because I do get I don't

want this on my land. I really do but to make your argument. I don't want this

here if it'll only help someone there, just makes you sound like a dick. Also,

if we don't upgrade the grid, absolutely everyone is going to have problems,

including you.

It's like saying, don't make your problem my problem when your neighbor's

yard is full of bears.

Sure, but when it gets over that fence, guess what?

It's your fucking problem now, too.

And when you consider all the hurdles transmission projects have to clear, it

is no wonder it can take up to a decade to get new ones approved, if they're

approved at all. And this can make it harder to bring renewable energy onto

the grid in the first place.

Fewer than a quarter of proposed energy projects, like solar and wind, actually

ever make it to commercial operation because of transmission hurdles.

And that is really not good.

Now, the second big obstacle to overcome here...

is cost, because the truth is, this won't be cheap. One study projects

decarbonizing our power grid could cost $2.5 trillion over the next decade.

And to put it mildly, not everyone is on board with spending that money.

When Congress was considering the Clean Future Act, a bill that would, among

other things, provide for expanding our transmission system, Representative Bill

Johnson absolutely refused to entertain the notion that it could...

possibly be worth it and would not back down.

Whether the American people are stuck picking up this tab via higher taxes or

rate increases on their utility bills, can you honestly say that they'll be

receiving a return on their investment?

As you look at the cost-benefit for the health and safety of communities... No,

what's the return on investment?

What is the return on investment?

They're making a monetary...

investment with their taxes or their rate increases.

What is the return on their investment?

So the return on the investment is access to clean energy. It's access

to... No, that's not a return on investment.

A return on investment is a monetary thing. That's why you make an

investment. Okay, a few things. One, shut up.

Two,

if you let her talk... For more than two fucking seconds there, she might have

told you that many studies have found that it is cost effective.

For instance, a federal lab looked into expanding transmission lines across the

country and found that such a project could return up to $2.50 in benefits for

every dollar of cost, which is, as an asshole might put it, a return, a return

on a fucking investment.

But look, set that aside.

Set aside also that blackouts can cost us a lot of money, as the people of

Texas will tell you after what happened to them earlier this year. There are

also many benefits here that are not purely monetary.

A cleaner grid helps combat climate change, meaning that maybe your

grandkids won't die in weekly lava hurricanes, which does seem pretty

worthwhile. Framing this purely as a matter of debt profit is so weird.

It's like saying, what's the return on investment in funding the fire

department? How much money do we make off that? Well, I guess technically

none, but if your house is on fire, someone will come with a hose to put it

out. Plus, we get those sexy firefighter calendars full of oiled-up fire hunks,

so we get to be safer and hornier. I'd call it a win-win.

And look, I admit, this is going to require a lot of compromise and

flexibility from all of us. But there are ways to overcome the hurdles that

I've described tonight. When it comes to transmission line location, we can...

ease people's concerns, not necessarily by going full creepy colossal here. We

don't have to be winked at.

But we can make sure that people are compensated fairly for the use of their

property and place lines to the extent possible on already disturbed lands like

along railroads and highways.

And when it comes to cost, we are finally making some progress.

The infrastructure bill that passed the House this week devotes over $65 billion

to improve the power grid, with a portion going directly to transmission.

upgrades and expansion.

It is a good start while also being not nearly enough.

But the key thing going forward here might be to start thinking about this

differently than we currently are.

Because for far too long, whenever we've experienced blackouts, we've tended to

think of it as the power grid failing. But the truth is, it's not failing us.

We are failing it by asking it to do something it was not designed to do in

conditions that it was not designed to handle.

So we need to act boldly and quickly as if both our lives and our shitty

casseroles depend on it.

And if we do this...

If we manage to properly upgrade our power grid, it will genuinely be one of

the biggest accomplishments of the 21st century, and one definitely worth

celebrating. Perhaps, I don't know, with some balloons, you know?

Balloons are always fun, aren't they? They lift... Oh, shit.

Oh, fuck. Oh, shit.

Oh, shit.

Oh, no.

Oh, uh... Uh, hold on.

I'm okay.

Uh... That's our show.

thanks so much for watching we'll see you next week good good night thank you

that's it this way is uh i'm gonna go i'm gonna go this way look

it's over here we'll be back next week we'll be back

we'll be back next week