my channel and welcome if you're new here. Thank you so much for clicking on today's video. I have a very good informational aha moment type of video for you today. I get so many questions on why am I not losing weight? What am I doing wrong? I used to lose all this weight on WW and now I'm in a plateau. I'm not losing any weight. It's coming off really slow. What are the reasons behind the fact that I'm not losing weight? So I'm here today to share with you 20 reasons you may not be losing weight. I'm hoping that a lot of these will resonate with you and help you back on the path of weight loss. So without further ado, I'd love to jump into this week's topic. 20 reasons why you're not losing weight is maybe you're losing weight and you don't know it. Sometimes the scale is not our friend. Sometimes we do everything right when it comes to nutrition and exercise and that dang scale just doesn't budge. There are other ways to test whether or not you're losing weight and you know I've mentioned several times that I'm not as concerned about the number on the scale. I'm concerned about eating a good amount of calories that I can sustain long term to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable and somewhat slow rate so that I can keep it off. And that just goes hand in hand with this.  Sometimes it doesn't give you the information that you're expecting to see when you step on it. But pay attention to other things such as maybe are you losing fat? Take your measurements, try on some clothes. Maybe some clothes that were too tight at one point and see if they fit you a little bit better. Sometimes the scale won't reflect our hard work and it won't reflect the actual progress that we're making towards losing weight, losing fat. But all of these other things like clothing and measurements can really indicate whether or not maybe you're losing weight and you didn't even know it. Number two, you're not tracking your food or you're not honestly tracking your food. Sometimes we think that we eat a lot less than we really do. And by tracking your food, whether it's in an app with a pen and paper, however it works for you to track your food and doing it honestly will be a really big indicator of whether or not you're eating as little as you think that you're eating. All those bites, licks and tastes add up.  Most of the time we think we're eating way less than we truly are and by tracking our food we can really see in writing whether it be an app on a piece of paper exactly what we're putting in our mouth. Number three is a huge one and this is something that I have talked about time and time again and that is you're not eating enough protein. Protein is the number one nutrient, macronutrient to eat to help with weight loss. For those in the back of the room, protein is the number one macronutrient that helps with weight loss. Your goals should be to eat about 25 to 30% of your daily caloric intake of protein. Now I eat a little bit more than that but that's a great baseline, a great way to start. You can also use Jordan's science calculation. I'll link Jordan's channel down below. I've talked about him a ton on this channel. You can use his calculation of goal weight times 0.7 or goal weight times one to determine your protein intake. But by eating between 25 and 30% of your daily calories of protein it helps your metabolism burn an extra 80 to 100 calories per day by doing nothing other than making sure that you're eating enough protein. Protein also helps to keep you full and it has proven that those that eat a breakfast containing high protein are less hungry throughout the day. Therefore they're not snacking as much and they're less likely to overeat. Another big reason to up your protein game is by eating a lot of protein it helps with metabolic slowdown which happens naturally as we lose weight especially if we're on a diet or a weight loss or healthy eating journey for a long time. We've talked about this in several videos. Your metabolism can really take a hit and by eating protein it helps make that hit a little bit less. And lastly by making sure you're eating enough protein it also helps your weight not go to a standstill. It helps with plateaus and it makes it a lot less likely that you'll regain the weight that you've lost. Number four you're eating too many calories this kind of goes back to number two. We as human beings will grossly underestimate the number of calories that we're consuming in a day or points you may eat things and not track them. I know a lot of people have certain vices certain foods that they don't track those are still calories that are contributing to your overall caloric intake for the day.  Calories in versus calories out is how you lose weight and that's why it's important to track your food and that means tracking everything that you're eating. Since I've transitioned over to tracking calories alongside with points I am much better about tracking everything. I have to track all of my produce. This even includes my leafy greens, my spinach for my salad, my carrots that I'm tossing in my salad, my celery that I'm eating with my dip. I have to track everything. So it's made me a lot more aware of the caloric intake of food and it's also made me a lot more accountable. So it's important to track everything. Use a calorie counting app, use your WW app but make sure no matter what you're tracking everything that you're eating so you're not grossly underestimating the amount of calories that you're consuming every single day. Number five, you're not eating whole foods. Yes, a calorie is a calorie but what your body does with food greatly varies between processed foods and whole foods. So it's really important that 80% to 90% of your daily diet consists of whole real food. Whole foods also help regulate your appetite. They are far more filling and of course your body knows how to process and break down whole foods more than they know how to process and break down processed foods. So I'm not saying don't ever eat processed food. In fact, if you wanna eat processed food for every meal that's entirely up to you. I'm just sharing that studies have shown that by eating more whole food you're going to see your weight loss be a little bit more successful and you're not going to be starving all day long in outer points and calories before your appetite is fulfilled. Number six, you're not lifting weights. You're strictly relying on cardio alone. It is so important to do strength training as part of your workout. By adding strength training to your workout routine this is really going to help build muscle mass. And we're not talking about bulking up, becoming a body builder. We're talking about lean muscle mass which will take the place in your body of fat. So you will often find that you will look a lot leaner as you gain muscle. Even if your weight doesn't changes you're going to look a lot leaner because muscle takes up less room in your body than fat does. In addition to that by gaining muscle you're burning more calories throughout the day because muscle burns more calories than fat. So when you end that workout the muscle in your body continues to burn and burn and burn throughout the day where if you do strictly cardio within a half of an hour after ending cardio if you don't have muscle mass in your body the benefits of that cardio are done. They last about a half of an hour once it's completed. Your body does not continue to burn calories all day like it does when you're incorporating strength training and building muscle. And lastly by adding some weights and building some muscle it helps with metabolic slowdown. Another one of the terrible side effects of long-term dieting and long-term under eating. Number seven is your binge eating even on healthy foods. When we think of binge eating we think of 85 McDonald's, Big Macs, fries, shakes, ice cream cookies that's not necessarily the case. A lot of times we can find ourselves overeating or bingeing on healthy foods nut butters, dark chocolate, cheeses things that we deem to be healthy. Zero point foods. We can find ourselves overeating and binging on those foods. And depending on the binge you can outdo all of the progress that you've put in an entire week. You can erase all of the calorie deficit for the entire week with one binge session. So make sure that you are still again weighing, measuring and tracking your food because after all a calorie is a calorie. Calories in versus calories out is how you're going to lose weight. Don't undo everything you've done with one binge session even if it's on healthy food. Number eight, you're not doing cardio. You're strictly focusing on strength training. Cardiovascular exercise is extremely important in a weight loss journey. Cardio exercise or cardiovascular exercise is any type of exercise that increases your heart rate. So going on walks, running, jazzercise, dance classes, walking on the treadmill, the elliptical, anything that elevates your heart rate is considered cardiovascular exercise. When you do cardio exercise you help eliminate the stubborn belly fat, the fat that is around your stomach region, the visceral fat. Cardio really helps decrease that.  So it's important to do your cardio exercise to burn a good amount of calories to build up your cardiovascular system, implement some strength training and you have a well-rounded workout program.  Sometimes we consume calories, sugar in the form of beverages that we don't even realize that we're consuming. These sugary calorie-laden beverages can make a huge impact on our weight loss.  In fact, it does quite the opposite.  Some examples of sugary beverages to try to avoid of course would be soda pop. Also sugary beverages like vitamin water that you think may be healthy for you but is actually loaded with sugar, fruit juices, really watch your sugar try not to consume your calories for the day or your points for the day in sugary beverages. Number 10 is you're not sleeping well. Sleep is so incredibly important on a weight loss journey. There are so many benefits to getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep is one of the biggest contributing factors for obesity in the country. Did you even think that sleep was one of the biggest factors that contributes to obesity? Adults and children who don't get enough sleep have a 55 to 89% likelihood of becoming obese. It is so important to get between six and eight, even nine hours of sleep every night.  It's really important for so many reasons to make sure that you're getting good quality sleep and that you're getting enough sleep every single night. Number 11 is you're not cutting back, not cutting out, but cutting back on your carbohydrate. This doesn't mean removing carbs from your diet completely, but maybe eating, again, hitting that protein goal every single day, really focusing on protein instead of focusing on carbs. A lot of the processed snacks and things, those are what have a lot of carbs.  I never hit my carbohydrate goal in a day. I never do because I'm so focused on protein that that is my main target to hit, that I never ever reach all of my grams of carbohydrates.  But when you have a more protein-focused diet, you don't tend to overeat on the carbohydrates. Extra carbs can stunt your weight loss. Number 12, you're eating too often. It is a myth that you should be eating several small meals throughout the day. It doesn't really matter how you get your calories in, whether that's in 10 meals, one meal, three meals. It's all about how many calories you consume versus how many calories you expend during the day. You can even eat a big meal right before bed and it won't affect your weight loss. Now it may affect your sleep, you may not sleep as well, you may have heartburn, you may toss and turn, but as long as you don't overeat your calories during the day, you shouldn't stunt your weight loss. If you eat a lot of meals throughout the day, you often can overeat. And that's why it's important to make sure that you're tracking your food. Also, you could try intermittent fasting, which basically gives you a 12 to 20 hour break between food and then you have about an eight to 10 hour eating window. I've never done intermittent fasting. In fact, I've gotten that question a lot. It's not something that I'm really interested in, but if you wanted to really curb down the excessive eating throughout the day, you could certainly try intermittent fasting. I recommend that you just do a Google search and read about it and see if it's right for you. Number 13, you're not drinking water. And we're talking water. We're not talking other beverages that are liquid like water. It is very, very important for you to be good, excellent, fantastic about drinking your water every day. In fact, there was a 12 week study that was done and people who drank seven ounces, one liter of water 30 minutes prior to a meal had significantly larger weight loss results. Water is important for your body's function. Important to keep you hydrated. My goal is to drink a gallon of water every day, which I generally succeed most days of the week. Make sure you're drinking your water. Set yourself a water goal and don't allow yourself any other beverages until you've hit that water goal. I often have a Xevia, which is a more natural soda at night with dinner or before bed as I'm watching TV because that is my treat for reaching my water goal every single day. So that's a great way to ensure that you're getting in enough water. Is set a water goal and don't allow yourself any other beverages until you've reached that water goal. Number 14, now don't get mad about this one, is you are drinking too much alcohol. Now, if you are going to consume adult beverages, it's great to stick with things like vodka and stay away from the sugary drinks. Even beer and wine and those sugary cocktails like margaritas and Mai Tai's have a lot of calories and a lot of sugar. In fact, alcohol has seven calories per gram, which is actually a lot. Mix your favorite spirits with some low calorie or no calorie beverage options like seltzer water or flavored water and stay away from those sugary, high calorie alcoholic beverages. Now, alcohol in moderation doesn't seem to stunt weight loss but excessive alcohol consumption actually results most likely in weight gain. Number 15, you're not eating mindfully. Now, this is huge. What does eating mindfully even mean? This means slowing down when you're eating and not eating with distractions like your phone or your television and really savoring every single bite. Making sure you're chewing before swallowing, setting your fork down between every bite. Really just enjoying and savoring your food, your meals. Mindful eating also means stopping eating when you're full. Don't overindulge in zero point foods because there's zero points.  Just being mindful of consuming your food and enjoying it and savoring just makes it a better experience.  Number 16, you have a medical condition that makes losing weight harder. Some of these include hypothyroidism, PCOS, and sleep apnea. Also, certain medications that we take can really hinder our weight loss. It's really important to talk to your physician or your doctor if you have questions on maybe medical conditions or medication that you take. If you're seeing that your weight loss has stalled or that you're gaining weight, it's important to talk to your doctor or physician to see if some of those underlying medical conditions or prescriptions may be a contributing factor to that stalling or your weight gain. Number 17, you're addicted to junk food. Did you know that almost 20% of the population actually have a food addiction? Whether that be an addiction to something salty, something sweet, to alcohol, to binge eating, at 20% of the world has a food addiction. People who have food addictions, it's very similar to when a drug addict craves drugs. Food addicts crave food. Generally, people with a food addiction are overweight because it's very hard for them to monitor their food intake and to feel full and satisfied. Again, I recommend that you seek help if you feel like maybe you do have a food addiction from a doctor or a therapist. Just ask questions and ask for feedback from your physician if you feel that you do have an addiction to food. This can be a big reason why you're not losing weight because chances are you're overeating calories and you're undoing all of the hard work that you did on the days that you stayed on program, on the days that you go off of program. Number 18's my favorite and this is you've been starving yourself for too long. You've been under eating for too long. It's not a good idea to be on a diet, a diet for a long time. A lot of times when you're on a diet for an extended period of time, you will hit a weight loss plateau. That's because it's your body's way of fighting back for you under eating for so long. If you feel like you've been dieting for too long and that you've seen a metabolic slowdown, there are a few things that you can do to try to reverse your metabolism.  Maybe add some strength training or some lifting of weights into your exercise routine. Give your body 30, 60, 90 days and see what happens. Now you may gain a little bit of weight when you are resetting your metabolism but that weight will come off.  Make sure that you're eating enough calories. I cannot stress this enough.  So it's worth double tracking for a short period to just make sure that you're eating enough so that you're not causing damage to your metabolism and you're not going to be putting yourself in a situation where you hit a weight loss plateau or you may even begin to gain weight just because you're not eating enough. Number 19, your expectations are not reality. This is another big one. Weight loss is slow. That loss is a slow process. The slower you lose the weight, the more likely you are to keep it off. Although we may lose weight really, really fast in the beginning, it is very uncommon for people to sustain that rate of weight loss. Generally, we would lose one to two pounds a week. That is a very healthy rate of weight loss. Another expectation that is not reality is people have a unrealistic expectation of what a healthy diet and exercise will bring. Not everyone is going to be a supermodel or a bodybuilder. And just because you eat healthy and exercise, your body may not look like that. If you find that you are at a plateau and you're not quite where you wanna be, weight-wise you're close, but you're not quite there, maybe that's your body's way of telling you that that's where your body is happy. And you may just have to resign to the fact that that is your goal weight. That is where your body is happy and where your weight is going to stay. Just make sure that your expectations of your body, of your weight loss are realistic. If you're not, you're going to be discouraged and you're going to quit, which is not going to get you to your goal. Even if getting to your goal takes months or years, if you quit, you're never going to get there. And number 20 is you're too focused on dieting. Diets never work in the long term. Restricting or eliminating food groups never works in the long term. Make sure that whatever you're doing to slow and steady wins the race, lose the weight is something that you can sustain for the rest of your life. You can't just lose the weight and go back to eating the way that you did before you lost the weight. If you do that, you're going to put it all back on. That's why it's important not to be on a diet long term, to instead have a healthy approach to eating, have a good relationship with food and do whatever it takes to make however you're losing weight sustainable once you reach your weight loss goal. That is the number one reason why people gain their weight back is because what they did to lose the weight isn't sustainable once they've reached their goal. Instead of focusing on dieting, focus on being a healthier, happier and fitter version of yourself. So the bottom line, weight loss is not always easy. It takes a lot of dedication and devotion. It takes a lot of mindset shifting to really focus on being healthier, happier and fitter. Those are really the three things that you should focus on and weight loss will just be a side effect of those things. Be mindful of what you're eating, track your food, make sure that you're eating a whole base diet as much as possible. And last but certainly not least, be proud of what you've done, whether you've made it to your goal or not. Stick with it, keep trucking along. Weight loss requires dedication, self-discipline, perseverance and resilience. So that's everything, my friends. I hope that these 20 reasons why you may not be losing weight struck a chord with you and maybe one or two or all of these resonated with you. Make sure that you remember that this is a journey not a race. Slow and steady, my friends. The slower we lose the weight, the happier our bodies will be and the more likely that we will be to keep the weight off long term. Be proud of how far you've come and look forward to where you're going in the future. If you're new to my channel, I'd love for you to stick around, hit the little subscribe button and that bell next to it so you're notified when new videos are uploaded. Make sure you're checking out the description box down below where you're going to find my website that features all of my recipes, all of the links and discount codes to my very favorite things. And of course, the link to head over and join my Facebook group. We would love to have you be part of our community over there, so head on over and join us. Thumbs up this video if you loved these 20 tips. I have so many videos coming your way with tips and tricks and maybe a little food for thought when it comes to weight loss. Thank you guys again so much for hanging out with me today and I'll see you all next time. Bye.


Upon the escape of Darno and Dukar from the city of Tor, Atea, white queen of the yellow-skinned giants, condemns Tarzan and Oroak to slavery in the Juro pits. Tarzan conceives the idea of a mutiny among the pits' slaves and approaches a Rattorian prisoner with his plan. In the palace, Wong Tai finds Jeanette Burton alone in the quarters of Atea and agrees to use his influence with the queen against her decision to force Jeanette to become the mate of Mungo, chief of Torian warriors. Wong Tai insists, however, that in return, Jeanette must find and give to him the key to Atea's treasure cave. As they are about to separate, Wong Tai's retreat to the corridor is cut off by the unexpected return of Atea and her women. Doctor Wong, you mustn't be found here at Atea's chamber. She'll suspect that we've been talking.  I shall leave by the women's quarters in the corridor. No, no, no, not that way. You mean some of our women. Then to the antechamber. But how will you explain to her? You remain here. Say to her that you could not find the things you were sent for. I shall be waiting her in the ante-room. Hurry, Doctor Wong. Hurry. Calm yourself, Jeanette. You must not permit Atea to find you in this state of agitation. Leave everything to me and remember the key... Yes, yes. Hurry, please. The all-conquering determination to acquire vast riches in a not-clearly-defined manner is likely to precipitate this humble person into a situation wherein he may lose his honorable head. You remain here. You others go. Go now, Tanya. Find the woman Jeanette Burton and... Ah, Wong Tai. What seek you here, my friend? This person awaits the pleasure of the unapproachable one and comes to... You have seen and spoken to Jeanette Burton? Jeanette? Is she not with your women? I have been here waiting only a moment. Go, Tanya. Find her and bring her to me. Why are you here, Wong Tai? This person comes to confer with the resplendent one on the combat between Mungo and Tarzan. What about it? A little suggestion, my friend. A suggestion... Come to the point, Wong Tai. I shall speak to a narrow edge. The thought was born in the despicable mind of this person that were the combat to take place before the recapture of Lieutenant Dano and Uka, the illustrious one would lose the pleasure of witnessing their reaction to the death of their friend and companion. Tell me, Wong Tai, why are you so deeply interested in this combat? My interest lies only in the pleasure of my queen. I wonder... Ah, Jeanette Burton, at last you are here. Where have you been? Why did you not return to the baths with the scent and oils? Because I just this moment found the scent. It is fittingly written heaven-born... Speak when you are spoken to, Wong Tai. You have not been in this room, Jeanette Burton, with Wong Tai. This is the first time I've been in this room today, Artea. If I thought that you too were... It is not ineptly written, old daughter of Tor, that if there be no faith in our words of what you serve as. Silence! Go, Jeanette Burton. Prepare yourself to accompany me. Wong Tai, you will command Mungo in my name to prepare the royal elephants and guard. We go to inspect the slaves of the jewel pit. Large clearing deep in the jungle, the stockaded camp of the Torian patrol lies drowsing in the cool forest twilight, which in equatorial Africa comes and passes like the dropping of a sable velvet curtain. In swiftly darkening green ramparts, the forest rises above the heads of Dano and Uka as they creep stealthily toward a shadowy clump of bushes at the edge of the clearing. These bushes, Dano, are on the edge of the clearing. Just beyond is the stockade surrounding the camp. We wait here for darkness. And the elephants? They are staked in a line just inside the gate. Hmm, but tell me, Uka, how are we to get inside and out again with an elephant? We will climb the stockade at this point. Once inside, we go directly to the gate and quiet to God. There is never more than one. Oh, my friend, I fear we have spent a day and night in finding this camp for nothing. What you propose is almost the impossible for anyone but Tarzan, and he is not here to do it. This is our only chance, Dano. We must take it. When we have eliminated the God, we will open the gate, mount the first elephant in line, and ride away. It will not be difficult. Not difficult? Not the moment. If we, what then? And then? Why, we ride off to Rotor. Leaving the elephants there for them to ride after us, eh? Would it not be wiser to cut them all loose and drive them out before us? A good idea, Dano. I am afraid it could arouse every toyon in camp. Elephants, or herd of them, do not travel silently. We will make noise enough for the one. It was only a suggestion. It will be dark in a few moments. Then we must move quickly. We will not have much time between darkness and moonrise. And the fires inside the stockade, they light up the entire enclosure. There is only one fire in the center. We can see the reflection against the trees. If we remain close to the inside of the stockade, we will not be seen. Why, then, do we not climb the fence at the point where the elephants are held? Would it not save time? Yes, but it would also frighten the beast and arouse the patrol. Listen. And then are leaving the fire. Soon they will be asleep. All but the guard at the gate. Come, it is time. It is tense. It is high-moving. It will not be so easy to climb. Can you hold my weight on your shoulders? Yeah, I can try. I shall brace my back against the stockade. Come, sir. Now, climb up. I know the militia. The man is like a horse.   Now, look. Learning low. The troll is already asleep under that long shelter in the center of the stockade. Me voye. Uka, it is a big rock. Those spears standing upright before the shelter and reflecting the light of the fire. Each spear denotes a man, Dono. They are placed in the ground at the sleeper's head. Here. I will let you down. Don't do it. Ah, now. Jesus, Uka. Silence. Now, follow me closely along the wall. At the first sound, drop flat to the ground. Come. In the jewel pits of Thor, Tarzan and O'Rourke with their companion slaves labor unceasingly in the sweltering heat of a noonday sun. Behind the lines of prisoners, the long, cruel lashes of the guards curl and snap viciously at straining backs. As the guard behind Tarzan moves toward another group, the ape man side is closer to O'Rourke. I've just been talking to Kyloop, O'Rourke. And what did the Ratorian fellow have to report? Did he talk with the others? Yes. Last night. Just before we were chained to our bunks. How did they take to the idea? Are they willing to stand by us? Everyone. If I can free them. Ah, fair. It's an impossible task, my friend. You might break loose yourself and maybe get me out of them ankle chains, but all of them... Leave that to me. When the time comes, I'll break out of my bunk chains and let you out. While I'm taking care of the guard in our quarters, you'll get the key that hangs beside the door. Sure. Know what? Something's going on up there by the gates. Bigari. It's Atea and Jeanette on an elephant. At the call of the trumpets, the great gates at the entrance to the jewel pit swing open and led by Mungo proudly seated to stride the neck of an elephant, a brilliant cavalcade moves into the enclosure. In a royal horde strapped to the broad back of a huge animal, Atea, with Jeanette beside her, gazes hotly down upon the staring slaves and the guards. Behind the leading elephants are half a score of others bearing long tie and several nobles of Atea's court. Know what the devil? Can't the woman leave us in pairs for a few minutes? Listen, Orok. Mungo. Ganbo nuku. Tarzan la Orok. Angaka tao. Here comes Mungo with the chief of slaves. They're after us, Orok. Ah, sure, and you needn't be telling me that. The woman has some divulment in her mind for us.  Ah, Orok. Orok. La lana luk tazan la Orok. Tum bano na tazan Orok. You come. Where do we go, Mungo? Atea, she won't talk to you no Orok. You come. Well, my Tarzan, king of the apes, and you, Orok, how do you like the jewel pits of Thor? I have no complaint to make. Sure, and it is a pleasure to be working for you. By the whip marks on your back, Orok, it must be a great pleasure. Oh, by the Holy Saint Patrick, if you're going to... What do you want, Atea? We have come to inspect the pits, Tarzan of the apes, and to tell you that the day for your combat with Mungo has been set, it will be held... Look out, that elephant! In the midst of Atea's speech, the elephant upon which she and Janata mounted suddenly lifts his trunk high, trumpeting shrilly the huge beast twirls, gathering speed with each great stride the brute heads directly toward one of the deep open pits.


That's all I know about bagging probably more Station three Here's a wonderful question and mr. Munger. Hi That's 13 years old and this is my sixth annual Berkshire half-way shane And I've had the privilege to ask you both questions and years past My question for you today is the following As you know the US national debt is currently at an estimated $31 trillion making up about 125 percent of the US GDP In the meantime over the past few years the Federal Reserve has telegraphed that they intend to monetize the debt by printing trillions of dollars Even as they insist that they're fighting inflation already other major economies in the world such as China Saudi Arabia and Brazil are moving away from the dollar in anticipation of this My question is are we likely to face a time in the future when the US dollar is no longer the global reserve currency? How is Berkshire prepared for this possibility and what can we do as? American citizens to attempt to shelter ourselves from what's beginning to look like the beginnings of D-dollarization well Now we all know that's a great question because it's been all over Twitter I know I've spoken to a lot of friends about it a lot of people are concerned We've had crypto rise a lot recently The Bricknations China and Russia they keep talking about Getting rid of the dollar getting rid of treasuries. So everyone's going to be very interested in how Warren Buffet answers this Diopad has completely transformed how we support customers. It's built in AI helps my agents I Should ask you to come up here and answer some questions. I mean It's very interesting. I mean we are the reserve currency and I see no option for any other currency to be the reserve currency and and I think that Nobody understands the situation better than J. Powell and I but he's not in control of Physical policy and every now and then he drops a few hints and there was no question that when the When when when the end pandemic broke out? I mean it was a semi-war like situation, but Nobody knows How far you can go With the paper currency before it gets out of control if and particularly if you're the reserve world's reserve currency nobody knows the answer to that and You don't want to try and pick out the point of where it does become a problem because then it's all over and I think we should be very Very careful. I mean, you know, we all learned Keynesianism and we applied it in World War two to the advantage of the country and we did every couldn't we could to prevent inflation during the war and then War ended in August of 45 And I think in January 46, and I'm not giving you exact figures at all now, but in January 46 I think the rate of inflation was it You know something like 1% or thereabouts and by the end of the year, I think it was like 15% and again I'm doing this from long memories, but but It's it's easy For America to do us a lot But if we do too much It's very hard To see how you recover Once you let the genie out of the bottle and People lose faith in the currency and they behave in an entirely different manner Then they do when they feel that if they Put some money in the bank or have a pension planned or whatever it may be that they're going to get to have something with roughly equal purchasing power and it just changes the economy and all kinds of things can happen then and I can't predict them and nobody else can predict them, but I do know they aren't good and We will see and I do this is you know, I I voted for both parties and it's it's It's not limited to politicians to be the party or anything of the sort People take positions some of them understand what they're doing some of them don't understand what they're doing and You know if they put me on Some medical board. I don't understand what I'm doing. You know, it's not that there's nothing wrong with the fact that you that You can't master everything you can all be Isaac Newton, but but you can't go around Pretending you do or making decisions on it and and we Are not as well off in relations to curbing inflation expectations, which becomes self-fulfilling And We are not as well off as we were earlier and Berkshire is Better prepared than most investments for that kind of a period up But I said this in the annual report, but we aren't perfectly prepared because there's no there's no way to perfectly prepare You don't know what course of action will occur and It's a very political decision now it's a tribal decision to some degree and and you hope for leadership that that actually Will do something recognizes the problem and America's an incredible society rich, you know, we got everything going for us, but that doesn't mean we can just print money and definitely that as as that and It'll be interesting to see how it turns out Charlie At some point Printing money to buy votes will be counterproductive. Yeah, and we don't we don't know exactly where that comes And if something is going to be Dangerous and unproductive you ought to keep it a fair distance away Now if you have a culture that is exceptionally strong like Japan They have done some strange things there, but they couldn't have been the reserve currency No, of course not and but Japan bought back most of the national debt and most of the a lot of the common stocks and Dead it just the Federal Reserve owns practically everything in Japan and the country's working It's in and 30 years of economic stasis, but it's not going to help. I really admired Japan and But I don't think we should try and imitate it. I don't think we're as good as good at Japan at taking They have a cohesive culture and we don't Charlie. That's exactly right In Japan everybody's supposed to suck up and cope and in America we complain So I hope you come next year with a tougher question But and thank you and I predict I would love to be being born again today in the United States I mean we We can do a we can do a lot of dumb things and get away with it We can't do an unlimited number. There are people who care about that and You know You have to be willing to be Extraordinarily unpopular. I mean Paul Volcker There were there are other Federal Reserve Here are people that would not have not have done what they did. It's just it's it's too uncomfortable and There used to be a politician in Nebraska And if you asked him some really tough question like you know, how do you stand on abortion or he would look you right in The eyes they I'm all right on that one and they move next to well That's what people have done basically on inflation and they they one way or another they They say I'm all right on that and then they they don't really think about what the consequences of their actions could be Particularly and it's so much fun to There's 435 of you to just be one of 435 instead of being the person actually responsible anyway, I am still next to the Question of two superpowers and when you get into really destroying a planet destroying The reserve currency of the world when there's really no substance and forget about all the toys, you know with with I mean It's a joke to think of any tokens or That sort of that that that that's madness, but but it's also madness to just keep printing money. Yeah, and We know how to do it and we actually came from a money printing money printing economy in World War two which was required and we suffered significant inflation the price level I mean there are a million ways to judge it, but it's maybe ten times what it was then or something like that Well, that's that's getting close to the edge of where you don't want to You don't want to hold dollars anymore. You want to hold something else One old real estate you want to hold an interest in a business. There's a lot of good way your best your best Defense is your own earning power if you're the best doctor in town if you're the best lawyer in town If you love a teacher in town or even if it's the 10th best or 10, you're gonna make a good living.  You'll just be you'll just succeed by the fact that you're your value to the community which is a rich community overall is sustained and So the best investment is always in yourself. That's the answer. I would give you well, we have a situation where we've learned to print money in gobs and Little a big chunk of our young people go right into wealth management This is like we did Like we did. Yes, we've been bad examples And I want to say that I didn't realize wealth management was gonna get so big when I went into it And I apologize for what's happened Anyway, you did well Becky So that was my favorite answer from the 2023 annual shareholder meeting he speaks in code because I Don't think he wants to shake the boat but he mentioned Paul Volcker and the 70s and He lived through that and if you read through the shareholder letters That was a time when Brookshire was actually not even keeping up with gold inflation was so out of control And he also mentions Japan Japan has had a problem with deflation And they've been printing money and having trouble to create a bunch of value and Stimulate the economy and a lot of economists think that war headed in that direction somewhere between Japan and High inflation History never repeats exactly at rhymes But if we get asset prices falling and they'll have to inflate and if the debt gets too high and they can't afford high payments They'll also monetize the debt so a lot of code words but the government needs more revenue and the economy also needs to grow and It looks like both of those things will be heavy sandbags at least for the next few years That's what he's saying right there. He's saying expect less Don't be so optimistic because we've got some issues to deal with Hope you found it useful. If you did leave a comment like sub cheers


Yeah, the end of coal in Oahu, what an interesting topic, you know, with Jim Kelly of Hawaiian Electric and this is Hawaii, the state of clean energy. Thank you so much, Jim, for joining us. Great to be with you, Jay. It's been a while. And yeah, great topic for us to discuss today. Yeah. I was saying before the show, we were both, you know, thinking back to the old days.  Yeah, that's right. With the Hawaiian Electric. With the energy business in Hawaii, it's, yeah, there's something going on, it's like the news business. Oh, it's a thrill. Yes. Well, there's a relationship. Yeah. It's a thrill to have you here. So, okay, news release, a bunch of articles in various, you know, media over the past few days about the end of coal. And, you know, we talked about this a long time ago. I remember when I was first, you know, introduced the subject, if you will, of energy in Hawaii, there was discussion about, you know, we're not going to have another coal plant. And indeed the statute that was adopted in 2020 was a synonymous with the end of the Hawaiian Electric Agreement, the 30-year agreement with AES for coal. So here we are. We have reached that. The statute date comes up September 1, three weeks, two weeks from now. That's really something. And we are looking at this inflection point in energy in Hawaii. It's an historic moment, Jim. Don't you agree? Yeah. It absolutely is a critical point for the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. I mean, it really is a, it's not just a symbolic kind of a thing. I mean, it's absolutely a real event that is going to affect everyone on Hawaii. And I think it really is kind of a moment to think about where we've come and how much has changed in the 30 years of that contract. Because when that contract, when that plant first started producing electricity in 1992, it was interesting that the state of Hawaii and Hawaiian Electric had pursued coal because oil had become so unpredictable, the price of oil. I mean, we've been through several price shocks in the 70s and the 80s. And the thought was, look, we got to get something else to use as a fuel for baseload generation, basically power plants that can be on all the time. And even though there was some early adoption of renewables, mostly wind in Hawaii, the thought was, hey, let's, we need something that we can ship. We need something we can transport without too much trouble, something that can be stored easily. Something that's cheap and available. Hey, how about coal? And at the time, there was just very little conversation about the potential environmental effects.  There's smoke coming out of the smokestack and there was a lot of, I think, some concern expressed at the time, but there clearly wasn't the consciousness about climate change in the late 80s, which is when the deal actually was struck, that there obviously is today. And so in one generation, we've really changed dramatically about how we look at coal. Toward the end of that contract, there was a lot of pressure on coal. I mean, a lot of people were saying, we got to get off coal. The reality was, you were in a contract. Is there anything you could have done to get out of it before now? No. And I don't think there was ever any. I mean, we started talking about this back 10, 12 years ago, and also in terms of our planning for the future, because when you're a utility, you're not planning six months or a year ahead. You're planning 10, 20, 30 years out. And so more than a decade ago, we started planning. We're saying, OK, we assume the plant's going to go away. Because already this was after Al Gore. This was after the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative. This was after there was a lot of alarm being expressed about climate change. And nobody was really advocating for the coal plant to stay open. Yeah. And so now it's a perfect stone because the coal plant closes as a matter of statute. I suppose theoretically, I don't know if this is really possible, theoretically, the legislature could say, we were only kidding. And you need a little more time. We'll give you a little more time. And the AES would say, OK, we're good with that. You know, how about five years more? Would that have been a possibility? I think it could have been a possibility maybe five years ago or three years ago. But when you're talking about the practical reality of shutting down a major facility like a coal plant that has people working there that are having to make plans for transitioning to a new job when the place closes, they're going to start disassembling the plant that my understanding is almost immediately after it shuts down.  They have to figure out. I mean, one of the questions was trying to figure out how and when to order the last batch of coal because they wanted to time it so that they would use it all up so that there's not coal left there. They're going to have to pay to move away someplace. So if that had even been a thought, it would have had to have been several years ago. So it isn't like something that could happen today and say, OK, let's go, fellas. We'll leave it going another six months. If I look back at the title of our show, which is the end of coal, I would probably change it to the transition resulting from the end of coal because, you know, there are all kinds of issues and it is the perfect storm because we have the oil problems emanating out of Ukraine. We have inflation, which is probably directly related to the oil problems. But nevertheless, it's a separate factor, you know, at this point in time in the transition. And, you know, we have we have issues that came out of covid. Don't you agree? I mean, the Clean Energy Initiative was affected by covid and that affects the timeline of the utility to get these projects on. Can you talk about that? Sure. I mean, you know, again, being in the utility business on an island where you kind of you're on your own, you got to make sure that everything you're doing because you can't really get help from anybody else if things don't work out. So you always have been making plans. But I got to say, yeah, the last couple of years, just about every potential thing that could go wrong went wrong. The the thing that is really unfortunate about the coal transition is even by the last year, even in January of this year, we were forecasting it was probably going to cost about $2 more a month for customers to get off of coal, that that was going to be the price difference. I mean, it was hardly, you know, not even one a cup of coffee. That's the average customer. Yeah, for the average customer would have been very, very not not noticeable at all for most people. And by March, after Russia invaded Ukraine and oil prices hit, you know, historic levels, we were already seeing bills rising because of that. We were already seeing bills rising because of inflationary pressures. And then on top of that for the customers on Oahu, we now have taking coal out of the mix, which basically costs about six cents a kilowatt hour. So it is absolutely the cheapest fuel that we use. But it's also the dirtiest. And we're having to replace it for the time being partially with 30, 32 cents a kilowatt hour oil. So, yeah. And then the projects that were supposed to be online by now that would have meant we would be using far less oil to replace AES. We've had two projects drop out. We've had a number of projects that have been delayed as a result of covid as a result of the investigation that the feds were doing about tariff violations of panels made in China. As a result of, you know, inflationary pressures, the cost of materials going through the roof and developers saying, you know what, I can't meet that price that I agreed to anymore. So I'm going to step back. So, yeah, it's like it's a lot of stuff all at once. Just wonder if you if you go back a couple of years and you could not to say that you could do this, but if you could see into the future and and figure there was going to be a spike in oil and figure there was going to be a covid and the effects of covid, what could you have done in anticipation of the September one deadline different than what you did? I mean, were there steps you could have taken? Had you been able to wrap around these possibilities? Well, if you followed all the activities of the governor's powering past coal task force, which is set up to address some of the challenges that there are with existing projects, so projects that have already been approved by the Public Utilities Commission. They're on our we have a board status board we call the scoreboard on our website. So there's nine projects on Oahu that are in various stages of completion. And the task force's job is to look at each project and say, hey, look, what's holding this project up? Is it a permit? Is it is it a utility issue? Is it, you know, a siting issue? What what's what's going on with each one of these projects? And that process has actually got everybody in the room, state, city, agencies, HECO, phone, everybody has touches a project. They're all in that room and we can problem solve in real time in that kind of a forum. I think that would have been super helpful if we had known about it a couple of years ago to say, look, what do we got to do to get these obstacles out of the way? Which in some cases are actually pretty easy to move. But, you know, as we know in Hawaii, there's a lot of steps to get anything done. Oh, sure. Talk to the home builders. Yes. Anyway, the other thing is here we are this inflection point where all these vectors are affecting, you know, the ability of the utility to get the the energy out in the same way as before. And and I wonder, too, if you if you sit right now, and of course, it's early because you haven't learned all the lessons that we will all learn going forward because, you know, this is a new a new experience. But right now, today, can you say that we have learned stuff like, for example, this collaborative team approach that might be a lesson to apply in the future? Is there is there anything else you can think of that that would be useful going forward in the possibility we have other, you know, problem influences, you know, as we have now? Absolutely. I mean, this is this is one that I would really, you know, continue to point to where we're modeling. You know, we have we have some issues on Maui that we're trying to address with one of our facilities over there that we're going to have to replace some of the generation resource that we have over on Maui sooner than we thought we would. And so we're actually in a process of standing up a group that is similar to the Powering Pass Cold Task Force with exactly the same kind of a mission. We have, I believe it's four or five projects on Maui that are on the board. They're in various stages of completion. And the group is their main mission is, all right, let's look at each one of these projects. Everybody's in the room. Let's figure out what's hanging it up right now. What can we do? And and in some of these cases, it really is a question of just being able to look across the table at someone and saying, hey, can you get back? And we can find out at the next meeting where we're at on that rather than, you know, the endless train of emails, the endless train of, you know, correspondence and missed messages and that kind of thing. It's it's been super helpful and collaborative. And, you know, it also includes voices from the community. Yeah, Henry Curtis is part of the Powering Pass Cold Task Force. We have representatives from a number of community groups, and they've been super helpful in this process as well. That's good. So it's really a lesson for all of us. I mean, and it stands total because the next time we are threatened, you know, you or anybody else in that task force and say, wait, I remember 2022, I remember what happened at the end of coal. And we need to we need to focus on the other thing is the legislature and you got the state energy office. Sometimes the governor is not on the same page as we know from LNG a few years ago and next era when it tried to come in. So query, you know, you have a lot of governmentals and the PUC, of course. You have a lot of, well, I say unforgiving structures around you. We all have these unforgiving structures around us. And I suspect it should be a lesson for them, too. This was an unforgiving bill, perhaps, that might have been more thoughtful. And there are a lot of other things you could put in that basket. And I wonder, you know, if you were to say, you know, what government should have, could have might learn from this experience up against this kind of deadline with a, you know, a difficult transition. Maybe maybe they should just stay out of your way now. Well, I think everybody, the good thing about Hawaii is which is very different from most other states. And I saw an interesting stat recently, a presentation, I think less than half of the states have a clean energy mandate, a target like we do 100 percent renewable by 2045. I think only like 23 states do. And so that's really I was really surprised when I looked at the map and you can kind of figure out which states would have these and which states don't. But it's super helpful for us to at least we all have a common goal. So we're all moving toward that goal. You don't have a whole bunch of people that are trying to hold us back or trying to divert us from that target. Everybody is is committed to that goal, where we obviously sometimes run into some friction is everybody has a different idea.  And you come to a fork and people want to go different ways. And I so. Yeah, I think there is a process underway called integrated grid planning, which yeah, I know it makes your ears bleed. But it's been going on for several years. It's got a lot of people involved in a technical people, but also community people, you know, PUC, state energy office. Everybody's got a place at the table and it's a very. It's very comprehensive planning process. We're going forward for the next 20 years. How are we going to get there?  You know, this is coming. Why didn't you do something about it? And, you know, the truth of it is that's kind of what we do at Hawaiian like we plan a lot. So that's that is kind of a point that a sore point with us when we hear people say that it's not just us. There's a lot of people are part of what's your answer when they say that? Well, I'm polite, of course. And they say, well, thank you for that insight. You know, let me explain to you about integrated grid planning. No, I try to I try to point to, you know, some of the things that we said publicly, some of the depending on who they are and, you know, some of the documentation, there's there's a lot of documentation about planning out there. And I also ask people to get everything you want to know about integrated grid planning. It's on our website. It's not like it's some dark cave by invitation only kind of an operation. But it's, you know, it's complicated. We did we did a group of we did some focus groups before the the announcement on the coal plant. We asked we wanted to ask people about how we were communicating this this change and it was striking to us who work in this every day. How many people and it was just average folks. How many had no idea we had a coal plant out of Oahu at all. So that's kind of the first we have all these assumptions that people are deeply interested in and up to speed on everything that's going on with the electric company. And that's really, really not the case at all. I think it's true. A lot of people know no idea about AES and coal. And this is such a vague thing about it. And a lot of people will learn about this through the article in the star avatizer and, you know, whatever other media you want to care, you know, and query whether over the time, you know, since say 2020 anyway, you might have socialized the idea to a greater extent so that they did know and it wasn't coming as a surprise. In retrospect, what do you think about that? Oh, I think that's you can always look at. What we should have communicated to people and whether we did it in a way that was going to stick with people. I mean, we've talked about this for a while. But, you know, is that the kind of a fact that sticks with people? Again, back when we thought that it wasn't going to have really much of an impact on bills. We weren't really communicating. I don't think as much about it because we thought, well, OK, people don't really. You know, bad people, we hope would be excited we're not using coal anymore to make electricity. But, you know, in this case and also back in March. I do want to point out, you know, we've taken a different approach to communicating with customers or really getting out front and being proactive about it, where I think in the past. We were more. We would tend to have people open the bill, go and then be prepared to answer questions about that and to be able to explain why that was here. We're getting two months out in front, as we did back in March when we knew that the bills are going to be going up in May and June to tell people, hey, it's coming, be ready. Maybe you can take some steps to reduce and manage your bill. And here's what you need to know. Here's why it's happening. And, you know, people aren't excited about the message. And as you pointed out, the timing is just, you know, terrible. It's really not it's it's not good at all for a lot of people. But I hope they at least understand a little bit about getting any push pushback. I mean, it's public now, for sure. And I wonder if anybody is, you know, giving you any rash over it. Customers are not happy about it, and especially because we've got customers that are still trying to recover from the pandemic and we're, you know, maybe on a payment plan. And so I think that's what we've been talking a lot about internally is how can we continue to help our customers who are struggling not only with the the kind of carry over from the pandemic, but then that now they've got this to deal with. And the answer has been giving people, I mean, really custom tailoring programs to every customer who calls up and says, hey, I'm having trouble. We think, OK, can we put you on a payment plan? Can we hook you up with an agency that's offering assistance?  Yes. You went public on that. I guess that was an understanding of the whole energy community that you would give them a break. You would give them a payment plan. You wouldn't shut them down. That was the important thing. And I saw a number of press releases on that subject since, gee, since 2020-21. Yes, 2020. And did you ever, you know, run into a problem with that?  We resumed disconnections late last year. But what we've done is we've we raised the threshold for when we would take that action. And in most cases, we're finding that when we tell people, hey, look, this is it, it's going to happen. We're at that point, then we're getting them on a payment plan or we're we're being able to get some kind of an arrangement with them so that we don't have to do that. Because that's that's the last thing we want to do.  I'm sure that has some cases like that. But you know, here, seven percent were the average household at fifteen dollars a month. And that and that my my very rough arithmetic is that you're talking about a two hundred dollar per month customer. Seven percent, seven percent and fifteen dollars a month. The high end customers at three, four, five, six hundred dollars. And some people pay a lot of money. That's going to be way more. And what I caught from your press release is that this is really want to talk to you about this. This is going to last until twenty twenty four. That that is an increase that is going to have a salient effect on a lot of people over a significant period of time. How hard is that twenty twenty four, you know, date? I mean, do you think you'll be able to resolve it by then or possibly sooner than then? Are you going to be able to, you know, get back to where people would like it to be where it was or even better? Well, at the beginning of it all depends on on world events, you know, pandemics, oil prices. I mean, at the beginning of the pandemic, the average bill on a while I think was like one hundred and thirty dollars. Because oil prices had dropped so dramatically. So I think what we're really hoping for. For a lot of reasons is a resolution to the Ukrainian conflict stability in oil markets nationally, internationally. We're already starting to see some signs of oil prices dropping. And you can see it at your corner gas station, too. We're really hoping in the next couple of months, especially on the neighbor islands, that we are going to start seeing some decreases in oil and pushing down on the bill. I want to be clear that we don't have any sense that these bills are going to be in place till twenty twenty four. I mean, that's that's not what we're assuming. Well, that's kind of a pessimistic expectation. Yeah, that is a pessimistic.  And that's still what we're we're using, you know, to run a lot of our plants at night. So every island is still using oil to some degree, some to a greater degree than others. So I think we're so there's a lot of worst case scenarios about, you know, where oil prices go. I think we're hopeful that that the the prices are going to continue to go down. The other thing is that they could actually go up. I mean, depending on geopolitical considerations and oil and Ukraine and all that, it's possible that this will get worse now. Yeah, although what we had a report the other day, kind of a forecast and, you know, things like Japan is resuming a nuclear power program and putting a lot of money and effort into that. That means they're going to be buying less oil on the market to run their power plants. People are still buying oil from Russia. If anything, they're actually selling more oil than they were a few months ago. And so there's plenty of oil available on the market. That's part of what's been pushing the prices down. That makes sense. Yeah. So despite the talk about, you know, them being isolated, in fact, they've been, I think, selling more. The issue in the long term is everybody's assuming that, you know, and I don't know if you guys have talked about this on the show. You know, there's just the infrastructure for refining oil is I think where the bottleneck is right now. Nobody's building new refineries. Nobody's assuming over the next 30 years that the demand for oil is going to be increasing enough to get your return for building new facilities on that. So the amount of oil that's available right now for purchase in the world is probably going to be pretty, pretty stable.  But to talk about the renewables impact. Yeah, please. You know, in that same period, you know, from this discussion, I get the possibility that a lot of these projects, renewable projects that are stuck right now will get unstuck all over your part of the state anyway. And and that will have just exactly the opposite effect. Although it always costs money to, you know, build infrastructure like like like solar farms and the like and battery and battery facilities. Fact is that once we get into it, it's a stable, regular cost. And that's way different than geopolitical spikes. So how does that look in that same period? That looks really encouraging, you know, by the middle of next year, we'll have this battery storage project, a Kapolei energy storage project should be online. One of the largest of its kind in the world. So during the day, we're using solar, we're putting it into the battery. And then during the peak, you know, where we're burning a lot of oil right now to accommodate people when they come home and turn on the air and all that, we can be using the solar that's stored in that battery instead of that, we're going to have a total of nine new projects as a project being dedicated this week in Milani, 39 megawatts. That's online right now, it's got its own storage attached to that. Huge, tremendous help at nine cents a kilowatt hour again, as opposed to 30 cents. But you're the word used stable is the right word because. You know, the future does not in look like rates are going to be dropping, you know, 30 percent because we're on renewable energy. I mean, that's because we're using more renewables. It's it's about stabilizing rates so that we're not doing this all the time. If you look at. Go ahead. No, if you look at Kauai, for example, which has been held out as a, you know, the where we want to be. Absolutely. Their rates over the last year have been like this. It's it's it's a straight line. They haven't gone down. Their rates are still, you know, in the 30s, which which ours are. And and but while ours have gone like this because of the use of oil, theirs has been stable. And that's where we hope to be in the next couple of years is that our rates will be like that as well because you're locked into a 20 year contract for nine cents energy from a project like Mililani, as opposed to every month. You get a bill from the oil guy and you pay whatever the going rate is. So that's it goes back to the early part of our conversation. So the mission here, in order to get back to, you know, a stable, maybe even a cheaper rate is to get these projects unstuck. That would be the, you know, the most important thing to do, because if you if you have to rely on oil, gosh, you know, we're at risk with vulnerable to all kinds of things over which we have no control at all.  It is. It's working really well. We're moving ahead on these projects and some of them are just behind on schedule because of challenges getting materials. And that we have limited, you know, ability and influence. But, you know, we're hopeful. So we, you know, we established maybe it came from the utility. I don't remember this target of 100 percent renewables by 2045. And then there was some talk about, well, we can do that by 2040 query, you know, this inflection point in the history of energy in Hawaii, which is somebody will write a book about it.  Would you agree with me that we seem to have lost time by virtue of these various factors we've been you and I have been discussing? Can we get back? Can we meet those targets? What does it look like in terms of the aspirational goals that we settled on some years ago? Oh, I we've lost a little bit of time, but we our goal at Hawaiian Electric is still by the end of this decade, we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2005 levels by 70 percent. And we're still aiming to do that. We're going to have additional procurement efforts that are actually underway right now for Oahu and Maui and Hawaii Island. So we're hoping there's going to be even more projects coming in that we're hoping for a frankly, a broader suite of proposals beyond solar and batteries.  So no, we're, you know, this decade is key, though. You nailed it. I mean, if we don't make the progress that we need to make by the end of this decade, then we are going to be. It's going to be harder. It's going to be steeper. So this decade is the key decade to get things done. You know, your press release also talks about energy conservation and bringing in all of those programs that Hawaii energy, you know, has and and trying to get people to be more energy conscious and also not waste energy.  Maybe, you know, you don't have the resources, the facilities to keep going at the same level. If I have to conserve, maybe it's for a good reason that I could experience a brownout or any how much risk do we have of brownouts and, you know, the inability of the utility to actually meet the demand?  And and, you know, the last two years, we've been re moving around our maintenance schedules on all of the projects that we, you know, the facilities that we own.  They have to go down for maintenance every couple of years. You basically got to rebuild them to keep them running. And so we moved all the schedules around to make sure that all of our facilities had had their tune ups, had been maintained, had been overhauled ahead of AES shutting down so that we would have this clear field after AES shuts down, where most of our equipment was going to be available and at peak performance. And so really going into next year, into later next year, we have sufficient generation. And we also have a reserve margin which we have to have on an island because we can't call up anybody else and say, hey, one of our machines broke, can you send us some electricity? So we've always got to have that reserve as well. So we're we've been planning for this. So that is a I mean, obviously, things happen. Storms happen, things break, but storms will happen for sure. Things will. The last couple of years have told us they've taught us that things are going to happen. But we we feel like we've got everything planned out the way that because, you know, AES goes offline for maintenance, too. There are parts of the year when they're not running because they're overhauling them, so it isn't like with them not being on the system that suddenly we're we're within an inch of not being able to keep the lights on. Yeah, there's something you mentioned makes me want to ask this. I mean, I always favored, you know, an integrated state on energy where we had an undersea cable and, you know, I still do if it was possible. You think that that this this is possible in order to want to call it balance and stabilize energy, at least among your islands. I know it costs money and I know there's no environmental considerations as there were last time, some of which I thought were really over the top. But query, are we ever going to get to that? Because it seems to me that if you wanted to balance the state, you would do that. You would have undersea cable. It's the easy technological solution, no? Well, I think there's there's all sorts of new solutions that are kind of arriving and I'm hoping are going to be catalyzed by we're talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and all of the money that is be loosened by the feds on a lot of different fronts, things like hydrogen research, things like, you know, offshore wind, there's a lot of interest in that. And that kind of goes to your question about the cables. You know, people are asking about that all the time. You know, is that something that's potential here? It does have potential here. Carbon capture, I think, is going to be one of the most interesting emerging technologies that we're going to all be looking at over the next 10, 20 years. And whether that means that you can generate electricity on site, capture the carbon, no emissions. And then you're not having to worry about how big a facility is or being hooked up to a different island. But I think we, you know, there's the point that you're making. Every island has got its own special signature in terms of, you know, what resources are available, what the geography is. And I think we're at the point where we shouldn't ever say, let's take everything off the table. I think we ought to look at everything. Oh, you mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act is very important. It's happening now. I wouldn't say that the ink isn't dry. I would say the ink isn't even wet yet. Yeah. Yeah, we're not quite done yet. But clearly, how is that going to affect what we've been talking about? Because there's money coming in for credits on electric vehicles, for example. And as you said, infrastructure, how does that affect the picture you and I have been talking about? Well, we're hoping it is going to really get into the hands not only of the utility for infrastructure work, and we're really gratified to see a lot of money put toward coastal communities and resilience work around addressing climate change because that's hugely expensive for us.  That's that's going to be great. I'm really gratified to see that they're specifically targeting money to low and moderate income communities to put in rooftop solar to pay for heat pump water heaters, which are very excited about those. It's a great technology. Imagine that you want to talk about lowering your bill. If heat pump water heater could potentially lower your bill. Water heater is 40 percent of your bill for most people. Imagine having that just go away because you've got this heat pump water heater that hardly uses any electricity at all. And but they're very expensive and they cost money to install. And so not everybody can afford those. But I think that's the sort of thing. We love to see billions of dollars put toward that kind of technology to make that more affordable, to be able to give people grants, tax breaks, whatever to install that and get rid of the plain old water heater that most of us have. Well, it's a statement. It's energy justice in a way that makes these things available to people on both sides of the the energy divide, so to speak. So that's all positive. I hope that really happens to knock wood and cars. What three say no. And the car that to be able to get to their offering rebates, tax rebate for used EVs, OK, four thousand dollars, I believe it is for people making for a single people making under seventy five thousand dollars a year. That would be terrific. That's going to then put EVs within reach of people because we all know that's been one of the biggest obstacles to getting people to transition. That creates an aftermarket. Yeah.  And so then you're really expanding it to a tremendous possibility for a lot of people. Yeah. Well, one other thing before we close, we're about out of time. I'm sorry we are like to continue the conversation. But coming back to the point about we know that Congress, thanks to Joe Biden, is doing stuff. And infrastructure includes energy. God bless for that. And although it passed the Senate on only because Kamala Harris cast the you know, the the tie breaking vote, which is sad that we had to go through that. But we have it. It's there pretty much. The question really is the state legislature, you know, in twenty twenty one, the state legislature had a good year. They had may I say I don't like to say this, but they had extra money. They were flush, but they did not renew the E.V. credit. They did not pass the the additional credit for storage facilities on existing rooftop solar. That was disappointing. And I don't know what else they did or didn't do. But I wonder if you had any suggestions for what you would like to see coming out of the legislation. We know the Fed finally got on board. What about the state? Well, the state in addition, we spent a lot of time talking about the renewable energy law. But, you know, the state also has a law and a mission to decarbonize the economy and seeks to be in alignment with, you know, Joe Biden's pledge, which is to decarbonize the American economy at least 50 percent by 2030. That's a huge lift. We're really trying to get focus on the issue of decarbonization, not just renewable energy. We want to get, I want to say we want to get off of that, but we've gotten a big start on renewable energy. We've now got to start really going on after the hard stuff involving, you know, transportation, which is what we're talking about with with E.V.s. We have to really make sure that people understand what's ahead in terms of the lift to truly decarbonize and what that's going to take and what it looks like. I know there's there are people working on it. We saw the there's coverage of the electric airplane between the neighbor islands recently, and that's pretty cool. But there's there's a lot of work that needs to be done. So I think that policymakers can really, I think, address the decarbonization issue more more directly by trying to get everybody lined up here on that that is the goal that we're aiming toward. It's not just renewable energy. It's about reducing carbon. And that's an agriculture that's in buildings that's in, you know, concrete construction. That's in, you know, every food production food that we bring in from the mainland. It's a very broad category of activities of our economy. Well, you know, it was this election year and I truly hope that the people running our office, both in Ledge and, you know, for governor and lieutenant governor take this as a platform point, you know, and carry it carry it home because leadership is everything is especially in an area that is so technical and complex as energy for sure. So I hope that happens. And I hope that the public opinion gets focused on it that way. I have one more question for you, Jim. It goes back to PBN and the Honolulu Advertiser and KIUC and everything. I have them fun. Oh yeah, it's fun every day. I mean, I always look forward to going to work. There's always something going on. Remember, looking out the window going, oh man, I wonder when five o'clock is going to be there. There's a lot going on. And I mean, it's like I said, this decade is going to be, we're going to look back at it and feel proud of what we accomplished or we're going to be kicking ourselves saying we didn't get it done. But I feel pretty certain we're going to get it done. Great. Well, I hope you come back and talk to me from time to time to keep tabs on it and follow the action because this is one of the most important things for the state, for its future, for its development and its attractiveness for people to come here, live here, participate in a thriving economy. Thank you so much, Jim. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, Jay. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.