So two weeks ago on this podcast, I spoke with my former intercept colleague, Kate Aranoff,

who now covers climate and energy for the new Republic.

And we talked about her experience covering a major energy conference in Houston called

CERA Week.

To give people a bit of background, I don't go to a ton of corporate conferences, but

I assume this genre of thing happens somewhat often.

But the other night, there was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of CERA Week musical,

put on by Broadway performers who, you know, themselves were talented.

No, no, no, great with them.

Certainly, but the musical sort of told the story of the U.S. oil and gas industry through

a series of edited Broadway show tunes, which is exactly as bad as you think it is and

much worse.

I would argue.

I was physically taken aback.

The war in Ukraine has renewed conversations in Washington about actually passing a major

clean energy package.

And Joe Manchin at the conference laid out in some pretty precise detail what exactly

he was willing to support and at what cost.

Among people following this issue closely, there's now real confidence that a major

package might actually get done, even after it was left for dead in December amid a heap

of finger pointing and recriminations.

But listening to Manchin outline what he was for and what he was against, I realized

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