 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Hello, hon. Welcome to Stand in the Internet on Think Tech Hawaii where Community Matters. It's going to be a busy week next week. I'm going to be in Long Beach and I'm going to be checking some things out over there with Dave Malanero from my office and we're hoping that we can get to come back and maybe even do a live show next Friday from Long Beach and we'll try and do that. We've got some high tech communications being worked out behind the scenes for today's show and I'm going to start off with some hydrogen news while Robert and Cindy get the comms up and set up for what we're doing today and as usual there's been a lot going on. So, let me get into a great newsletter. I talked about several times from Keith Malone and just a couple of highlights from his newsletter. Air Products pursues hydrogen fueling station opportunities in Japan and alongside of that Honda is installing fast fuel stations in Japan, across Japan. These are current events. Japanese car maker firm to EVs still see a role for hydrogen so even the electric vehicle market folks are still saying hydrogen is part of the solution. Hydrogen cars to cost the same as hybrids in 2025 according to Toyota. Electric car makers have an Africa problem. I'm going to get into a little of the details on this one. This is interesting. Volkswagen recent failure to lock in the price of cobalt for five years points to a serious problem with the optimistic projections of an electric vehicle revolution. These projections are based on gradually declining battery prices but the scarcity of certain materials and their concentration in politically unstable countries may interfere with that dynamic. It's important to me because a lot of people point to batteries as being a better total solution, being more efficient energy into energy out and I keep pointing to them. You have to use the fully burdened cost of those assets. You have to sit there and go where's this stuff coming from, who's doing everything, who owns the materials, how much of a worldwide resource do we have, what's the worldwide stock? How long will it last? How many years? You know, based on use. And that's really important and it's important to look at batteries and go all the components currently being used are in fairly finite supply. Microsoft is getting hungry for fuel cells, Amazon fuel cell play echoes the strategy and cloud computing. There's just a lot going on in the hydrogen world right now and I'm hoping to come back next week with some more news from the hydrogen world. From another newsletter I got from an interesting side. There's a company called ITM Power, I've interviewed them on the show before and they're looking for some of the issues that are going on in Europe and they're saying Birmingham County Council approves 13.4 million pound pilot scheme for 20 hydrogen fuel buses. So England's really getting into the hydrogen fuel vehicles as well. Power to gas to energy storage joined up energy systems thinking. That's a concept that's taking on in Europe and I think it's going to take on in the US because what they do is they use all their surplus renewable energy like solar or wind from the North Sea and they put it into hydrogen, they make hydrogen, they pump the hydrogen into their natural gas pipelines and use the pipelines to move the hydrogen all over the continent. I think that's something that the US could model over here with our natural gas pipeline. So let me check in with the folks here in the studio and see how our comms are looking up. We're trying something really cosmic here so let me see. Let's see what we've got going on. If Richard can, excuse me, Robert can tell me whether we've got the comms going. Not quite yet, okay. So let me just talk a little bit longer about what's going on. Next week we'll be in Long Beach. It's the biggest fuel cell conference in the US and we'll be coming back hopefully armed with a bunch of great information. I tell you what, let's go to break here really quick while we finish getting our comms together and we'll come back with our guests. Kauii Lukas, host of Hawaii is My Main Land here on Think Tech Hawaii Fridays at 3 p.m. Oyan Standard Time. We explore environmental issues, political issues, keeping it local any way we can. Aloha. Hi, I'm Pete McGinnis-Mark and every Monday at one o'clock I present Think Tech Hawaii's Research in Manila where we bring together researchers from across the campus to describe a whole series of scientifically interesting topics of interest both to Hawaii and around the world. So hopefully you can join me one o'clock Monday afternoon for Think Tech Hawaii's Research in Manila. Hey, so it looks like we finally have everything working and it's time to introduce today's guest on Stan Energyman and boy are we excited. As many of you know, the president's headed to Asia this weekend and he's stopping here in Hawaii for a couple of days to meet with military and civilian leadership and as you might expect his dance card is pretty full when he hits the ground. But thanks to some great work by the Think Tech Hawaii production staff and the US Air Force crew on Air Force One, we're able to pull off a VHF radio link with Air Force One and as they approach Oahu we've secured this exclusive interview with President Trump to talk about just energy topics. Totally unbelievable. I don't, I don't you think it's just totally unbelievable. Anyway, let's see if we can get connected. Hello, Mr. President. This is Stan Energyman here in Think Tech Hawaii. Can you hear me? Mr. President, are you there? Oh, hello, Energyman. Thanks for letting me have some time, that direct public contact I really crave, you know. You know, I wanted to Skype in, but I couldn't pull that off and it's just a real shame because I look much better with the presidential seal in front of me here on Air Force One, but hey, I'm coming to Hawaii and I need to hang loose, right? Yes, sir. It's really important that you're not stressing out and it's not allowed on my show by the way, so I really mean our show today. So anyway, thanks for being on, sir. It'd be great to throw me a hardball question so I can get driving right back to, drive it right back to Mr. Energyman and let's go right to the jugular, sir. Well, you're on your record for energy, not accepting the human causation of climate change. You stated that you intend to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords and I think I follow your logic, but can you please make it clear so we can get past the media hype and move forward on what you're doing with the Paris Accords? Sure, Energyman. I'm a businessman. I depend on good advice and I've gotten great advice from some surreal scientists and great scientists and not all of them agree to the extent of human impact on climate change. There's no doubt that we're experiencing some global climate variations, but those things happen in nature. I have to report a report coming out this week that's going to help me get a better handle on all that, but that's beside the point. We really need to clean up our country. As far as the Paris Accords go, our country is in debt to the tune of $20 trillion. Why the heck should we be spending tens and millions of taxpayer dollars funding cocktail parties for third-world dictators and communists and bad-mouthed capitalism while I flip the bill? Or rather, while we as taxpayers flip the bill. I'd rather spend that money at home, fix in the country, grow in our economy and pay down that $20 trillion in debt rather than funding a big gala pity party every six months over in Europe. Does that make sense? Energy guy? Well, sir, I really appreciate that insight. So you kind of see the Paris thing as United Nations 2.0 then, right? Correct the moon, though, Hawaii energy man. Okay, sir, let's move on to some more domestic issues. And that was a really good answer, and I agree with you. I don't want to see our taxpayer money spent over in Asia on things like big cocktail parties. But here at home, we have the energy of coal. And the media says you've got a knuckle-dragging neanderthal position that you want to go back to burning coal. So could you please tell me that's not true? Well, you mean the knuckle-dragging neanderthal part or the coal-burning part? Well, sir, I actually mean the coal-burning part, sir. I would never insult Melania's taste in husbandware. Oh, okay, thanks for clarifying. And by the way, Melania is sitting right here next to me, and she appreciates clarifying the clarification on the knuckle-dragging part. But let's talk about coal. You know, coal is a great asset in this country. And really, it's focusing more about jobs. You know, jobs are important. And I promised the American people that I'd focus on job creation. And some of the folks most impacted on jobs have been coal mining. So I do want to put coal mining back on the table. I want to have coal miners back at work. But that doesn't mean I'm a knuckle-dragging neanderthal coal burner. I didn't say anything about burning coal. I think coal is an important carbon asset. And we need to have that carbon for durable goods. We need to do things like clean energy technology burning coal when we do burn coal in a clean way. And I value carbon. Durable goods should be made from carbon. Carbon fiber, carbon nanostructures for future batteries and future hydrogen storage. The bottom line is we should be sequestering carbon for better use, not burning it and throwing it in the air. So it's not that I want to go backwards to the caveman days and start burning coal. I want to go forward and create jobs in the United States and use carbon for what it should be used for, sequestering it and using it for things that it should be instead of throwing it in the air. So when I talk coal and going back to coal mining, it's to create some jobs up front and maybe create some jobs down the road. But coal mining is a tough, dirty job. And I'd really like to limit the number of people we put in there and go towards the future using coal and other fossil fuels for more important things than burning. It's like burning money. Well, that's really important, sir. That makes great sense to me. And I hope it does to many others out there. That's quite a different perspective from the way the media portrays it. Now let's switch gears to my favorite energy area, transportation and specifically the electrification of transportation sector. Can you describe in your vision how to help reduce fossil fuels in the transportation sector and particularly tell us what you know about hydrogen fuel cells? Sure. The future is going to be electric. There's just no doubt about it. Electricity is the way to go in transportation. Now that doesn't mean we're not going to do other things like better public transportation or mode shaft or better city planning. But the fact is that cars started out electric, but there was no good way to store electricity. So we went to gasoline and diesel and other fossil fuels. That was 100 years ago. Now things are different. We have new technologies and we need to go back to electricity as a more efficient way to go with individual transportation and fleet transportation. A lot of folks don't know much about hydrogen, but I do. In fact, Baron, my son, he's a brilliant young man, good looking, big hands. By the way, we were just talking about hydrogen the other night. And Baron told me that in school, the best hydrogen, he found out that hydrogen has the best energy density, that it's the best storage technology that we have, even better than batteries in many cases. It's lightweight, it's abundant. It's only water coming out of the end process of a fuel cell, or even if you burn it, if you burn hydrogen in a regular fire, you're just going to get water and heat. We don't have enough lithium for all the needs that we have in the world for batteries. In fact, if you only put about five or 10% of the cars in the road into pure battery, you'd be running out of lithium if that's the only technology we have for batteries. Like I said before, on the coal subject, we ought to be looking at coal for nanocarbon fiber and nanoparticles and storage mediums for new battery technology and even hydrogen energy storage. We don't have enough of our battery technology to go to the entire electric grid and electric transportation solution. So let's look at hydrogen. Let's look at hydrogen as a solution for our vehicles. It's an all of the above solution. We need to get stepping out. Or China's going to take over and be ahead of us in hydrogen. And the last thing we need is more competition. You know, if we're going to make America great again, we need to be stepping out in hydrogen transportation and making solutions that make sense using hydrogen. So I've studied quite a bit about hydrogen and I'm going to be directing our Department of Energy to put more money into hydrogen. In fact, hold on a second. Hey, General Kelly, can you jump a couple more million and you need to set your piles of hydrogen stuff? I just promised this guy would do more hydrogen up, okay? Thanks. Okay, I'm back with you. It's really important that we do a lot more in hydrogen. And we're going to be heading that way. I promise you. I promise you because it will be making America great again. Well, so that was amazing and very refreshing. I'm really glad that Baron is getting such a great education on energy solutions in school. And finally, a topic I really wanted to focus on while you're on your way to Asia. You've got a lot on your plate when you get there. But we know trade with China is one of the big topics. What are you going to do about China undercutting America's solar panels? Well, Mr. Andersman, there's two separate concerns. Manufacturing and deployment. We can give a bit of manufacturing to the Chinese and gain the benefit of lower costs of the solar panels. You know, manufacturing solar panels in the United States is an industry, we're a little expensive, we're not competitive, and we can do a little bit about balancing that. But if we focus more on the deployment of solar panels in the U.S., we create more jobs. We create jobs for solar installers, for solar maintenance, for battery installers and system installers. That's where we really get the big gain in solar energy in the U.S., not in manufacturing solar panels. So just like some other commodities, we can take some competition in solar panels from China and other places, maybe South Korea. But what we really need to do is build jobs here in the U.S. So let's focus on the manufacturing a little bit, maybe give a little bit there, and focus on the technology of installing and making America less dependent on fossil fuels by installing those solar panels and putting the job things in there. In fact, I was doing some homework last night and I get up about three in the morning and I hit the papers and I hit all the headlines and I was preparing for all the talks with North Korea and over North Korean subjects and working with Japan, as you know, Japan and South Korea and the Philippines and Australia time and they're all treaty allies with us, they're all depending on us to keep the Southeast Asia secure and stabilize that region. So most of my talks are gonna be about those topics and a little bit about trade. But I found it very interesting and one of the articles I was reading, I came across this quote from a very nice young lady Christine Needles. She's a senior director for Global Corporate Communications for an organization called Interfaced and she said, the narrative is doom and gloom. Every single day there's a new article about how we're heading off the edge of a cliff. The media has a tendency to look for negative stories in order to get clicks and create debate and optimism needs to be the name of the game. We've got to start getting in the front of the media to change the narrative to enable us to continue to persevere. Solutions exist and with more demand comes an improvement in the economy of solutions. If we focus on what's not working, that's not gonna solve the problem. Why would industry invest if there's no hope? We have to be optimistic. She's right and that's pretty much sums up how we've all gotta be pulling together. We know where the problems are. Let's focus on the solutions. Let's make America great again. Well, sir, that's been an amazing discussion. I know you're a busy man and you're headed off here. In fact, I kind of heard in the background, the flight attendants are giving you the chime. You got to put your seatbelt on and put up the table tray and things like that. So I hope you have a great stay here in Hawaii and I hope your trip to Asia is very productive and great for America. And please, Mr. President, be safe over there and keep on doing the great work of the United States of America. My pleasure, Mr. Energy Man. And just to let you know, I really count on my wife to screen my associates and she's giving you a thumbs up. So congrats. It's quite an endorsement. Well, thank you, sir. And to you, Aloha, and to your family, the best luck and best of safest of travels. And I hope that you come back to Hawaii soon and make it more of a vacation because I think you really deserve it. You're welcome, Energy Man. Aloha. Okay, General Kelly, you can take the energy guy off the list now. Milani is giving him a thumbs up, so he's okay. Okay, back to camera one. Thanks to Robert and Cindy and everybody here in the studio. Thanks to the crew of Air Force One for pulling off the great communications miracle on my lunch hour. Hope you enjoyed talking to the president. I certainly did. And until next Friday, we're going to call short a little bit early here. Thanks for tuning in to Stand to Energy Man, and as we used to say in the olden days, six to and even over and out. We'll talk to you next week. Aloha.