Valuetainment
“The Cost Of Pushing Green Energy” - Energy Prices EXPLODE As Natural Gas Costs SPIKE
29 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: Why are utility bills out of control across America?
Why your utility bills are out of control. It's not just the Arctic blast. One in five Americans can't afford their heating bills this winter as people are blindsided by utility costs. When I find that California story, I'll go back to it. So let me read this to you. I'll read both of them because they kind of go hand in hand. And then Brandon and Tom, I'm coming to you with this.
Energy costs are surging nationwide and outstripping overall inflation. Last year, consumer prices rose 2.7%. Electricity costs went 6.7%. The primary heating source in the Northeast was up 7.4% and gas spiked 10.8%. Why? Aging infrastructure, many of the components that go into delivering power were built more than 50 years ago and are nearing the end of their natural life.
The cost of replacing and updating technology like wires, poles, transformers, and towers ultimately end up being passed on to consumers. Battle Group, a consultancy that worked with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory last year to identify factors influencing retail electricity prices, estimates that spending on aging power transmission infrastructure has topped $10 billion.
And it goes into explaining a couple different things. One of them is climate change they talk about. The other one is natural gas price swings and then data center demand. And the last one, talking about one in five Americans can afford... Their heating bills, because of what's going on, over 200 million people in America were hit by the storm that came in, snow and the rain in Arctic.
Chapter 2: What factors are contributing to the surge in energy costs?
The winter gas and electric bills in these regions could climb by 10% or more over last year, according to National Energy. Winter bills for electricity-heated homes will exceed $1,000 across the country. So I can go on and read these other numbers that they have here. Brandon, why do you think this is happening?
Yeah, so things are a little bit different in the Northeast, and I was talking to my parents about this because they live in the Northeast, and it's 80% of all the homes are heated by oil, as I mentioned there, are in the Northeast, so very different than the rest of the country. What's happening right now is that since it's like it's been 10 to 0 degrees there for the past month or so.
So, for example, most houses will have a 300-gallon heating tank and oil is about $3.65 a barrel or, excuse me, a gallon. And, for example, you got to fill the thing up like once every two weeks or every three weeks. So it's like $2,000 a month right now for my parents' home to fill the heating tank. And, like, you really don't have a choice. $2,000 a month? Yeah.
What was it before?
And it's like half of that when it's less cold. You know, it's normally like around 30 degrees there or so, but there's been a cold streak. So part of it's like aging infrastructure. Yeah, sure. Part of it's just a bad stretch of cold weather. But it's fascinating to me how we spent a couple hundred billion dollars a year over the past couple of years from this Inflation Reduction Act, like we're
the states are cramming solar installations and wind turbines down people's throats, you know, giving you every incentive in the world to fortify that. But, you know, like I said, a third of the entire region in the Northeast is, their heat comes from the oil tanks.
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Chapter 3: How does aging infrastructure affect energy prices?
So, you know, all that stuff's old. So why is the government, like, pushing these things down our throats that aren't efficient ways to generate energy. They're letting these aging things, these aging tanks, be the main source that people have. And a lot of people can't afford to fill their tank up twice a month. So it's funny where the priorities go.
It's funny that we spent all this good money after bad investments, but we're letting the vast majority of people literally can't heat their house right now. They're relying on fireplaces or wood pellet stoves.
Well, I find it very interesting that how Yahoo Finance writes a story. Energy costs is something we need to talk about. Energy costs is something that needs to come down for Americans. The Yahoo Finance story was quoting four different places last year, last year, last year, last year. So it was talking about the last Biden winter. Isn't this interesting?
And they're trying to lay this at the feet of Trump and data centers. Although the article goes on to say that there are more things, there's aging infrastructure and stuff. Well, this is true. And this is why one of the first things that the president said, and we were at the inauguration and he got huge applause. What did he says? And as for energy drill, baby drill.
And so he's trying to look what he's done with Venezuela. Look what he's done with permitting permits. There we go. for additional drilling in the Gulf of America and in the Permian Basin and places everywhere except California that has been forcing oil producing companies out of the state through regulation.
This is where the president can have traction on getting heating oil costs down this winter. And then he's already said to Microsoft and he negotiated with them and said, hey, look, If you're building a data center, you cannot dump that increase in cost onto the consumer. So he's already aware of it and already drawing a line on it. So we need help for the people that live in the Northeast.
We need the power companies and we need the supply of oil to come up and the barrel costs to come down a little bit. Those people with stock in Chevron and Exxon on the exploration side will disagree with that. But that's what we need. Because that will help. But this article has a lot of stats from last year.
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Chapter 4: What impact does climate change have on energy costs?
And there is a reduction in heating oil costs this year. Is it huge?
I want to see a direct comparison. And by the way, while that's happening, you see reports that some places gas prices are hitting $1.99 in the states. Some places, definitely not in California, but some places. Californians may need to drive 800 miles to get it for $1.99 and then come back. to California to save some money on that gas because of where the prices are at. But it's a nice drive.
Folks, once a year, we host an event called the Sales Leadership Summit. That event is coming up in the next two months. It'll be in South Florida at Trump Doral. And it's for those of you that run a business because sales is king. Most people don't understand the power of developing sales leaders that develop sales people.
This video will break down what's happening at SLS and hopefully those of you guys that are doing a million plus, you'll get a chance to get a ticket for yourself. Go ahead, Rob, play the clip. So many years ago I realized the size of your income, your net worth, your lifestyle is a pure reflection of the size of problems you solve. For me, going back 20-some years ago, I was a good salesperson.
I learned how to sell. I knew if I ran three, four appointments a day, I could sell two, four, six, maybe eight insurance policies on a given day. Then I asked myself, how do I sell 50 in a day? How do I sell 100 in a day? There's no way I can do it by myself. I had to solve a big problem and go from being a salesperson to being a sales leader.
By the way, it is very different being a salesperson than being a sales leader. That's a massive problem to try to solve. What happened later on? I went from selling two to three policies a day personally to eventually we sold one million insurance policies. with our company, and we sold that company for $250 million three years ago, licensing 60,000 insurance agents.
We solved a massive problem, got paid massively. Let me bring it back to you. In America today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have 13.4 million salespeople in America that go out selling every day, working for commission. We have 132,000 VP of sales, according to LinkedIn, and we have roughly 8,000 chief sales officers in America.
Now, when it comes down to putting the hat on of being a sales leader, it's a very different accountability, tough conversations, challenging, transferring your knowledge on how to get referrals.
how to follow up on leads, how to properly follow up where you don't offend the person, the script you use when you DM versus when you email, which is when you make a phone call, how to give better presentations, the types of phone calls to make, the types of contests to run, how to hold them accountable and drive them and not upset them and they still want to come. How do you steer competition?
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Chapter 5: Why is heating oil so expensive in the Northeast?
called a Sales Leadership Summit. This happens once a year. To attend this, you need to do a minimum of a million dollars a year and have five salespeople that report to you. If you want to join us at this year's Sales Leadership Summit that happens end of March, we'll go through a 200-page manual together on how to go through A through Z of being a great sales leader.
Click on the link below, fill out the information. One of our representatives from the David Consulting will reach out to you and tell you more about the Sales Leadership Summit. Rob, what is the website to go to this? Do we have it in the link?
We do. It's in the description. It's also pinned to the chat.
Can you click on a link just to see what it looks like so everybody sees it? So go. If that's you, click on a link. We'll spend two days together at Trump Doral, and we go through A through Z, and it's a great place to network with other performers that are also doing well. There you have it. So what's the website called, Rob?
www.sls.bettdavidconsulting.com.
Beautiful. All right, fantastic. If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here. And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.
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