Foundation Nation
Foundation Nation
S4 - E8: Navigating Environmental Changes and Rising Living Costs
Can you imagine how wildfires are causing a domino effect on your power bills and the environment? Join us, Matthew Cote and Daniel, in this immersive episode of Foundation Nation, where we reveal the untold story of the Spokane fire and its aftermath. Featuring a deep dive into the escalating utility costs, we shed light on the Middle Eastern companies exacerbating California's looming water crisis. We unravel the effects of water-guzzling plants on our local resources and the ecological balance.
Hello and welcome to Foundation Nation. I'm your host, matthew Cote, along with Daniel. We're both high school educated, masters of nothing and gifted with a knowledge of wealth. Today, on the podcast, we're going to talk about some interesting recent goings-ons in our beautiful state and maybe even a few things going on in this amazing round thing we call home. Hello, I'm Matthew Cote, host of Foundation Nation, along with Daniel.
Speaker 2:Hello, I'm Daniel, your co-host.
Speaker 1:So we are smack under airports runways and they fly over us, which is a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it seems to die down a little bit. They were like in real rush about an hour ago. Just every five minutes playing takes off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And you know, woke up today and the smoke seems to be getting better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, much, much better.
Speaker 1:Did you now? You said you saw the Spokane fire starting. Oh yeah, so tell me about that.
Speaker 2:I was driving back from my vacation in Montana, we went to Glacier National Park.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, good job.
Speaker 2:Yep, very good hiking. However, they also had fire over there in a place called Hungry Horse. Hungry Horse Really, really a place called Hungry Horse.
Speaker 1:Okay, Hungry.
Speaker 2:Horse Yep. So, and on our drive back, once we passed Spokane, I saw huge cloud of smoke on one side of I-90. I was thinking like, yeah, that's wildfire, but it is just starting. They are probably going to get it pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the wind. The wind was, I mean, all the way to Snohomi Pass. Yeah, I had to keep my car from swirling, swaying from the road, the wind was going crazy. Yeah, wind was going crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, that's like gas on a fire.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and later, when I came back home, I found out that that fire actually created some damage, mm-hmm. Actually, one person died and lots of homes got burned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like 99, almost 10,000 acres, something like 15,000 square miles, 145 houses or structures were just burnt to the ground a dust. It's a big thing, but I mean I'm glad. Did they get it under control? Is it out?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I haven't checked, but last time I checked it was only 10% contained.
Speaker 1:Oh okay. So well then, because today's blue sky is in SeaTag Washington, so either the wind's blown the other way or they got it out.
Speaker 2:Well, there was a little bit of rain. I think it should help them yeah okay. Even though Spokane is quite far from us. But I think they should have gotten the train also.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully, hopefully, the fire will start calming down and the rain starts coming.
Speaker 2:Well, we still have about a month left. Last year, I remember in October, I was like okay, what should I wear? Oh, it's 85 degrees, so shorts. Yeah that's right. Middle October.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was not a lot of rain last year. Not at all, not at all. And when you don't have rain and you live in a state like we do, we're hydroelectric energy, a large amount of our electricity. Because of hydroelectric and the Seattle area power bills, the power bills for the whole state are going up. People complain about not being able to buy a house. Well, if you can squeak by and buy yourself a house, good luck trying to pay the bills. I mean, they're just going through the roof.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, I think there are two parts to this problem. First one is your government obsession about green energy. So, instead of doing a green energy, they're just charging all the companies if they produce CO2. So they're charging companies and companies are like we're not paying it from our pocket, we're going to pass it to a customer, so prices are increasing. The second problem is the green energy. We have more and more electric cars and the greed cannot handle it and it breaks more often, right. So now they have to fix it, you have to upgrade it and all this kind of deal, and it all takes money.
Speaker 1:It all takes money.
Speaker 2:Yep, and they are raising prices because of this, so it is inevitable.
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Speaker 1:I went on the Hoover Dam tour and the dam normally the water is really hot, really you know where it holds the water back on the water side on Lake Meadside, when normally the water is quite close to the top. When I was there and we did the tour they said it was a record low. It was 150 feet from the top. Normally it's supposed to be somewhere around 10 feet, 20 feet, yep. So you know we're drinking all the water and it's going and it's staying in human bodies.
Speaker 2:Well, no part of. One of the problems was I do not know if it is still, but it was that guys from Middle East. They hired farmers or bought a land or rented a land and then hired farmers to grow some sort of a plant that requires record amount of water.
Speaker 1:What is this plant? Is that McDonald's cheeseburger plant?
Speaker 2:I do not remember what kind of plant is this, but it requires tons of water, like tons of water, and they couldn't grow it somewhere else because of so much water required. So they found this place in California and I did hear that either governor or someone locally like a mayor or something, did try to put an end to it just because of water conservation stuff going on. So I do not know how it resolved Well.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's plants and food out there required a lot of water. I mean, if you think about it, rice requires so much water it has to have like a lake. You know, rice has to be like a lake. It's soaked in water.
Speaker 2:It has to be constantly covered by water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean, there's plants out there that just require so much water that it's just crazy. So all right, well, I think that was interesting. So if you want to buy a house, remember the bills are going up and it's going to cost a lot. It's not just buying the house now, it's buying the house and the utility is a significant thing. It's not like you buy a house and you just live there for free. There's a lot of bills going on Internet, everything. Everything is expensive.
Speaker 2:Water getting hotter. Water getting hotter, I mean weather getting hotter and you run your air conditioner more.
Speaker 1:And now what you need? You need another device. You need an air cleaner in your house. Everybody's got air cleaners running in their house. Now.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I do have one. Yeah, yeah, all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here. I have a $3,000 air cleaner machine in there, purifying the air with carbon filter all the time it's not working. All right, I'm Matthew Cote, your host of Foundation Nation, along with Daniel.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us and have a great day.
