God Bless Substack And A 2023 Recap

Robert Bryce Dec 29, 2023

I’ve never had a real job. Instead, I’ve been a reporter. Over the past four decades, I’ve published over 1,100 articles, six books, numerous essays, and dozens of reports. My byline has appeared in a panoply of now-dead publications (I’m looking at you, Tulsa Tribune) as well as some of the world’s best-known newspapers and magazines.

That history provides some context for this testimony: God bless Substack.

What a great platform. Substack allows me to write what I want, how I want, and when I want, without waiting for someone else’s approval. The interface is clean and easy to use. It allows me to publish my photos and graphics without having to learn HTML or manage a website. (Although I have one: robertbryce.com) In short, Substack allows me to fully use my skills as a reporter for the first time in my career. And now that I’m old enough to collect Social Security, that’s very satisfying.

What makes Substack even more gooder (that grammar would have irked my late mother) is that it has helped me grow my audience and do so quickly. When I quit Mailchimp, I had about 2,400 subscribers. Today, I have more than 13,000 subscribers. Substack provides a powerful network and platform for independent journalists who aren’t hewing to the narrative being pushed by legacy media outlets. I’m all in on Substack.

Now to some numbers.

This piece is the 64^th article I have published on Substack this year. These were the most-read pieces, listed in order of popularity:

    1. “The Billionaires Behind The Gas Bans” was the most-read piece. I’m not bragging when I say that I was the first to report on     the staggering amounts of money — measured in hundreds of millions of dollars per year — that America’s richest people,     including Michael Bloomberg, Laurene Powell Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and John Doerr, are giving to secretive dark-money groups like     Climate Imperative, that are backing efforts to ban the direct use of natural gas in homes and businesses.

    2. “Bone-Chilling,” about how New York City narrowly averted a disastrous loss of its natural gas supply, came in at number two.     Several national outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, followed my reporting on this.

    3. I didn’t expect such a positive response to “The Power of Power Density,” but I was pleased to see it get such good traction.     You cannot understand our energy and power systems without understanding power density. This piece, and yes, I’m bragging     here, is the best primer you will find. I followed it a few days later with the “Iron Law Of Power Density, Part 2,” which also got     good traction.

    4. I have deep roots in Oklahoma. My maternal great-grandfather, Michael Raphael Conway, took part in the Cherokee Strip land     run of 1893 and homesteaded near Billings. My great uncle, Ernest Rapp, was born in Fairfax in 1909. He was a member of the     Osage tribe and grew up in Ponca City. Although he never talked about it with us, he had a front-row seat to the Reign of Terror.     My father’s family is kin to Will Rogers, which is why I’m a member of the Cherokee tribe. Those connections are among the     many reasons I am so happy — giddy, even — about the Osage Nation’s huge win in federal court last week. 

    My piece, “Federal Judge Sides With Osage Nation, Orders Removal Of 84 Wind Turbines,” has more than 500 likes and has been     viewed more than 30,000 times.

    There’s a lot of interest in the Osage tribe now that Killers of the Flower Moon (both the book and the movie) have become part     of popular culture. I’m pleased I could report on the tribe’s court victory. I’m also glad I could publish one of my favorite images     of the year. We interviewed Tommy Daniels in Fairfax last year in a historic building owned by his daughter, Danette. Tommy and     Danette are among the Osage tribal members featured in our upcoming five-part docuseries, Juice: Power, Politics, And The     Grid, which will be released on YouTube beginning January 31. A final point about the Osage’s win in federal court: Even though     this ruling is a massive blow to Enel and Big Wind, don’t expect any coverage in the New York Times or National Public Radio. It     doesn’t fit those outlets’ preferred narrative about “green” energy.

    5. My October 27 piece, “Ford Lost $62,016 For Every EV It Sold In 3Q,” came in at number 5. Expect Ford’s scandalous losses     on its EV business to continue in the fourth quarter. They may be even more significant than the losses the company incurred     during the first three quarters.

    6. I was surprised by the positive reaction to “The Alt-Energy Bloodbath in 10 Charts,” which ranked sixth.

    7. My December 2 piece, “Cop Out,” got nearly 28,000 views and generated dozens of subscriptions. Like the “Alt-Energy     Bloodbath” piece, I published a series of charts that belie the notion that we are in the midst of an energy transition.

    8. Regarding the energy transition, or rather, the lack thereof, coming in at number 8, was my July 1 article, 

    “The Energy Transition Isn’t.” That piece included the above graphic, which I used in nearly all my speaking engagements this     year. Yes, wind and solar are growing. But the growth in alt-energy isn’t displacing significant amounts of coal, oil, and natural     gas in the global market.

Speaking of speaking engagements, I make my living as a professional speaker. I gave 38 speeches this year and took 26 airplane trips. I traveled to Tokyo, London, Kearney, Manalapan, Biloxi, Oshkosh, and Des Moines (twice). I spoke to college students, electric cooperatives, generator manufacturers, oil producers, battery makers, electric utilities, accountants, and insurance providers. And I have to say I enjoyed the crap out of every one of those trips and every one of those speaking engagements.

Thanks to the prodding of my social media guru, I published 146 short videos on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Some had remarkable traction. This one on auto dealers pushing back against EV mandates, which I did from the Omaha airport, had over 240,000 views.

This was also a big year for rejections of wind and solar projects. As seen in the Renewable Rejection Database, there were 119 rejections of big alt-energy projects in 2023, including 68 solar rejections and 51 wind rejections (that number includes the Osage tribe’s win over Enel). There were also a significant number of alt-energy projects that were canceled or restricted but are not included in those figures. For instance, several offshore projects were canceled or withdrawn, which was excellent news for the North Atlantic Right Whale. In addition, several municipalities rejected or restricted large battery projects due to local opposition. In other cases, companies withdrew plans for battery projects before local authorities could reject them. 

Finally, I published 58 podcasts in 2023. The latest, published on Tuesday, was one I did with my friend, Rod Adams, who is an absolute expert on all things nuclear. I enjoyed all the podcasts, but the one I published earlier this month with Miss America 2023, Grace Stanke, was delightful, as was this one with Arjun Murti. Another joy was my August 3 chat with everyone’s favorite green chicken, Doomberg, who has one of the most successful Substacks in the business. That episode, by the way, was the most popular episode of the Power Hungry Podcast in 2023.

Okay. That’s it for 2023. I am going to take some time off to relax with Lorin, Mary, Michael, and Jacob. I will be back online in a week or so. There will be plenty to discuss in 2024.

Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.