Americano: have the wildfires exposed America's class divide?

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🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

The LA wildfires have been mostly extinguished, but there is growing concern that more fires could be imminent as strong winds are expected this week. Many believe that the destruction has shone a light on the broader mismanagement of California, run by the Democrat Gavin Newsom – who has proposed billions in new funding for 'Los Angeles 2.0'. Freddy Gray speaks to energy specialist Robert Bryce about the policy failures which have contributed to the wildfires, what the clear up could look like and why this crisis will expose the class divide in America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.
0:06.3	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription in print and online, along with a free £20 £10, John Lewis or Waitrose Voucher.
0:15.0	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:24.1	Hello. forward slash voucher. Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics,
0:31.1	power and prejudices. It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.
0:40.3	We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald's and his second administration very closely.
0:46.8	However, it won't just be politics for us this year.
0:49.6	We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts. I should also remind you, because my producer
0:57.8	Natasha will not let me hear the end of it, that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube
1:03.8	channel to watch that. Today we are going to be talking about the fires that are still raging
1:09.7	across Los Angeles County. And I am delighted to be
1:13.7	joined to discuss this terrible subject by Robert Bryce, who is a commentator and writer on
1:20.0	energy and innovation, a regular guest, I think we can say, to the Americano show. And also author
1:27.3	of his own substack, Robert Bryce,
1:29.5	I very much recommend you check that out because it's very, very interesting, particularly on
1:34.1	matters such as this. Robert, obviously these fires are a terrible disaster for everybody
1:41.2	living in the area. It's been seen as a sort of fitting epitaph for the Biden presidency
1:48.0	in many ways, democratic misrule and so on. And yet I heard Governor Gavin Newsom of California
1:53.9	talking about Los Angeles 2.0, what might rise up from the ashes of this disaster. What do you think that would look like,
2:04.4	Los Angeles 2.0? Well, first, I'll just say good luck to him because the challenges here are just
2:11.9	enormous. So there's a lot of effort now at finger pointing and what you know what caused the fires who's to
2:17.5	blame what didn't happen what should have happened etc and thinking about this and talking my
	...

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