I wanted to get the latest on President Trump's nominees, and to find out what's happening with some Montana specific priorities like the Crow Revenue Act and the Milk River irrigation project.

We got that and more as Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) joined us early Wednesday morning from Capitol Hill.

Senator Daines: "Well, the most important thing that we can deliver for President Trump is to move his nominees through. The first thing I told President Trump when we met after I was elected to be the Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman, this goes back to January of 23. So nearly two years ago I flew down to Mar a Lago, and I met with President Trump, and I told him that the most important thing we can give you in January of 25 will be a Republican Senate Majority. Because it's been said that the US House is in the PR business, the Senate is in the HR business. We really have responsibilities for personnel. And had great meetings yesterday with several of President Trump's nominees. You look at who these leaders are that President Trump's bringing in, you know, Doug Burgum, Pete, Hegseth, Scott Bessent- Treasury, Chris Wright- Energy, RFK Jr- HHS, Kash Patel- FBI. I've met with all of these leaders. We're working very hard to get these new Cabinet members through the US Senate as quickly as possible. Here's what will happen. We will start hearings next month. We'll swear in the new Republican US Senate on January 3. That's when Tim Sheehy will be sworn in. I'll be here in Washington to escort him into the US Senate. It's part of the tradition. It's the first time in 114 years we've had two Republican US Senators in Montana. So I'll escort him there. We'll be sworn in on the third. We will start hearings on these nominees in January. President Trump is sworn in January 20, and we hope to have votes on the Senate floor for many of his cabinet officials right after President Trump is sworn in."

With regard to the final few days of the legislate calendar for 2024, I was hoping outgoing Democrat Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) would at least honor his commitment to the Crow Tribe. Unfortunately, it sounds like Democrats are standing in the way of getting the Crow Revenue Act across the finish line before the end of the session.

Senator Daines: "You're pushing for something that involves coal, you get strong, strong resistance from the Democrats. They hate coal. They want to shut it down. And that's just the reality of it. And this is why it's so important when President Trump is sworn in and brings in his new cabinet, we've got a pro all of the above American energy team that will be leading the charge to stop this nonsense that's going on, that's trying to keep coal in the ground, shut it down. And as you look to the future, Aaron, the reality is we're going to need 50% more energy in the next 25 years than we're currently consuming today. When you look at what's going on with digital assets, with AI, these are very energy intensive technologies. It's going to require a lot more electricity. We need more baseload power, not less."

Click here for the full audio of our chat with Senator Daines via the Montana Talks podcast on Spotify.

Speaking of coal...check out what Robert Bryce just shared on his Substack account.

King Coal Powers On

The IEA keeps predicting a decline in global coal use. But thanks to soaring electricity demand in China and India, coal consumption will hit another new record this year: 8.8 billion tons.