Oct. 12, 2025
AI Data Centers: When the Money Doesn’t Add Up
Somebody’s paying for all this concrete… hope it’s not my Xbox bill. (photo credit: Adobe) I ran across a couple of blog posts from Harris “Kuppy” Kupperman over at Praetorian Capital. The guy’s a veteran hedge fund manager who’s seen a few booms a…
Oct. 5, 2025
Enron Was the Future Too
Is NVIDIA an Astros fan? (Getty Images) Enron was the golden child. By 2000, it was the seventh largest company in America, worth more than sixty billion dollars. The business magazines loved them. Wall Street analysts couldn’t say enough good thin…
Sept. 21, 2025
Grocery Prices, Tariffs, and the Stupidity of Repeating History
Raising cane (Adobe). If you think groceries are expensive now, just wait—this winter they could double. Back in March, I wrote about McKinley’s tariffs and how history showed us exactly what happens when governments play with trade barriers. You …
Sept. 14, 2025
What a Western Hemisphere Pivot Could Mean for Concrete
By Victor Gillam - https://pixels.com/featured/monroe-doctrine-1896-granger.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82247860 I read an article from Doomberg, one of my favorite geopolitical writers, and it got me thinki…
Sept. 7, 2025
Who’s Right About CO₂? Cement’s “Climate Fix” vs. DOE’s Reality Check
Back in 2011, the cement industry told us portland-limestone cement (PLC) was no risk. The updated State of the Art Report 2024 walks that back. Now it admits PLC can have higher carbonation, chloride ingress, and admixture sensitivity—but don’t wor…
Aug. 31, 2025
Tariffs, AI, and the Smell of Recession
I don’t spend my days at the country club or hanging out in boardrooms. I’m a business development guy in concrete construction. That means I’m chasing projects, knocking on doors, and keeping our name out there. If I end up on a golf course, it’s o…
Aug. 24, 2025
Is Low-Carbon Concrete Built on Shaky Science? DOE’s 2025 Report Raises Doubts
The Department of Energy just released a report that probably isn’t getting the attention it deserves: A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate (July 2025). It was written by a group of respected scientists—John C…
Aug. 17, 2025
Would Cement Producers Ever Go Back from Type IL?
Cement plant at Lime, Oregon (Credit: Middlebury College) The EPA is trying to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding for motor vehicles. I haven’t heard anyone else say it, but I think there’s a chance that move could spill over into cement. The …
Aug. 10, 2025
100 Cokes or 1 Mile: What the EPA’s Rollback Could Mean for Cement
The EPA is moving to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding — at least for motor vehicles — and with it, scrap the CO₂ limits that were supposed to tighten the screws on model years 2027 through 2032. If this happens, automakers won’t have to hi…
Aug. 3, 2025
Concrete Myth Busted: Does Concrete Curing Emit CO₂?
Three Gorges Dam | Doomberg I was recently catching up on my favorite Substacker Doomberg's insightful piece titled "Five Dams in Tibet," discussing China's colossal Medog hydroelectric project. Scrolling through the comments, I stumbled upon a sta…
July 27, 2025
Is Ethanol in Your Gas Tank the Same Trick as Limestone in Type IL Cement?
I had a guy working on my chainsaw the other day, and he starts talking about gasoline. He tells me that regular gas, the kind with ethanol blended in, is ruining small engines. Says the ethanol gets into the carburetor, gums things up, and cause…
July 20, 2025
Rare Earths Aren’t Rare—But Clean Hands Are
The U.S. just took a big swing in the fight for supply chain independence. Through a $400 million investment, the Department of Defense became the largest shareholder in MP Materials, the only company mining rare earth elements in the United Sta…
July 13, 2025
We’re Getting Outplayed—and It’s Showing Up in Our Concrete
I’ve never been a flag-waving cheerleader for American imperialism. In fact, I used to be pretty disgusted with how we tried to run the world. But lately, I’ve changed my mind—not because we got better, but because I finally got a good look at wh…
July 6, 2025
New Spending Bill: Good News for Concrete or More of the Same?
Fort Monroe, Virginia - Oldest Military Base | Source: Visit Hampton Virginia The latest spending bill—officially called the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act"—just landed, and while everyone's busy debating tax cuts and defense budgets, we're looking at…
June 29, 2025
Hot Concrete Is Weak Concrete
Heat might help your schedule, but it’s hurting your concrete. We’ve said it before on the podcast, and after spending another hour with Bob Higgins, it’s worth repeating: hot weather pours don’t give you better concrete—they give you faster failure…
June 22, 2025
Colorado’s Concrete Problem: When Politics Chokes Oil Production
If you want to understand why energy is getting more expensive—and why industrial growth feels like it’s dragging through wet concrete—look at Colorado. What was once a solid energy-producing state has quietly become a case study in how bureaucrati…
June 15, 2025
Who’s Pushing Low-Carbon Concrete... and Who’s Cashing In?
It’s hard to keep track of all the green buzzwords floating around the concrete industry these days—“net zero,” “low-carbon cement,” “sustainable construction.” On the surface, it sounds like progress. But behind the headlines and rebrands, you’v…
June 8, 2025
Is the EPA About to Reclassify CO₂? Implications for the Concrete Industry
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Trump administration announced a formal reconsideration of the critical "Endangerment Finding," the 2009 determination that greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO₂)…
June 1, 2025
Portland Cement Association's Rebrand
Portland Stone (Adobe). The Portland Cement Association (PCA) recently rebranded itself as the American Cement Association (ACA). When I heard this news, it got me thinking—has PCA changed its name before, and what was the original reason behind it…
May 25, 2025
Nuclear Power and the Future of AI-Driven Data Centers: A Coming Resurgence
We won’t say, "We told you so," but let’s just say this wasn’t exactly a surprise. President Trump is about to—or may have already—signed an executive order that could reshape the future of nuclear energy in the U.S. This move will effectively strip…
May 18, 2025
Robot-Ready Floors: The New Standard for Industrial Concrete
Ever poured a floor that hits every spec, only to realize it’s not enough for robots? Here’s the deal: warehouse automation is here, and it’s seriously changing the game for concrete specs. Recently, I had a lunch with a friend, and we were talking…
May 11, 2025
What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and What’s the Deal with ChatGPT?
If you caught last week’s post, you know we’re exploring how AI could be the game-changer concrete construction’s been waiting for. But, while AI is starting to make waves in the construction industry, let’s slow down for a minute and clear up what …
May 4, 2025
Will AI Save Concrete Construction and Kill Google?
This week we dropped Episode #120 of the Concrete Logic Podcast titled, "Will AI Save the Future of Concrete Construction?" I sat down with Ramy Sedra of C60, an AI analytics company that partners with ready-mix producers. If you haven't listened ye…
April 27, 2025
Concrete Innovation: Are We Witnessing the Next Big Shift, or Just Another Trend?
The concrete world is buzzing right now. New mix designs, new ways to reduce cement use, and a lot of noise about “green” concrete and low-carbon alternatives. Recently on the Concrete Logic Podcast, I had the chance to sit down with John Guynn from…