On this episode of the Energy Gang, it’s a think-tank showdown. Host and referee for the day Ed Crooks is joined in the ring by Samantha Gross from the Brookings Institution, making her Energy Gang debut, and Joseph Majkut from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, returning to the show after joining us back in June. We start the discussion off with a deep dive into COP27, the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. In the year since COP26 in Gla...
Oct 07, 2022•54 min
We often talk about “the energy transition”. In this episode, we discuss what it means to be in the middle of that transition. Earlier this month, California was able to avoid blackouts as people came together to cut their electricity use. In Europe, leaders struggling to balance the urgent need for oil and gas with their goals for cutting emissions. In this episode of The Energy Gang, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Amy Myers Jaffe from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and new...
Sep 23, 2022•56 min
In this episode of The Energy Gang, we draw our attention away from the US and the Inflation Reduction Act, and switch focus to the ongoing energy crisis in Europe. Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular guest Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Harder from Cipher. The race to stay warm is on as Russia cuts off more gas supplies to Europe. The continent is facing a potentially very bleak winter, but how bleak depends on the weathe...
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 3 min
In this episode of The Energy Gang, we revisit the surprise of the summer: the Great American Climate Bill. Now that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has officially been signed into law, what’s next? Regular Energy Gang member Dr. Melissa Lott steps in as host this week while Ed Crooks takes a well-earned holiday. Joining Melissa is Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation and Dr. Linus Mofor from the UN Economic Commission for Africa. A press release from the white house estimates the IRA will resu...
Aug 26, 2022•51 min
Congress is passing the largest-ever US climate bill. What does it mean for the world? It was the shock heard around the world this week: Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer’s joint reconciliation bill, The Inflation Reduction Act. It’s passed the Senate, but the House remains. Will it pass, and what’s in it? On the Energy Gang podcast this week: Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Myers-Jaffe from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Paula Gant from GTI Energy. GTI Energy is a leading researc...
Aug 12, 2022•52 min
At a time when much of Europe has been sweltering in record temperatures, it feels like a stark contrast to be worrying about winter. These are very worrying times for Europeans, because of deep uncertainty over what will happen to the import of Russian gas, which is critical for keeping the lights on and keeping people warm in their homes. Meanwhile, the US appears to have reached a defining moment in the evolution of climate policy. In this episode, host Ed Crooks is joined by regular contribu...
Jul 29, 2022•1 hr 1 min
There is never a dull moment in the world of energy. Despite the summer holidays in the northern hemisphere, this week was full of announcements and big news stories. Regular Energy Gang member Melissa Lott steps in as host this week while Ed Crooks takes a well-earned holiday. Joining Melissa is Emily Chasan from Generate Capital and Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation. The discussion starts with the US Supreme Court’s decision to impose new limits on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ...
Jul 15, 2022•53 min
The clean tech sector is a critical part of making the energy transition possible. With more and more capital flooding from outside investors into cleantech than ever before, the sector is set to become one of the critical keys in aiding and accelerating the energy transition. Today on the Energy Gang: a very special episode – a fireside chat with Tom Deitrich from Itron, and Tom Rand from Arctern Ventures. Itron is one of the largest providers of energy water and smart city management solutions...
Jul 08, 2022•39 min
California is one of the world’s largest economies in its own right, with a population of 40 million generating $3.4 trillion in GDP. It is also a pioneer in the development of clean energy, generating about 23% of its electricity from renewables in 2020, a long way ahead of the US average. On today’s episode, the Energy Gang welcomes a special guest: Elliot Mainzer, the President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). CAISO is the non-profit responsible for managing the ...
Jul 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Today, we’re following the money. Where does investment go in order to build a zero-carbon future? Where does the money get used, and where does it not? This week Ed is joined by Emily Chasan, Director of Communications at Generate Capital, and Shanu Mathew, Vice-President of Sustainable Investing and Net Zero Research at Lazard Asset Management. There are now trillions of dollars of capital in the market, aligned with the goal of getting to net zero. But in the past few months we’ve seen a back...
Jun 17, 2022•55 min
The energy crisis is showing no signs of abating. There’s a shortage of energy, and the world’s efforts to transition to low-carbon energy are met with countless hurdles. Countries around the world are taking steps to mitigate the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine however. The EU announced a plan to stop using Russian oil, gas and coal – it’s called RepowerEU and would mean more renewable investment, more energy efficiency and a lot more hydrogen to cut demand for natural gas. Europe...
Jun 03, 2022•1 hr 3 min
The energy transition is currently supported by three main pillars: science & technology, economics, and policy. In 2022 these three pillars are unaligned, with a lack of cohesion impeding progress. In today’s episode of the Energy Gang, the team explores three current events that highlight and exemplify the current state of the energy transition in the US and beyond. The gang starts with the future of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. The original bill included a lot of provisions...
May 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min
In this week's episode, the gang discuss nuclear power: is it a solution for providing energy security, or could it make the problem worse? Given that many consuming countries need to import most of their uranium, does relying on nuclear power create new sources of fragility? The US imported 86% of its uranium in 2020, from a range of countries, including Russia. What does that mean for hopes that a new generation of reactors could provide affordable and reliable low-carbon power? Next up, it’s ...
May 06, 2022•53 min
On April 22nd, 2022 the world will be celebrating the 52nd annual “Earth Day”. Does Earth Day serve any useful purpose? How can we utilize the celebration of Earth Day for good? How is Earth day viewed by the world today, and how does this celebration push us closer to a low carbon life? In today's special episode of the Energy Gang, the conversation focuses on solutions and recent positive findings from the IPCC report. Making up the “Gang” this week is returning guest Emily Chasan , who is the...
Apr 22, 2022•1 hr 8 min
The energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the most serious since the oil shocks of the 1970s. Rising prices for oil, gas and coal are hitting living standards and putting people under financial strain around the world. We are facing some tough decisions about how to relieve hardship and energy poverty, while still cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impact of climate change. In this edition of the Energy Gang, the gang discusses the war in Ukraine and the consequences...
Apr 08, 2022•59 min
Of all the stages of a solar project, the operations and management stage is arguably the most crucial. When you’re thinking about project efficiency and financial returns in solar, you need to have a concise plan for the O&M stage. Greg Shambo is Vice President of Business Development at Borrego Energy. He says that ‘when you get into the operations stage, this is where you make the money. If you can’t operate profitably from day one, you end up losing money. We call these walking dead site...
Mar 31, 2022•28 min
The gang is back, and it's been a huge week in energy. For the first time ever, the US government might be requiring major companies to report their climate risks and emissions. This is a really big change. Governments, regulators, and investors have been pushing for quite a few years now for companies to do more to disclose their climate risks. But this would be the first time in US companies would be required to report risks in a standardized way, including greenhouse gas emissions. On the sho...
Mar 25, 2022•58 min
The Energy Gang – Live (Rebroadcast) The gang are taking a break this week. Instead of a new episode we’re rebroadcasting our special edition live episode where the team discusses the top 5 energy-related stories of 2021. This episode was originally live-streamed for Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Innovation series at the end of December of 2021. This week on the show we have Ed Crooks, Emily Chasan from Generate Capital, and Amy Myers-Jaffe from Tufts University. The group discusses how “smart” dev...
Mar 11, 2022•55 min
This episode of the Energy Gang was recorded before the Russian attack on Ukraine had begun. As you’ll hear, we were talking after Russia had recognised the independence of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, but before the full-scale invasion. We will have a lot to say about the implications for energy of the conflict in Ukraine in our next episode. But this time, we were talking before the full extent of the crisis had unfolded. The catastrophic blackouts that plagued Texas last year...
Feb 25, 2022•53 min
In recent years, news headlines are frequently filled with announcements of financial institutions, funds, and corporations making hefty pledges to transform their portfolios to ensure that they stay in line with net-zero targets. Is this new wave of support for the energy transition motivated by making a quick buck or has there really been a change of opinion on the opportunities in which going net-zero really has to offer? How is the changing climate affecting investments? How are investors dr...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr
President Bidens Climate agenda has been reformed, and with the Build Back Better Act in a stalemate, should Americans give up hope on expecting anything to come of it? To discuss this and more, Ed Crooks is joined on the show this week by returning guest Dr. Melissa Lott from Columbia University, and Robbie Orvis from Energy Innovation, who makes his Energy Gang debut. The Build Back Better Act is up first. There’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the climate policies within the climate pac...
Jan 28, 2022•56 min
It’s the first Energy Gang of the year. Ed Crooks is joined by Emily Chasan of Generate Capital and Amy Harder, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and Axios, now at Breakthrough Energy, which is the net-zero initiative founded by Bill Gates - find out more here: Cipher: Overview | LinkedIn - who joins the gang for the first time to kick off 2022 with a bang. With air travel over the holiday season bouncing back – despite the Omicron variant – what are the best prospects for taking the emissions...
Jan 14, 2022•53 min
Achieving net zero emissions requires collaboration from a multitude of government organizations and businesses. For a country the size of Australia, 24% of electricity coming from renewables is a huge accomplishment. But it does not come easy. Australia has two large interconnected energy networks, the National Electricity Market along the East Coast, with demand of 30-35 GW, and the Western Australia Electricity Market, with demand between 2-3 GW. Both networks are receiving a huge update of d...
Dec 31, 2021•36 min
It’s a special edition of the Energy Gang this week, with the last episode of 2021 recorded for Wood Mackenzie’s Grid Edge Innovation series. Ed is joined by Emily Chasan from Generate Capital and Amy Myers-Jaffe from Tufts University, to look at how smart devices are changing energy retailing, and the role of SPACs in financing clean energy deployment. The gang wraps up 2021 with their top 5 stories in energy for the year, looking back on the success of investment company Engine No.1, developme...
Dec 17, 2021•56 min
Zero-emission, low-cost electricity, delivered to the grid from natural-gas fuelled technology. A wright-brothers first flight kind of breakthrough in energy? The gang discuss the possibilities and scalability of NET Powers Technology, a Texas-based energy company who’ve made this exact claim. Ed is joined as usual by Melissa Lott from Columbia University, and Emily Chasan from Generate Capital. The other big story of the week was the collapse of British energy provider Bulb, the 6th largest pro...
Dec 03, 2021•48 min
The COP26 circus has left town. Across 2 weeks of talks in Glasgow, what were the successes, and what were the failures? With current commitments putting the world on track to 2.4°C of warming, the cost of inaction on climate and health will vastly outweigh the costs of acting now, so which countries are snapping into action? Host Ed Crooks is joined by regular Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Myers-Jaffe, Managing Director ...
Nov 19, 2021•57 min
COP26 is under way in Glasgow. It has been billed as the “last best hope for the world to get its act together” on climate change, but what is the real significance of the talks? Host Ed Crooks is joined by new regular co-host of the Energy Gang Melissa Lott, Director of Research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to discuss the key issues and outcomes of the conference. Also joining for this episode is Emily Chasan, Director of Communications at Generate Capital, and ...
Nov 08, 2021•50 min
Some news for this podcast: Ed Crooks , VP of the Americas for Wood Mackenzie, will be taking over the show as our new host. Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey will be moving on. Wood Mackenzie will be producing the podcast from now on, bringing on a range of new voices to join the gang. We discuss the transition in the first half of the episode. Later in the show, Katherine, Stephen and Ed explore the range of expectations for global climate talks in Glasgow. See Privacy Policy at ht...
Oct 29, 2021•39 min
The U.S. Department of Energy is crucial for funding, researching, and testing emerging energy tech. Now, in the Biden era, the agency is orienting itself toward deployment. How difficult is that transition? Our former co-host Jigar Shah joins Stephen, Katherine, and Ed to discuss his experience running the Energy Department’s loan programs office. In March, Jigar left his position at Generate Capital (and this podcast) to head into government service and run the loan programs office. Jigar has ...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 4 min
EIA and IEA are out with projections for emissions and fossil fuel consumption. And they don’t look good. On our current policy trajectory, there is no peak in sight, according to EIA By 2050, we will likely see a 50% increase in energy consumption. And even though renewables will be the fastest-growing new source of energy, hydrocarbon liquid fuels will meet the majority of demand . That means emissions could rise through 2050, absent massive changes to policy. In July, the International Energy...
Oct 14, 2021•47 min
