East Asia and the Pacific is one of the fastest growing regions of the world, a place where the demands for energy are increasing just as rapidly, as are the risks of climate change and other environmental calamities. To one extent or another, nations in that region like China, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines recognize the need to provide energy that’s not only accessible, affordable and reliable but also sustainable. And helping them do that is the World Bank.

In today’s edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless is joined by Ranjit Lamech, the regional director of the World Bank’s Infrastructure Department in the East Asia and Pacific region. As such, Ranjit is responsible for overseeing the bank’s loans, grants and other assistance for infrastructure development in the region, including energy development.

Ranjit has spent nearly three decades across the bank’s energy practice, most recently as the manager covering South and Central Europe, Western Balkans and Central Asia. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he led the bank’s energy lending and advisory program in China and Turkey during a transformational period in energy markets.

An Indian citizen, Ranjit began his career with Tata Electric Companies in Bombay.

Bill and Ranjit talked about China and other East Asian and Pacific nations and their challenges and opportunities when it comes to energy and the environment, as well as what the World Bank is doing to help them respond in a sustainable way. They also discussed the roles of governments and state-owned enterprises in adapting to changes in energy supply, what the World Bank looks for in deciding whether to provide assistance, and a recent undertaking in China aimed at helping workers in coal-dependent regions amidst a shift to cleaner forms of energy.

He’s known as the father of fracking. And while the designation may not be quite right, there’s no doubt that George P. Mitchell set the stage for a revolution in natural gas and oil production in the United States through hydraulic fracturing of shale formations. So, what made this man tick and what lessons might policymakers and industry leaders learn from him today?

In this edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks with Loren Steffy, the author of a new book from Texas A&M University Press called “George P. Mitchell: Fracking, Sustainability, and an Unorthodox Quest to Save the Planet.” Loren is writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a former business columnist for the Houston Chronicle. Before that, he was the Dallas bureau chief and senior writer for Bloomberg News.

The book is Loren’s latest of three, including one that explored the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Of the late George P. Mitchell, Loren says, “not since John D. Rockefeller had one single individual in the energy business made a greater public impact.” He tells a story of the son of Greek immigrants who built Mitchell Energy and Development Corporation from a small start-up into a pioneering company that enabled the commercial success of hydraulic fracturing in the U.S.

Bill reached Loren by phone at his home outside Austin, Texas, to discuss this fascinating figure, his contributions to fracking, the financial hardships his company endured to bring them about and the extent to which the government assisted those efforts. They also talked about Mitchell’s strong commitment to sustainable development, which sometimes put him at odds with his peers in the gas and oil industry.

The U.S. shale revolution has been among the most consequential developments in the global energy sector over the last decade. The U.S. is a large net exporter of gas, and is on the cusp of becoming a net exporter of oil, with significant economic, geopolitical and environmental consequences. The outlook for U.S. oil and gas production is increasingly uncertain, however, as lower oil prices, investor demand for capital discipline, and questions about the pace of the energy transition increasingly impact the sector.   

In this edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff is joined by Bobby Tudor, Co-Head of the Advisory business of Perella Weinberg Partners and Chairman of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, a leading energy investment and merchant bank. Prior to joining TPH, Bobby was a partner with Goldman Sachs & Co., and a leader of its worldwide energy practice, and over his 30-year career in investment banking, has worked on many of the defining transactions of the period. In his volunteer work, Bobby is a patron of the arts and a passionate supporter of higher education, having served until recently as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Rice University.

Jason and Bobby discuss the recent decline in the Permian and what's next for the U.S. shale revolution, peak oil demand, the energy transition and more from an investor's perspective.