Since the 1930’s when oil was first discovered in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain -- have been key players in the global oil market. While their vast endowment of oil resources has enhanced the region's economic and geopolitical importance, it has also linked its fate to the cycle of oil prices. The rapid pace of change in the energy sector today, from the rise of US shale and the historic collapse in oil prices to the growing international commitment to address climate change, poses key challenges for the GCC. How the countries deal with these issues will have profound implications for them and the world as a whole.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Jason Bordoff, the director of the Center on Global Energy Policy, sat down with Nader Sultan, the former CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, who is now a Senior Partner in the company F&N Consultancy as well as the Director of the Oxford Energy Seminar. The discussion touched on a range of topics, including:
This conversation was originally recorded on June 14, 2016.
Seven years ago, David Sandalow pitched an idea that’s turned into one of the biggest international gatherings on clean energy. While an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandalow proposed to then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu an annual meeting of energy ministers from around the world to help accelerate the transition to clean energy technologies. The first Clean Energy Ministerial was held in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2010.
Recently, the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial took place in San Francisco. Delegates from 23 governments and the European Union participated. Thousands of business leaders, NGO leaders and members of the public attended the public meetings and trade show at the Ministerial. Sandalow, the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, was in San Francisco and, not long after returning, joined Bill Loveless on the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast. Among their topics:
Breakthrough technologies can transform the way that energy is produced and consumed. But pursuing them is often beyond the means of the private sector for a host of reasons. Enter the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, a program at the US Department of Energy founded in 2009 that supports high-potential, high-impact technologies with funding, technical assistance and market preparedness. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless sits down with Dr. Ellen Williams, Director of ARPA-E, to discuss the future of energy technology.
This conversation was originally recorded on May 26, 2016.
When it comes to energy, Colorado has it all, with an abundance of oil, natural gas and coal, as well as solar and wind power. With all of those options to choose from, the Rocky Mountain state has seen its share of both controversy and compromise, and may offer a lesson for other states responding to new energy and climate challenges.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks with Bill Ritter, a former Democratic governor of Colorado, about his new book: “Powering Forward: What Everyone Should Know About America’s Energy Revolution.” Governor Ritter joined the podcast from the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, which he launched in 2011.
This interview was originally recorded on May 20, 2016.
The Center on Global Energy Policy hosted the 2016 Columbia Global Energy Summit on April 27. Structured as a half-day forum, the Summit included keynote remarks, interviews and plenary conversations with senior energy and climate leaders focused on key issues and questions at the intersection of energy policy, financial markets, the environment and geopolitics.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless sat down with three of our Summit participants: (0:48) Bill Reilly, a former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency; (17:12) Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund; and (35:29) Ralph Izzo, CEO of the Public Service Enterprise Group, owner of the largest utility in New Jersey.
These interviews originally took place on April 27, 2016.
The electric utility business in the USis undergoing fundamental changes, with new forms ofcompetition, new technologies and new demands to provide powerthat's cleaner than ever before while maintainingreliability and keeping costs down. For utility executives,that means different ways of doing business.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host BillLoveless sits down with Mary Powell, President and CEO ofGreen Mountain Power, who since assuming her role in 2008 hasbeen shifting the Vermont utility from simplyproviding electricity to offering a broader rangeof services, including saving energy. She joined the programfrom New York after spending time with studentsfrom the Center's Women in Energy Program.
This interview was originally recorded on April 21, 2016.
Japan ranks as the world's largest liquified natural gas importer, second largest coal importer and third largest net importer of oil. In the years immediately after its nuclear fleet was shutdown, Japan's imported fuel costs swelled, raising concerns that its environmental ambitions might be scaled back. Market dynamics have now shifted again, however, with the collapse of oil prices, the global LNG market looking to be glutted in the years to come and international attention shifting to climate change after the Paris COP21 agreement. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff sits down with Dr. Ken Koyama, Managing Director, Chief Economist, Strategy Research Unit, for the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, to discuss these and other aspects of Japan's energy and climate landscape.
This interview was originally recorded on April 7, 2016.
Around the world energy markets are in flux. Laszlo Varro, the new Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, has the job of making sense of it all, from the historic oil price collapse and outlook for coal to sharply declining renewable costs and the historic Paris climate agreement. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff sits down with Mr. Varro to discuss these and other transformations happening across the global energy system.
This podcast was originally recorded on April 14, 2016.
What's happening in China? Its a question top of mind for everyone trying to make sense of the energy and climate outlook. Has Chinese coal demand really peaked? How soon might we see peak carbon emissions? What is China doing on climate policy and how will it ramp up those policies post-Paris? Will China continue to be the great driver of global energy demand? The news coming out of China often raises as many questions as it answers. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff sits down with Dr. Sun Xiansheng who just stepped down as President of the Economics and Technology Research Institute, the in-house research arm for China National Petroleum Corporation, the state energy giant.
This interview was originally recorded on April 1, 2016.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless sits down with Victor Abate, Chief Technology Office and Senior Vice President at GE, to discuss how technology is changing the ways we produce and use energy -- "from dinosaurs to dining room tables."
This podcast was originally recorded on April 1, 2016.
Energy markets are in transition. The oil market is in the midst of one of its steepest price collapses in history, the first-ever shipment of US LNG from the lower 48 recently set sail, renewable costs are falling dramatically and nearly 200 nations came together in Paris to agree to change the energy mix as we know it. On top of these changes the global economic outlook is as uncertain as ever. How are we to make sense of all these changes and what they mean for the future of the energy landscape? To help answer that question, host Jason Bordoff sat down with Christof Ruhl, Global Head of Research at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, on the latest episode of Columbia Energy Exchange.
This interview was originally recorded on February 21, 2016.
The 2014-2015 oil price collapse may have reached its bottom with the recent price rally. Myriad factors will shape the outlook, from talk of an OPEC production “freeze” and geopolitical risk to the resilience of US shale output and demand uncertainty. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, host Jason Bordoff sat down with Bobby Tudor, CEO of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., to discuss the critical issues facing the US oil patch and global oil markets right now.
This podcast was originally recorded on February 25, 2016.
The evolving energy landscape is raising many questions about how best to build energy infrastructure across the United States to transport electricity via power lines and oil and gas through pipelines. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Tony Clark, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), sat down with host Bill Loveless to discuss the future of energy transmission.
This interview was originally recorded on March 10, 2016
Iranian elections on February 26, 2016 appear to have empowered reformist and moderate-leaning candidates, notwithstanding attempts on the part of hardline members of the Iranian government to steer the elections decisively in their own favor. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Richard Nephew, Director of the Economic Statecraft, Sanctions, and Energy Markets program at the Center on Global Energy Policy, joins us to discuss the implications of the elections for Iranian domestic politics, Iran's return to the oil market, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
This podcast was originally recorded on February 29, 2016.
On February 22, 2016 the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its Medium Term Oil Market Report, projecting how global oil supply, demand and trade will evolve over the next five years at a time of historic upheaval in the global oil market. And oil is just one of the ways the global energy system is being transformed by new technologies, shifts in traditional supply and demand dynamics and growing concerns about climate change and energy poverty. On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, sat down with host Jason Bordoff to discuss these and other changes shaping the global energy outlook.
This podcast was originally recorded on February 23, 2016.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy & Finance for New York State in the office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, sat down with host Bill Loveless. The two discussed the fundamental changes occurring in the ways that electricity is being generated, sold and consumed as well as the role that policy--specifically the effort in New York State known as "Reforming the Energy Vision"--is playing in the transition.
This podcast was recorded on February 18, 2016.
After 3 decades on the Supreme Court, Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died last Saturday triggering a fierce political battle over naming his successor during an election year. Justice Scalia’s passing also comes just days after the Supreme Court split 5 to 4 along ideological lines in ordering the environmental protection agency to delay the implementation of President Obama’s signature climate initiative, the Clean Power Plan until after the judicial review process is completed.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Michael Gerrard, the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, sat down with host Jason Bordoff to discuss what implications the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia may have for President Obama's climate agenda, including the Clean Power Plan, as well as for environmental law more broadly.
On this episode of Columbia Energy Exchange, Tatiana Mitrova, Head of the Oil and Gas Department at The Energy Research Institute in the Russian Academy of Sciences, discussed Russia’s energy outlook with host Bill Loveless. Their conversation touched on topics ranging from the impact of the oil price drop on Russia's budget and investment strategy, to the role of sanctions in the domestic economy, to the response of Gazprom to changing global natural gas markets, among others.
In this episode our host, Bill Loveless, sat down with John Knight, Executive Vice President for Global Strategy & Business Development at Statoil ASA, the Norway-based international energy company. Mr. Knight is also a member of the Center on Global Energy Policy's Advisory Board. The discussion touched on topics ranging from the turbulence in global oil markets and geopolitical risk to Statoil's renewable energy portfolio and the impact of the Paris COP21 Agreement on investment strategy.
Responding to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan is just one of the major tasks for U.S. electric utilities in 2016. New technologies and customer expectations, not to mention shareholder demands, are presenting new challenges and opportunities for the nation's utility executives. In this episode of the podcast, host Bill Loveless interviews Nick Akins, the chairman, president and CEO of American Electric Power, one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the U.S., and the chairman of the Edison Electric Institute.
Nearly 200 countries recently reached an historic climate agreement in Paris. In this episode, our host, Bill Loveless, sat down with David Sandalow, the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, who was in Paris, to discuss what the agreement means -- and doesn't -- for the world.
World oil prices fell below $40 per barrel this morning following Friday’s meeting of OPEC Ministers, which ended without any agreement to cut production, at the same time that negotiators gather in Paris to discuss how to reduce long-term demand for fossil fuels including oil. With the global oil market landscape in flux, host Bill Loveless sat down with Antoine Halff, Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy's Oil Markets Research Program and a former Chief Oil Analyst at the International Energy Agency, in this episode of the Global Energy Policy podcast to discuss what to watch for next.
Bill Loveless sat down with CEOs of two of the biggest utilities in the US: Tom Fanning of Southern Company (0:36) and Lynn Good of Duke Energy (21:24). The conversations touched on the changing landscape of the power sector from stagnant demand and technological innovation to new business models and environmental regulations.
In the most recent episode of the Global Energy Policy podcast, our host, Bill Loveless, interviews US EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. Their discussion touches on a wide range of issues including the outlook for the Paris climate talks, the EPA's clean power plan, and the broader relationship between the Obama Administration's energy and environmental goals.