After more than three years of intense fighting following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the path to end the war has been challenging. President Trump has been aggressively pushing both Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin toward a peace deal as part of Trump's campaign promise to quickly end the war. Meanwhile, energy has emerged as a critical factor, functioning both as a weapon and target in this war.

The peace deal Trump envisions would reportedly include U.S. control of the Ukrainian electrical supply and its nuclear power plants. And separately, the Trump administration has been working on a mineral deal with Ukraine for months. But developing any of those resources would take time because Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been severely crippled by war. In parts of Ukraine blackouts have become the norm.

So what are the potential paths for peace ahead for Ukraine and how might sharing its mineral or energy resources with the U.S. play into those options? How has Ukraine's energy infrastructure fared during the war? And what energy security lessons can other countries learn from this conflict?

This week, Jason Bordoff talks with Kyiv-based climate and energy reporter Tim McDonnell about the role that energy has played in the war in Ukraine and how it could factor into its resolution.

Tim is the climate and energy editor for Semafor, where he writes the Net Zero newsletter, and is also a reporter for Quartz. He has covered the business and science of climate change for more than 10 years and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Economist, among other publications. Tim lives in and reports from Kyiv and is writing a book about the role of energy in the Ukraine conflict. He joined the podcast to talk about the role energy plays in this conflict.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive producer.

As President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan laid out a strategy for what he called a “foreign policy for the middle class.” Using the metaphor of a small yard and a high fence, the Biden administration’s approach focused on reshoring critical industries and manufacturing, supporting innovation, and protecting strategic technologies. 

The strategy relied on industrial policy, tariffs, and sanctions — some of the same economic tools the Trump administration is now using to launch a global trade war. The broad shift on both sides of the aisle to focus on national security, economic security, and supply chain resilience has enormous implications for the clean energy transition, from critical minerals and solar panels to batteries and EVs. 

So how should we think about the relationship between economic resilience, energy security, and climate action? What lessons can we draw from the Biden administration's approach to countering China? And looking ahead, what should the U.S. prioritize when it comes to energy security?

This week’s episode features a fireside chat between Jason Bordoff and Jake Sullivan from the Columbia Global Energy Summit 2025, which was hosted by the Center on Global Energy Policy, at Columbia University SIPA earlier this month.

Jake Sullivan recently became the Kissinger professor of the practice of statecraft and world order at the Harvard Kennedy School. He served as President Biden’s national security advisor from 2021 to 2025. In the Obama administration, he was then Vice President Biden’s national security advisor and deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive producer.

It’s hard to overstate how consequential President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs have been for American economic policy. While the administration has paused the steep reciprocal tariffs it announced on trading partners other than China, a flat across-the-board 10% tariff remains. And China has raised tariffs on all U.S. goods to over 100% in retaliation. 

Some economists fear this trade war could have a seismic impact across the American economy, including on clean energy. The exceptionally high tariffs on China in particular could have a significant bearing on clean tech products — things like batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines.

So what are the possible outcomes? Do our trade deficits or national security imperatives necessitate this trade war? What would a turn away from globalization mean for efforts to confront climate change? And what does all of this mean for the future of industrial policy in the U.S.?

This week, Jason Bordoff talks with Jason Furman about the flurry of Trump administration tariffs and how they could play out for the energy industry.

Jason Furman is Aetna professor of the practice of economic policy at Harvard University. Prior to his appointment at Harvard, he served as a key economic advisor to President Obama, including as the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Jason played a key role in implementing the major economic policy initiatives of the Obama administration, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care Act. 

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Additional support from Trevor Sutton. Engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive producer.

In energy policy circles, the word “resilience” often refers to future-proof systems or infrastructure designed for the transition away from fossil fuels. But resilience means something different to the communities that have been built on those conventional energy sources. 

Without a policy strategy, communities whose economies are dependent on fossil fuels aren’t well positioned to thrive in – or perhaps even survive – a clean energy transition. 

So how can economic resilience improve livelihoods in fossil fuel dependent communities? Are the near-term risks and economic impacts these communities face underappreciated? And what does this all mean in today’s political environment? 

This week host Bill Loveless talks to Emily Grubert and Noah Kaufman, two scholars at the Resilient Energy Economies initiative, a collaboration between the Bezos Earth Fund, Resources for the Future, and the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA.

Emily is a civil engineer and environmental sociologist. She is an associate professor of sustainable energy policy in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. She also worked in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management at the Department of Energy under the Biden administration.

Noah is an economist who has worked on energy and climate change policy. He is a research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. He also served as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden and as the deputy associate director of energy and climate change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Obama.

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Erin Hardick, Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive producer.

The European Union’s energy landscape is transforming rapidly, as the bloc works to reduce emissions, lower energy prices, and decrease dependence on Russian fuel—three goals proving to be a challenge. 

Though renewables now generate nearly half of Europe's electricity, significant challenges remain. Lengthy permitting processes are stalling the deployment of new clean generation and infrastructure and the continent requires improvements in energy system interconnections between countries. And questions remain about the role of certain forms of energy, like nuclear power and hydrogen, in Europe's future energy mix.

So how is Europe addressing these competing priorities? And what do certain trade-offs mean for energy affordability, security, and economic competitiveness? 

This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Dan Jørgensen, the new European commissioner for energy and housing. 

Commissioner Jørgensen previously served as Danish minister for development cooperation and minister for global climate policy. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Denmark and was a member of the Danish parliament from 2015 to 2024. 

Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Erin Hardick, Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive producer.