Energy 360°

This week, Tatsuya Terazawa, Chairman and CEO of The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), joins Jane Nakano (CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program) to look at key energy and climate issues on the G7 agenda. In April, Japan hosted the G7 Ministers Meeting on Climate, Energy, and Environment, in advance of the upcoming G7 Summit on May 19-21. They discuss highlights from the G7’s Communique, including energy security, decarbonization efforts, and renewable energy development as well as Japan’s priorities for the meetings.

This week, Noah Kaufman (Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University) joins Joseph Majkut (Energy Security and Climate Change Program at CSIS) to discuss the recent Executive Order on modernizing the regulatory review process, and its implications and benefits for the U.S. climate regulations.    Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review Preamble: Proposed OMB Circular No. A-4, “Regulatory Analysis”

This week, Allison Good with S&P Global Market intelligence talks with Cy McGeady with the CSIS Energy Program about how changing conditions in the capital markets may affect the U.S. energy transition. They discuss three recent shifts in the economic landscape and the role these play in shaping the renewable energy sector: the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the elevated cost of capital.

This week Ben Cahill talks with Joseph Majkut about his recent work on efforts to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. The EPA is developing new U.S. methane regulations, due out later this year, and the EU is advancing methane legislation, though progress slowed over the last year. Ben also looks head for next steps for both countries, especially in the months leading up to COP28. Further Reading: What’s Next for Oil and Gas Methane Regulations: Emerging Rules in the United States and the European Union

This week, Jamie Webster with the Center for Energy Impact at BCG joins Ben Cahill (CSIS) to discuss energy transitions, what peak demand really means, and the resulting shifts in the global energy system. 

This week, Steve LeVine joins Jane Nakano (CSIS) to discuss recent developments in the U.S. electric vehicle market and battery supply chain. Steve is editor of the Electric, a new publication looking at batteries, electric vehicles, and their impact on society, cities, and geopolitics. Further reading: U.S. Push to Secure EV Battery Supply Chains and the Role of China The Electric by Steve LeVine

This week, Hal Harvey (CEO of Energy Innovation and co-author of The Big Fix) joins Joseph Majkut (CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program) to talk about the progress he is seeing on clean energy goals and climate solutions, especially in the United States in light of the Inflation Reduction Act. Further Reading:  The Big Fix Seven Practical Steps to Save Our Planet Top State Policies To Cut Carbon Emissions

This week, Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota joins Joseph Majkut (CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program) to discuss energy and climate issues in the 118th Congress, the potential for bipartisan policymaking, the role of the United States as an energy exporter and the opportunity for U.S leadership in global energy security.

This week, Dr. Tatiana Mitrova (Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University) and Ben Cahill (Energy Security and Climate Change Program at CSIS) provide an outlook for the Russian oil sector, including the EU and G7 price cap on Russian oil and its impacts on the Russian economy. Further Reading: Can Russia’s War Chest Withstand the New Oil Cap? Progress Report on EU Embargo and Russian Oil Price Cap

EIA Administrator Dr. Joe DeCarolis joined CSIS Senior Fellow Ben Cahill for a discussion on priorities for EIA, outlining the role of EIA, how its data can be most useful to policymakers, and his plans for changes and improvements in the coming year.  Dr. Joseph DeCarolis was confirmed Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on March 31, 2022. Before his appointment, Dr. DeCarolis served as a professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University (NC State). He also previously worked as an environmental scientist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development, where he engaged in energy systems modeling to quantify the air pollution impacts from future energy system development. Dr. DeCarolis received a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and he holds a BS in Physics and Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

In our final episode of 2022, Kevin Book (ClearView Energy Partners) and Liam Denning (Bloomberg) join Joseph Majkut (CSIS) to make sense of the many energy and climate developments in 2022 and look at some under the radar issues to watch next year.

This week Dr. Friederike Otto with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London joins Dr. Joseph Majkut (CSIS) to discuss climate change attribution, which measures how climate change directly affects extreme weather events, like heat waves, floods, or droughts. Dr. Friederike (Fredi) Otto is a Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College. Her main research interest is on extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves, and storms, and understanding whether and to what extent these are made more likely or intense due to climate change - known by experts as 'climate change attribution'. Fredi is the co-lead of World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international effort to analyze and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events. Through rapid attribution studies, which provide timely scientific evidence showing the extent to which climate change influenced a

This week, finance industry veteran and author Terrence Keeley joins Joseph Majkut to discuss his book “Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing”, and the promises and limitations of ESG investing. More Reading: Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing “Why ESG Funds Fail, and How They Could Succeed” "Was Milton Friedman the First 'Woke' Capitalist?" Terrence Keeley has been an adviser to the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, national pension plans, endowments, foundations, and asset managers for more than three decades as a senior client officer at BlackRock and UBS Investment Bank. In 2021, he was named a leading global “Knowledge Broker” by Chief Investment Officer.

Did energy and climate play a role in the US midterm elections?  David Goldwyn and Joseph Majkut look at how the energy and climate agendas may have factored into specific elections and what the outcome means now for the U.S. domestic and international energy and climate agendas.    David Goldwyn is president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, LLC, an international energy advisory consultancy and chairman of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center’s Energy Advisory Group. Mr. Goldwyn served as the U.S. Department of State’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs from 2009 to 2011 and assistant secretary of energy for international affairs (1999-2001). Mr. Goldwyn is a member of the U.S. National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Goldwyn holds a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University, an M.A. in Public Affairs from Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a J.D. from New York University. 

This week Joseph Majkut talks with David Victor, professor with the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego and author, with Charles Sabel, of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World.  David and Joseph look at how the process of global climate governance has shaped the climate community, providing examples for where leaders in government, civil society and the private sector can craft practices to move faster on global climate action.   David Victor is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. Victor is the co-director of the campus-wide Deep Decarbonization Initiative, which focuses on real world strategies for bringing the world to nearly zero emissions of warming gases. He is also an adjunct professor in Climate, Atmospheric Science & Physical Oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Learn More: Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World A Cleaner Future for Flight — aviation needs a radical

This week, Joseph Majkut (CSIS) talks with Mike Catanzaro (CGCN) and Marcela Mulholland (Data for Progress) about the need for permitting reform to allow for new energy infrastructure to be built in the United States. Without significant reforms to the permitting process, energy security and the climate agenda in the U.S. could be at risk as new energy projects will see continued delays and struggle to be built.    Michael Catanzaro is President and Chief Policy Officer at the CGCN Group. Before joining CGCN, Catanzaro served as Special Assistant to President Trump for Domestic Energy and Environmental Policy at the White House National Economic Council. He previously served on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and on the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign as a top adviser on energy and environmental policy. Catanzaro was Associate Director for Policy in the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Associate Deputy Administrator of the EPA under former President George W. Bush. He also s

Gerassimos Thomas, the Director-General at the European Commission in charge of Taxation and Customs Union, spoke with Joseph Majkut about the energy challenges in Europe this winter, the future of energy security and climate measures, and the state of U.S.-EU cooperation.

Last month, climate and clean energy experts convened in New York for Climate Week 2022 and then Pittsburgh for the Global Clean Energy Action Forum. With ambitious agendas set out for each, we asked 3 people who participated in the formal and informal events which discussions caught their attention: Kartikeya Singh (Climate Imperative Foundation and a CSIS non-resident associate), Sandeep Pai (CSIS Global Just Transition Network), and Morgan Higman (CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program). They discussed state-level and federal climate agendas, clean energy technologies and just transitions, with an eye toward COP27 this fall and the G20 meetings next year. Learn More: New York Climate Week 2022 Global Clean Energy Action Forum GCEAF Side Event: Repurposing coal infrastructure and diversifying local economies to enable a just transition in coal regions

Jesse Burton (University of Cape Town) and Joey James (Downstream Strategies) join Sandeep Pai (CSIS) to discuss progress and challenges in creating and implementing Just Transition policies in Coal communities in the United States, South Africa and India.  They look at local remediation efforts, and state policies and frameworks, look forward to how these countries may further integrate just Transition Planning into broader, global climate policies.  Joey James is Principal at Downstream Strategies, an environmental and economic development consulting firm based in West Virginia.  Jesse Burton is a senior associate at E3G in London, and a researcher in the Energy Systems research group at the University of Cape Town.   Read more:   GOT FIVE ON IT: Economic Impacts and Observations of the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program Five Years In  Moving forward at warp speed: Abandoned mine reclamation over the coming years  A Framework for a Just Transition in South Africa: A Presidential Climate Com

This week, Paul Farnan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Installations, Energy and Environment, and Allison Riley, Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, join Morgan Higman, Fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change program, to discuss climate preparedness strategies of the U.S. Army and state and local governments.   Guests Paul W. Farnan is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment. In this role, he is the principal deputy advisor to the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army on all matters related to Installation policy and oversight and the coordination of energy security and management. He is also responsible for policy and oversight of sustainability and environmental initiatives and resource management.   Dr. Allison Coffey Reilly is a civil engineer specializing in risk and resilience of infrastructure systems. She is Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland A. James