ARC ENERGY IDEAS

Peter is back from a one-week whirlwind trip to the UK where he was a guest on a government-hosted tour titled “Energy Commentators Mission.” During his visit, he met people working on the UK energy transition, including with offshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and refining.  Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear about Peter’s trip and takeaways, including interviews with s...

This week, John Stackhouse, Senior Vice President, Office of the CEO at RBC joins the podcast. John is also the host of the Disruptors podcast. This episode is a joint podcast that is being made available on both the ARC Energy Ideas and Disruptors podcast channels.  John, Jackie, and Peter discuss sustainable finance and Canada’s dearth of capital spending on energy transition and decarbonization...

Peter and Jackie discuss the latest energy headlines and policy announcements on this week's podcast. Listed below are the topics covered: The Alberta Government is lifting the moratorium on new wind and solar project permits, a policy that was enacted in the summer of 2023.  The Alberta Government introduces its 2024 fiscal budget.  Before the budget announcement, Premier Danielle Smith made...

On February 16, 2024, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced some proposed changes to the draft Clean Electricity Regulations (CER). Initially released in August 2023, the draft legislation requires electricity production in Canada to be net zero by 2035. Peter and Jackie start the podcast by reviewing the recently proposed changes and discuss whether these changes are enough to wi...

This week, our guest is Ellis Ross, an MLA in the British Columbia Legislature since 2017, representing the Skeena riding for the BC United political party (formerly the Liberal Party). His region includes the communities of Kitimat and Terrace on the northern coast of British Columbia.  Ellis also currently serves as the Shadow Minister for Energy and LNG. Before being elected to the British Colu...

This week, our guest is Greg Lyle, Founder and President of Innovative Research Group . Innovative Research Group is a full-service market research firm with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. The firm has recently done some interesting polling on how Canadians are thinking about energy infrastructure and energy transition. Greg also talked politics, giving us some insight into how Canadians would...

This week, our guest is Carlos Pascual, Senior Vice President of Global Energy at S&P Global Commodity Insights.   Carlos's past roles include establishing and directing the new Energy Resources Bureau at the US Department of State and serving as a senior advisor to the Secretary of State on energy issues. He has also previously been a United States Ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine.  Here...

This week on the podcast, our guest is David Detomasi, an associate professor and distinguished faculty fellow in international business at the Smith School of Business at Queens University. He is also the author of “ Profits and Power: Navigating the Politics and Geopolitics of Oil .” First, Jackie and Peter discuss the potential impact of the Canadian government’s proposed cap on oil and gas emi...

This week, our guest is Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO of FortisBC.  FortisBC is a leading energy provider in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The utility serves about 1.1 million natural gas customers and 185,000 electricity customers.  Roger explains the benefits of using natural gas to meet the peak winter heating demand and the challenges of using electricity to do the same. Because of th...

Peter and Jackie start the year by reviewing the extreme cold in Alberta that caused a spike in electricity demand, resulting in the Alberta Electricity System Operator (AESO) issuing four grid alerts between January 12th and 15th. The electricity supply-demand balance was the tightest on Saturday evening (January 13th), causing the Alberta Government to issue an emergency alert to people's m...

On this week’s podcast, Jackie and Peter review the final takeaways from COP28. Next, they discuss the key energy themes that shaped the past year.  The 2023 top themes include: 1)  Artificial intelligence (AI) becomes mainstream 2)  Investors now understand the clean energy interest rate nexus 3)  2023 will be the hottest year on record  4)  Affordability issues slow the uptake of clean energy te...

Peter and Jackie start this week's podcast by discussing the latest developments at COP28 in Dubai, including whether the wording “phase-out” or “phase-down” of fossil fuels will be included in the final text. Next, they talk about the Canadian energy policy announced by the Canadian federal government at COP28, including draft legislation to reduce methane from oil and gas by 75% from 2012 l...

This week, our guest is Matt Jamieson, President and CEO of the Six Nations of Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC). SNGRDC’s mission is to achieve economic self-sufficiency for their community by 2030.  The Six Nations of the Grand River is located near Toronto and is Canada's most populated First Nation, with just over 30,000 members.  The Nation has established the Six Nations of G...

This week, Kelly Shue, Professor of Finance at Yale School of Management, joins the podcast.  Earlier this year, Professor Shue and her co-author, Professor Samuel M. Hartzmark, published “Counterproductive Sustainable Investing: The Impact Elasticity of Brown and Green Firms.”  Their research paper concludes that the sustainable investing practice of divesting high-emitting companies (referred to...

This week, our guest is Paolo Maccario, President and CEO of Silfab Solar. Silfab Solar is a Canadian company headquartered in Mississauga that manufactures solar panels in Ontario, Washington State, and South Carolina.  The South Carolina facility will manufacture solar panels and cells with operations expected to be online in the third quarter of 2024.  Cells are a critical input to making modul...

This week, Jean-Denis Charlebois joins the podcast. Jean-Denis is the Chief Economist at the Canada Energy Regulator (CER).  The CER released a report in June outlining three potential future energy scenarios, titled “Canada’s Energy Future 2023: Energy Supply and Demand Projections to 2050.”   Here are some of the questions Peter and Jackie asked Jean-Denis: Why did the CER publish net-zero scena...

This week, Peter and Jackie discuss recent news headlines, including some scary topics on this Halloween podcast recording. Here are some of the topics they discussed: · Rising geopolitical risks .  Why are the oil markets calm in the face of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the potential for an oil outage?  · ExxonMobil and Chevron announce significant acquisitions.  In contrast to the news headline...

This week our guest is Jason Schneider, Director, Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) and Reeve of Vulcan County in Southern Alberta. The RMA is a progressive, independent association committed to meeting the diverse and changing needs of Alberta’s 69 counties and municipal districts. Since 1909, the RMA has helped rural municipalities advocate for strong, effective local government.  The RMA di...

This week our guest is Rob West, founder and CEO of Thunder Said Energy . Founded in 2019, the firm aims to help decision-makers find economic opportunities in the energy transition. Rob lives nine time zones away in Estonia and is an uber-productive energy expert, covering a wide range of topics in his consultancy.   Here are some of the questions Peter and Jackie asked Rob: What are your views o...

On October 13th, Canada’s top court ruled that Canada’s federal Impact Assessment Act (also known as Bill C-69 and sometimes called the “no-more-pipelines act”) is unconstitutional, with a 5-2 decision.  To learn more about the decision and the implications for major projects in Canada and future environmental policy, we welcome Sander Duncanson, Partner, Regulatory, Indigenous, and Environmental...

This week, our guest is the Honourable Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta.  There are some important federal policies under development with implications for the province of Alberta, including Ottawa’s oil and gas emissions cap and the Clean Electricity Regulation (CER) that aims to move Canada to net-zero electricity by 2035. The Alberta government has also put a six-month moratorium, until the e...

The 24th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) was held in Calgary from September 17 to 21, 2023. The conference is the world’s leading assembly for the petroleum industry.  This week on the podcast, Jackie and Peter discuss some conference themes, including the lively discussion on the future of oil demand and the decarbonization of oil and gas.  They also debate whether the industries’ messaging about...

The 24th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) will be held in Calgary from September 17 to 21, 2023. The conference takes place every three years and has been described as the world’s leading assembly for the petroleum industry. The organizers are expecting 15,000 visitors and 5,000 delegates from over 100 countries.   This week, we hear from Matthew Crocker, Senior Vice President, Product, Strategy and...

The 24th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) will be held in Calgary from September 17 to 21, 2023. The conference takes place every three years and has been described as the world’s leading assembly for the petroleum industry. The organizers are expecting 15,000 visitors and 5,000 delegates from over 100 countries.   This week, we hear from Lisa Baiton, President and CEO of the Canadian Association of...

Before you know it, summer is gone and its back to school!  Peter and Jackie look back on the energy headlines of summer 2023.    They start the podcast by discussing the new nuclear capacity announced in Ontario, with three additional small modular reactors (SMRs) announced and the potential for a significant expansion at the Bruce Power nuclear plant.  The excitement over room-temperature superc...