C.O.B. Tuesday

We had a fantastic session today with Neil Mehta, Managing Director and Head of North American Natural Resources Research at Goldman Sachs. Neil oversees research coverage for oil and gas, utilities, midstream, metals and mining and clean technology and also leads coverage for large cap energy equities. Neil's coverage and knowledge breadth allowed for a fascinating range of topics.  Our conv...

As we all kick off Climate Week, we are beyond excited to share this Special Edition COBT! Late last week, we traveled to Woods Hole, Massachusetts to meet Dr. Peter de Menocal, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), a leading independent non-profit organization founded over 90 years ago with a nimble and entrepreneurial approach to science. Peter was elected as...

Today we had the opportunity to visit with Armond Cohen, Co-Founder and President of the Clean Air Task Force (CATF). Armond co-founded the CATF over 25 years ago with a mission to decarbonize global energy systems through modeling and systems analysis, technology innovation, and policy advocacy with a focus on diversification of energy sources. For today's session, Armond joined us from Lond...

We hope you had a safe and restful Labor Day weekend. For this week's COBT, we had the pleasure of hosting  Katherine Blunt, Renewables and Utilities Reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Author of recently-released "California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric and What it Means for America’s Power Grid," published just last week. Katherine was quickly thrown into cov...

We had an exciting field trip today to tour the new Deloitte Greenhouse facility in Houston. While there, we had the opportunity to visit with Amy Chronis, Vice Chair, US Oil, Gas & Chemicals ("OG&C") Leader, and Houston Managing Partner. Amy has twenty years of experience as a Partner at Deloitte and leads the strategic direction of Deloitte's OG&C practice and Houston...

Late last week, we traveled to Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania to spend the day with our friends from Westinghouse Electric Company. While there we met key members of the team, toured the facilities, saw full scale mock-ups of traditional nuclear reactors, visited the prototype workshop for the eVinci Micro Reactor, and also had a one-hour sit-down with President and Chief Executive Officer Patri...

We had the honor of visiting with Ambassador David Satterfield, who recently assumed the role of Director at  Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Ambassador Satterfield's extensive foreign service career includes over four decades of diplomatic and leadership experience in the United States and overseas in the Near East and Europe, notably serving as Ambassador to Lebano...

Today we had a fantastic guest for our COBT discussion, Dr. Karl Meeusen. Karl serves as Director of Markets, Legislative and Regulatory Policy at  Wärtsilä. His career in electricity markets and energy policy has included four years at the California Public Utilities Commission and most recently nearly ten years at California ISO. Now at Wärtsilä, Karl advises policy makers and market participant...

We had the good fortune of visiting with Dr. David Victor today for an engaging discussion on climate, policy, and in particular, problem-solving structures that feature "experimentalist governance." Dr. Victor is a Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at UC San Diego and Co-Director of the UC San Diego Deep Decarbonization Initiative. He has published over 200 articles and books on...

Today's subject is something we have wanted to study for some time now: global population growth. We were lucky enough to find a leading expert to join us and today had the pleasure of hosting  Dr. Darrell Bricker. Darrell is a Senior Fellow in Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the CEO of Public Affairs at Ipsos (the world's leading social and public opinion...

We have an exciting Special Edition episode to wrap up the week! We had the pleasure today of hosting Darren Peers, Equity Investment Analyst at Capital Group. Darren has 25 years of investing experience, the recent 8 plus with Capital and prior to that NWQ and Putnam. He is a great friend and we very much respect his highly analytical mind and overall approach to investing. It was fantastic to vi...

We had the great opportunity today to host a friend and longtime auto industry entrepreneur,  Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Inc., for our first electric car-focused episode. Henrik is a leading automotive designer and some of his creations include the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, Viking motorcycle, Fisker Karma, and Force 1, to name a few. He also previously held executive positions at Ford Motor Comp...

Today we had the honor of hosting Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska for an exciting and informational episode. Governor Dunleavy is a Scranton, PA native and as a young man moved to Alaska in 1983 where he had an extensive career in education serving as a teacher, principal, and superintendent before his 5-year term as an Alaska State Senator from 2013-2018. He became Governor in 2018 and is up for...

We are continuing India Week with a great friend and industry leader, Monte Dobson. Monte is the CEO and Lead Country Manager of ExxonMobil India and was appointed to the role in October 2021. Prior to his current adventure in India, Monte led technology development for unconventional resources in Exxon's upstream solutions business and was extensively involved in developing Exxon's Perm...

We are focusing on India this week at Veriten and are excited to study the country, their needs, their challenges, and their opportunities. Today we were delighted to welcome  Sunita Narain, Director General of the  Center for Science and the Environment (CSE). Sunita is a 40-year environmentalist, political activist, and author; her work includes in-depth research on the governance and management...

We had an exciting and informative session today with Michele Della Vigna, Managing Director and Head of Energy Research for EMEA (Europe, the Mideast, and Africa) at Goldman Sachs. In his extensive research career, Michele has spent over twenty years at Goldman covering strategy and content across the global equity energy and natural resources teams. He is the also the creator of Goldman's C...

Today, we were delighted to host  David Firestein, President and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations (the Bush China Foundation). His multi-decade experience immersed in China (and Russia) provided balanced perspective and historical context to a whole set of complex geopolitical issues. The conversation ranged from David's perspective on how/why the US-China relat...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting  Meredith Angwin, Energy Analyst and Author of " Campaigning for Clean Air: Strategies for Pro-Nuclear Advocacy" and most recently " Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid." Meredith is a passionate advocate for abundant, affordable, clean energy and has also been an early advocate for nuclear energy. In her extensive c...

We're starting the week with a Special Edition COBT with a great friend of the firm, independent energy and climate thinker, and former COBT guest,  Michael Shellenberger. Michael is the Founder & President of  Environmental Progress, Author of " Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All" and most recently " San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities."...

We are excited to share a Special Edition COBT with you today! We had the opportunity to visit with former guest Alex Epstein, Author of " The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels" and Founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. Alex recently published a new book, " Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas - Not Less." We appreciate his ten...

Today we had the pleasure of hosting our good friend  Dr. Scott Tinker, Chairman of  Switch Energy Alliance and the Director of the  Bureau of Economic Geology at  The University of Texas at Austin. Scott's work is focused on addressing major societal challenges in energy, the environment, and the economy. He has co-produced two documentary films exploring energy across the developing world,...

What a week! Following the prior two outstanding COBT guests this week, we end the week with our great friend and an inspiring leader,  Rob Kaplan. Most recently, Rob served as the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 2015 to 2021. Prior to the Fed, Rob served as Senior Associate Dean and Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, and befor...

Today we were honored to be joined by Maggie Peloso, the Lead Sustainability Partner and Climate Change Practice Leader at Vinson & Elkins (V&E). Maggie's unique background includes a Ph. D. from Duke University in Environment, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a Masters in Environmental Management, Environmental Economics and Policy from Duke and a B.S. in Biology also from Duke. She...

We are thrilled to share a Special Edition COBT featuring  Maria Korsnick, President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute  (NEI). As a brief introduction, Maria has 36 years of experience in the nuclear industry from operations to management positions and has been with NEI since 2015. In her extensive career, Maria has been responsible for five reactors at three different locations and now uses...

We are powered up for a Special Edition COBT with our good friend, David Tudor. David is the Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Associated Electric Cooperative Incorporated (AECI), a member-owned electric co-op serving two million customers in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma. David joined AECI in 2016 and has previously held positions at Champion Energy Services (CEO), ACES Power Marketing...