ENERGY WEBCASTS
Our energy and climate series features webcasts with exciting and high visibility speakers focused on how Houston companies and individuals can lead on climate and energy transition. Our speakers are industry leaders, academic experts, journalists and activists who will change our thinking about the shape of our energy future by discussing local, national or world trends in areas such sustainability, climate, the role of ESG, the environmental justice movement and breakthrough technologies.
PREVIOUS WEBCASTS
On May 24, Center for Houston’s Future and Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) hosted a webinar as part of the Center's Energy & Climate Thought Leadership Webcast Series, framed around position papers from HARC's new Climate Risk and Resilience series. The first paper, "Powering the Future: Texas Power Sector Pivoting to Climate Resilience," was released in May.
The virtual panel discussion focused on how the Texas power sector is responding to climate risks in a fast-changing regulatory landscape as well charting a path to a climate-resilient future for the Texas power sector. Points included sector implications around pressures for low-carbon and resilient business operations; what climate-resilience means to power sector stakeholders; and the role of innovation, infrastructure, and incentives.
The panel featured:
Jill Cetina, Vice President, Banking Supervision, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Victor Flatt, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (EENR), University of Houston
Amanda Hsieh, Vice President, Environmental, Social, and Governance, ClimeCo
HARC's Vice President of Research, Gavin Dillingham, moderated the discussion.
On May 10, Center for Houston's Future hosted a virtual conversation with Daniel Cohan, atmospheric scientist and associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University, as he discusses his new book, "Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future." Raj Mankad, Op-Ed Editor at the Houston Chronicle, moderated the discussion.
Cohan argues that escaping the gravest perils of climate change will first require American diplomacy, technological innovation, and policy to catalyze decarbonization globally. Combining his expertise with insights from more than a hundred interviews with diplomats, scholars, and clean-technology pioneers, Cohan identifies flaws in previous efforts to combat climate change. He highlights opportunities for more successful strategies, including international “climate clubs” and accelerated development of clean energy technologies. Grounded in history and emerging scholarship, Cohan offers a forward-looking vision of solutions to confronting climate gridlock and a clear-eyed recognition of the challenges to enacting them.
Read Daniel Cohan's op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, "American supergrid — How Texas can unlock clean energy with small connections," and this column from the Houston Chronicle's Chris Tomlinson on Cohan and his new book.
Daniel Cohan is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University and a faculty fellow in the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies. He served as a Fulbright Scholar to Australia, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and is an author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications. His book, Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, & Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future, is published by Yale University Press.
Before joining Rice, Dr. Cohan worked for the Air Protection Branch of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. He received a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Chemistry from Georgia Tech, and served as a Fulbright Scholar to Australia at the Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology. Dr. Cohan is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER young investigator award and past member of the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team.
Raj Mankad is the op-ed editor at the Houston Chronicle. He believes in making room at the table for voices from across the political spectrum and all our diversity. It’s a job he was born to do. At least that’s what he tells himself when trying to make sense of growing up South Asian in Alabama and Kentucky and never feeling like he belonged anywhere until he moved to Houston 20 years ago.
He has a PhD from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and has edited and written for publications that specialize in economics, philosophy, literature, architecture, science and health.
On October 6, we hosted a conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, a globally renowned climate scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center. She is also Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Lisa Gonzalez, Vice President and Executive Director of Audubon Texas, moderated the discussion.
Watch Hayhoe's recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Dr. Katharine Hayhoe Teaches Us How to Talk to People Who Don’t Believe in Climate Change
Read about Hayhoe in The New Yorker: "How to Talk about Climate Change Across the Political Divide"
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor of Public Policy and Public Law in the Dept. of Political Science at Texas Tech University. Her book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, will be released in September 2021 and she also hosts the PBS digital series Global Weirding, currently in its fifth season. Katharine has been named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People, the United Nations Champion of the Environment, and the World Evangelical Alliance’s Climate Ambassador.
As Vice President and Executive Director of Audubon Texas, Lisa Gonzalez leads statewide strategy development for a dedicated team of conservation, policy and educational professionals working to advance science, policy, education, and on-the-ground conservation to protect birds and the places they need. Lisa joined the National Audubon Society in July 2021, after a nearly 20-year career with the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) serving in research and executive leadership roles. Lisa brings her background in data analytics and research, community outreach, and sustainability to advance conservation practices along the Texas coast, in urban centers, and rural landscapes in alignment with issues such as climate change, nature-based infrastructure, equity, water management, and clean energy.
On August 30, Center for Houston's Future hosted a conversation with Amy Myers Jaffe, author of Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security and managing director of the Climate Policy Lab and a research professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. A leading expert on global energy policy and sustainability, Jaffe has previously directed energy and sustainability research at the Council on Foreign Relations, the University of California, Davis, and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Raj Mankad, Op-Ed Editor at the Houston Chronicle, moderated the discussion.
They discussed a central theme in Jaffe’s book: If the U.S. doesn’t lead on the energy transition, China will. China could set the rules of the engagement governing the digital energy future, including embedding and exporting its surveillance technology across the world. Jaffe and Mankad explored how the U.S. once had an electricity-based transportation system; how we ended up shifting to gasoline; and what lessons that holds for us today, as well as why collaboration between Silicon Valley and Texas is imperative.
Amy Myers Jaffe is author of Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security and managing director of the Climate Policy Lab and a research professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. A leading expert on global energy policy and sustainability, Jaffe has previously directed energy and sustainability research at the Council on Foreign Relations, the University of California, Davis, and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Jaffe has also worked as senior advisor for sustainability at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer at the University of California, Regents, assisting with the design and launch of their sustainable investing strategy. She currently is co-chair of the steering committee of the Women in Energy Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Jaffe has taught international energy policy, business, and sustainability courses at Tufts University, Rice University, University of California Davis and Yale University. Jaffe is widely published, including as co-author of Oil, Dollars, Debt and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold, with Dr. Mahmoud El-Gamal.
A frequent media commentator, Jaffe serves on the leadership council of the U.S. Association of Energy Economics and holds a Senior Fellow award from that organization for her career contributions to the field of energy economics. She is a member of the Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition at the World Economic Forum (Davos).
Raj Mankad is the op-ed editor at the Houston Chronicle. He believes in making room at the table for voices from across the political spectrum and all our diversity. It’s a job he was born to do. At least that’s what he tells himself when trying to make sense of growing up South Asian in Alabama and Kentucky and never feeling like he belonged anywhere until he moved to Houston 20 years ago.
He has a PhD from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, and has edited and written for publications that specialize in economics, philosophy, literature, architecture, science and health.
On July 27 we hosted a conversation with Peter Fox-Penner, Founder and Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy and Professor of Practice at the Questrom School of Business. Fox-Penner is also Chief Strategy Officer at Energy Impact Partners, the nation’s largest energy technology investment fund. Gavin Dillingham, Director for Clean Energy Policy at Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), moderated the discussion. Fox-Penner’s most recent book, Power after Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid, focuses on opportunities to move to net-zero emissions driven by the need to address climate change.
They discussed how the electricity grid can meet this challenge and remain reliable – despite unprecedented change brought on by new technologies, competitors and policies. In his book, Fox-Penner describes how to navigate between demands for a grid that provides abundant, secure, flexible and affordable power and an industry facing enormous demands for power and rapid, systemic change. Through their conversation, Fox-Penner and Dillingham discussed how these trends are impacting Texas; causes of the February ERCOT grid blackout; and how to ensure ERCOT keeps moving toward renewables while maintaining reliability.
Renewable Energy Alliance Houston (REAL) co-sponsored this event.
Dr. Peter Fox-Penner is Founder and Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy and Professor of Practice at the Questrom School of Business, where he co-directs the Impact Measurement and Allocation Program (IMAP) on sustainable finance, sustainable energy and electric power. In addition, he is a Partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Impact Partners, one of the largest dedicated clean energy private equity fund groups in the world and an academic advisor to The Brattle Group. He formerly served as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Dr. Gavin Dillingham is Director for Clean Energy Policy at Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and Director of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Southcentral and Upper West Combined Heat and Power TAP. Dr. Dillingham joined HARC in 2012 where he leads multi-stakeholder efforts focusing on policy and programs to improve the climate resilience of power infrastructure and built environment and to help usher in the energy transition via a variety of clean energy initiatives.
We kicked off the first webcast in this series on June 22 with Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson and Bill Langin, Shell’s Vice President – Exploration North America and Brazil. Henderson’s recent book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, was awarded the Financial Times/McKinsey Book of the Year for its focus on the need for companies to reframe their missions to address climate change and sustainability.
Prof. Henderson’s teaching and writing on climate change have made her class the most sought after among HBS students, and her provocative perspective that capitalism is unsustainable without reinvention will surely raise many interesting questions. Langin is a globally-experienced leader with proven delivery across integrated value chains, having led teams spanning early growth and exploration activities, major capital project delivery, and day-to-day operations.
2021 Houston Low-Carbon Energy WEbcast Series
Houston as a Low-Carbon Energy Hub
This discussion dives into Greater Houston’s opportunities to lead on carbon capture and hydrogen in a low-carbon economy.
CHF and UH released last year Houston Low Carbon Market Assessment: Four Ways Forward. That market assessment outlines four areas — carbon capture, hydrogen, the low-carbon grid and advanced plastics recycling — in which the Houston region can lead the global energy transition. We quantified the scope, size and challenge required to decarbonize Houston's industrial energy sector and to envision what new industries might emerge from those efforts.
Out of that work, we released two white papers offering an expanded look into CCUS and hydrogen: Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage – Lynchpin for the Energy Transition and Houston Region: Becoming a Global Hydrogen Hub.
Center CEO Brett Perlman moderates a discussion on our research findings with panelists Chuck McConnell, Energy Center Officer at University of Houston's Center for Carbon Management in Energy; Andy Steinhubl, Retired Partner at KPMG; and Cindy Yeilding, Retired Senior Vice President at BP America.
Presentations:
- Cindy Yeilding Presentation
- Chuck McConnell Presentation
- Andy Steinhubl Presentation
Leading in the Low-Carbon Economy: Hydrogen Council Executive Director Daryl Wilson
The first installment of CHF’s latest webcast series, Leading in the Low-Carbon Economy: Houston as a Hydrogen Hub, features Hydrogen Council Executive Director Daryl Wilson discussing Houston’s potential to help lead the energy transition as a low-carbon hydrogen hub.
Additional Energy Webcasts
Lessons Learned from the 2021 Power Outage
The collapse of the Texas power grid adversely impacted many Texans and has triggered a heated discussion on what happened and what needs to be done in response. The Center for Houston’s Future and the HBS Club of Houston co-sponsored a special fireside chat to discuss “Lessons from the Texas Blackout” with Pat Wood III, former Texas PUC Chairman and former FERC Chairman, moderated by CHF CEO Brett Perlman, who was a commissioner on the Texas PUC when Pat was chairman. Both have subsequently been involved in various power generation and infrastructure companies and bring unique perspectives to this discussion.